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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Final Cut Express vs iMovie… I need concrete examples
Lyle Aspinall, Photographer
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Calgary | AB | Canada | Posted: 10:53 PM on 03.24.10 |
->> First of all, I'm a Final Cut Express user and have no intentions of downgrading to iMovie. Doing so would be like choosing iPhoto over Photoshop.
That said, however, I need to have specific, concrete examples showing why Final Cut Express is superior. It's for an editor friend of mine who is trying to convince his powers-that-be that they shouldn't set iMovie as their chain-wide editing standard. I know, I know, it sounds crazy, but it's the battle he has.
My problem is that I haven't use iMovie in several years and don't really know what to tell him. I've heard you can't adjust audio levels within clips in iMovie, but I really don't know that.
If anyone has some specific examples to share, I'd love to hear them. |
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Kevin Seale, Photographer
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Crawfordsville | IN | United States | Posted: 11:51 PM on 03.24.10 |
->> I am a FCP guy and have been for the past couple of years and came to it from iMovie. Unless they have some complex application needs, iMovie, to me, is not necessarily such a bad option for broad use. Personally, I don't put FCE in a category that much higher than iMovie and definitely would not compare it to the significant leap from iPhoto to Photoshop. Maybe iPhoto to Photoshop Elements would be a more realistic comparison.
iMovie takes about three days to learn the basics and many can do it on their own without the need for extensive training. FCP or even FCE as you know, have a much steeper learning curve and are not as intuitive. Unless they are also budgeting for the extra training required, I would question how many will actually learn enough of the expanded functions of FCE to make it do more than you can do with iMovie.
I think before you can put together an effective case for FCE being superior, you need to better define what the actual finished product expectations are for their organization. If all that is needed is the typical daily webcast content of local news coverage, I would probably support the editor pushing iMovie. It is quick, easy and is capable of outputting a pretty decent finished product and can be learned pretty quickly by a wide range of people.
Don't get me wrong, I fully agree you can do more and do it better with FCE. My question would be is it really necessary for what they plan to do with it. |
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David Rossiter, Photographer
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Lethbridge | AB | Canada | Posted: 12:07 PM on 03.25.10 |
->> Lyle: Probably what you don't want to hear but I like iMovie 9 & Kevin is right you can learn it on your own in a very short time. I sat down with a friend and looked at FC, albeit for only about an hour, and I thought my head was going to explode. FC I agree is a much deeper program but if your doing quick extra video clips at assignments for the web and will get NO training don't under-value iMovie 9.
ps: You can adjust and detach audio in iMovie9 |
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Chris Parent, Student/Intern, Photographer
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Baton Rouge | LA | United States | Posted: 12:13 PM on 03.25.10 |
->> For widespread use, iMovie is probably the better choice. Final Cut has a steep learning curve even for Express. iMovie is a lot more intuitive and easier to learn. Final Cut has a lot of things that aren't just common sense. iMovie is drag, drop, cut clip, add titles, export. It is simple and very easy.
You can edit audio in iMovie, but I've found it easier to just drag the audio to Garageband, do the change and move it back. Much easier. Between those too it is very easy to produce some simple videos for the web or such.
The recommendation I would make is that I would try to have someone at least available to work in Final Cut, but for everyone to use I would suggest iMovie. Most things can be done in that program. |
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J.J. Alcantara, Student/Intern
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Baton Rouge | LA | USA | Posted: 12:53 PM on 03.25.10 |
->> I'm going to have to agree with the peanut gallery.
iMovie, as simple as it is, is one of the easiest video editing programs to learn. If your friend's company is trying to make simple video packages for Web sites, iMovie would be the way to go. If you're making high quality productions, FCE would be a better choice, but me personally would step it up to FCP.
iMovie can edit video at its basic level — cutting clips to a timeline, separating audio from video, adding titles, transitions, etc. With FCP (which is what I use), your ability to cut clips go frame by frame, you can add color corrections and audio filters. FCP also allows (which I have limited experience in doing) you to work with green screen clips. |
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Adam Brimer, Photographer, Assistant
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Knoxville | TN | USA | Posted: 9:44 PM on 03.25.10 |
->> I've used both. I own both FCE and iMovie. I also use FCP at work.
I continue to use both but if I need to have exact cuts with precise timing FCE / P is the only way to go. iMovie just doesn't cut it. (no pun intended) It also becomes hard to use on a small monitor.
Sometimes the audio track doesn't cooperate and doesn't snap to like FCE when I move it around. In addition, I've never really been able to figure out the way the "duration" works when trimming clips. I'll type in something like 0:05 and it'll make it 0:08. Maybe I need an iMovie tutorial but it doesn't make sense.
Contact me if you have any specific questions. I'm glad to help. |
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Shawn Lynch, Photographer
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New York | New York | USA | Posted: 11:10 PM on 03.25.10 |
| ->> I would agree with most of the comments above. The only tricky part to iMovie, as Adam said, is sometimes nailing down the exact cut on a clip. I just used iMovie to make a quick project (http://bit.ly/ck907t) and found it very easy to use. Transitions and title pages are great. There's a lot you can do with it if you're not making too big of a project. Mine was a 3 min 30 sec video, which I left long so the client could chop it down if they wanted. I didn't want to edit it down too tightly. |
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Robert Scheer, Photographer
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Indianapolis | IN | USA | Posted: 11:22 PM on 03.25.10 |
->> Lyle,
My take: iMovie's great if you're doing very basic A-roll/B-roll projects.
FCE/FCP is preferable when you want to do multi-cam projects, and want to easily mix in various multimedia elements (video and stills), and have sophisticated control over your edits, sound quality, and output.
In this economy (I'll be so glad when this isn't a catchphrase), several iMovie licenses are probably worth more than one FCE license.
But, I'd get ahold of Richard Koci Hernandez (easy google search). He knows as much about these programs as anybody.
Good luck! |
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N. Scott Trimble, Photographer
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Lake Oswego | OR | USA | Posted: 12:33 AM on 03.26.10 |
| ->> I think Apple does a comparison somewhere on its site that lets you do a side by side comparison of them all. I would investigate that. |
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