I am going to be shooting fly fishing and river video around Montana this fall with the intent to sell dvds of the video. My editing and postproduction needs are not that serious, so I was wondering if Premiere might be a little overkill for me. I already have other Adobe software (audition, photoshop, etc.) that I could use with Premiere.

I like Adobe's software, but don't want to drop $700 on Premiere if there is something out there that would suit my needs better. Any ideas?

You can give Premiere Elements a try. It's not as fully-featured as the pro version, but it will do most of the basic editing tasks, and it only costs around $100.

Two things that come to mind, though, based on your post:

1) Is this a one shot deal, or will you ever need a video editing program again? If you may need it for more than this one project, buy the full version.

2) You said that you were planning on selling the DVD. I assume, then, that quality is important to you. Again, this leads me to thinking you're better off having as many high level tools at your disposal as possible. Buy the full version.

It comes down to the old adage "buy the best tool for the job that you can afford."

You also have to calculate the time it will take you to learn the program into your costs. If time is a resource you have more of than money, I highly recommend you spend it. You're not just making home videos, you're assembling a product for retail sale. You're chances of being successful rise dramatically with the quality of your product.

If this is the only video you're making to sell, and the cost of buying and (really) learning the program are higher than the cost it would be to hire a professional editor, you may consider going that route as well.

You only get one chance to make a first impression, as they say. Sounds like this will be your first video on the market; I suggest you make it as good as you possibly can.

Good luck to you, I hope this works out well.

PS - a polarizing filter on your camera can help reduce the glare off the water.

Jeff-

I will be using this editing software hopefully for years to come. I am just starting out, but have some creative ideas that aren't out there today, so with a little hard work and luck I'll be around for a while.

Time spent learning the program is one of my main concerns. I don't have a large shooting window (about a month later this fall), and need to have my products out in the market before the Christmas rush. Judging from my past experience with Adobe's software, there is probably a pretty steep learning curve on Premiere Pro. I have used Premiere Elements in the past, so how long does it take to learn to use the program? I realize that that is kind of a stupid question, as some people can pick it up faster than others.

And yes, I do want to get the best tools and equipment I can buy. I want to get the very best, and Premiere Pro seems to be it. Thanks for your help.

Jeff-

I will be using this editing software hopefully for years to come. I am just starting out, but have some creative ideas that aren't out there today, so with a little hard work and luck I'll be around for a while.

Time spent learning the program is one of my main concerns. I don't have a large shooting window (about a month later this fall), and need to have my products out in the market before the Christmas rush. Judging from my past experience with Adobe's software, there is probably a pretty steep learning curve on Premiere Pro. I have used Premiere Elements in the past, so how long does it take to learn to use the program? I realize that that is kind of a stupid question, as some people can pick it up faster than others.

And yes, I do want to get the best tools and equipment I can buy. I want to get the very best, and Premiere Pro seems to be it. Thanks for your help.

I use FCP, so I can't say for certain, but my understanding is that if you've used Elements, you'll be ok starting off with Pro. They should be the same program, just with several more functions on the Pro version. The interfaces should be identical.

Hopefully someone with more Premiere experience can give you a definitive answer.

In the meantime, there are several free online tutorials available to get you started. I know as well as anyone that $700 is a lot of money, but if you treat it as an investment, it sounds like it will more than pay off for you in the future. And, it's ~$100 less than buying Elements and upgrading later.

Hi Jake,

I likely would recommend either Premiere Elements 4 or Vegas if you are not a NLE guy. Premiere Elements will get you up and running quickly and has most of the features you need to produce video quickly and easily, without a steep learning curve. In some ways, Premiere Elements has more going for it than its big brother. While its interface may seem somewhat more docile, it packs a lot under the hood, and you won't be looking up things in the book.

-------

Montana's rivers are drying up right now. Good fishing is still available -- for now -- on the Madison, Beaverhead, Bighole, Clark, Gallatin, and Flathead.

We took some nice Brookies from the Flathead and Glacier National Park last Monday even though it was 100º - very hot by our standards. Yesterday the high was 58º.

As the Lion said, "Peculiar weather ain't it?"

Good luck.

Mike

Premiere Elements is a good place to begin your work. It's not as intimidating was the full version of Premiere, and does most of what you need to do when editing. It falls short on certain post-processing tasks like critical color correction. I've done a LOT of work in Premiere Elements that was more than satisfactory before making the jump to the full Premiere CS3.

The good news is that when you move to the full Premiere, it will import the Premiere Elements projects directly without any problems.

Regards;
Martin

I think that the best thing for you to do would be to go with full Premiere. I would also recommend going out and shooting something for 15 minutes just so that you have footage to work with while you learn. The best way to learn this program is by playing around but it may also help if you got a month subscription to lynda.com ($25). This training has screen casts and works well if you work in conjunction with what you are doing. Also the full Premiere contains Encore which you can easily use to make the menus (especially if you already have Photoshop). There is Lynda training for that also and that can be uring that same subscription.

I m going to tell you my opinion, I have both Premiere elements 4 and Premiere CS3 pro. Elements 4 is real easy to learn! and it has many features that are very simple to use, as in the pro version you really have to look for them. Elements will fit your needs as you want to make a dvd, it has dvd pre made menu's and as soon as you get good, you will wiz right through everything and your future editing will be so easy.

Thanks for all the help everybody, I really appreciate it. I might just stick with Elements 4 and see how that goes.

Mike, good to hear that the fishing up there is still pretty good. I was raised in Kalispell and have only been down in Bozeman for a couple years now. I still have a lot of good friends there. I also heard that the Swan is fishing well. Don't know if you've ever heard of it, but I get all of my fishing information from Best Fly Fishing Yellowstone. (http://bestflyfishingyellowstone.com) They offer some really good reports on local rivers.

Thanks again everybody.

-Jake

I just had one more question...what exactly do I gain, upgrading premiere elements to premiere pro?

I just had one more question...what exactly do I gain, upgrading premiere elements to premiere pro?

Hi Jake,

More professional tools, more plugins (many of which you will have to pay for, of course), a greater degree of difficulty in the interface, a finer nuance in the program's features, more CODECs to choose from in import/export, greater integration with the Adobe suite, and a much lighter and bolder step due to the much thinner pocketbook you'll have.

I think you can avoid the question and download the demo and try it out for yourself.

My best,

Mike

Will premiere elements edit HD footage?

Will premiere elements edit HD footage?

Hi Jake,

It will edit HDV footage. It won't edit DVCPRo HD nor AVCHD, yet, nor HDCAM.

My best.

Mike

Thanks Mike, I really appreciate your prompt responses and patience dealing with a beginner.

No worries, Jake. Both versions of Premiere are available for trial at Adobe's site.

Other trials are, too, and you should try them on for size, too.

Mike

Jake,
I'm going to put myself out there and say that I'm pretty experienced with Premier Elements, and it is a great little program.

It'll handle HD footage just fine (30F and 60I, not 24F) and it's got a lot of really great tools build right in. But, as people mentioned before, it does leave a bit lacking in the color correction department.

I've got some blog posts talking about my issues with it, and how I learned to use the tools and overcome my problem. It wasn't that there is a problem with Premier Elements, I just didn't know what the hell I was doing.

Will Mahoney's Blogs - Color Correcting, Deep Focus, Bright Sunlight and Classic Cruisers - Part Two. (http://exposureroom.com/members/WillMahoney.aspx/blogs/post/211)

Long story short: If you're really just starting out, shelling out the $100 for a robust, easy-to-use software program isn't a bad idea. This isn't iMovie, where you can really only stick video files next to each other and maybe cut at certain points. This so far has been a fully fuctioning piece of software that's done a lot of great stuff.

But now that I've been rocking Elements for over almost two years I'm ready to step up. Have fun!

P.S. And do check out my blog post (above.) It's a good piece about the limitations of Premier Elements, and how I overcame them.

Will,

So Premiere Elements can handle 30p and 60i, but not 24p? If you will pardon a stupid beginner's question...why?

Hi Jake,

NTSC isn't 24P.

Will,

So Premiere Elements can handle 30p and 60i, but not 24p? If you will pardon a stupid beginner's question...why?

I'm not sure why. I think it has something to do with all video normally being some version of 30 frames per second (29.99, 30F, 60I - all similar, no?). And the software is built to handle 30 frames per second.

Maybe adding the 24F functionality to Premier Elements would take it out of the entry-level price point.

But I like Premier Elements a lot.