Worried about the future of Premiere Pro development when Adobe keeps telling me that by making things take more clicks it is actually better

Starting with the Adobe Premiere Pro beta and it’s redesigned header bar, which their is a discussion on about at the Adobe Support Community for Premiere Pro Beta.

Where adobe moved the workspaces to under a single button with no display for what workspace you are in. And when us users gave feedback their seemed to be a fight back.

Ann (and everyone else) – I hear you about the change in muscle memory and requiring 2 clicks instead of one. I really do empathize – change is hard. I was an editor for 10 years before joing the software game and the placement of buttons is cemented in my brain. I too didn’t like the workspaces in the dropdown menu at first. But I have been using it now for a few months (yes I still edit constantly) and I’ve found that I prefer the menu dropdown. It’s a much better use of space, a cleaner look, and you can see all your workspaces at once without needing the overflow menu. I ask that you give it a chance and push past the innitial discomfort and really try this new arrangement. Also remember that this is not the end of the road. And getting reactions like this is exactly why we put it in beta first before just releasing and forcing it upon everyone.

This was my first instance of Adobe telling me that more than one click was better than one click (and in this case wasting space and not displaying the current workspace). Now in this instance at least Adobe seems to have relented and is going to allow us to display 3 workspaces in the title bar, though not by default.

And then at the Facebook Premiere Pro Editors user group, which I have subsequently left since my posts had links to this blog and I was told users didn’t like that, and I my tone had to be calmer and more deferential to Adobe employees who post on it, when posting about the now completely changed methods for dealing with the damn (see that is what would piss them off) ALEXA AMIRA LUT, I was told the new method was faster, when it takes more clicks, so obviously it is not.

Previously I could select all my footage and right click and Disable Master Clips. Now I have to right click go to drop down menu and select Interpret Footage, then in the subsequent dialogue go down to color man agement and select the Embedded AMIRA LUT drop down menu and then select none. IN NO WAY IS THAT FASTER THAN BEING ABLE TO TURN IT OFF FROM THE DROP DOWN MENU.

Now the first example they fixed after user feedback. The second is part of a re-designed Color Management System, that doesn’t seem to be documented at all by Adobe as of yet (boy they could learn something from Black Magic Designs about manuals especially for release versions, ha again something that would have gotten me reprimanded by the Premier Pro Editors User Group) and my questions on it were pulled from the group, so I deleted them, which is why Adobe employees should just be interacting on their own web site, and not in places where people unaffiliated with Adobe are removing posts because of tone or linking to content not on Facebook (if you at all read this site, you see I do long posts with many images, so there is no way I could do the same in a facebook post), so there is no chance for Adobe to comment or users to share their opinion and maybe get things changed.

And it does worry me that in both situations the Adobe employees told us that the new methods were faster, when they are demonstrably not. They are working on a slow but full rework of Premiere Pro, and it is statements like this that worry me the most. They think their new way is better and faster, and just implement something slower.

I mean why didn’t the whole Color Management change show up in the Beta? It just showed up in the release version, un-vetted by end users.

Now the fact that the did change the first example does give hope, but the new Import and Export dialogues being given such prominence over work spaces does worry me. Especially since so much of the weirdness of the new Export Dialogue doesn’t seem to have changed since it first hit the beta.

Anyway I am just thinking out loud here as I like to do here. You be the judge.

MacRumors reports on Anandtech’s Deep Dive into the M1 Pro and M1 Max.

MacRumors posted on Anandtech’s Deep Dive in to the M1 Pro and M1 Max. And here is the AndanTech Deep dive.

The chips here aren’t only able to outclass any competitor laptop design, but also competes against the best desktop systems out there, you’d have to bring out server-class hardware to get ahead of the M1 Max – it’s just generally absurd.

Wow, this sounds amazing, as I have said, can’t wait for the Apple Silicon iMac Pro and Mac Pro to see what they can do!

9to5Mac reports that the M1 Max GPU beats an AMD Radeo Pro W6900x in Affinity Benchmark

Filipe Esposito at 9 to 5 first reported on this, from a test by Andy Somerfield at Affinity Photohttps://9to5mac.com/2021/10/25/apple-m1-max-gpu-beats-6000-amd-radeon-pro-w6900x-in-affinity-benchmark/

This is pretty amazing, beating a $6000 GPU from the 2019 MacPro! Wow. So the Apple Silicon iMac Pro and Mac Pro will certainly be impressive machines.

Blackmagic Design raised the price on the Speed Editor, but drops price on keyboard and some of it’s color panels

Blackmagic Design has announced reductions on the DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard and some panels, but a price raise on the Speed Editor.

  • DaVinci Resolve $Free.
  • DaVinci Resolve Studio $295.
  • DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor $395, an increase of $100.
  • DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard $595, a saving of $400.
  • DaVinci Resolve Micro Panel $795, a saving of $200.
  • DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel $1995, a saving of $1000.

Now the Speed Editor was $295 and included Resolve Studio, so that is going the wrong way, but $595 is getting better for the Editor Keyboard (down $400_ and $1000 off the mini panel is great, though I will stick with my Tangent.

The thing is I know that Blackmagic Panels are better built than Tangent, but they also only work with DaVinci, and even with the price drop are still so expensive. And I only work with ergonomic keyboards so the editing Keyboard is useless to me, so I was interested in the Speed Editor, but it’s focus on the Cut Panel turns me off. Honestly I know you aren’t reading this Blackmagic, but I would love a smaller panel with basically the dial and a few other buttons, but I know it wouldn’t have customizable buttons or work with other software, so…

And the customability is the weird thing, since DaVinci doesn’t let you customize the buttons nor let them work with anything else. And the buttons on the Speed Editor are too focused on the Cut Page, which I do not like and do not use, I would much rather have it based on the edit page, but would also want it to work with Premiere Pro, so…

Scott Simmons at Pro Video Coalition review the 16 inch Apple MacBook Pro M1 Max for Video Editors Part 1

Scott Simons has released the first part of a must read review of using the Apple MAcBook Pro M1 Max for Video Editors.

Things sounds great so far, and it really gives me hope for the Apple Silicon iMac Pro and Mac Pro.

Still hope that plug in makers start speeding up the process of re-writing their software for M1. It disturbs me that even companies like Maxon with Red Giant hasn’t upgraded everything to M1 yet, even though it is a subscription, which means they really should be upgrading their applications quickly, because I am paying for them constantly. At least Adobe has the Beta of After Effects working on M1, but it is going to be limited on plug ins for sure.

Some more adverse effects of California law AB5, not only can I not right off employee expenses, but I have lost the ability to use Individual 401K or SEP IRA plans!

Since the damned California AB5 has taken effect, which basically banned 1099 employment forcing you to work as an employee at companies, I have already lost the ability to write off employee expenses, which I previously was able to do with a schedule C (I know it is the worst for getting audited, but it let me write off expenses at least), but what I hadn’t realize is how much it screws up retirement plans.

Yes I knew about ROTH and regular IRA contributions, which max out at $6000, but as a 1099 employee in addition you can do either a Individual 401(k) with contributions up to $19500, or $26000 if over 50 or a SEP IRA which lets you d0 25% of eligible compensation or 20% of Net earnings or $58,000! And that is in addition to the IRA.

The only other solution is do an S Corp if the companies will even hire me that way and incur the $800 fee, but all the additional tax filing fees and accountant fees to have a corporation that has to pay me, and my accountant says it isn’t worth it unless I am making over 100,000 a year.

And with COVID-19 I now literally work full time on my home machine and equipment, and have to keep all software and hardware up to do, but not being able to file a schedule C means that I can’t write any of that off, and I can’t do additional retirement plans being a traditional IRA or ROTH IRA? Seriously?

Does AB5 actually help anyone?