What editing software should I buy?

askclifford

askclifford

Member
I am a current FCP editor and 14yrs old. I want to go to college for broadcast engineering when I get older. My IMac with a 3.06ghz Core 2 Duo, 4gig ram, and Integrated 9400M Graphics recently crashed and I lost my copy of FCP. I also no longer have the box.

I am looking into Student Software and found out I might not want to go with FCP. Here are my options...

-Avid Media Composer 5, $290
The Current industry standard. Used at all the local news stations along with NewsCutter. My dad is a professional ProTools HD Engineer so a nice integration. Not too fond about the expected learning curve or the fact that there is only media composer in the box, or no bundle.

-Apple Final Cut Studio 3, $300
The up and rising industry standard. Have been getting a large amount of error messages lately, and I have a DSLR, so its not the most friendly. Not too satisfied, but I want to be prepared for college.

-Adobe Creative Suite CS5, $350
Although its not used in Hollywood nearly as much, comes with a bunch of cool programs. Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop Extended, Flash...:love4: Its also apparently better for my slower computer, as well as for my DSLR. I feel like I should just get it, but I want to be using what they will teach me in college.

Any suggestions?
I feel like my results are going to be very bias because I'm posing in the FCP Forum, so Mods, feel free to move my post to the best place.

Thanks!
 
I'd try demos- you can demo FCP at any Apple Store. Premiere and Avid have downloadable trials. There's no perfect editing program. Get what you personally like.

Noah
 
If you are editing native h.264 DSLR footage, that could account for your issues.

But as Noah indicates, demo FCP at an Apple store or try the trials for other two.

And of course, contact Apple with your proof of purchase for FCS, and secure replacement discs.
 
As others have said, demo them all to see what you like.

But I would suggest going with whatever will give you the most bang for your buck. It's hard to predict what a particular college might use and if they'll even stay on that path. Back when I started school, they were using Premiere. They didn't even have a compositing or CG curriculum. By the time I graduated they were using Final Cut only, and had developed a course of study for 3dsMax and Combustion. Today everything they do is designed around Maya and Nuke, and I think they have some Avid suites.

So I would worry more about learning technique and style rather than a specific software package because you can always adapt to different platforms later. The art of editing, motion graphics, animation, etc. is universal and will be applied the same with any software.

Being a Final Cut editor myself, I would probably still lean towards the Adobe suite simply because of After Effects and Photoshop.
 
If you want to major in broadcast engineering, defintely go with FCP. that's the workflow in the industry.
go with Avid if you want to major in Film/Cinema tho.
That's my advice.
 
Between them, Avid & FCP probably account for at least 90% of the television & film markets. If you really want to work as an editor, it's best to know both.
 
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