Back in October of 2018 Adobe added a new video editing program to the Creative Cloud family — Premiere Rush. You can think of Rush as essentially a lean version of the wildly popular Premiere Pro NLE.
So what’s the deal? If you can do everything you need in Premiere Pro, then why use Rush? You could simplify the reasoning to the names of the programs — use Premiere Pro for professional jobs, and Rush when you’re in a hurry. Naturally, there’s much more to it than that…
Premiere Rush is an all-in-one video creation software that allows users to capture, edit, and share professional-looking videos quickly on social media platforms. With its simple color and audio tools, and cross-device cloud workflow, there’s little reason not to use Rush.
Let’s take a quick look at the differences between the two programs and figure out when you might want to use one over the other.
Summary
Part 1: Premiere Rush
First, let’s take a look at why you might want to use the new kid on the block.
For a Quick Turnaround
As the name states, Rush is ideal for creating content quickly and efficiently. It’s especially ideal for putting together short videos (~20 minutes or less). The intuitive interface lends itself to this type of workflow.
The first thing you may notice when opening Adobe Premiere Rush is the minimalist interface. There are no dockable panels to stack. No source monitor. No clip and track mixers for audio. Rush consists of a simple timeline with a program monitor, and a small number of buttons and popup panels. This makes for a very intuitive experience which is ideal for beginners, as well.
Within this simple interface, Rush contains buttons to a number of different tools. These allow users to create quality videos and even the ability to use motion graphic templates. Users can also add transitions, control the speed of clips, sweeten audio, enhance color, and tweak the transformation properties of your video.
If you’re new to editing, you won’t need to spend much time to get up and running with a project. In fact, if you know how to use the camera application on your phone, then you’ll most likely have no issue finding your way around Rush.
For Social Sharing
If you’ve ever had to create videos for social platforms, then you’re well aware of the myriad tech specs and best practices. Rush was specifically designed for ease of use in these workflow environments.
These days, a large number of people will view the content you create on mobile devices. On many of these devices, vertical and square resolutions will look better than the standard landscape layout. Rush shines in this particular area, as it allows users to quickly switch the canvas between landscape, vertical, and square resolutions. Attempting to do this in Premiere Pro could possibly induce a heart attack.
In addition to quickly switching resolutions, exporting workflows are improved for social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Behance. You can also set up Rush to automatically upload to various platforms immediately after rendering. The share settings provide simple export and upload presets for YouTube and Facebook too. Simply sign in to your accounts via Rush, and then uploads will automate.
It’s clear that Rush was built with a busy YouTuber in mind — and would be a great tool for any prolific social influencer who is creating video content on the regular!
For Mobile Workflows
The real beauty of Rush is that a mobile app exists, and it’s identical to the desktop version. Jumping between the two will cause no confusion. And that’s a good thing, as Rush was specifically designed for a cross-device workflow.
Simply shoot something with a phone, edit in the mobile app, and then head home to finish the piece on a desktop. Rush projects are saved to the Creative Cloud and are accessible from any device.
Part 2: Premiere Pro
Here are a few scenarios where you might want to jump over to Premiere Pro.
For Fine-Tuning
Let’s say that you’ve started a project in Rush and you want to follow up with some fine-tuning inside of Premiere Pro. This is no problem, as you can open Rush project files with Premiere Pro.
While Rush has a simple minimalist interface, Premiere Pro has a plethora of options. Navigate to the Window menu to reveal twenty-nine different panel options. Move these panels around to create a custom workspace, or choose from 10 preset layouts in Window > Workspaces.
The numerous panels and custom workspaces attest to the number of things the program was designed to do. Myriad tools allow users a greater variety of transitions and effects, more powerful color-correction and audio tools, multicamera editing, and a universe of third-party plugins.
The Tools panel gives editors a variety of ways to manipulate footage. This is a pretty big difference from Rush, where you can’t even separate the audio from the video in the timeline.
For Quality Control
Plenty of ‘professionals’ use Premiere Pro, from well-known filmmakers to TV showrunners. This is due to the robust capabilities of the program.
If you’re producing content that’s going out on a specific platform (not just social media sites), then you’ll most likely have deliverable requirements. These can range from the cameras and codecs you’re allowed to use, from video and audio level requirements, to closed captioning, and even metadata specifics.
With Premiere Pro, you can tackle all of these problems. Users can edit footage in any modern format, from 8K to virtual reality. Closely monitor video and audio levels via scopes and meters to keep content broadcast safe. Use color correction and grading tools to make sure your video levels are ‘legal.’ Get audio levels and frequency ranges right where you want them with a parametric eq, as well as clip and timeline mixers. Basically, if you need greater control over your edits, its best to jump into Premiere Pro to complete your video projects.
For Integrations
One of the main reasons Premiere Pro has the word ‘Pro’ in it is because it plays well with other programs in the Adobe Creative Cloud. It has seamless integration with apps like After Effects and Photoshop, allowing creators to put whatever they can imagine on screen.
Users can dynamically link motion graphics comps from After Effects directly inside of Premiere Pro. Any edits you make to your AE projects will instantly update in the corresponding Premiere project. The same goes for Photoshop. You even have the option to launch either of these programs from inside of Premiere Pro.
These are only a few examples of how you can use these two programs. It’s really whatever works best for your particular situation. What do you think? Do you prefer one over the other?
