New to Editing and Needing Advice

M

markpsf@sbcglobal.ne

Member
I'm just entering the video editing world, although I've done considerable film editing (semi-pro not pro!).

I am debating between starting with iMovie, Final Cut Express 2, or Final Cut 5.
I know the gradation in difficulty levels but want some advice re whether it's better to start with an easy program and then to later learn a more difficult one, or jumping right in and slowly learning the top end program.

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks.

CP
 
Personally I didn't find final cut pro all that difficult. I started off with imovie because that was all i had at the time. I made a few things on it and was satisfied.

But had heard so much about final cut that i just had to have and would do anything to learn it. At first the interface was intimidating but i followed the tutorial and just started making whatever to get used to it.

Personally I found the apple certification books very invaluable (i bought and went through the training on both)

After using fcp its hard to go back to somehting like imovie, its actually quite frustrating.

Imovie is free because it is already installed. Its a good way to start to just get used to some basic editing, but imovie and fcp are very very different.

If your intent is to eventually upgrade to fcp, than i'd say just start there. My understanding of express is that the interface and logic behind it is identical to fcp, but you are limited when it comes to more advanced features.
 
In my opinion if your gonna do then go all the way. You'll appreciate all that the Pro app has to offer as you gain experience. It's not that hard anyway.
 
Imovie is good to get the basics of editing down and re-arranging timing and cuts although it sounds like you probably have the basic editing already covered. Note that iMovie only deals with 29.97 (It can handle 24p if it's not converted into 23.98)
If you plan to do in depth editing then you'll want FCP. Take a look at the Studio package since it includes DVD Pro and other apps.
 
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