Suggest a video editing program?

May 17, 2006 9:33 AM

Suggest a video editing program?

I have a relatively straightforward video editing project I need to do, and was wondering what current software would be best.

It will essentially be still photographs (maybe with a Ken Burns effect), with voiceover that I'll need to record with a mic, as well as background music (MP3). Flexible titling options are necessary. Standard transitions.

I'm familiar with timeline-based apps like Flash and am no stranger to design software, but honestly I've never done a full video-editing project before, other than dorking around with iMovie.

The editing app can be either Mac or PC (my PC is faster, but I prefer Mac for creative stuff). I did try iMovie and it's not flexible enough (especially in terms of titling), though I imagine something like Final Cut Express HD would be a candidate, but it's $300. I'm sure Final Cut Studio ($1300) would just be completely overkill.

I've also used Flash MX 2004 for similar projects, but it's very tedious having to do everything manually and was never really designed for heavy bitmap manipulation.

Is there something in the shareware world to consider, should I just invest in Final Cut Express, or something like After Effects, or another app entirely?

The final video will be presented both full-screen from computer and a version may be e-mailed as well.

posted by robbie01 to Computers & Internet (20 answers total)

It sounds like Final Cut Express will suit you fine. If you don't want to spend any money, Avid Free might well do everything you need, and you can move up the Avid family as you progress. If your PC is faster, you might be better off working on that for video editing.
posted by gravelshoes at 9:44 AM on May 17, 2006

Look at some of the ulead products for the PC at www.ulead.com. They seem to have what your looking for as far as basic video editing plus some titling effects that aren't the standard stuff. They're demos include 30 day fully functional demo. Good Luck!
posted by johnd101 at 9:50 AM on May 17, 2006

Windows XP ships with Windows Movie Maker. It's fairly simple and gets the job done. Your output formats might be limited though.
posted by chuma at 9:56 AM on May 17, 2006

If this is a one off, go cheap or free. If you ever plan on doing a project like this again, get Final Cut Express. I use Final Cut Studio, but actually Final Cut Express would've been enough for my level of video editing (which sounds roughly the same as yours, although I edit at least a couple days a week).

On preview: If iMovie wasn't enough, Windows Movie Maker probably isn't either.
posted by voidcontext at 9:58 AM on May 17, 2006

Final Cut is great on the Mac. Adobe Premiere Pro is great on the PC. Either will get the job done. If you ever decided to use Adobe After Effects (which is great for "Ken Burns" stuff -- though you can get by doing that using just Final Cut or Premiere), you might want to consider the PC/Premiere route. AE and Premiere play really nice together.

I've used both apps, and they share most of the same features. I also teach both apps, and I've noticed that people who've never edited before have a slightly easier time picking up Premiere Pro than Final Cut -- though either one is fairly easy to learn.

Adobe sells a nice suite for Video/Audio work: Premiere Pro (video), After Effects (animation/effects), Photoshop (stills), Audition (Sound Editing), Encore (DVD authoring). But Premiere Pro can do all those things (editing, sound, effects, dvd...) -- you just don't get all the pro features unless you buy the suite.

Apple has a similar suite -- which is also excellent. Final Cut (video editing), Sound Track Pro (sound editing), Motion (animation), and DVD Studio Pro. They lack a pro-level Photo app, but most Mac people use Photoshop.
posted by grumblebee at 10:00 AM on May 17, 2006

I believe you can now get Adobe Premiere Elements, which is the cheap and cheerful version of Premiere Pro. Doesn't have some of the advanced features but I imagine it's more than adequate for what you've described, and I believe it also combines the DVD authoring aspect aswell which is kinda neat. I think Premiere elements was going for about $100 or something like that.
posted by TwoWordReview at 10:18 AM on May 17, 2006

Different slant on this.

I find the Ken Burn moves (moco moves, motion control), really quick and easy in iMovie.

It may be worth checking out this list of plugins at the unofficial iMovie FAQ.

Cost might be near to zero.
posted by filmgeek at 10:25 AM on May 17, 2006

The Ken Burns effect is easy in iMovie, but I've not learned a way to do it in Final Cut Express yet.
posted by omnidrew at 10:29 AM on May 17, 2006

Response by poster: Hmm.. if something as ubiquitous as the Ken Burns effect isn't immediately accessible in Final Cut Express, that's a little worrisome.

I had almost forgotten about Premiere, and since I use all the other Adobe tools every day for work, I may give that a shot.

Thanks for the other suggestions, everyone. It would be nice if the app also had a low learning curve -- do any of these apps stand out as being especially user-friendly? (aside from iMovie, which is designed for non-professionals).
posted by robbie01 at 11:05 AM on May 17, 2006

Premiere Elements I mentioned before is the consumer version of Premiere Pro and as such has been user-friendly-ified. Although I haven't tried it, I imagine Final Cut Express is the same deal
posted by TwoWordReview at 11:10 AM on May 17, 2006

FCX will take you a little time to get up to speed...but any pro application has a learning curve on it.

One thing you might consider doing is to construct your montages in iMovie, export as a QuickTime, then import them into FCX to add the sound and titling. This worked well for a background video piece I did for my band.

BTW here's a thread on how to get the KB effect in FCX: http://www.dvcreators.net/discuss/showthread.php?t=6609 - been looking for that info myself for quite a while!
posted by omnidrew at 11:14 AM on May 17, 2006

Response by poster: Using iMovie for Ken Burns and then exporting into another app for titling and audio is an interesting idea.

But wouldn't that degrade the video quality as it would be compressed twice (once from iMovie, then again from Premiere)?

Or would I just use some kind of uncompressed output option from iMovie (like "Video"?) and just import the (assuredly huge) file into Premiere or FCX?
posted by robbie01 at 11:21 AM on May 17, 2006

robbie01, if you output from iMovie as a "reference" QuickTime file (on the Mac), AFAIK it's just a set of pointers to already-rendered video, so there is no recompression in that scenario. The reference QT file is not very large either.
posted by omnidrew at 11:23 AM on May 17, 2006

Response by poster: Surprisingly, there's no Try Out version of Premiere Elements for the Mac -- only Windows. I've never felt shafted for being a Mac user by Adobe before :(

Thanks for the tip, omnidrew, I'll give that a shot.
posted by robbie01 at 12:19 PM on May 17, 2006

If you are doing mostly still photos, Photo to Movie kicks iMovie's ass into the next room. I just finished editing two 10-minute movies with about 100 photos in each and some very complicated movies, transitions etc. Each of them took me less than a day in PTM. I then export them to a DV Stream and import them into iMovie if there's anything else that needs to be done. You can record voiceover in PTM but I recommend doing it into Garageband or something instead so you can sweeten it, then import it into PTM.

PTM's photo quality is sensational, much better than iMovie.

It's available for Mac or PC and very easy to use.
posted by unSane at 12:24 PM on May 17, 2006

Final Cut. It can handle lots of large images (when other editors choke on too many images), has a voice-over record feature, and text tool for titling.
posted by StarForce5 at 12:45 PM on May 17, 2006

Sony Vegas 6 is my favorite Windows-based solution, but it lists for $450 USD ($675 for the version that comes with DVD Architect 3.0). Do you (or does someone you know) qualify for an educational discount? That cound put it within your reach.
posted by wheat at 1:26 PM on May 17, 2006

Surprisingly, there's no Try Out version of Premiere Elements for the Mac -- only Windows

Premiere is a Windows-only app. Adobe isn't trying to piss off Mac users, but Final Cut so outsold Premiere on the Mac, it wasn't worth Adobe's time to continue developing a Mac version. In a day when most design apps are cross-platform, we're in the odd situation of having a Mac-only program, Final Cut, and a PC-only program, Premiere Pro.

Note that Premiere Pro, which is in its second version, is NOT the same app as Premiere. Premier was a sort of industry joke. Adobe totally rewrote it from the ground up, made it PC-only, and called in Premiere Pro to distinguish it from the old program (though perhaps they should have gone further in renaming it).
posted by grumblebee at 2:35 PM on May 17, 2006

premiere elements, as mentioned above, is a good idea.

consider looking into the line of products made by Pinnacle, however. Avid recently bought Pinnacle, and they've done some nice things with the products to make them consumer-friendly but powerful little tools. They're inexpensively priced, as well.

I would recommend against Avid FreeDV. It just doesn't work. They took it off their main site because of the insane number of complaints about getting it to even function properly. It's garbage.
posted by shmegegge at 2:46 PM on May 17, 2006

Also you might consider Adobe Encore DVD. Yes, it is a DVD authoring tool but it also has built-in slideshow capabilities that cover everything you need. Plus it is ready for writing to DVD when you're done.
posted by trinity8-director at 3:39 PM on May 17, 2006