Businesses behaving badly
Karen, Richard, and Matt are professional relations: business partners who are also family members. This issue, Matt interviews his mum Karen about the software she uses to edit videos, with editing by her husband Richard.
“There’s a sense of being held to ransom as software companies try to grab your files”
Matt
You've been keeping me updated on issues you've been having with Adobe Premiere Pro, experimenting to try to work out if the problem was the laptop, the internet connection or the software...
What do you use Premiere Pro for? How would it affect your work if you couldn't fix it?
Karen
Premiere Pro is video editing software. I use it to correct issues with lighting or audio in our “talking head” style videos and to edit out pauses. I can also add title slides, images and animated videos to make the courses more engaging. MP4 files are the correct standard for upload to Udemy, YouTube or other platforms.
Recently I’ve had a problem with the stability of the software, which may be related to our unreliable broadband. I can be working happily and then the audio from a clip drops off, or the synchronisation slips. Usually the standby of “turn it off and turn it back on…” helps, but this makes it a slow process. Hopefully our switch to full fibre broadband will deal with this 🤞. If it doesn’t, we’ll have to investigate other editing options and getting out of our contract with Adobe, all of which takes time and delays publication of the course.
Matt
Did you look at other video editing software? What made you go with Premiere Pro?
Karen
To be honest I can’t remember, but it’s likely that we chose Adobe because it had a similar look to i-movie [the software we’d used previously] and the monthly payment meant we didn’t need to make a big investment before getting income from the course.
Matt
What have you found it does well, and have there been any other frustrations before this current stability issue?
Karen
For the novice that I was when we started, it’s a daunting piece of software as there are multiple screens and menus. As with a lot of programmes, it does far more than we need it to and finding the bits that work for us took time and a lot of “googling” and nervous energy! With time and practice I’ve become more relaxed about using it and more confident in experimenting with different functions. The edit/undo button is my friend!
We’ve also become more proficient in filming so there are fewer corrections and enhancements to do.
One issue I have is with updates and software versions, especially when menus or names of functions change – it takes time to find my way round the system again. As it’s cloud based, I don’t have control over the changes and often they don’t really help.
“The edit/undo button is my friend!”
Matt
Remember when you could just buy software, install it, and use it, and it didn't need to “phone home” to keep working, and it wouldn't keep charging you or changing how it worked?
Karen
Those were the days!!
It was good to have control over when you updated it. Although on the downside it usually meant a trip to an actual shop to buy a disc to install a new version.
Matt
Have you heard the term, “technofeudalism”, which is the title of a book by Yanis Varoufakis? The idea is that software companies didn't like how they lost control of their software, so they've gradually taken ownership and control themselves. We have to rent from them instead of buying and lump it if they decide to remove or charge extra for certain features.
What would it mean for our small business if Adobe suddenly hiked the price or got rid of some tools?
Karen
I hadn’t heard the term, but it’s an apt description. There’s also a sense of being held to ransom as software companies try to grab your files to cloud back-up facilities which you then have to pay for.
At least paying monthly for Adobe we could cover an increased cost for a few months. A change in the editing options would mean a more urgent change, although from experience they don’t remove an option, they change the method of processing. Either situation would make us look for other options. In fact, this discussion is making me think that we should start looking now, to be prepared!
Matt
I didn't mean to cause a big worry!
How can companies like Adobe do a better job for small businesses? We're paying them to provide a product/service, after all!
Karen
When we used another Adobe product we were assigned a contact person from Adobe. He sorted out any queries to make sure we were getting the best out of the product. We felt that our business was valued. We haven’t been offered this for any other part of the Adobe suite, but it would be useful for any small business without in-house technical support.
Matt
All we need to do now is for someone important at Adobe to read this!
There’s more to this interview. Buy us a cuppa on Ko-fi to support our work, and you can read the unabridged versions of this and every Professional Relations interview.
👕 30 September, Elsworth at the Mill: Richard’s giving a talk, A tale of two tee shirts – and why it’s important for your business, at the Skipton Business Social. Learn something about fast fashion and the environmental harm businesses can do if they don’t think through the consequences of their actions. Tickets £14.
I Need A Miracle has been accepted to its biggest festival yet: the very prestigious New Jersey Web Fest! This is the third festival I Need A Miracle is screening at this year, after Apulia and New Zealand.
🎲 The final curtain has dropped on Merely Roleplayers‘ Main House production Vigil: Shadowfall. Binge all 5 acts of this folkloric, sleuthing, superhero parody story now.
🌲 Ellie, Strat, and Alexander Pankhurst from Merely Roleplayers were guests on Fiona Howat’s podcast What Am I Rolling?, playing kids, critters and toys lost in an endless wood on Hallowe’en, in a game of Babes in the Wood. Matt joins the gang for the upcoming part 2 – follow What Am I Rolling? so you don’t miss it.
💀 Merely Roleplayers opens a new Studio production on 12 August: follow the podcast so you don’t miss Tipping Point, where Chris Starkey, Natalie Winter, and Alexander Pankhurst join Matt to finally play the seminal roleplaying game Apocalypse World, in a story of life after climate breakdown (with setting consultation from Karen and Richard).
🔬 Matt published No good deed, chapter 5 of Camera Obscura. Even an independent self starter who needs no supervision could use some validation sometimes.
Karen highlights Nancy Birtwhistle:
Nancy won the Great British Bake Off in 2014. She’s used the voice this gave her to share hints and tips on living a greener, more economical and less wasteful lifestyle – at first via social media but now also through a number of books.