Introduction/Comparison of Mainstream Software in Film & TV Post-Production Workflows: How Should Beginners Choose? What Do Presets/Templates/LUTs Mean?

There are many post-production software options. If you’re a beginner who has just entered the post-production field, this article will help you quickly establish direction and find software that suits you.

When producing a film, regardless of its length, everything ultimately revolves around four core modules: editing, VFX, audio, and color grading. The table below lays out the mainstream software framework and can help you quickly build a macro-level understanding.

In recent years, with the explosion of short videos and new media, CapCut has risen rapidly. But note that CapCut focuses on producing short films and short videos and excels at variety‑show style, internet‑style effects and packaging. When it comes to long-form projects, it cannot compete with PR, FCPX, DaVinci, or AVID. Among these, AVID is a professional editing software dedicated to films and TV dramas, so it isn’t mainstream among general users. In summary, the optimal mainstream software choices in today’s post-production field are PR, FCPX, and DaVinci (although DaVinci initially focused on color grading, in recent years its editing panel has been continuously optimized, and its efficiency can now rival the other two). To sum up: these three pieces of software can handle long-form projects (a large portion of theatrical releases and web series are completed with these three) and have no problem at all with short-form content.

Considering the many stages of film and TV post-production—for example, after editing you still need audio, color grading, and VFX processing—overall, Adobe Premiere Pro is an excellent entry point. Its value lies not only in its own features, but also in its role as the “collaborative hub” of the Adobe Creative Cloud ecosystem.

PR is produced by Adobe and can be tightly integrated with other Adobe applications such as PS, AE, and AU in their respective specialized areas, with matching versions. This means that when you want to process a piece of footage (for example, remove noise or add effects), you can directly copy and bring it into other Adobe software without pre‑exporting, which greatly improves workflow efficiency.

Collaborative Workflow with PR as the Core

After you finish a rough cut in PR, you can seamlessly call upon Adobe’s suite of professional tools for detailed, refined work.

Auxiliary Elements that Extend PR’s Capabilities

Thanks to its large user base, PR enjoys a rich third‑party resource ecosystem, which can greatly boost both efficiency and creative output.

How to Start Learning

• If you’re just starting out:
  It’s recommended to begin with a PR + AU combination, focusing on telling a good story (editing) and handling the sound well (audio). This is the most fundamental core.

• If you want to improve visual impact:
  After mastering PR basics, start learning AE. Begin with motion graphics and text animation, then gradually move into visual effects compositing.

• If you’re interested in film‑level color work:
  Once you’re familiar with the editing workflow, you can dive deeper into learning DaVinci.

To sum up, there is no absolute “good” or “bad” software; what matters most is finding what suits you. Some people favor Apple’s macOS system and therefore always use FCPX for editing; others are used to Windows and always prefer PR. But the underlying logic of editing software is fundamentally the same and never changes.

The software isn’t what’s important; the important thing is always your way of thinking.