Adobe Premiere Pro CC Gripes and Wish List

Premiere Pro CC Gripes and Wish List

1. Premiere Pro CC for Mac is unstable: “serious error” messages and crashes are common

   The first time you see the message that Premiere Pro has encountered “a serious error” and has to shut down, you assume from the tone that it is a rare circumstance and that emergency responders have been notified. It’s polite of Premiere to give the heads up that it’s about to crash, but it could at least be more specific.

   These “serious errors” and many other bugs crop up frequently, and when they do, I find myself Googling “what’s new in FCPX” to see if Apple has rectified any of my original, deal-breaking gripes.

2. Keyword collections, er, um, “smart bins” (or why deleting clips from bins shouldn’t remove instances from sequences)

   I like bins. I liked the physical bins during my film school Steenbeck days, and I liked the continuity of that paradigm in the first 7 versions of Final Cut. My comfort with them is one of the reasons I made the move to Premiere, but the fact is that Final Cut Pro X (the primordial version of which was appropriately called “First Cut”) has jumped far ahead of Premiere when it comes to metadata-driven clip organization.

   Premiere can store plenty of metadata, but keyword collections make FCPX faster, more versatile, and better suited for file-based media when it comes to labeling and finding clips. (It’s unfortunate that Apple chose to stick with those awful iMovie-style “Events”, but that’s a gripe for another list!)

   Premiere clips are organized around the idea of “master clips”. A master clip is created for each imported source file. When an “instance” of a master clip is added to a sequence, it stays somewhat linked to the master clip. I say “somewhat” because there isn’t much you can do with the master clip that actually takes advantage of the link. Changing the name does not change the names of instances. You can’t attach effects, modify audio settings, or adjust edit points. There is no equivalent of FCPX’s excellent Timeline Index.

   There is definitely one thing it prevents you from doing. My biggest gripe with the master clip system is that you can’t delete a clip from a bin if an instance of it is being used in a sequence. This is a huge problem for me because I frequently create temporary bins for copies of “maybe” clips or “unused” clips.

   In FCP7, you can delete a clip from a bin without affecting any sequences. In FCPX, you can just remove the keyword, clearing it from the collection. So it drives me insane when I try to delete a clip from a bin only to get a warning that it can’t be deleted because an instance or instances of it are being used in a sequence or sequences. I want to remove the clip BECAUSE I’ve already used it.

   As far as I can tell, the only advantage the master clip system affords is the ability to click on the clip’s little orange filmstrip icon (in thumbnail view) and see which sequences contain instances of that clip. That’s a nice feature to be sure, but given that I often have over a hundred versions of a sequence by the end of a project, all containing the instances of the clip, it’s not as helpful as it sounds.

   The system completely falls apart when copies of master clips are added to other bins, which is precisely how I organize my clips. For example, I’ll drop copies of the same clip into bins labeled “b-roll”, “close-ups”, “opening montage”, “confidence man #2”, etc., etc. If I use one of those copies in a sequence though, the copies in other bins give no indication that the clip has been used.

   At first, I thought the solution was simply to allow clips to be orphaned in the timeline without a corresponding master clip. That would be the FCP7 way and an improvement, but with the sheer number of clips per project we deal with in the age of digital cameras, Premiere’s Project panel needs a complete overhaul.

   My suggestion would be to either adopt a system similar to keyword collections in FCPX (“smart bins”?) or come up with another modern solution.

   If they’re going to stick with master clips, than they should truly be master clips with only one clip associated with each source file. All copies should be shortcuts (that can be deleted from any bin regardless of use in sequences). Master clips should be true master clips that list every time that clip has been used and allow the global application of effects.

3. Background rendering

   Until I can preview any sequence full-screen at full-res with numerous effects layers, rendering will be part of my workflow, and therefore background rendering would be beneficial.

   I don’t mind dropping the playback to a lower resolution temporarily as my footage renders, but I shouldn’t have to export a sequence to preview it at full resolution.

   Newer, more demanding codecs, with resolutions beyond 4K, will continue to come along just as quickly as hardware advances. Right now, Adobe’s solution for editing raw video is to use a proxy format. What? This completely upends their sacred, no-intermediate-codec ideology.

   Also, conforming to a high-quality codec via background rendering has the potential to greatly improve the process of getting sequences out of Premiere and into third party software such as DaVinci Resolve.

   There should be a choice in the way that background rendering initiates. Per the user’s preference settings, background rendering should start: automatically (instantly), only through manual initiation, or during idle time.

   All of the above only scratches the surface, because the real potential of background rendering lies in combining it with an export format. Put another way, background rendering plus smart rendering would be awesome. Let’s call it smart background rendering.

   Adobe made a very important upgrade to smart rendering in CC. “Use preview files” can now utilize smart rendering for Apple ProRes. This is huge, because currently in Adobe Premiere, if you need to adjust even a single frame of your sequence, you then have to re-export the entire sequence unless you have already rendered into a smart rendering-enabled format. For longform projects, the time it takes to re-export projects after minor adjustments to sequences is a major drawback, at least if you have clients that are as picky as mine.

   By adding ProRes smart rendering, Adobe is actually acknowledging that rendering as you work is a legitimate Premiere workflow. Of course it is! It can save substantial time when exporting.

   So move rendering into a background and idle time process, and Adobe Premiere can offer the best of both worlds: Get cutting immediately, without transcoding, but save huge amounts of time at the tail end with much faster exports.

   For much more on this topic: Why Adobe Premiere Pro needs background rendering
4. Capability to open multiple projects simultaneously

   Maybe if we say, “pretty, please?”

5. Clicking to new CTI position shouldn’t stop playback

   If you move the CTI while it’s in play mode, it should continue to play from that spot after you release the mouse, not stop there. This isn’t a minor thing. It’s the way I audition cuts.

   If this would bother long-time Premiere users (if such a thing even exists), make it a preference.

6. Really annoying cut selection behavior

   Clicking near a cut with the trim tool highlights it in such a way that it blocks other edit tools, such as the ripple edit tool, from working on the edge of the adjacent clip. You have to unselect by clicking somewhere else in the Timeline.

   This annoying selection also occurs after adding a transition with a right-click selection.

7. Fine control over trim adjustments without having to zoom in

   Holding down shift would be a good option to allow adjustments in single frame increments at any zoom level.

8. Color correction shape mask

   In cleaning up the 3-way color correction effect in CS6, Adobe took my advice almost to the letter. (Yes, I take full credit!) They put the most important adjustments up top and replaced the confusing highlights/mid-tone/shadows drop-down selector with three dedicated wheels.

   However, a simple shape mask is sorely needed. I find masks are much more useful and ultimately faster than relying on shaky ranges that rarely nail skin tones with any precision.

   Basic color correction is one of the things that Apple really got right with FCPX. Speedgrade and DaVinci Resolve are great for big projects, but I shouldn’t have to leave the NLE for color correction as often as I currently do.

9. Remember size and position of bin windows

   It’s hard to believe they haven’t fixed this yet. When you double-click a bin, it always opens a small, default-size window.

10. Hide mouse pointer in full screen mode

    It’s the details, people. Pretty basic.

11. Thumbnail images/show frames cache

    In my original CS5.5 wish list, I called this a bug because I figured there was be no way it could be intentional behavior. After two major updates, I now realize that it’s not a bug. It’s just weak implementation.

    There is no persistent cache for thumbnail images in the Timeline. The images get recreated every time a project is opened.

    This is also the case for bin thumbnails, although that may have something to do with hover scrub.

    In Final Cut Pro 7, you could set the thumbnail image disk cache size, and I would set it high enough that I could go back to a project months later and still have thumbnails load instantly as I scrolled through the Timeline. The only real limitation was the memory setting for the cache, which had to stay pretty low in a 32-bit app, but that shouldn’t be a problem in a 64-bit app.

    If you set your Timeline for continuous thumbnails, Adobe’s behavior is extremely annoying in a long sequence. It slows you down. I understand that the thumbnails may have to regenerated after changes to track size or as clips are adjusted, but a RAM cache already exists (or else thumbnails would get regenerated every time you scrolled, which is not the case). So save it to disk! It won’t take up much space.

    Also, it should cache thumbnails at a larger size so that they don’t have to be recreated when track heights are adjusted.

    And finally, thumbnails should continue to be created even when the Timeline is playing.

12. Up-arrow/down-arrow should go to in/out of clips in Source Monitor

    The up and down arrow keys currently do nothing in this window, which is inconsistent and inefficient, since my fingers are often already on the left/right arrow keys going frame by frame. In other words, the up and down arrow keys should behave the same way as shift-i and shift-o.

13. Clear indicators that default effects have been adjusted in Effects Controls pane

    I’m talking about “Motion”, “Opacity”, and “Time Remapping”. Clips in the Timeline now sport an “Fx” indicator that turns orange when effects have been applied, but better indicators need to be added to the Effects Controls pane itself as to which specific parameters have been adjusted.

14. When clip is double-clicked in Timeline, CTI position in source viewer should match frame in Timeline

    I really miss this from FCP7. For some reason, it works in Premiere the first time you double-click a clip, but never again. Match Frame opens a different instance of the clip, when it’s working, that is. Match Frame for merged clips is broken in CC.

15. Simpler way to place a marker on a selected clip

    It’s possible to set up a keyboard shortcut for “Add Clip Marker”. I have chosen control-m. This works, but it would be much more intuitive to have “m” mark any selected clips at the CTI.

    Also, Add Clip Marker is extremely buggy with merged clips. It doesn’t always work and sometimes even causes Premiere to freeze up, requiring a Force Quit. This may be related to the fact that Match Frame for merged clips is broken in CC as well.

    Lastly, it sometimes places the Clip Marker on the audio track and not the video track, which is very odd.

16. Better markers for sequences and clips

    They added more functionality in CS6, but they should include colors and more keyboard shortcut controls.

17. Moving a clip’s video track to up or down should move audio track to match

    Aside from just being more logical, it’s currently way too easy to accidentally overwrite the audio of other tracks while sliding clips, and it’s a complete pain in the ass to get the audio back once that happens.

18. Copy and paste transitions
19. Fix audio waveform syncing

    Theoretically, CC makes it possible to automatically sync dual-system audio while creating merged clips, but it has yet to work for me. Others have reported mixed results.

20. Fix Match Frame

    As well documented in the forums, Match Frame is broken in CC. With merged clips, it matches the wrong frame if it does anything at all.

21. Match frame should follow clip selection, not track selection

    Adobe has largely, and wisely, replaced track selection at the head of the timeline with direct clip selection for a number of functions, but they don’t seem to be able to let go completely.

22. Color labels in Project pane should change the appearance of the actual text

    The FCP way was much more useful. The color boxes in a separate column all blend together. They don’t allow me to really highlight clips or make much use of color coding at all. Also, what’s with the default color names? Righ-clicking on a clip gives you a list of exotic names without any visual indication of the label’s color.

23. Bin effects

    I believe the Project pane needs to be overhauled as I explained regarding the need for keyword collections. It should be possible to add effects to clips in bins or keep effects on clips added to bins from the Timeline. It would also be nice to be able to group effects together in bins for a specific project. The effects list pane is better suited for global collections.

24. Project browser should auto refresh/sort

    After renaming a clip, you have to click on the column name (twice), to get it to sort.

25. Project pane forgets last view settings when opening a project

    It has a tendency to jump into thumbnail mode even if the project was last saved with it in list mode.

26. When dropping a directory from the Finder into the Project pane, keep the directory structure (subfolders)
27. Add user defined list of favorite folders in Media Browser

    And let us set the default directory.

28. Show number of frames being adjusted during keyframe adjustments
29. Footage auto-analysis: shot recognition, color correction, and color match

    If only Apple had just added these features and others to the FCP7 framework instead of reinventing the wheel and taking the train “off the tracks” in the process.

    Adobe can do it better by using smart folders in addition to the traditional bins that we know and trust (anything besides those dreadful iMovie-style “events”).

30. Instant effects previews

    There has to be a quicker way to preview effects, perhaps along the lines of the Lumetri Looks preview thumbs (minus the guy with the mohawk). This is definitely an area where FCPX has jumped ahead.

31. Audition multiple takes

    This is a sweet feature in FCPX, especially when presenting options to clients. Steal it.

32. Better “Match Sequence Settings” on export

    It should be possible to click “Match Sequence Settings” and then make changes to individual settings. Instead, it’s all or nothing and locks you in to the Preview file format. Un-clicking this option just resets everything.

    Interestingly, if you choose the H.264 format, you can select a “Match Source” preset. This is needed for all formats.

33. Remember last used setting of export source range (or default to “entire sequence”)
34. Vertical scrollbar in Timeline is always visible, even when not needed

    Sloppy.

35. Keyboard shortcuts: button to reset to default
36. Cursor icons for tools too big and crude

    It’s surprising that such a fundamental element of Premiere is still so unrefined.

    The cursor icons for the various editing tools are too big, too imprecise, and just ugly. The trim tool and the ripple tool should have different shapes that indicate their function, not just different, non-semantic colors.

37. Tool tips block mouse actions

    They actually get in the way when moving clips between tracks, even if other kinds of tool tips are turned off in the preferences.

38. Copy should always be option-drag on a Mac

    Always. Copy is currently command-drag in the Project panel.

39. Scrolling in Effects Controls pane screws up drop-down menu settings

    Sometimes I think no one at Adobe has every actually used Premiere with a Magic Mouse, but here’s a chance for Adobe to fix a problem that FCP7 shared: When you scroll up or down in the Effects Controls pane, effects with drop-down menu settings twirl all over the place if the mouse happens to float over them. It’s very easy to throw settings into random disarray without even realizing it just by scrolling up or down the pane.

40. Scrolling over Timeline head shouldn’t affect track heights

    Same general problem as above. When scrolling over the Timeline head with a Magic Mouse, while trying to just scroll the track view up or down, track sizes go all over the place.

41. Auto save: delete oldest

    Rather than delete the oldest auto save file once it has reached the limit set in the preferences, auto save starts reusing the same set of file names. This makes it unnecessarily difficult to determine which file is the latest version.

42. Increase undo limit

    They increased the limit from 32 to 100, but it should be higher still.

43. After an undo, CTI should return to where it was at that point in “history”
44. Ability to switch off all effects for a given track

    This would allow you to edit more quickly when effects are forcing you to render after every cut.

45. Audio scrubbing without pitch change

    I guess the pitch change is intended to mimic linear editors, which was fun for a few seconds, but I have a much easier time navigating dialogue with the stutter-style scrubbing.

46. Border controls for still images
47. The button editor is still crappy

    At least it no longer cuts off buttons the way it used to, but it still doesn’t even center and is generally ornery.

48. Enable/disable specific effect parameters/keyframes
49. Better position controls starting point

    There should be a preference to make the default position 0.0 x 0.0 (as opposed to 50% of whatever the resolution happens to be), and include a reset button.

50. Copy/paste clip from Timeline into bin
51. Control-k should cut through selected clip(s) within the Timeline instead of using the track selection at the head
52. Faster top speed in J-K-L control
53. “Esc” out of window maximize

    The grave accent window maximize is a truly awesome feature. So yeah, I know, pressing it once maximizes. Pressing it again snaps it back. Don’t ever lose that behavior. But I get used to hitting “Esc” to leave full screen mode. I would consider it a personal favor if that button snapped-back maximized windows as well.

54. Save changes to current workspace (without having to retype exact name as a new workspace)
55. Launching app with scratch disks unavailable shouldn’t reset cache locations after cancel

    If you haven’t fired up your external scratch disks when you launch the app, you can cancel and then do so, but the cache settings will still get reset.

56. Ability to cancel New Project dialogue without having to reload current project

    In other words, don’t close the current project until a new project is actually started. (This would be moot if you could open multiple projects.)

57. Tabbing between panes with keyboard shortcuts should skip tools and audio levels
58. More logical clip sliding with keyboard commands

    “Cmd-,” (that’s command-comma) and “Cmd-.” (command-period) should cause a clip collisions, not overwrite, because a good use of those keyboard commands is to slide a clip up to but not over the adjacent clip.

59. Fix weird white lines/shading

    If a track is selected and a cut is made, extra white shading appears and white lines form as the CTI passes over the track during playback.

    Click the image below to enlarge:

60. Clips have been known to disappear from Project pane

    This has only happened to me twice. I haven’t found a pattern.

61. Speed change bug

    Sometimes it won’t let you type in a speed change.

62. Automate to Sequence should respect track targeting

    Automate to Sequence only seems to work on the lowest track.

63. Larger timecode display with h,m,s,f instead of colons

    I think the large timecode display in FCPX is too often dismissed as eye candy, but it’s a legitimately brilliant interface element. It really helps you effortlessly keep your bearings with much less eye strain.

64. Simple slug

    In CS5.5 you had to create a black matte. In CS6 they added “Black Video”, but it still involves an extra step to take it from the Project panel to the Timeline.

65. Add right-click option on Timeline tabs to duplicate Sequence
66. Enter numeric decible adjustments for track audio keyframes

    Dragging is good for quick adjustments, but it’s nearly impossible to set decible levels with precision or consistency.

67. Many, many more effects!

    Some very basic effects are missing: vignette, border, and motion blur to name a few. Adobe’s stock response to this has been to use After Effects or Photoshop. Round-tripping with Dynamic Link is a great option, but I see no reason that more effects shouldn’t be built it. Obviously, Adobe sees the benefit of including effects within Premiere or they would provide zero.

68. Many, many more looks!

    The addition of Lumetri Looks is great. Keep them coming.

69. What’s the deal with that crappy-looking CTI head?

    I always save this for last because it has absolutely no bearing on my ability to edit, but just look at it. Seriously. It’s embarrassing. Maybe that passes for slick in the Windows world, but not on a Mac! (Hey, I had to get in one Windows knock.)

    Adobe wisely dropped the even more ridiculous 2-frame animation that existed in CS5.5 and earlier, but the CTI is one of the first things a prospective user notices. That tiny, crude group of yellow pixels drags down the appearance of the entire interface.

    The Three-Eyed Monster!