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Video Editing Software recommendations

J

jodders

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 1, 2006
43
0
Hi guys,

I am a big fan of imovie and have used it for sometime now. I have seen some excellent work like wedding videos, amateur cinematic trailers and would like to start exploring and trying new things.

I own an imac and would like to know what other Video editing Software is widely used amongst professionals and video editors. Is Final Cut Pro and or even Premier Pro the best to use?

Many thanks
J
 
There is also Final Cut Express for 199 USD.
Then there is Premiere Elements for less than 90 USD.
And if you are working in the academic field or a student, you can get education discounts on Premiere Pro and Avid Media Composer.
 
If you are deciding between the two (Final Cut Studio and Premiere) definitely go with FCS. It's basically an industry standard (More in television then in actual movies). Premiere has some good stuff.... Well actually no not really, unless you really need to edit in AVCHD or..... Do a ton of stuff in after effects and you want your editing software to work with it then FCS is better for most things.

Oh and yes, Premiere is 64 bit where as final cut studio is 32 but thats probably not going to be really really important to you
 
Oh and yes, Premier is 64 bit where as final cut studio is 32 but thats probably not going to be really really important to you
 
Btw, the application is called/named Premiere, with an e added after Premier.

premier |prēˈm(y)i(ə)r; ˈprēmēər; ˈprēˌmi(ə)r|
adjective [ attrib. ]

first in importance, order, or position; leading : Germany's premier rock band | the premier national publication.
• of earliest creation : the premier issue of the quarterly.
noun
a Prime Minister or other head of government.
• (in Australia and Canada) the chief minister of a government of a state or province.
ORIGIN late 15th cent.: from Old French, ‘first,’ from Latin primarius ‘principal.’
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FroColin, you can edit your posts via the
edit.gif
button, or multi-quote posts via the
multiquote_off.gif
button, as sequential posts are "against" the rules.
 
FroColin, you can edit your posts via the
edit.gif
button, or multi-quote posts via the
multiquote_off.gif
button, as sequential posts are "against" the rules.[/QUOTE]

Woops! Sorry about that. And I thought I was spelling Premiere wrong, thanks
 
Thanks everyone for your recommendations. I think i will invest in Final Cut Studio, i will do some reading and research on it.

ta

J
 
jodders said:
Thanks everyone for your recommendations. I think i will invest in Final Cut Studio, i will do some reading and research on it.

ta

J
Click to expand...

I'm actually going to disagree with FroColin on this one. At this point in time I think Premiere (Adobe Production Premium) offers much more than Final Cut Studio. Regarding just the NLEs alone, the days of the "industry standard" are pretty much gone. While it's true that Final Cut is pretty entrenched in the post community, there's really nothing it offers over a program like Premiere. Both programs function very similarly, so if you know how to edit on Premiere you know how to edit in Final Cut. Of course there will be some differences between the two in how you do some things, but it's all relatively the same. It's not like moving to an Avid.

Now if you look at the additional software in both packages, I don't think FCS can even compete at this point. I'll give a nod to FCS for Color, but that's about it. The Adobe suite comes with After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Soundbooth, OnLocation, and Encore. Photoshop and After Effects are worth the pricetag alone.

Final Cut's future is still a big unknown. Of course there are rumors flying about the upcoming update next year or so, but nothing concrete has surfaced. And when you couple in the fact the Premiere is on a level playing field with it (and surpasses it in other areas) it really seems like a no-brainer to me. Your choice of NLE is not going to make or break your future ability or employment viability. It's the content that you create that will do that.

I hope this doesn't come off as an anti-apple/Final Cut point either because the fact is that I'm still a full time Final Cut editor to this day. The first NLE I ever used was Premiere 1.0 and since then have gone on to use Media 100, Final Cut, Media Composer, and so on. I still primarily use Final Cut because it's what our company was built around and it's what I have at home. But if I was just getting into all of this now, I would probably lean towards Adobe's offerings. It just makes more sense. Looking at it today, the Adobe Production Premium package beats Final Cut Studio hands down.

During your research, I would recommend you check out the Adobe suite. They allow for a 30 day trial of their programs.
 
handsome pete said:
Now if you look at the additional software in both packages, I don't think FCS can even compete at this point. I'll give a nod to FCS for Color, but that's about it. The Adobe suite comes with After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Soundbooth, OnLocation, and Encore. Photoshop and After Effects are worth the pricetag alone.

Final Cut's future is still a big unknown. Of course there are rumors flying about the upcoming update next year or so, but nothing concrete has surfaced. And when you couple in the fact the Premiere is on a level playing field with it (and surpasses it in other areas) it really seems like a no-brainer to me. Your choice of NLE is not going to make or break your future ability or employment viability. It's the content that you create that will do that.

I hope this doesn't come off as an anti-apple/Final Cut point either because the fact is that I'm still a full time Final Cut editor to this day. The first NLE I ever used was Premiere 1.0 and since then have gone on to use Media 100, Final Cut, Media Composer, and so on. I still primarily use Final Cut because it's what our company was built around and it's what I have at home. But if I was just getting into all of this now, I would probably lean towards Adobe's offerings. It just makes more sense. Looking at it today, the Adobe Production Premium package beats Final Cut Studio hands down.

During your research, I would recommend you check out the Adobe suite. They allow for a 30 day trial of their programs.
Click to expand...

Actually it's a good point, I was comparing Premiere to Final Cut Studio and I should have been comparing Production Premium to Final Cut Studio even though Final Cut is a lot cheaper. But I still say that Final Cut Pro is better for editing then Premiere, it's got Pro Res 422, and.... Well now that I think about it I can't really come up with many good reasons off the top of my head. But I have used both extensively and I find Final Cut to feel more solid and faster. Your After Effects point is a good one though cause Motion isn't near after effects in terms of compositing and stuff (Although I prefer Motion to after effects for titling) BUT just for editing, I would say Final Cut Studio, (Besides Color is great so if you want to get into color grading, you already have the software), and I know there are people who are annoyed that you have to take your sound out of Final Cut and into soundtrack pro to do serious stuff but I find that great. And that's one of my problems with Production Premium, soundbooth is great for editing a single clip of audio but for mixing them it's.... well you just can't do it. My workflow is Final Cut Pro, move clips I need effects work done to, to After Effects for compositing (Maybe do some stuff in photoshop if the need arises), move the sequence from Final Cut to Color, take the sound to Soundtrack pro, mix in 5.1 or whatever, then output everything to compressor. And all that is included in Final Cut Studio except After Effects (and photoshop) and you can do some effects in Motion. But yeah definitely get the 30 day trail for CS5.
 
FroColin said:
But I still say that Final Cut Pro is better for editing then Premiere, it's got Pro Res 422, and.... Well now that I think about it I can't really come up with many good reasons off the top of my head.
Click to expand...

Random pick of the day: freeze frames.

This was the process (not sure about CS5) in Premiere Pro:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeqhG4hVHzQ

That's quite convoluted. In FCP, you can make a freeze frame by
hitting Shift-N. Simple :)
 
Hey Jodders,

I've been working in post-production in LA for 4 years now, so I'll give you my opinion on the products I've had experience with:

Like you, I started cutting in iMovie. I actually cut my very first home movie in the original iMovie, and loved it...until iMovie '08. But by then, I'd moved on to Avid.

Since it seems you're ready to graduate from iMovie, I'd recommend Final Cut Express. It's cheap, very similar to FCP, and will most likely meet your requirements. I've used it a few times, just to mess around with, and I thought it was great for those who want a step up from iMovie.

Final Cut Studio, which includes Final Cut Pro, is a great suite to have if you're really interested in creating top notch stuff. However, plan on investing a good chunk of money and time if you really want to get the most out of it. Time to learn all the apps, and money on the software itself plus a good machine to run it on. (iMac should be fine, but always check specs first before making the investment.)

Lastly, there's Avid Media Composer. It's what I work on 99% of the time, and the industry standard. Final Cut Pro is widely used, but Avid is still the preferred tool of the pros. (Well, at least all the pros I've worked with, LOL!) Avid MC is a bit intimidating at first, and slightly different from Final Cut Pro, but I find it more user-friendly and tend to work faster in it. Again, plan on investing some time and money if you go this route.

Then there's Adobe Premiere and Adobe Premiere Elements. I have zero experience with these, so I can't tell you much about them.

Ultimately, it's a matter of goals (home movies vs your first feature) and preference (Final Cut E or P, Avid, Premiere, etc.).

Good luck!
 
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