Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

warnergt · Jul 6, 2002, 10:19 AM

I've recently started digging in to iMovie. It's pretty good but, unless I am misunderstanding something, it lacks some really nice capabilities of Adobe Premiere. Also, I'm wondering if Final Cut Pro has these capabilities.

1) In iMovie, when you crop a clip, the cropped data is lost. Once you continue doing other stuff, this cropping process is irreversible. Premiere, on the other hand, allows specifying "in" and "out" points to determine how much of the clip is used. The original clip is unaltered. An unaltered clip is infinitely better for experimenting with transitions when you don't know up front how long of a transition you will use.

Is this correct? Does Final Cut Pro work more like Premiere?

2) Similarly, when I added text graphics, the text seems to become merged into the video. It looks like this is irreversible also (unless you do an undo immediately after performing the operation). It seems that if I add text to a clip, I can't pull it out later.

Is this also correct? (I may be misunderstanding the application). How does Final Cut Pro handle it?

I'm sure I will have more questions. These are the ones on my mind right now. I appreciate any insight into these concerns and the applications.

warnergt · Jul 6, 2002, 10:25 AM

More questions:

1) Is there an OS X version of Adobe Premiere on the horizon?

2) My primary goal is making standard DVDs. Is Final Cut Pro overkill for this desire?

Also, I have a secondary goal of transferring 8 mm movies to digital video. Would Final Cut Pro provide some advantages toward this?

Worst. Episode. Ever. · Jul 6, 2002, 10:49 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by warnergt:
I've recently started digging in to iMovie. It's pretty good but, unless I am misunderstanding something, it lacks some really nice capabilities of Adobe Premiere. Also, I'm wondering if Final Cut Pro has these capabilities.<hr /></blockquote>Yes, Final Cut Pro has the capabilities of Adobe Premiere. And then some.

<blockquote>quote:<hr />
1) In iMovie, when you crop a clip, the cropped data is lost. Once you continue doing other stuff, this cropping process is irreversible. Premiere, on the other hand, allows specifying "in" and "out" points to determine how much of the clip is used. The original clip is unaltered. An unaltered clip is infinitely better for experimenting with transitions when you don't know up front how long of a transition you will use.

Is this correct? Does Final Cut Pro work more like Premiere?<hr /></blockquote>Yes, FCP is like Premier. Edits are merely reference points to media stored on your HD. FCP edits are non-destructive.
<blockquote>quote:<hr />
2) Similarly, when I added text graphics, the text seems to become merged into the video. It looks like this is irreversible also (unless you do an undo immediately after performing the operation). It seems that if I add text to a clip, I can't pull it out later.

Is this also correct? (I may be misunderstanding the application). How does Final Cut Pro handle it?<hr /></blockquote>In FCP, graphics and text elements are place on their own video layers, similiar to the way compositions are handled in Photoshop.

In a nutshell, Final Cut Pro is NOTHING like iMovie. Comparing iMovie to FCP would be like comparing a go-cart to a Ferarri.

crazycylon · Jul 6, 2002, 11:31 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by warnergt:

1) In iMovie, when you crop a clip, the cropped data is lost. Once you continue doing other stuff, this cropping process is irreversible. Premiere, on the other hand, allows specifying "in" and "out" points to determine how much of the clip is used. The original clip is unaltered. An unaltered clip is infinitely better for experimenting with transitions when you don't know up front how long of a transition you will use. <hr /></blockquote>A work around this is to just copy the clip from your shelf on to your timeline line. Then crop the clip on your time line. This way the original clip is still on shelf and you can experiment as much as you want. This should not be a problem in iMovie 2 since the shelf is unlimited. However iMovie 1 is another story.

Bruce O'Neal · Jul 8, 2002, 07:54 AM

if you OPTION+Drag the clip from the shelf, you will still have a full copy of the clip in your bin. the iMovie application makes a copy and puts in in the timeline, but the original remains. i really like that feature.

andreas_g4 · Jul 8, 2002, 08:05 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Worst. Episode. Ever.:
In a nutshell, Final Cut Pro is NOTHING like iMovie. Comparing iMovie to FCP would be like comparing a go-cart to a Ferarri.<hr /></blockquote>Well said...