• Wondering which camera, gear, computer, or software to buy? Ask in our Gear Guide.

Editing Programs

C

CorpusSianProductions

hi everyone,

i have begun taking the steps to start experimenting with DV and getting into my first foray into filmmaking. I have a DV cam and some basic equiptment. My question is, what sort of editing program should I start out on. (take note that I have never even touched one, I've only seen Final Cut used by a boss of mine) and I have basically NO money. any help would be appriciated.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
I have basically NO money
Click to expand...

Welcome to the world of indie film.
smiley_pac.gif


As mentioned above, your PC (or Mac) ought to have a basic mini-DV editing system included. You can do a lot with it... import video from the camera to your computer, edit the footage, add a few fancy effects, and export to DVD or a web-suitable video file.

If you're just starting out, that's pretty much all you need. Sure, there are fancier software bundles out there... but all they offer are a lot more bells & whistles which are going to be fairly useless for the person starting to learn about the workflow.

Once you're familiar (and comfortable) with the basics of editing on the free stuff, it might be time to get a basic version of the bigger softwares. Most have a stripped-down version of the full software, that runs about $99. Worth it? Maybe. I'm not convinced.

Don't get too hung up on which editing software to use. Play around with what your OS has first, before plunging down some bucks for a "better" one. You may even decide that you don't like the editing process at all, and would rather have a local do it for you instead. You could be putting those bucks elsewhere in your productions, instead of buying software that you'd rarely use.

getting into my first foray into filmmaking.
Click to expand...

What are you working on? :)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I can't stand windows movie maker, but that's me. Those $99 dealies might be worth a look.

I had the fortune of sitting behind an editor using Premiere for a few years watching the methods, before I tried myself. Why not try finding an editor near you, and camping out at their computer when they do the next film, and see the program they use. Once you see something in action long enough, you get the gist, and then you can go for broke, don the balaclava, and rob the next editing software truck in a high-speed action chase involving bazookas and a bridge that is "out". You could even film the robbery, and use it in the movie! Just make sure to get rid of the truck driver, so there's no wtinesses. Ok, I just want to clarify that I'm joking. Truck drivers can be easily bribed.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Video editing suites

If you're a student or work for a higher education institution (like me) then you can get most pro level video editing packages for about $200-$300. In my experience, Final Cut is the most stable, complete and well designed video editor. Adobe Premier has most of the same features, but crashes alot more and seems to want to do time consuming renders even for simple edits. I have Sony Vegas (the "light" version which only cost $80) at home and it is very well designed and handles surround sound editing better than any package I have found so far. The only problem I have had with it really is that you cannot nest one timeline inside another. This is a Final Cut feature that makes dealing with lots of complex scenes bearable. I have also found that with all the video editing software I have used on Windows, once you start getting into long, complex videos, the programs slow to a crawl, and I have some mac-daddy computers. I haven't had that happen yet with Final Cut no matter how complex the timeline gets.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Heh, yeah, school is great in that respect. :)

I got my hands on Adobe's Production Studio Premium for a whopping $200. That includes Adobe After Effects 7.0 Professional, Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0, Adobe Photoshop CS2, Adobe Audition 2.0, Adobe Encore DVD 2.0, and Adobe Illustrator CS2. It's a pretty sweet deal considering that this would cost $1700 otherwise!

Personally, I have to disagree with Bugzilla. This isn't a rant against macs - I'm 99% sure I'll be getting a Mac Pro for my next purchase. And hey, what programmer doesn't like Unix (I'm a CS student)? I could rant about Windows Vista right now but I'll refrain.

Versions of Premiere that predate the 'Pro' nomenclature really did suck in many ways. Premiere Pro 1.0 was a big advancement and was an entire re-write of the code base. As such it was certainly buggy at times. This didn't surprise me much since it was a 1.0 release. Premiere Pro 1.5 was a big improvement stability wise and really didn't have any problems. With Premiere Pro 2.0 stability problems are completely a thing of the past (assuming you have a stable system to begin with...) as far as I can tell.

I'm quite torn actually. Since I'm probably going to be moving to Macintosh I'm debating whether to continue using Premiere or move to Final Cut (Adobe recently announced that their entire production studio will once again be available on mac which was facilitated by Apple's move to intel chips). As it stands *right now* I feel Adobe holds the crown for being a fully integrated suite with ease of use. I do suspect that this will change when Apple releases the next version of it's studio package though.

With the new Premiere code I think many Mac owners will be a bit surprised when they get to play with it again. It even has some features that FCP doesn't currently have - curves (that one shocked me), 32bit color correction and a few other things which I'm sure Apple will soon remedy (especially with the acquisition of Silicon Color).

In the end I will probably move to FCP myself for its integration with compositing apps like Shake (and whatever comes next) since I like the node based paradigm more than After Effects for this type of work. Still it's a hard decision and I might just write some Python code to link various parts of the Adobe suite with Apple's. Get the best of both worlds. :) In fact, I'm pretty sure I'll be doing that!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Shaw said:
I got my hands on Adobe's Production Studio Premium for a whopping $200. That includes Adobe After Effects 7.0 Professional, Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0, Adobe Photoshop CS2, Adobe Audition 2.0, Adobe Encore DVD 2.0, and Adobe Illustrator CS2. It's a pretty sweet deal considering that this would cost $1700 otherwise!
Click to expand...
Would you care to share with us HOW you got such a great deal? <gimme> <gimme> <gimme>
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Well see I bought these disks from a guy named warzdood in South Africa. Funny thing is they look home burnt.....

I kid, I kid :D

I requested the software through my University (Montana State University). They have some sort of special deal with Adobe where they get all of their software REALLY cheap. I think it's partly due to the film program we have here which is hugely popular and uses Adobe software. Brilliant marketing move by Adobe but probably not available elsewhere. Sorry guys! I'll look into it though; who knows, maybe it's the sort of thing where I can get some friends the same discount.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm not sure that most people actually read, or abide by, the academic licensing. I recently had this disucssion with a professional graphics designer who went back to school and purchased an academic license to the Adobe suite. I pointed out that the license agreement prohibits commercial use of the software, and she acted as if that was news to her. Of course, she's not going to pay for a commercial upgrade, because possession is 9/10s of the law. :rolleyes:

I haven't read all of the license agreements, and some may have changed. I do suggest that people give them a quick read through, if they want to be 100% legal.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Journeyed

Loud Orange Cat said:
Would you care to share with us HOW you got such a great deal? <gimme> <gimme> <gimme>
Click to expand...

This is where I get most of my software. If you have an academic ID you can purchase directly here.

http://www.journeyed.com/home.asp

At this time, Premier Pro is $295, Adobe Production Suite is $599 and Avid Express HD is $295

On the Apple site, but in your educational institute on the Shop page and it will show you the academic prices. The Final Cut Studio is about $600.

For the pro versions of the software, SafeHarbor seems cheapest I have found.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top