DaVinci Resolve vs Premiere Pro for Interview Editing

For interview editing, both DaVinci Resolve and Premiere Pro can cut from a transcript well; pick Premiere for the smoothest text-based workflow and ecosystem fit, and Resolve for color, audio, and a free tier, but do your selection and story decisions before you open either.

The two apps have converged more than the rivalry suggests. Both transcribe footage, both let you edit from the words, both finish to broadcast. The real differences are in cost, polish, and where they fit in your pipeline.

Transcription and text-based editing

Premiere Pro shipped Text-Based Editing at NAB 2023 in version 23.4, on top of its Speech to Text transcription. Adobe's overview describes selecting and rearranging transcript text to build a sequence, with clips following the words. In practice it is the more refined text workflow of the two, and the Text panel feels purpose-built.

DaVinci Resolve added automatic transcription in Studio 18.5. You select clips on the Edit page, run Transcribe Audio, and work from the Transcription window, editing and selecting text tied to the footage. It is capable, but the transcription tool lives only in Resolve Studio, the paid version, as RedShark noted at launch.

Edge: Premiere, narrowly

For pure text-driven interview cutting, Premiere's Text-Based Editing is more mature and quicker to learn. Resolve's is solid and improving.

Cost

This is where Resolve lands a punch. The free version of DaVinci Resolve is genuinely powerful, and Studio is a one-time purchase. Premiere Pro is subscription only. If budget drives the decision, Resolve wins outright, with the caveat that transcription needs Studio.

Color and audio

Resolve grew up as a color grading platform and it shows. Its grading and its Fairlight audio page are deeper than Premiere's built-in tools. For an interview piece that needs serious color or a careful mix in one app, Resolve has the advantage.

Premiere's strength is the Adobe ecosystem: After Effects via Dynamic Link, Audition, and a graphics and motion pipeline that many teams already live in.

Honest tradeoffs

• Premiere: best text workflow, deepest ecosystem, subscription cost, occasionally heavier on big projects.
• Resolve: best color and audio, free tier, Studio needed for transcription, a steeper learning curve across its many pages.
• Both: keep selection, story, and approval inside the NLE on one machine, which is fine solo and awkward with a client.

The thing both miss

Here is the catch with the whole comparison. Whichever app you choose, you are still making the most important creative decisions (which moments to keep, in what order) inside a heavy editing application, alone, with no clean way for a client to weigh in first.

For interviews and documentary work, that order is backward. The cut is won on the words. So decide on the words first, then bring a finished structure into the NLE to refine.

That is the job ScriptCut does ahead of both. Transcribe the footage, highlight the strongest moments, cut fillers, arrange the story, and get client sign-off on a share link, all before you open Resolve or Premiere. Then export. Because each selected line carries word-level timecodes, the export opens as an assembled sequence.

It feeds either app

Send XML to Premiere (File > Import) or to Resolve (File > Import > Timeline) and the approved cut rebuilds as a real timeline, every select in order. You pick Resolve or Premiere for finishing, not for the part of the job that should never have been buried in the timeline. See the Premiere transcript workflow and transcript-based editing in Resolve for each side.

So which one?

If you are price-sensitive or color and audio lead the project, go Resolve. If you live in the Adobe ecosystem and want the most polished text editing, go Premiere. Either way, run a paper edit first and get client approval before you edit, then let your NLE of choice do what it is best at. More on speed in editing interviews faster.

The takeaway

Resolve and Premiere are both strong interview editors with the gap narrowing every release. Choose on cost and finishing strengths, not on transcription alone, and move the selection and approval out of the NLE and onto the transcript where the edit is actually decided.

Sources

• Text-Based Editing overview (Adobe)
• DaVinci Resolve (Blackmagic Design)
• DaVinci Resolve 18.5 transcription update (RedShark)