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Best Video Editor
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Mac_X
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Dec 7, 2006, 04:30 PM
 
Since I'm into video editing right now I am wondering which video editing program is best,,,,, irrespective of platform or price. The ones i know of right now are:
iMovie
Final Cut Pro ( or whatever its called)
Movie Maker
Adobe Premier
     
MRTrauffer
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Dec 7, 2006, 04:54 PM
 
It's not the software that makes a good video, but the person operating the software. The editing software is just a tool. Editing is in itself, an artform, a skill that must be developed. I've seen some really good videos come from iMovie, while I've seen some poor video come from FCP. So it really depends on the person using the software.

Personally, my software of choice is Final Cut Pro.
I gotta have more cowbell.
     
nbnz
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Dec 7, 2006, 06:12 PM
 
There is also Final Cut Express (Apple - Final Cut Express HD) which is a less expensive alternative if Final Cut Pro is too "Pro".
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Chuckit
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Dec 7, 2006, 06:55 PM
 
Final Cut Pro is pretty easily the top of its class. Right now, most serious editors I know of use either Final Cut or Avid.
Chuck
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MovieCutter
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Dec 7, 2006, 07:23 PM
 
Final Cut Pro, but if you're gonna play with the big dogs, Avid Adrenaline or Nitris.
     
Chuckit
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Dec 7, 2006, 07:30 PM
 
Bear in mind, though, that Avid is not just software. It's a whole editing system. (It's also quite excessive in the vast majority of cases, IMO.)
Chuck
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MovieCutter
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Dec 7, 2006, 07:34 PM
 
That is very true...but as far as professional video goes, it's the "best". Best bang for your buck is FInal Cut Pro or Final Cut Express, without a doubt, but Avid has features that editors use on a daily basis that Final Cut does not. Sure, if you're cutting a documentary, it's quite excessive, but if you're cutting commercials, promos, corporate videos, or feature films, it hits the spot quite nicely. The hardware tie in is priceless due to the extremely stable nature of it. Avid beats the pants off Final Cut in the stability department and the media management department. Not to mention its speed is unprecedended for many tasks.

Back to the topic at hand. Steer far from Premiere as it's a piece of junk in comparison to Final Cut and won't run on your Mac. I'd get Final Cut Express for now, then if you feel yourself being limited, upgrade to Pro.
     
CatOne
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Dec 8, 2006, 01:34 PM
 
Sure, but Final Cut Studio most certainly *can* be used in cutting feature films. Go to the Final Cut references pages (Apple - Pro - Profiles) and with the right navigating there are hundreds of profiles -- proably 50-75 of them are feature films (e.g. Cold Mountain and The Corpse Bride).
     
MovieCutter
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Dec 8, 2006, 01:44 PM
 
Originally Posted by CatOne View Post
Sure, but Final Cut Studio most certainly *can* be used in cutting feature films. Go to the Final Cut references pages (Apple - Pro - Profiles) and with the right navigating there are hundreds of profiles -- proably 50-75 of them are feature films (e.g. Cold Mountain and The Corpse Bride).
Sure can, I've cut features on it. It's my primary NLE. But when I need a 3D workspace, lighting effects, in-app masking, tracking, rotoscoping, etc. I use my Avid.
     
MRTrauffer
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Dec 8, 2006, 04:01 PM
 
Originally Posted by MovieCutter View Post
Back to the topic at hand. Steer far from Premiere as it's a piece of junk in comparison to Final Cut and won't run on your Mac. I'd get Final Cut Express for now, then if you feel yourself being limited, upgrade to Pro.
MovieCutter: You seem to have a vast knowledge of these various editing platforms. Keeping this discussion on track, have you had any experience with Premiere, or know of anyone who uses Premiere on a large broadcast/production scale?

I ask mainly because the production house that I work at is currently a 2 platform house, Premiere Pro and Final Cut. And right now, we're in the process of hammering out workflows for HD. Our current SD workflows are a real pain if we have to trade projects cross platform...but overall, our Final Cut suites have been extremely productive. The Premiere suites don't do any long-form editing, they stick with short form and news. Final Cut is used for edit-in-place on our air server, and long format programming on our XSAN.

While we continue to discuss both platforms, we recently had a pretty intense editing test. My report is here.
I gotta have more cowbell.
     
CatOne
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Dec 8, 2006, 09:06 PM
 
Trauffer,

Can any PC-based solutions approach FCP + Xsan for a shared storage solution?

When I was at NAB a couple years back, the approaches of Avid and Apple for HD seemed very different.

Apple: Uncompressed HD (let's say 10-bit, at around 160 MB/sec) takes a lot of space. And is bandwidth intensive. Fortunately, storage is cheap. Use Xserve RAIDs and Xsan and get a 5-edit-station solution with 20 TB of storage for high 5/low 6 figures.

Avid: We have all these nifty, high-tech codecs which can compress HD... check them out! Obviously you need to compress HD because our Unity storage is so darned expensive.

Okay, I put words in both mouthes, but the approaches seemed quite different... especially when you look at the costs for back-end storage, which pretty much *must* be 2 or 4 Gbps fibre channel to handle HD.
     
MovieCutter
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Dec 9, 2006, 02:18 PM
 
Originally Posted by MRTrauffer View Post
MovieCutter: You seem to have a vast knowledge of these various editing platforms. Keeping this discussion on track, have you had any experience with Premiere, or know of anyone who uses Premiere on a large broadcast/production scale?

I ask mainly because the production house that I work at is currently a 2 platform house, Premiere Pro and Final Cut. And right now, we're in the process of hammering out workflows for HD. Our current SD workflows are a real pain if we have to trade projects cross platform...but overall, our Final Cut suites have been extremely productive. The Premiere suites don't do any long-form editing, they stick with short form and news. Final Cut is used for edit-in-place on our air server, and long format programming on our XSAN.

While we continue to discuss both platforms, we recently had a pretty intense editing test. My report is here.
The only group that I have worked with that uses Premiere in any form is the Washington Post's CameraWorks team. They do all the web-based multimedia for the Washington Post's website. Last time I was there, which was a few years ago, they cut together very short web-based video with a Premiere Pro system, but only because it integrated with it's web system somehow. Other than that, they used all Final Cut systems for any long-form based work much like what you've experienced.
     
MRTrauffer
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Dec 10, 2006, 01:55 PM
 
CatOne & MovieCutter,

Thanks for your replies. I do agree that Apple has a far better vision for enterprise level editing than any PC platform does, besides Avid. As for cost efficiency, Apple has the best options per dollar. That's the case that I've been trying to make here. Hence the reason for my asking if anyone had any knowledge of Premire Pro being utilized on a mass enterprise level. I've been searching for quite a while to find evidence of a large capacity workflow that utilizes PPro & Axio, but have not found anything close.
I gotta have more cowbell.
     
   
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