I want a setup for Final Cut Studio. I'm a newby. Help me!

[oxband]

So, I'm a graduate student who has been doing film-making for about half a year, and in that time, I've decided I think I want to try and make a go at film-making for a career. I've saved up some money and I want to create a good set up for FCP.

As for a computer, I'm thinking of springing for http://store.apple.com/us/product/G0GW7LL/A?mco=Nzk2MTU0Mw
I want to be able to edit on the road so I want a MBP. I'm wondering if this is a good choice or if it is worth paying more for the SSD. I'm planning on making this my computer for years, so I don't mind spending the extra money for the SSD, but only if it is worth it.

As for external hard drives, I own two Seagate external 1TB hard-drives that are 7200 RPM. I bought them about a year ago and they work fine. Should they suffice?

Lastly, I already have one 21" monitor that I connect to my current laptop. Are two monitors that much more convenient? Would it make sense to use the laptop I'll buy as the second monitor or would i want to spring for something larger.

Thanks!

 

[Hellhammer]

Are you sure you want a laptop? For same money you would get a quad-core Mac Pro

 

[oxband]

Well, I kind of like the portability of the MBP, and from I've heard, there isn't anything performance-wise that I can't do on it. This will sound like a dumb question, but is the difference between the quad-core Mac Pro and the MBP going to be so great that I should reconsider that?

 

[calderone]

In your case, yes, the performance difference should make you reconsider. Everyone talks about portability, but very few people utilize it. I work in IT and in my office, very few people drag their laptop around. That isn't to say you won't. But really think about your habits and your needs.

 

[techfreak85]

i would never dream of editing on a laptop. Get a mac pro.

do u have another laptop already for just general use, not for editing? If you do, and you go out of town, u could use that for just general internet purposes....

 

[Jodorowsky]

My advice: Don't buy the mac pro until you're ready to do heavy video editing. I have a MBP that I use for editing all the DV I'm shooting right now, along with occasional HDV, and it works just fine. I've got the model right beneath the one you showed. Now, obviously if you're going the career route and have a lot of financial motivation to get the MP, you should do it. But that sounds more like what you want to have than what you have currently. This is the time to buy the laptop, and try it out. Unless you're doing heavy HD video editing all the time, the pro is a waste of money. The last thing you want is your top of the line technology collecting dust. Because then, you are in a situation where you could have waited and gotten the new one when it comes out at no penalty, but instead you spent your money early for nothing.

Buy the MBP. It will serve you well until you decide to move up into uncompressed HD world and beyond.

As far as the monitors, don't worry about it. One will be fine at first. Figure out what layouts you like. I enjoy using two monitors to edit, but that doesn't mean its a necessity. Just use your mbp monitor and the one you've already got (though you'll probably need a minidisplay to dvi converter).

And as far as external hard drives go: what you have will be fine. Not for all uses, but for starting up, they will be fine. Once you move up into the Mac Pro world, however, you will want to start looking into larger dedicated external raid arrays, e.g. caldigit

I know its tempting to get caught up in the technology of all this, especially when there's so much cool technology out there. But, obviously, you don't have any customers yet (I gather from the .5 year spent in film)! Wait on that stuff until it is necessitated and financially reasonable.

 

[MovieCutter]

i would never dream of editing on a laptop. Get a mac pro.

do u have another laptop already for just general use, not for editing? If you do, and you go out of town, u could use that for just general internet purposes....

I edit HD shows for broadcast on an international news network on my MacBook Pro every week. HDV, XDCAM HD, the works. I do them on the couch in my living room, and in the lounge at a restaurant down the street. I wouldn't trade portability for anything.

Granted, I have a Mac Pro for the extremely heavy lifting, archiving, storage, and heavy 3D motion graphics work, but I literally do 95% of my editing on my MacBook Pro.

And what if you go out of town for a client...you gonna lug that Mac Pro with you? Didn't think so. Being able to take a project TO the client is a big advantage.

 

[rogue76]

My advice: Don't buy the mac pro until you're ready to do heavy video editing. I have a MBP that I use for editing all the DV I'm shooting right now, along with occasional HDV, and it works just fine.

I agree. One question you need to ask yourself is concerning the amount of graphics you will be handling. Will you be working in Motion everyday or occasionally? What type of projects are you planning on working on? A MBP will handle everything, but then it gets into the amount of time it is going to take to render. I don't use Motion too often so it is worth waiting on things to render- but if most of my post-production work was in Motion (or some of the other graphics programs)- I would want as much power as possible. Time is money.

 

[oxband]

I don't think I'll use Motion much

I'm getting into documentary film, so I don't think I'll be using Motion that much. In that case, it seems like the MBP is the best bet, no?

 

[InsightsIE]

I edit 1080p on my macbook pro. Not all that bad. Final cut studio has plenty of codecs for cameras rather than FCE. Even my webbie hd sony works without rendering on my macbook pro 2.5GHz non-unibody.

 

[yoak]

I have to second the mbp route. I use mine for a lot of editnig. Xdcam HD mostly and it works fine. Downside is rendering, but as you are not likely to have to many deadlines (I might be wrong o course) you can le it render at night. I prefer to edit on the mac pro, but I travel a lot and it's great to have a capable laptop.

 

[oxband]

SSD or not?

OK - MBP it is. That being said, should I spring more for the SSD or that not really much faster for FCS?

Thanks again. You all have been so helpful.

 

[Hellhammer]

OK - MBP it is. That being said, should I spring more for the SSD or that not really much faster for FCS?

Thanks again. You all have been so helpful.

I would get one with HD. SSDs are getting faster and bigger all the time so I would wait. Furthermore, SSD wouldn't make FCS much faster because you have to store your movies to external HD and importing from there is a lot slower

 

[oxband]

any recs for external?

So, I sprung for the HD in the end. Any recs for an external to save my stuff on? I'm town between a G-tech hard drive, building my own (which I've never done but have been told isn't too hard) or buying a Drobo. Any opinions?