Kelsey Brannan, aka PremiereGal, shares her views on content creation, AI in video, and more

Recently we caught up with Kelsey Brannan, aka PremiereGal, and friend of Wipster, to hear about her work and get her perspective on all things AI in the world of video. 

With over 500k subscribers on YouTube, PremiereGal offers a wealth of tutorials and resources for video editors and creators, no matter where they are in their journey. 

What are the biggest challenges that come with being a successful creator/influencer/educator? What might surprise people about the work that you do?

I think the biggest challenge is keeping up in the moment! As someone that reviews software, tech and gear, it’s very much in the moment. So if you want to share exciting news, you need to be ready to go, produce and share almost all the time. Of course, you need to learn what types of content you enjoy doing, and also remember to listen to your audience and their needs, because ultimately your job is to make sure you’re providing interesting and relevant content for them. 

I think while some might see what I do as the final post, a lot of what me and my team do behind the scenes is often not known. It’s not as simple as creating and posting. Not only is it writing a script, filming, editing, but there is also coordination with brand partners, client approval, thumbnail design…and there is all the information that gets put into the video description box, SEO tagging on the upload, adding cards/end screens, and finally sharing that video out into the world. Sometimes posting a video is just as much work as creating it! 

How have you seen other creators react to or use AI tools? 

I think it's probably one of the most hot topics now, so yes, I’ve seen a lot of creators talk about it. I think it’s more of a hot buzz word these days — now all companies are trying to figure out how to integrate AI into their product. Even though we’ve all been using AI for quite some time without it feeling as intense as it is now. For example, AI  transcription has been around for several years now, but it’s just now starting to expand into more and more areas of our work. 

Has AI changed the way you make videos? What’s one of your favorite AI video tools that you’ve discovered? 

Ai is also in Premiere Pro and After Effects and Photoshop! For example, the rotobrush tool in Ae, uses Adobe Sensei to detect the edges of a subject when removing them from the background. There is a remix tool in Pr that lets you just drag the end of a music clip and change the duration while retaining the natural ending and essence of the song. I love it!  Generative Fill in Photoshop, where you select an area and add in anything is just amazing, and expanding the frame to predict a new area is so cool. Generative tools are also coming to Premiere Pro later this year that will let you extend the natural length of a clip and also add in/remove objects in video - I did post a sneak about it on YouTube Shorts!  

There are so many AI captioning tools we love to use and currently we use Firecut.ai (Use code GAL to get 10% off!). There are lots of tools inside of Firecut, but we mainly use the captioning tool. (You can watch PremiereGal's review of Firecut here) 

Do you have any expectations as to how AI will continue to impact the field that you work in, positive or negative?

Many people love the AI time saving tools, but where it gets dicey is the generative AI tools, because the question comes down to if it is classified as copyright infringement, how is the AI learning? And I think over the next 5 years we will start to see what becomes of it legal-wise. It's still in its infancy! But if there is an AI captioning tool that can transcribe my video fast, I’ll take it! It will save me a ton of time. 

I think most people that make films and videos know that AI cannot produce the content we make, it just requires so much finesse, it requires you to film yourself or if it’s a show, you work with actors. I don’t think we will be wanting to go see a fully AI generated film in theatres…just doesn’t feel right. BUT that said, a lot of what we see in a lot of marvel films are CGI, so a lot of created in post with the help of AI tools already! After all, tech is an extension of our mind, if we can use tools to help us visualize things, I think that isn’t a bad thing, as long as we are involved! 

Are there parts of the creative process, or the video creation process, that you don’t see yourself ever using AI for? 

Probably the creative writing part! 

Are there any areas of your creative work, or of running your business, that you think AI could be well-suited for, but you haven’t seen yet?

I mean I think we are constantly surprised at what can be added. I don’t think there are limits, but I think my script writing really relies on our own minds :) But we might use AI to help us research some things we need help with! 

How do you use Wipster? How does collaboration/review & approval software improve your ability to complete projects more efficiently or improve the end product?

We have a slack channel for our team and I setup a Wipster-review channel where editors can see feedback notifications come in and I can see if Editors upload. I give each Editor guess access to a media folder on Wipster and they upload their edits there, then I pop in and give feedback and let them know when I’m done. We are all remote so it helps ensure my feedback is specific and as useful as possible! 

I also worked for Wipster from 2018-2019, and during that time we added audio and image support! So I’d love of course for those media file times to remain for feedback, while of course, feedback on video is the most important! 

PremiereGal publishes weekly tutorials on her YouTube channel and hosts a variety of video resources on PremiereGal.com.