No Film School’s Jourdan Aldridge sits down with Adobe’s Jason Druss at NAB 2026 to discuss Adobe Premiere’s new Color Mode, a three-year effort to rethink color grading for video editors. The conversation covers why Adobe rebuilt its color pipeline, how Color Mode differs from Lumetri and traditional pro-color tools, and what editors can expect from operations, styles, modules, film emulation, AI object masks, and upcoming beta features. Jason also shares his path from film school and color grading at NFL Films to product marketing at Blackmagic, Frame.io, and Adobe.

In this episode, No Film School's Jourdan Aldridge and guest Jason Druss discuss...

Adobe’s major NAB 2026 focus: the public beta launch of Color Mode in Premiere

Why Adobe built Color Mode as a pro-color system designed specifically for video editors

The limitations of Lumetri and the challenges of round-tripping to dedicated color tools

How Alexis Van Hurkman helped lead the creation of a new color grading workflow inside Premiere

The role of private beta feedback from hundreds of working editors

Jason Druss’s career path through film school, wedding filmmaking, Blackmagic, NFL Films, WarnerMedia, Frame.io, and Adobe

How Frame.io Drive connects with Premiere workflows and Adobe’s NAB demo process

The design philosophy behind Color Mode’s simplified interface and shallow learning curve

New Color Mode concepts including operations, styles, modules, clip groups, and sequence-level grading

Film color, contrast kit, range controls, and customizable film emulation tools

Why Adobe sees Color Mode as a new approach to creativity without unnecessary complexity

Upcoming beta features including HSL qualifiers, skin tone lines, auto color, auto balance, vignette modules, and more film stocks

Memorable Quotes:

“What we're really trying to do is evolve and change the video editor's relationship with color and effects.”

“For more than 10 years now, video editors have had two, like, really bad choices when it comes to color grading.”

“We wanted to make the first color grading system ever actually built from the ground up and designed for video editors.”

“Color mode rewards curiosity. It encourages experimentation. It's actually fun to use.”

Guest:

Jason Druss

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