FCP or PREMIERE

E

essbee

New member
I am very new to video production. I am interested in learning and then buying my own Edit System. I have asked so many professionals about which system to buy but nobody could guide me. Everybody has his own vision about the different edit systems. Please guide me if you can.

1. Is there any comparison between FCP & PREMIERE, where i can find the features compared one to one and can decide?

2. If anyboby has used both the softwares i.e. FCP 5 and PREMIERE 2, than please advise?

3. MAC or PC what system is better?

Thanks

SB
 
SB-

You are about to start a fight between Mac and PC people which will go on in an endless battle. Don't post a question like this. You can do a simple search on the millions of times each of your questions has been asked in the history of the Internet through Google.
 
True he could... I dont think he wanted to start a flame war, just asking for opinions and heres mine. (just in case: no point writing a post to disagree with me as I wouldnt care and after all its just my opinion)

Anyway first of all I will just say I have never used ppro 2. I have however just come from ppro 1.5 to FCP Studio latest version.

So heres my opinion: Many things about Mac bug me, that said this machine is designed and seems much more inclined toward video editing than a pc and I like it much more for THAT PURPOSE. My pc is still always on and I use it for word, excel, final draft, and the odd game. Ppro ran fine on it.

Next.... you can only use FCP on a mac of course. But so far I find FCP (remember Ive only used ppro 1.5) much more intuitive, smoother and designed for ease of workflow. I also find that after cc etc FCP is delivering (to me it appears anyway) a much better image, and I would suggest this has to do with the number of render times needed on ppro 1.5.

Then my next point, which is why I considered the switch the first place. The upgrade costs from Adobe are high, much more than say upgrading to the latest version of FCP. Once youve forked out the $$ for the initial copy, the upgrade costs are minimal.

Any finally: when people look at my system now, and see the big MAC logo and dual screens with FCP spanning across them their perception seems to bo one of a higher level of professionalism on my part - very important to me.

Anyway those are the things that mattered to me which is why I am now typing this on a mac.

Sorry one more thing really my last... if you come from ppro to fcp - expect a learning curve. Things look similar but thats only on the surface.
 
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I have both premiere and fcp 5.1.1. So far, I'm saying the FCP wins.. I acutally buy my mac today and editted a whole music video with out a single hang up, quick freeze or error. I think premiere set is still really good. I really like that program, but finishing stuff for post/cc/compression, i think premiere failed.

Check out ebay, maybe search for used G5's. If you can get your self set up with a used g5 for the same cost as a new PC system... I'd go with mac...

FCP also does a better job about fix human errors. its some times smarter than me. haha


-matt
 
I won't go into how many "former" PPRO and Avid editors I have in my FCP classes...

Sorry, couldn't resist...

Actually, I tell folks to go find someone using these systems and sit with them in front of the computer. Problem is, most of why we chose one application over another is personal style and tastes. So everyone will give you their personal experience, but there is no one alive who can tell you as a scientific fact that one is better than the other. Cause the end results are all the same. It is personal and not scientific.

For example, is the yet to be seen CinePorter "better" than the FS-100? That's not a question with a yes or no answer. It depends on what you're doing, how you want to do it, what features you want, what drawbacks you don't want, etc. FS-100 won't do 24pN, but the CinePorter leaves a P2 card slot exposed which could be a nightmare in very dusty, outdoor conditions. There's no cut and dry answer to your questions.

But do ask, take ALL info with a grain of salt, and as we kids of the 60's learned, "Think for yourself and question authority (especially your own)."
 
thanks

thanks

Thanks to all of you for your valuable advise. I would be greatful if somebody can post a link where i can find a comparison between both.

I never wanted to initiate any debate but my only concern was to check up the smootheness in working of both the systems.

I am staying at a place where there is nobody who can guide about this.

SB
 
You won't find any "'reliable" comparison chart. If it were that easy, there would be no debates and we would all be using the same NLE. Sorry, that's just how this industry is. You're just going to have to do a lot of home work.

I suggest you go to the Apple FCP page with all it's tech specs and print it out. Find a similar page on Adobe's site and print that out. It's about as close as you're going to get.
 
I'll ditto everything above but add...

I REALLY like the way Adobe Production Suite integrates. Plus, Audition if VASTLY superior to Soundtrack. I also like (at THIS TIME) AfterEffects better than Motion.

I KNOW Motion is more powerful than what I can do on it, but sheesh... I spent 3 years with AE and I can't do HALF the stuff in Motion... but I will...!!

CaptM
 
What do you want/need to do? What tools do you need to achieve it? Perhaps consider the answers to those questions and then decide on a tool. Assuming that FCP and Premiere Pro are comparable in this regard, it is likely that both NLEs will be able to serve your needs albeit with their respective compromises and its really a matter of deciding on personal preference, as has already been stated.
 
From my understanding, Premiere is easier to learn but FCP runs much smoother. I think both are great, it's really just a matter of personal preference. In the end it doesn't really matter what you're editing with as long as you're editing.
 
Premiere, Vegas, FCP, Avid, Edius, they're all capable of doing the same thing, cutting your movie together. It's like any other profession or hobby, some people prefer different tools to do the same job. I may like Dremel-brand tools but you'd like Black & Decker-brand tools, both drill just the same, it's just which one you like that matters.

I'm personally getting into FCP soon, I plan to learn Avid as well later so I can definitely get a job as an editor if need be, and I'm moving from Premiere 6.5, not Pro.

Let me tell my story with NLE's.

I had originally wanted to get into Premiere Pro when it came out but then I read the reviews and things had changed so much that it would be like learning a new NLE. This was during the time I had seen Lord of the Rings movies and I had heard that they did a lot of editing on FCP, whether they finished on Avid systems or not I have no idea. So, I started looking into FCP and all it had to offer, the Studio bundle looked really good and reviews were immensely positive. Then Avid came out with their Studio bundles, so I compared.

I knew that Avid and FCP were pretty advanced, exactly what Premiere Pro had become like, so they were all in the same boat. Then, FCP started getting all that press over being used in big budget Hollywood movies over Avid and that shook things up a bit more. I liked how you could do almost anything in Avid, but the pros don't use Xpress Pro unless they need to be mobile, they use the higher up Nitris, Adrenaline, and other big Avid systems. This is all for final editing of course, they'd probably use Xpress Pro for dailies and such if they needed them immediately. But those big systems cost quite a lot! I looked into Premiere Pro, which was still relatively new, and nothing much had been going on with it that I had heard of. Sony's Vegas started gaining more ground than Premiere but neither of them were reaching FCP and Avid levels. So, I had decided that it was between FCP and Avid, because all the bigger projects seemed to be using those over anything else.

With me, it came down to price, I didn't think the Avid Studio bundles were all that much worth it right then and I'd heard of issues with the Studio hardware and the software itself, problems which are most likely fixed by now, and I decided that the FCP Studio bundle would be my best bet with Shake tossed in. At the time I didn't really need it, Premiere 6.5 was doing okay and I had got a Mac Mini in anticipation, so I used iMovie HD to great effect in the meantime. Then the Intel Mac thing blew up and Apple's pro video software was combined into the FCP Studio only package, and just last month Shake was dropped to $500 at version 4.1. So, looking at my copy of Shake on the desk as I type this, I can honestly say it was worth it to wait and go the FCP route. I plan to buy FCP Studio at the end of summer before the start of my Junior year of college.

So, even though I decided to go FCP, I still plan on getting Avid as well, whether it be Xpress Pro or Media Composer, because if you take a look on Craig's List (www.craigslist.com), all they're asking for is FCP or Avid editors in the Los Angeles area, I've only seen a handful's worth of requests for other NLE editors. Do understand that I don't plan on being a professional editor, but if I need a job in the movie business in the meantime, I'm personally trying to be able to do anything, plus it'd be cheaper for my movies to be my own editor I think. Maybe it wasn't the most technical way to compare NLE's, but that's how I got to my decision.
 
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