Macbook Pro for Filmmaking?

[LeiboPictures]

Hello everyone,

I am currently a high school senior and am attending the Tisch School of the Arts next fall as an undergraduate for Film and TV production. I need to purchase a new laptop for my work next year, and I have finally decided after much deliberating to purchase a Macbook pro. This, however, does not help me very much, since there are MANY MANY options and configurations. PLEASE HELP ME decide what size, configuration, etc I need to get in order to be pleased with my purchase! Here are my requirements:

- IT NEEDS TO BE QUICK - If you are a filmmaker, you know how annoying long render times can be. I want to minimize the render times I have to deal with in many programs as much as possible.

- IT NEEDS TO BE POWERFUL - I'm gonna be running some pretty heavy-duty and intensive programs. Here are a few of the most complicated:
- Final Cut Pro 7
- Adobe After Effects CS4
- 3Ds Max
- Logic 9

- IT NEEDS TO LOOK SEXY - This is a given...


PLEASE HELP ME WITH ANY configurations that would work well. Thanks!!!

 

[cambookpro]

Well, without a budget and what you've described:

17" Anti Glare MBP
2.3GHz Quad Core Intel Core i7
16GB RAM
512GB SSD


There you go! Your perfect computer.

 

[Al Coholic]

IT NEEDS TO BE POWERFUL I'm gonna be running some pretty heavy-duty and intensive programs. Here are a few of the most complicated:
- Final Cut Pro 7
- Adobe After Effects CS4
- 3Ds Max
- Logic 9

Does the NLE have to be FCP? If not, I'd seriously consider a much more powerful PC for video editing.

IT NEEDS TO LOOK SEXY This is a given...

Save that label for real girls kid. You'll be wanting their attention too.

 

[Blipp]

Does the NLE have to be FCP? If not, I'd seriously consider a much more powerful PC for video editing.

If he's just starting out as a student then he doesn't need a monster rig so he can edit Avatar 2. The best advice really is to use whatever NLE your chosen school has the best support structure for. A MacBook Pro, either the high end 15" or 17", will be more than sufficient for your needs with FCP. Once you graduate and move on to larger scale projects you can upgrade to a Mac Pro if you need more horsepower. There is no reason to build a super PC for video editing as though FCP is only for amateurs and home videos. This is, however, based upon FCP 7's current status as true pro software, we don't yet know enough either way about FCP X to pass judgment on it's future. Either way if FCP does go down the toilet (which I don't believe it will) you can still use Premier or Avid on your Mac.

 

[hehe299792458]

I'd suggest getting a Mac Pro now, just for the extra horsepower

 

[kyle1320]

I'd recommend the high-end 15" 2011 MacBook Pro. You get the power without the bulk (you'll probably carry it around a lot, and the 17" would most likely be a bit too much to carry around all the time.)