Adobe Premiere Elements Version 7

The rains stopped and the moon came out on a recent night lately when a friend gave me a copy of Adobe Premiere 7 to evaluate and spread the word to you.  I eagerly installed it to my HP quad desktop. Prior to this I had used versions 3 and 4 and had just gotten into Premiere Pro CS3. To say that I was disapointed with the changes made by Adobe jumping from 4 directly to 7 (to make a matchup with the CS series numbering) would be an understatement.  If Adobe pushes a new version in the future where sufficient improvements don't merit it you could find yourselves paying out good money just for sheet metal changes over the old chassis and drive chain.

I was dismayed to find Adobe moving in the same dumb direction for both Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements in order to make their applications easier to use. Adobe has joined the latest gimmick to provide auto-edited InstantMovies based on the use of Smart Tags which analyze and provide content analysis of clips. I InstantMovie'd a new project from a project I recently completed in version 4. You have to select a template for your InstantMovie and the choice will give you heartburn. Since this was a museum documentary I had to use a "Road Trip" template as the closest match. (Most of the available templates are cute or targeted for youths.)

The resulting video was jarring with loud auto noises and auto clipart zooming through each scene. The transitions were rediculous and occasionally clips repeated.  The InstantMovie ran about 25% longer than my hand made video. Sorry, InstantMovies are not for me or any serious amatuer.

Premiere Elements started out as a junior Premiere, allowing any person with determination and an interest in Premiere type editing, but to a lesser extent, to arrange and add spice to home movies. Version 3 was a good example, but my installation suffered from the flexibility for rearranging the different panels that sometimes led to extremes (in a snap). Version 4 appearance changed to the CS format with fixed panel layouts and tabs to change a panels function. I found that I liked version 4 better than 3. Version 7 looks identical except the Organizer tab was added. Now the Organizer is no Bridge. I have yet to find a way of getting to a window like tree, so I can bring in media from any location on my various hard or flash drives.

Version 7 has a manual, if you can call it that. As usual the program Help covers a lot but not all needed knowledge. Apparently that is what User Forums are for. The Manual is directed towards the starting user making a simple video. Manipulating the Timeline is not even covered; Adobe wants you to arrange your video using the Sceneview, which means limiting your work to one track (instead of the 99 tracks Premiere Elements is capable of using).

Adobe's big push is to get you to sign up for Photoshop.com/Pro. They offer a free light membership with limited web storage. But to get a decent amount of storage you need to buy a membership in Pro at $50 a year. Looking at the site, it appears to support Photoshop Elements, not Premiere Elements. But wouldn't you expect that from a company that offeres no direct links to a Premiere Elements forum except through clicking on Premiere Pro?

Milt Kostner 11/25/08