What about iMovie?

[magicdavek]

Jarred, etc.

What about the possibility of doing a section on iMovie along with the other NLE's. Before dismissing the idea outright, please read:

As background, I was a Premiere user when iMovie was introduced. Then, I switched from Premiere to Final Cut Pro when FCP was introduced (I purchased as version 1.2). At that time, I looked down my nose at iMovie - certainly it could do nothing worthwhile, especially because it was free and I laid out big bucks for Premiere and FCP! Then iMovie 2 came out, and I allowed myself to stoop so low as to try it out. Much to my surprise, I was very impressed with the speed and ease of use of the program.

Now a host of plug-ins have surfaced to make this a more capable and professional resource. Check out www.geethree.com or www.virtix.com. They have some very cool stuff that makes video edited in iMovie look top notch. Especially check out Slick volumes 5 and 6 and you'll know what I mean. Plug-in packs from these places cost only $29 to $69. The same plug ins would cost hundreds for FCP (although some capabilities, of course, are already built into FCP).

Another place to check out is www.dtp42.com/fx/ which has a product that eliminates shaky video. It's sort of like having an after-the-fact Glidecam (I'm sure not as good, but impressive nonetheless). This feature alone would be worth having iMovie handy.

Because most of what I do involves multi-camera shoots, I have to use FCP. However, on projects where I am assembling clips either documentary style, or music video style, or slide show style, I find iMovie much quicker and more efficient than FCP or Premiere. It gets the job done without lots of extra bells and whistles or multilayered menus. Honestly, you could edit an entire documentary quickly and easily in iMovie. I would have no trouble imagining a DVX100 user whose primary NLE was iMovie, depending on the kind of work he or she does.

As someone who loves FCP and relies heavily on it, here's my assessment - when a project I'm doing CAN be done in iMovie, I do it in iMovie. While I may FEEL more professional using FCP, I value my time more than warm feelings. With certain projects, there is no way to tell the difference in the final product as to which NLE it was done on.

Any thoughts?

[Zoomforce]

I dont think there is enough people to make an Imovie section.. I just added Final cut express here to see how it would turn out. If there are however a few people that want it I will do it.

Hey, I use Windows Movie Maker sometimes.

[Marc]

I wouldn't mind tips on various plugins or general information that people have found useful in iMovie. I have no qualms about using it to quickly slap together a few clips to stick on a DVD or pretending it's made for quick tapeless recording and would be interested to hear how other mac users out there make use of it.

-Marc

[Jay_Blanchard]

Although I don't use it enough to justify needing a forum, I view iMovie the same way I do a old linear editing deck---if you have a really short, quick project, it's a heck of lot easier to do it in iMovie than going through the routine of creating a new Final Cut Pro project, bins, render caches, etc. to maintain.

It really is pretty cool, considering it's free software if you buy a Mac.

[gualbert]

iMovie is GREAT for weddings (except titles which suck) but I have not encounter yet the need of using my FCP for weddings, besides, iMovie is soooo easy and there are so many pluggings available now! A separate section would be too much since iMovie is soooo simple but I hope to find a couple of cool comments, tips and links once in a while here. ;D Thanks!!!

[ArkhamFilms]

iMovie can't do 24p(a) right? What codec is iMovie working in? Why even consider it while there are 300$ programs out there?

-CJ
www.arkhamfilms.com

[magicdavek]

[quote author=Gualbert link=board=FCP;num=1074484751;start=0#4 date=01/24/04 at 07:59:48]iMovie is GREAT for weddings (except titles which suck) . . . [/quote]

I agree about the awkward and limited titles in iMovie. That's why you should check out the sites I mentioned above. For a huge variety of titling plugins with tons of flexibility on all aspects of titling (placement, motion, etc.), check out Slick volumes 1-6 from www.geethree.com. My motivation for a forum like that is to find out how others are using plugins, so I personally don't have to buy them all to find out which ones are good!

Also Arkhamfilms, you said:
iMovie can't do 24p(a) right?

You're right if you mean a 24p timeline. But iMovie should be able to handle DVX100 footage shot in 24p mode because that is output from the camera into any NLE as if it were 60i footage. True, it can't undo 2:3:3:2 pull down, but I don't believe all of the NLEs that have a forum on this site can either.

Also, could you please clarify your comment which was:

Why even consider it while there are 300$ programs out there?
*
It sounds like you're saying "Why get something done for free when you can pay hundreds of dollars to do it?" which I'm sure you are not trying to say!

[ArkhamFilms]

If you're only concerned with speed, sure I can see editing with iMovie. *
I guess I can't wrap my mind around using an NLE that's advertised as "Yeah it's limited, but it's free."
To me it'd be like using a VX1000 just because it was given to you. But hey, that's me. I'm glad the iApp software is getting used.

-CJ
www.arkhamfilms.com