For this post I wanted to get insight from other editors to take my learning further. My overall goal is to use the best editing software, and I think getting opinions from other editors is a key part of that process. I decided to do this by choosing a few of the top editors I know in British Columbia, I have attached 2 of the top accounts below. 

I sent these editors a google form with some questions on what software they use, what software they started with etc. I have attached the results below:

Survey Results:

The results were interesting because they showed that there isn’t one clear “best” option. The most used softwares were premiere pro and final cut pro, both finishing with 3 of the 7. DaVinci Resolve was used by 1 editor. When I asked what software people started with, it was the opposite of what software people currently use. Only one person actually started off using Premiere, while 57.1% started on Final Cut and 28.6% on DaVinci. This tells me lots of editors don’t start on premiere, I think this is because premiere is so much more complicated and hard to jump right into. 

Do the editors stick to one software? 

57.1% said yes they have switched, showing that switching software is actually pretty normal. I thought this was interesting because my whole project is about testing other softwares. 

As shown in the chart above, Premiere Pro was the most recommended software for beginners, receiving 42.9% of the responses. The rest of the responses were evenly split (14.3% each) between DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro, iMovie/free software, and CapCut. This stood out to me because everyone had a different opinion, overall people said a “simple software”.

Frustrations other editors face:

• Software being overly complicated
• Bugs and crashes
• Problems with effects like speed ramping
• Large file sizes when working with 4K footage
• Limited export settings

This reflects the idea that every software has flaws. 

Looking at the results, the biggest thing I learned is that there is no perfect editing software. Every option has strengths and weaknesses, and different editors value different things.