Which Software to buy?

[mantlepicture]

I'm just getting started in video-making and I was wondering if you guys could recommend a good intermediate video-editing software for me to get. I'm looking to spend less than $300 and would like to get something that's low-cost but still has a lot of features. Thanks for your help.

--WickedOwl

If you are going to spend $300, start at the top. You can get Avid Xpress Pro from studica.com for $300. You need to be a student(with an ID), but if you even know someone with a student ID, you can use that. It's pointless to buy an ameteur program like Premeire when you can get top of the line.

Avid is complicated, but it is the industry standard. Premeire is very popular, but it is a very childish program next to Avid. I am trained in Avid, and I can put together a professional music video in a couple hours, while it takes people with Premeire days-weeks.

If you are looking for features, Avid is what you want. There are very few things it doesn't do well(and photoshop and a few plug-ins will solve that). And unless you are a professional editor, you really won't realize its few limits.

That's if you are willing to spend $300 though. If not, you would be fine with Premeire or Pinnacle. Again, go to a site like studica.com to get an educational discount if you can. Just don't waste $300 on an inferior program.

[Kalium]

I am trained in Avid, and I can put together a professional music video in a couple hours, while it takes people with Premeire days-weeks.

So either Avid magically makes you more creative, you're making stuff up, or you can churn out another video just like a hundred others on MTV in a few hours.

That's nice. Tell us when a program can magically make you more creative.

[taifunbrowser]

do wut i did!!!

buy adobe premier pro 1.5 for 209$ (10$ shipping) at academicsuperstore.com! (normal price 420$) half price , all you have to do is email them a scan-in of a progress report/ student id card/ class schedule etc.

[taifunbrowser]

mantle, if you are so sure, submit an amv with your work! your profile says you dont have any movies uploaded? how can you prove your skills as an editor without submitting ne? i would like to see this "3 hr amv" that you speak of lol!"

[taifunbrowser]

i looked up this "avid express pro" and it is a fine program. I dont take back wut i said though. it has a lot of funky features, but as far as working with amv's, most of them are useless... for example, almost half of the features i was looking at involve having an image that you have from all angles of, so you could put in all those pictures and do multiangle things with them. this is almost impossible to find in an amv. and as far as making it faster, for its purpose, vegas and premier are definately more userfriendly, programmed for effiency, and default settings, while this program looks more complex, and probably comes out wiht a high, "motion picture" quality, like ones you'd see in theatres, but with lots of time spent. how you would be able to use this program and use LESS TIME then premier i have no clue, but for an amv, premier/ vegas is better, faster, and more useful. Good bye.

[bum]

I am trained in Avid, and I can put together a professional music video in a couple hours, while it takes people with Premeire days-weeks.

So either Avid magically makes you more creative, you're making stuff up, or you can churn out another video just like a hundred others on MTV in a few hours.

That's nice. Tell us when a program can magically make you more creative.

Kalium, the guy actualy has a point. Just look at his profile . This guy rocks.

[mantlepicture]

So either Avid magically makes you more creative, you're making stuff up, or you can churn out another video just like a hundred others on MTV in a few hours.

That's nice. Tell us when a program can magically make you more creative.

Once you have the footage captured and the idea, it only takes a couple hours to cut a video. How does Avid do this? Easily, every fuction is mappable, so you never have to touch the mouse. I generally spend about 15 minutes laying out all the footage, then I use trim mode to time everything out. Since Avid plays back most effects realtime, I don't have to waste time rendering.

How can I do it in a few hours? Simple: practice. Once you edit enough, you know exactly what do to get what you want. I don't experiment since I know what everything on Avid does, and I generally have the idea going in.

Taking three weeks to cut together a 4 minute video would cost me my job. I have practiced a lot to gain my speed. It's like typing. When you train to be a secretary, you learn to type very fast because it's required for your job. But even if you are just doing it for fun, you still retain that speed.

Avid doesn't make you more creative, it simply doesn't waste your time. Professional editors rely on their keyboard, not the mouse, which is why they are fast. Pretty much everything I do on Avid had its own key. Which is what sets it apart from lower end programs like Premeire. Premeire is a great program, but going to it from Avid is like going from cable to dialup. Both get the job done, but the former gets it done much faster.

And if you would quit with the insults and actually do some research, you would know this.

[mantlepicture]

Kalium, the guy actualy has a point. Just look at his profile . This guy rocks.

Give me a DVC Pro deck and some webspace and I will gladly share my work. Otherwise, you will have to wait a month until I finish my studio.

[mantlepicture]

i looked up this "avid express pro" and it is a fine program. I dont take back wut i said though. it has a lot of funky features, but as far as working with amv's, most of them are useless... for example, almost half of the features i was looking at involve having an image that you have from all angles of, so you could put in all those pictures and do multiangle things with them. this is almost impossible to find in an amv. and as far as making it faster, for its purpose, vegas and premier are definately more userfriendly, programmed for effiency, and default settings, while this program looks more complex, and probably comes out wiht a high, "motion picture" quality, like ones you'd see in theatres, but with lots of time spent. how you would be able to use this program and use LESS TIME then premier i have no clue, but for an amv, premier/ vegas is better, faster, and more useful. Good bye.

Once you get to know Avid, it becomes a lot more user-friendly. Every facet of the program is customizable. It's relatively hard to do the advanced stuff, but for stuff like AMVs, it's really no different than programs like Premeire. I already explained how it is faster.

"but for an amv, premier/ vegas is better, faster, and more useful."

Funny how someone who has never even used the program can make such a statement. Vegas and Premeire are fine programs, but to say that they are better than Avid... well, anyone who has used Avid will disagree.

[Scintilla]

Give me a DVC Pro deck <b>and some webspace</b> and I will gladly share my work.

I'm not going to pretend to know what a DVC Pro deck is, but you do know that you can upload your AMVs (and I must emphasize the "A" part of that) to the Org's own dedicated video server, right?