Which video editing program to buy for mac?

[Supergeil 0]

What do you use?
Is the Final Cut Express 4.0 good?

[stratostar 5]

That would depend on what you want to do, for many things imovie works just fine out of the box, for other more advanced projects, the final cut packages work very nice but take sometime to learn, from what I understand from those I know who use it.

you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

[velocityphoto 0]

Like he said what kind of video's are you doing with it? For tandems and aff i-movie is great easy and fast to learn.
Final cut express if you want to do like boogie video's and stuff to get a bit fancy...

A friend will bail you out of jail , a REAL friend will be sitting next to you in the cell slapping your hand saying "DUDE THAT WAS AWSUM " ................

[Supergeil 0]

Mostly tandem and 4-way and maybe a fancy funjump video for the friends. I know that imovie works great just curious what else there is on the market.

[vdschoor 0]

Quote

Mostly tandem and 4-way and maybe a fancy funjump video for the friends. I know that imovie works great just curious what else there is on the market.

Final Cut Express is the ticket for nice editting, iMovie is great for the "quick and dirty" editting, although you can do some pretty nice stuff in there too..

[DSE 5]

On a Mac, you got iMovie, Final Cut Express, Final Cut Studio, or Adobe Premiere.
IMO, Premiere on the Mac currently sucks. FCE or FCS if you want more than iMovie, which is pretty darn powerful on its own.

[PharmerPhil 0]

If you have higher aspirations in video editing (and if you can afford it) one good thing about Final Cut Pro or Final Cut Express is that the work flow and tools are very similar to other high-end NLE programs. That is, once you learn it, the jump to things like AVID or Premiere is pretty simple. I don't think this is true of iMovie or other low-end programs (but I have never used iMovie, so I may be full of it).

Of course, one thing nice about iMovie is that you don't have to buy it...

[Superfletch 1]

iMovie is a great program that ANYONE can use. It's also quite powerful in that you can do A LOT with it. I edit all my DZ stuff (AFF's, Tandems, student jumps, etc.) with it. I also make a year end video with it each year as well that turns out quite nice.

However, I'm wanting to do more and am looking at getting Final Cut Express because I don't think I need Final Cut Studio. I've messed around with the programs before but I find the learning curve is much steeper. At the moment I have a copy of FCE 4.0 but I haven't been able to even make a tandem video with it yet. :P With iMovie I was able to jump right in and figure it out without a manual, that hasn't bee the case with FCE. It seems to be much harder to work with. I don't want to shell out the money for the program if I'm not going to be able to use it. After all I'm a full-time skydiver that makes like $10K a year and $200 for FCE is a lot of money to me. I just don't know if shelling out the money will end up being a waste or not. That is if I find that it's just too hard and I end up sticking with the "free" iMovie...

I've only messed with it a couple of times. Lately I am finding there arent' enough hours in the day either. :P

Gary "Superfletch" Fletcher
D-26145; USPA Coach, IAD/I, AFF/I
Videographer/Photographer

[peckerhead 0]

I just got a new macbook and I am still trying to figure it out (life long PC guy)

I mostly plan to use it for tandem videos and stills. It came with imovie 08 and so far I am not too impressed. I was able to capture video, add transitions and titles, and add background music but now I am stuck.

I can't seem to fade in/out the audio and slo-motion doesn't seem to be an option at all. The tutorials are vague at best. They tell you what you can do but not so much how to do it.

So anyway, from what I heard imovie '06 is better.

Should I go back wards to '06? I can get it for $55 on Amazon. Or should I buck up and get final cut express 4 for $199?

I have not tried the iDVD yet, I am trying to finish a video first before I try to burn a DVD. Good/ bad?

Any help would be greatly appreciated but please try and keep it in simple terms that a mac neophyte can understand.

[howardwhite 6]

Gah.. No need to pay $55 to get iMovie 6. You can get it free from the Apple web site.
As to burning DVDs, take a look at Roxio Toast 8. Not big money (<$100) and, IMHO, faster, easier, and all-round better than iDVD.

HW

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imovieHD6.html

[peckerhead 0]

Thanks, I just discovered the free download. I guess I just assumed they would try to suck more money out of you

OK, so I downloaded the 06 version and it said installation is complete however when I try to open it I still get the 08 version.....

Very frustrating, I thought macs were supposed to be easy?

[howardwhite 6]

How are you tying to open it? By clicking on a movie file? If so, you can do a Get Info (Command-I) on the movie file and change the application that should be launched to open it.
Get Info on iMovie '06 should also confirm that it is what it's supposed to be and that it has not somehow been aliased to open iMovie '08.
Macs are easy; on Windoze, you would probably be mucking around in the Registry by now.

HW

[kingbunky 3]

macs are easier, but coming from windows you tend to look for something complicated. case in point, me learning how to install programs on the mac.

hated that i had to click on the dmg to mount it before i could run it, and after a reboot, i'd always have to mount the dmg again. then i noticed that when the dmg mounted, there was an icon for the program, and an arrow pointing to the applications folder. click-drag-drop, it's installed. doh.

"Hang on a sec, the young'uns are throwin' beer cans at a golf cart."
MB4252 TDS699
killing threads since 2001

[murrays 0]

Click on the Finder icon in the Dock (Far Left). Click on the Applications Folder which should be in the sidebar to the left. Now, find the folder inside applications that contains iMovie 06. Open that folder and then drag the program icon to the Dock. Click on the Icon in the Dock to run iMovie 06.

Also, while you are in the Finder, click on Macintosh HD and then drag the Applications folder to the Dock on the Right side of the little vertical divider line. (If the Applications aren't there already, I can't remember if they are there by default in Leopard.)

--
Murray

"No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

[peckerhead 0]

Thanks, I swear I tried that several times but now all of the sudden it worked.


Anyway I just burned my first DVD and it came out sweet. IDVD takes way to long so I doubt I will use that much but if you have time it really is cool.

Thanks again and goodnight.

[howardwhite 6]

Quote

IDVD takes way to long so I doubt I will use that much

So take a look at Toast.

HW