WHY WAIT? JUST EDIT

Posted: 13/03/2015

This week I attempted to do some editing on Premiere Pro, but from the moment I opened the programme it was just problem after problem after problem, to the point where I closed it and went back to the drawing board.

The first issue occurred when I tried to import files to a project: I selected the files, dragged them to the source bin and waited. And waited…and waited…and waited. The colour wheel appeared eventually, so I waited some more. Now, before you start getting your hunches up and saying it must be because I have a slow machine, let me nip that in a bud. I have a relatively new MacBook Pro with 3 GHz Intel Core i7 (which at least sounds impressive to me) and its running OS X Yosemite. But that’s completely beside the point, as why should it have to be a hardware issue? Why should I have to wait when I just want to edit?

The next issue I encountered was once the files had imported into my account (a gazillion years later…) I dragged a clip to the timeline and tried to play it. Surprise, surprise nothing happened. I’m a very impatient person, which let’s face it, who isn’t when it comes to technology – it’s meant to make our lives easier and make doing things faster. So, I kept helplessly clicking on the play button and hitting the space bar to no avail. I got up and walked away in frustration, and when I came back the clip had played all the way through <imagine angry face>. So this leads to my second frustration with Premiere – why is the footage not ready to play as soon as it’s uploaded? Why lead me into a false sense of readiness when the programme clearly isn’t ready to work for me?

Now my final bugbear is one I didn’t even get to experience this time, as after the previous issue I decided to pack up shop and head to the Cloud for my editing needs. But rendering footage is something that I find really, really annoying. Now I know I’m not alone on this one (check out this discussion I started on LinkedIn a little while back) as many people feel rendering is a huge time waster when editing. I know it’s an important part of editing, but why does it have to take so long? Why can’t I add a transition and it just play back instantly and smoothly?

So many whys?

Now I don’t mean for this to sound like a whinge about all the things wrong with local editing applications; and I’m not going to turn round now and say, “The answer to solving everything above is Forscene”. BUT, there is a lot of merit to editing with a true cloud-based platform as advanced as Forscene for my above issues:

• Transcode time is significantly less with Forscene as the editor uses proxy qualities of the footage (which re-link to your original hi-res content on output)
• Once content is uploaded its ready to use immediately, even if the full file isn’t available, it will continue to load as you play from the start of the clip
• Rendering is not needed in Forscene!

If you have an opinion, I’d be interested to know what your thoughts are on Twitter @forscenepro or on our Facebook page.

Why wait? Just Edit.

Amy