Editing a documentary on a PC Lapptop

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OffkilterVideo

Greetings-

We're about to shoot and edit a 35 min (or so) documentary with a Canon XF 300 Camcorder.

We'd like to edit this documentary on a high performance Laptop (PC) using Adobe.

I have a spoken with a builder (ADK- US) that quoted me about $2,400(US).

Is it possible to edit a film quality documentary with a laptop (PC)? Or do we realy need to go with a high end tower?

I understand Comedian (Producer) Louis CK edit his program "Louis" on a laptop (Mac), and recently a film called Monsters was edited on a laptop (a high end one).

Would love to have your feedback.

Thank you!
 
I am interested in this too, speaking as someone who is starting possibly down the road of a docu that will-if I get the way I want it-will involve a lot of travel to museums and other places, and I can't bring my tower around, so I will be paying attention to this thread too if you don't mind! :)
 
A MacBook Pro will do the trick. You'll need an external drive like the G-Technology G RAID mini (it's tiny and very portable). I have this set-up and all is groovy with CS5.

Oops! didn't see where you specified PC.
 
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OffkilterVideo said:
Is it possible to edit a film quality documentary with a laptop (PC)? Or do we realy need to go with a high end tower?
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I don't see why not.

I have cut full length (110 and 98) documentaries on my PowerBook G4.
All the footage (over 800GB for each) was on external hard drives. I would
think that a current $2,400 PC would be over all better than my six year
old, $1,200 Mac.

Or is it?
 
directorik said:
I don't see why not.

I have cut full length (110 and 98) documentaries on my PowerBook G4.
All the footage (over 800GB for each) was on external hard drives. I would
think that a current $2,400 PC would be over all better than my six year
old, $1,200 Mac.

Or is it?
Click to expand...

CS5+ is a hog, that's the rub. The file type of the XF-300 requires the latest NLE's. I still say a MacBook Pro is the way to go.

Just my 2 cents.
 
I cut everything on my MacBook. In fact I just upgraded. Now you mentioned Monsters, if it's one that was just released and is about drug use, that was edited on a MacBook and a MacPro. Now I edited some behind the scenes footage for it, and I did it all on my MacBook. Now I know my MacBook can handle HD workflows and such. It's about RAM, drive speed, and power. On my old MacBook I could set-up one 3D workflow into FCP with realtime rendering, with up to two HD sources, and now on my new MacBook which is times as powerful, I can only do four HD sources and only two 3D workflows, with iTunes open of course, and that's the limit. Now for $17,000 you can buy a MacPro which can render instantly and do up tp 4 of everything at once because it's essentially four SSD based computers in one. It's a maxed out pro with 4 512GB ssd and SSD's are instant from what I know. So if you can buy it because it's going to save you writing and rendering time in the end.
 
Also, on my MacBook,
500GB @ 7200RPM, 8GB Ram, 2.2GHZ i7,
I edit a monthly news magazine. I used to edit the taped newscasts but I became the Technical Director and have other responsibilities. In my opinion if you're cutting HD, focus on drive speed and ram. If you have a lot of effects, RAm and processor speed. If you're doing any 3D like Motion animations or after effects, you need everything you can get. So drop a buck and save time and a headache.
 
the past 2 towers I've owned were lemons, I never go for expensive pcs because of the 5 year cycle it takes for those same pcs to become inexpensive. hd output is really just a matter of processing time I thunk.
 
thank you for the feedback. Much appreciated. I am leaning towards a PC laptop machine, at this juncture due to other MS software needs, so Adobe Premiere is what I am looking at. I have not heard/ seen definitely on Adobe forums that a manufacturer with this processor and these features is the way to go... hoping to find that on one of these forums up here, eventually.

thanks again and enjoy the weekend.
 
OffkilterVideo said:
thank you for the feedback. Much appreciated. I am leaning towards a PC laptop machine, at this juncture due to other MS software needs, so Adobe Premiere is what I am looking at. I have not heard/ seen definitely on Adobe forums that a manufacturer with this processor and these features is the way to go... hoping to find that on one of these forums up here, eventually.

thanks again and enjoy the weekend.
Click to expand...

Premiere and Mac are friendly, so there should be no worries about that. I have premiere on both PC and Mac - I'm giving you the results. :cool:;)
 
Final Cut like Pro Tools for the film/ video world?

Appreciate the feedback, again. Still unsure if even a high performance laptop will be adequate to edit this project. I am leaning towards a high performance tower machine.

I am also, wondering if Final Cut Pro, is a more popular software/ professional method and one that would make me more "marketable" for freelance editing. Reason I ask is, I do some music production in PC/ Sonar Cakewalk, while most of the professional audio world seems to work primarily in PRO Tools. Wondering if this is true for the film// video world and perhaps it is time to make the foray in to the often more expensive world of Apple/ MAC creative tools.

Thanks again!
 
I would definelty go tower. 1st off your going to get a better machine for less $$$. I use a lot of adobe programs and having dual monitors IMO is essential. Working on one tiny screen is just too cramped. My advice buy a tower and use the extra dough to buy two 24" screens.
 
I've cut a number of ~2 hour videos/docs on my PC using CS5. It's just a quad core with 8gb of ram. Using magic bullet looks it takes a while to render all the color correction, but it works. The final exports usually take around 40 hours to finish, so the more horsepower you can get, the better.
 
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