We had our first group meeting a couple weeks ago, and I wanted to, for those unable to attend, recap the meeting. Overall, it was a great start to a group that I hope will grow and become a great resource and organization for editors.

I started the meeting off by listing my main goals for the group: to allow editors a place to network with other PPro editors, to share information, tips, shortcuts and workflows, and to share creative work done by group members. I also want to have guest speakers come in and present.

I spoke about the announcement made by Adobe regarding Premiere Pro (and After Effects) going 64 bit in CS5, and showed a short video clip showcasing a technology preview from the IBC show. It showed Premiere Pro running with an improved playback engine that used GPU support to play back multiple clips (some 4K Red files) with a lot of effects added to them, and it played them back in real time in full quality and no rendering – very exciting stuff. While there has been no official announcement that this technology will be in CS5, we can all hope. We also spoke about the 4.2 update, and what was talked about to be included in it – I guess we all found out today what really is included. If you haven’t updated to 4.2 – do it!

I then did a short demo of Premiere Pro CS4, and some features that may not get used too often by users. I showed off the speech to text function, and how it can be used to speed up editing certain types of projects. I also showed the ability to edit straight from a DVD. Next, I covered Dynamic Link with Encore, and how easy it is to take multi-sequence Premiere Pro projects and create a multi-track DVD all through Dynamic Link.

Lastly, we showed the power and functionality of the Media Browser, and did a short demo of the power to edit Red footage natively inside Premiere Pro.

Finally, we did a short session where people could ask questions to the group about problems they were having, and we had a raffle.

Overall, I was happy with the first meeting. I’m starting to plan for the next meeting in December, and am hoping to have an announcement about location and topic (and maybe a nice surprise as well) in the coming weeks. If you know of a place we could meet, let me know. Also, if you have a great idea for a meeting topic let me know.

If you’d like to share a project that you’re working on with the group, please let me know and we can arrange it. I’d really like to make that something that happens at every meeting. I know we are all doing great work – let’s share it!

I’m very excited about this group, and I’m looking forward to seeing you all next month! I believe that there is some amazing stuff coming along for we Premiere Pro users, and I hope that this group can be something that you look forward to and can use as a valuable resource, as well as a fun event to attend.