Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro and both professional video editing systems. When it comes to deciding between Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro, it comes down to whether you are a PC user or a MAC user. Premiere Pro runs on both PCs and Macs and connects well with the other products in Adobe’s Creative Cloud. Final Cut Pro is also a powerful editing program with a user-friendly interface and superior rendering times, but it only runs on Apple computers.
What Can Premiere Pro Do For You?
Premiere Pro is a video editing tool used in the post-production phase of all kinds of videos from YouTube and social media ads, to documentaries and feature films. Premiere Pro allows you to go from raw video footage to finished product. It is part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud that includes more than twenty applications to let you focus on particular aspects of the video editing process.
Premiere Pro is capable of turning out professional-quality videos and has been used to produce television shows and movies, including the Netflix original series, Mindhunter, and films such as Deadpool, Gone Girl, and Hail Caesar.
What Can Final Cut Pro Do For You?
Final Cut Pro is Apple’s video editing software. It is known for its approachable user interface that hides complex editing features to make it less intimidating for beginners, but those features are accessible when you need them. Final Cut Pro can be more confusing for editors who are used to Premiere Pro and other editing software because it allows you to work on more than one thing at a time and in any order you want. Final Cut Pro only runs on MACs, so if you have a PC, you cannot use it.
Essential Features of Premiere Pro
Premiere Pro is a video editing program that can combine video, audio, and images together and then export them as a video file. The user interfaces on Adobe programs look and function similarly, so if you are familiar with another Adobe product like Photoshop or Illustrator, the Premiere Pro workspace will look familiar.
You can run Premiere Pro on a Mac or PC with at least 8GB of RAM, though 16GB or more is recommended. A dedicated video card works better than integrated graphics. This program is for people who want to produce video and need a program with professional level tools and functions. One of the advantages of Premiere Pro is the ability to edit video from a wide variety of cameras and formats because Pro allows you to sync footage from multiple cameras.
Another plus for Premiere Pro is that it integrates smoothly with other Adobe apps such as After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, Audition, and Media Encoder. Also, there is no need to convert files before editing. Premiere Pro does that automatically. Another automatic feature that is very popular is scene edit detect, which finds all of the cuts in a sequence, so you don’t have to look for them.
Premiere Pro is highly customizable. You can set up your workspace to your own specifications and set your own keyboard shortcuts, although there are plenty of those in Pro to start with. With the customization and the way the different Adobe apps work together, one of the best things about Premiere Pro is how efficient the workflow is.
Essential Features of Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro allows you to import video files from Apple devices and edit them. It can handle compositing, multi-camera editing, audio, and standard editing features, plus special effects like transitions. You can also do color correction. Final Cut Pro accomplishes the same tasks as Premiere Pro, although many users say it is faster and doesn’t crash as often as Premiere Pro. The current version handles large projects better and renders faster than previous versions. Final Cut Pro doesn’t handle collaborative projects as well as Premiere Pro. Both Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro use CPU and GPU for rendering. Premiere Pro brings up Media Encoder to handle this. Final Cut Pro X runs best on the MAC Pro and has better rendering and performance speeds.
History of Premiere Pro
Adobe released Premiere in 1991 for the Apple Mac. It was one of the first digital, non-linear editing programs. Premiere Pro came out in 2003. It was known as Premiere Pro CS, plus a version number 1-7, which stood for Creative Suite until 2013 when Adobe changed the name from Creative Suite to Creative Cloud. The current version is officially known as Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2020.
History of Final Cut Pro
Final Cut was originally developed by Macromedia, Inc. and acquired by Apple, Inc. in 1998. Final Cut Pro X was released in 2011, but Apple dropped the ‘X’ in 2021. The current version of Final Cut Pro is 10.5.4.
How to Purchase Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro
Adobe offers a monthly subscription to Premiere Pro with a 7-day free trial available before purchase. This allows you to edit some videos before deciding if you want to pay for it. For a few dollars more a month, you can get the full Creative Cloud, which includes storage as well. The cost of a monthly subscription to Premiere Pro is $20.99. A monthly subscription to Creative Cloud is $52.99.
Apple offers a generous 90-day free trial period. After that, it costs $299 to buy Final Cut Pro. There are no ongoing subscription costs.
How to Learn Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro
The important thing to consider here is the amount of video editing experience you already have. If you have worked with Premiere Pro or another Adobe product, Final Cut Pro might take a bit more effort to learn because the editing process works differently. If you are completely new to video editing, Final Cut Pro has a beginner-friendly user interface. You can start with the beginner version and when you feel you need more features, they will be waiting for you.
The thing to keep in mind, though, is that no video editing software is exactly easy to learn. You can watch tutorials and work through trial and error, but the quickest way to learn to use new software, especially if you want to make a career change, is by taking a class.
Some people prefer in-person classes when learning new information, but that isn’t always available. Live online classes have a similar set-up with a real-time, remote instructor who can answer questions and take control of your monitor—with permission—to show you how to do things. Training is part or full-time and available weekdays, weeknights, or weekends.
The best way to prepare for a career shift to a technical field like video editing is to enroll in a bootcamp or certificate program. These are intensive training courses that run for a few weeks to a few months and will cover video editing in much more depth than tutorials can. Another plus of training is that you will leave class with a professional-quality sample video portfolio that you can show to prospective employers.
Ready to start learning Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro and start a new career? Check out Noble Desktop’s video editing courses. Choose between in-person sessions in NYC at Noble’s location or sign up for live online video editing courses and attend from anywhere. Use Noble Desktop’s Classes Near Me to find other courses in video editing in your area.