Digital Media Production | News

Film Schools Adopt Premiere Pro

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 12/16/10

Adobe is gaining visibility in universities. The company recently announced several institutions that have added Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 to the curriculum in their renowned film and video programs, including the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles. Adobe released the video editing application in April 2010 as part of a broader launch of its Adobe Creative Suite 5 Production Premium and Master Collection products.

The UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television will be adding Production Premium into classes on production, animation, and digital media. The university will feature the software for editing work, alongside Apple's Final Cut Studio and Avid Technology's Media Composer software, in the digital lab for its Cinema & Media Studies program, as well as some student digital post-production editing suites and labs.

"At TFT, we are dedicated to developing and training the next generation of outstanding, innovative humanistic storytellers. Keeping pace with explosive technological change, in service of master visual storytelling, is one key to implementing this important strategy," said Teri Schwartz, dean of the university's School of Theater, Film and Television. "The clarity and ease of use of Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 gives us a great platform for teaching our students the art of storytelling, which is where it all begins."

USC's School of Cinematic Arts has added Adobe's editing software along with Cineform NEO 3D Plugin to incorporate stereoscopic editing and playback in 3D courses and screening facilities. The university has also committed to integrating the use of Production Premium into its editing labs in multiple programs across the school, including the Institute for Multimedia Literacy, which does research on literacy.

"We are proud to continue our dynamic and long-standing relationship with Adobe, a company whose unswerving commitment to innovation gives our students the tools to build new worlds and tell stories that resonate with audiences everywhere," said the school's Dean, Elizabeth Daley.

Premiere Pro CS5 is available as a native 64-bit or 32-bit application for both Mac OS X and Windows. It includes Adobe's Mercury Playback Engine, which supports GPU microprocessor acceleration, native editing of photo- and file-based media, and integration with other Adobe software such as After Effects and Photoshop Extended.

The company said its application is also being integrated into programs at Ball State University in Muncie, IN; Chapman University in Orange, CA; and Vancouver Film School in British Columbia, among others.