Adobe Premiere, the first QuickTime video editor is already on the computers of over 17,000 early QuickTime adopters, and tens of thousands more are aware of the product. Six months after its sensational debut Adobe is announcing the fully-featured, Premiere v 2.0.
Overview of version 2.0
Premiere v 2.0╒s added stability and new features make it a very robust editing package. Among the many user interface improvements is the addition of an "UNDO" command (how did we get along without it?), and multiple item select allows users to shift, click and drag items without losing synchronization and timing.
The overall editing process has been improved with the ability to preview anything in the Construction window by simply moving the cursor through the time ruler. This prevents having to use the Preview Bar for all edits. The user can now see the frames of a movie in the Preview window while dragging the ends of a clip in the Construction window. And,one of the new menu items "Paste Special" provides several options for pasting a clip between other clips (shift clips to make room for new clip, change the in-point of the clip, change in and out of surrounding clips or maintain in and out points but change the speed of the clip).
Much anticipated support for SMPTE timecode will accompany tape referencing abilities, making it possible to transfer Premiere editing roughs to professional studio environments. Software toolkits for the third party development of device control modules and edit decision list (EDL) plug-ins will resemble that which is currently supplied for Premiere╒s special effects modules. But even without EDLs and professional studios, scalable video is available with the new "Re-Find files" command which locates high-resolution versions of all the clips in a project. A user can edit with low-resolution files and then compile the final movie from high-resolution equivalents stored in another folder or on another drive.
Premiere╒s new features also include a new recording mode, improved interrupted screen drawing similar to that offered in Photoshop, support for Compact Disc quality, 16-bit ,44 KHz sound boards. Catering to the expanding world wide communications market, Premiere will have better support for international video standards. This will be implemented through a time ruler that works in PAL, SECAM as well as NTSC format.
In the graphics and titling arena Adobe has built in a PostScript¬ rasterizer for Adobe Illustrator¬ formatted files and a title generator that supports animated titles using Adobe╒s multiple master typefaces, smooth edges and the option of transparent backgrounds.
One very significant advancement is the accessibility of Premiere files from Adobe Photoshop. In the new Filmstrip file format each frame can be altered individually or a custom effect can quickly be applied to any portion of a movie in Photoshop (Fig 1).
Within Premiere there is now motion control that allows any clip (video or still) to fly along a path, professional superimposing ( including chroma, luminance), support for mapping any channel (including the alpha channel) to another movie or image, and about double the number of both the special effects and filters.
A Bright Future Ahead
Premiere's new Suggested Retail Price is $695, but promotional prices will be available. Few people have purchased Premiere v 1.0 for the full list price of $495. Rather, most have received Premiere in the promotional VideoSpigot bundle. All registered owners of v 1.0 will be able to upgrade to the new version for only $149 (those who have purchased v 1.0 in the last 90 days get the upgrade free). Premiere will be bundled with future SuperMac digital video products.
"We╒re very excited about Premiere╒s future," states Tim Myers, Premiere╒s product marketing manager. "Randy Ubillos has been working very hard on this and has done a terrific job. With Premiere 2.0 on the market many more people will start editing video on the Macintosh."
