iMovie vs Final Cut Pro

[Marian Petrides]

I'd second Jeff's comments.  I bought FCP and used it for a while until 
iMovie 2 (or was it 3?) came out.  Can't remember which feature(s) was 
missing in the original iMovie that made me feel I needed FCP but that 
was fixed in a later version of iMovie.   With recent revisions of 
iMovie, there's very little I need for my very simple video editing 
that can't be done in iMovie.

The main problem with FCP is that it is SO full-featured and complex 
that if you don't use it for a while you're almost starting back at 
square one relearning it.

Marian


On Jan 12, 2004, at 11:36 AM, cteno4 wrote:

> Erik,
>
> Both will make movies you can play, only difference is the scope of 
> what
> you can do with the
> programs. kind of like mac paint (imovie) vs photoshop (final cut). 
> final
> cut gives you total editing control with all the bells and whistles of 
> a
> professional editing bay. imovie, while a great little program, only 
> does
> the basics of cuts, transitions, titles and limited audio control. both
> will suck video off your dv camcorder with no problems (and back onto 
> it
> if you want to make tapes). if you not working with a dv camera/player
> you will have to spend a couple of hundred for a ntsc to firewire (dv)
> converter box (the dazzle box at about $200 is a fantastic box). if you
> are just doing some simple video presentations that need some edits and
> narration, you'll find imovie will make your pocket book very happy
> (free) vs the final cut prices.
>
> the other gotcha is learning curve. imovie is set up for most anyone to
> be editing with it w/in 10 minutes. final cut, although easier than 
> many
> other professional editing packages, takes awhile to get use to and 
> learn
> all the tricks and techniques even when you only want to do some simple
> tasks.
>
> one other problem is that final cut lets you do so much you can easily
> get carried away in the editing/effects and spend way more time on
> something that may have just needed a couple of well placed, simple
> cuts... with all the new tools in video editing today at the click of a
> mouse, content is being replaced by effects very quickly (as evidenced 
> by
> all the pbs specials now, unfortunatly--but thats another soap box...)
> and really making the final products look flashy, but loose all their
> meat.
>
> only other thing that might be useful to you is that the newest version
> of final cut has a huge amount of new compression stuff that will let 
> you
> do much more tweaking of your final output mov file compression than
> imovie will. imovie does the basic compressions and a decent job of it,
> so if you're just doing a simple job it may fit the bill. I have done a
> few cdrom and exhibit projects that had movies made from imovie and
> finalcut and they looked fine as quicktimes with it being hard to tell
> which was which.
>
> my suggestion would be to spend an hour or two and try making one of 
> your
> more complicated movies on imovie and see if it works. if it does then
> you have just saved a lot of money and time and wait to buy finalcut 
> when
> you really need it for a project!
>
> best of luck,
>
> jeff
>
>
>
> Jeffrey H. Reynolds
> 6620 Michaels Dr.
> Bethesda, MD  20817
>
> 301.469.8562
>
> email: cteno4 at earthlink.net
>        cteno4 at aol.com
>
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