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[Fatalah]

What's an easy-to-use program for video editing? Is there an industry standard--sort of like what Photoshop is to digital pictures?

 

[goodcow]

The standards are Final Cut Pro for Mac, and Avid for PC. But if you have a PC use Adobe Premiere Pro instead.

 

[Fatalah]

If Adobe's software is too complicated for me (As Photoshop is), I'll try Avid.


Howcome Avid, although its the PC standard, isn't your preference?




BTW-- wasn't there somebody here who makes short films?

 

[goodcow]

If Adobe's software is too complicated for me (As Photoshop is), I'll try Avid.


Howcome Avid, although its the PC standard, isn't your preference?




BTW-- wasn't there somebody here who makes short films?

a) People say Premiere has a high learning curve... but I really don't think it does.

b) I've tried Avid Express DV, and I just found it to be annoying to use compared to Premiere.

c) Yes, there are a few of us here who make short films. One of them is myself. www.goodcowfilms.com/films/

 

[PotatoeMasher]

Avid has the highest learning curve of all, IMO--it's a horrible piece of trash if you don't know how to use it (that is a correct statement).

I've used Premiere exclusively for a while now and found it to have a smart interface that makes sense.

If you're simply piecing together footage, use MS Moviemaker or whatever it's called... There's no sense in learning a professional program unless you plan on doing things that you can't do in a simple program...

 

[Fatalah]

Thanks for your input guys. Whatever I come up with, I'll share here.

 

[fart]

i have a little experience with avid. it's, uh, not very intuitive. most of my experience is with FC pro. great piece of kit, highly recommended.

if you have access to an mac editor via school or whatever, definitely try it out.

 

[goodcow]

Just use Premiere Pro. It basically *is* Final Cut, but for PC, and you're not locked into Apple's propreitary formats, and Premiere can actually handle things like MP3s correctly, not to mention any AVI file you have a codec for, whereas the Mac would go, "ERROR, WHAT THE FUCK DO I DO WITH THIS, BECAUSE I'M UNDERSUPPORTED."

 

[fart]

why are you editing with compressed video and audio?

 

[goodcow]

why are you editing with compressed video and audio?

The point is, it CAN do it. You can throw any format at Premiere, and Premiere laughs at it, including Sorenson 3 Quicktime videos.

 

[fart]

fair enough.

 

[God's Hand]

Premiere Pro is definitely better than Final Cut Pro. Just more features and really no limits.

 

[Fresh Prince]

As a novice Premiere is really really easy.
Bacially Ctrl-I to import, use the hand to view, I and O buttons to select in and out points, drag to timeline etc.
Only 'bad' thing is that it is not a be all end all product if you want to go that step further you probably need After Effects, in terms of special effects etc.

 

[musicplustv]

Premiere Pro is much more intuitive and easier to learn than Avid. It is very similar to Final Cut Pro, in terms of interface and similar workflow. As for working in compressed video, not sure what someone meant by that, but even digital video through firewire is compressed. If you were to edit in uncompressed format the files would be huge.

 

[Ill Saint]

Used to work with Premiere, but I switched to Vegas. Much happier now.

 

[fart]

you got me on the compression thing. not that i don't know guys who work exclusively with raw video, but i meant particularly these compressors and encapsulated formats that are particularly bad for editing. avi and mp3 are great examples of formats as such.

 

[musicplustv]

AVI has different codecs, some that are good to edit with (Mainconcept, Canopus), and some bad ones that you shouldn't edit with. As for Vegas, I've heard good things about it, but I personally wouldn't try it, at least not until they got nested sequences. (Premiere didn't have it until Premiere Pro).