GC students participate in an Adobe Rush focus group

January 16, 2019

GC3400 students are joined by Adobe Premiere Rush team members, Andrea and Patrick, for an end of semester focus group.

Co-written by Weston Sanders (class of 2020) and Jorgine Vick (class of 2020)

A small team of GC3400 students recently got the opportunity to work with Adobe’s newest video editing tool, Premiere Rush. Rush was introduced at this year’s Adobe MAX; it’s meant to provide video creators with a modern all-in-one video editing solution that allows them to quickly edit a video and publish it on platforms like YouTube and other social networks. It can be used on mobile and desktop and although it is brand new, it is already a strong, versatile tool that is useful in creating quality video content on the go.

The Premiere Rush focus group of GC3400 students were tasked with using Adobe Rush to create any sort of video and really explore the possibilities and features, as well as aspects of the program that were difficult or led to problems. The goal of this assignment was to not only test out the new product – but to apply some of the skills that students have gained through GC3400 (Digital imaging and eMedia) and encourage them to keep developing these skills within a new software. This final assignment included a lot of flexibility and encouraged the students to create any type of video using this tool. Therefore, each student filmed and edited a different way based on their interpretation and creative process. Some decided to create their videos all mobile, whereas others decided to check out advanced camera equipment and use the desktop version of Adobe Rush.

After creating their videos, our focus group met with Andrea Zarkauskas and Patrick Hoy from Adobe via remote video to discuss their experience with Rush. This discussion included what issues they ran into, what was helpful, how they usually would edit and share videos, and what Rush as a tool might be useful for in higher education.

During the focus group student videos were presented and details about students’ individual experiences with the app were shared. Due to the open-ended nature of the assignment, which asked for each student to simply create any video, each student’s experience varied as they each took the assignment in a unique direction. Students who constructed casual lifestyle videos enjoyed the ease of the tools in the app, while students who were looking to create a more high-end product wished for more editing functions in the app. All students agreed that the Rush app allowed users to quickly turn-around a completed video with a quick learning curve. One student, Jorgine Vick, mentioned that “the Rush app could really lend itself to novice video editors while they are learning the ropes of Adobe video editing software. As editors get comfortable in Rush and start asking for more from the editing functions, it is super convenient that videos can be seamlessly transferred to Premiere Pro for more complex and dynamic tools.” Students explained that their first experience with Adobe Premiere Pro was a bit overwhelming earlier in the semester and that starting with Premier Rush could have provided a smooth transition into the complexities of Premiere Pro.

Participating in the focus group resulted in students reflecting on their experiences in the GC3400 class and looking towards the future, predicting how they would utilize their video skills on future assignments in GC and non-GC classes. It was noted that Rush is definitely a beneficial tool for efficiency and that potential for successful use could span from professionals to GC majors to amateur Adobe-users.

It was a great experience getting to see how Adobe Rush can be used in the classroom and for students to learn through an exploratory assignment like this. As with any new program, there was a bit of a learning curve and some kinks in the software, but all of the students became comfortable with Rush very quickly and were able to create some awesome videos. One of the main issues the students ran into was that with Rush being primarily designed as a mobile app to edit on the go, there was a lot of functionality that was lost or wasn’t quite there once they moved the project over into the desktop version of the app, especially in comparison to professional grade products such as Premiere Pro.

Getting a peek into life at Adobe and how a program is developed and adjusted through user testing was an added bonus! Students had an opportunity to ask Andrea and Patrick where this new program will go and about future development plans. Having a chance to try out an early version of Rush and see how it has the potential to be the perfect video editing tool on mobile that can easily sync with the Adobe Cloud and the larger suite of Adobe desktop products such as Premiere Pro was really exciting to be a part of.

Thank you to Dr. Walker, Andrea, and Patrick from Adobe for helping coordinate this awesome experience!