Adobe Premiere alternative
Say the cut.
Finish it anywhere.
Selects edits your footage from a prompt and opens the result on a timeline. Finish it in Selects, or hand it to Adobe Premiere as a project file.
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Same footage, same prompt
Selects and Premiere on the same footage
We gave Selects and Adobe Premiere's AI Assistant the same footage and the same prompt. Here are both cuts, side by side, with what we noted in each.
Camera switching
podcast, 30-second source
This demo shows how each AI picks the most natural camera angle, the way a human editor would. Every tool except Selects failed on footage longer than an hour, so all five ran on the same 30-second clip.
Prompt
Switch cameras based on speaker and reaction
Selectsours
- Switches camera naturally
- Shows close-ups with the best reaction shots
- Covers jump cuts with camera switches
Adobe PremiereAI Assistant
- Cuts to an unimportant camera
- Awkward jump cut
Non-speech footage
parkour, 17-minute source
How each editor performs on footage with no speech to work from. The original footage is 17 minutes long.
Prompt
Create a parkour highlight using every parkour attempt, omitting none. Show only the action itself: start right when each move begins and cut just before the result.
Selectsours
- Finds 6 valid parkour attempts
Adobe PremiereAI Assistant
- Finds 1 valid parkour attempt
- False positive: a failed attempt and the climb down
- False positive: a hand covering the camera
Tech review
product footage, 1-minute source
This demo shows how each AI picks the most natural camera angle, the way a human editor would for a tech review video.
Prompt
Edit this video by changing cameras naturally
Selectsours
- Cuts to the MacBook when the speaker looks at it
- Switches between the speaker and the MacBook at the right moments
Adobe PremiereAI Assistant
- Stays on the speaker while the MacBook is being shown
- Stays on the MacBook during the speaker's hand gestures
- Skips the front camera that shows the MacBook
- Stays on the speaker while the MacBook is being shown
Scripted edit
talking head, 7-minute source
The original footage is 7 minutes 13 seconds long and full of retakes. A human editor's final cut runs 1 minute 58 seconds.
Prompt
Edit this video with the below script.
- fast pacing (short-form video)
- follow the script
- remove retakes and keep the best one only
Script
Forget what's trending. YC's new batch is the new crystal ball for tech. If you didn't know this already, tonight's the deadline for YC for their winter batch, and right now, the fall batch is fully on, so let's see what the future looks like with the fall batches. The current YC batch has hundred and forty-six startups: ninety-six B2B, seventeen consumer, ten healthcare, ten industrial, eight fintech, four real estate, and even one government. And as expected, AI dominates. But you see, here are the three startups that really caught my eye. Number one, Chat AI. This is the world's first brainrot IDE, integrated development environment. It basically allows developers to have integrated environment between the things that you brainrot with, like your TikTok scrolls, your Instagram, anime, whatever it is, into your developer code. How does this work? Instead of having developers fight their urge to brainrot, Chat actually embraces it. So for example, as you're building, AI model is thinking, and you sort of have to wait, and it actually prompts them to go and brainrot. It will show you to your Instagram, your favorite TikToks, so you're actually resting, and then by the time your AI model has loaded, then you're actually back to developing. Number two, Pixley AI. This one's my personal favorite. They're reinventing early education for children. You know when we go into a restaurant, and we see all these iPad kids, and we're like, “Oh my God, they're brain rotting”? Well, this AI tool is about to change it all. This is literally my dream come true. Imagine you draw an image, and then it becomes animation, and then a parent can even put morals or stories that they wanna tell. This makes screen time both educational and also super safe. This is one of the best use cases of video generation that I've seen. Thirdly, Exonic. This is the very first open source drug discovery. I know. When I first read it too, I was like, “What does that even mean?” This company is using AI to design synthetic DNA to help fight cancer. There's a no-code AI solution, and then you submit DNA designs, open source, open to anybody, and the best one gets tested in real cancer cells.
Selectsours
- 2:00 length (human edited version was 1:58)
- No retakes kept
- Chooses the best takes
Adobe PremiereAI Assistant
- 2:14 length (human edited version was 1:58)
- No retakes kept
- Runs 2:14 with the same words the human editor cut to 1:58
- Keeps the part where the speaker is memorizing the script
- Cuts off the sentence at “I've seen”
Where they differ
You start by asking
In Selects you describe the edit in chat, like a target length or who to stay on, and it builds a draft you keep giving notes on. Adobe describes Premiere as the go-to for pro video, with AI tools such as text-based editing, Media Intelligence search and Generative Extend inside a hands-on editor.
Finishing is Premiere's home ground
If your job is effects, color and graphics work at Premiere's depth, Premiere is built for that. Selects hands the cut over as a .prproj with edit points, tracks, speaker labels, markers and one sequence per draft. Effects, transitions, color and text stay behind, so you add those in Premiere.
It watches the footage
Selects analyzes each file into a word-level transcript, speakers matched to their faces and audio, and a short description of every clip. Chat edits from all of it, and scene search finds a shot by what's on screen.
Multicam from the sync up
Selects syncs 10 or more camera angles plus separate lav, boom and wireless audio, by waveform or timecode. Then you ask chat to switch cameras, and it cuts to whoever is speaking and mixes in wide shots.
FAQ
Is Selects a good Adobe Premiere alternative?
It can be a replacement or a first step. Selects is a full editor with a multi-track timeline, effects, color and video export, so you can finish there.
It also hands off to Adobe Premiere, so you can make the first cut by asking and finish in Premiere.
Does Selects work with Adobe Premiere?
Yes. Selects exports a .prproj for Premiere 2024, 2025 and 2026. Each draft becomes a sequence, the project panel mirrors your Selects folders, and clips point back to your original media.
Edit points, tracks, speaker labels, color labels, colored markers and caption text and timing carry over. Multicam can arrive nested or flat.
What would I still do in Premiere?
Effects, color, keyframes, position and scale, volume and fades, and styled caption looks stay in Selects. Transitions arrive as plain cuts, and text and graphics arrive as gaps you fill in Premiere.
Can I bring a Premiere sync into Selects?
Yes. Import a synced timeline from a .prproj and Selects keeps your sync. Retimed clips and nested sequences are skipped.
Do I have to learn new shortcuts?
No. Pick the Premiere shortcut preset, or import your own .kys keymap. On a multicam edit, keys 1 to 9 switch cameras.
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