NotebookForums.com › Forums › General Notebook Discussions › Notebook Audio & Video  › Final Cut Studio, Express, or Premier?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Final Cut Studio, Express, or Premier?

post #1 of 11
8/2/06 at 11:46pm
Thread Starter 
So i have a dilema. I recently recieved a 15 inch MacBook Pro, and I have a job now on my campus as the "Video Producer" for our live campus news program...so basicly what id be doing is going out every day, covering a story, then takeing it home to compile the package. I have no adequate video editor for this, and i was wondering which would be more cost effective and/or better suited for this job?

Final Cut Studio looks amazing, and seems better suited for a professional level job, but is 700 bucks just for the student version. Final Cut Express is alot cheaper, but im worried that well suited for intensive news production. Adobe Premier is a professional video editor that is used in the editing rooms on campus and is in our news room, so i'll have alot of access to it, but since i have a mac, id rather used final cut rather than having to switch to windows through boot camp every time i want to edit video.

So i guess that my big question is, what will work the best, be the most cost effective, and will last me a while in my field?

(Avid is outa the question by the way. Im not in film and don't have like 8000 bucks mmk?)
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 11
8/5/06 at 10:24am
Well straight out I would recommend Final Cut Express due to the Mac. But if others that are working with you are using Adobe Premiere for the same task and you have access to a free copy...then just load Boot Camp...you have the power to run it, all you will need is storage for the video footage. Final Cut Express will save you a few seconds in booting while if youre able to get a free copy from your news room then it's a better deal because you get a free Adobe Premiere and a free BootCamp BETA from Apple.com.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 11
8/5/06 at 3:22pm
I prefer Final Cut Pro to Adobe Premier. Cant speak for Express though, I probably should look at it sometime as I am going to lose my access to Pro soon and dont really have money to replace it.

Seablade
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 11
8/5/06 at 4:05pm
Thread Starter 
unfortunately i can't get a free copy or premier pro and the education version is 350 bucks. I was saying that maybe i could get adobe premier pro becasue the rest of the news uses it any i could stay compatible with everything they do, but Final Cut Express looks like the only option. Its 150 for the academic version and it comes with Livetype and sountrack 1.5.

Has anybody ever used final cut express in a pro/ semi-pro atmosphere? I don't need to make a movie or an award winning documentary or anything, i just need a fast, reliable and easy video editor to make 3 packages (video stories) every week while still looking professional.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 11
8/5/06 at 8:42pm
Well Express will do. So go ahead and get that one. I mean for the use you'll give it it's perfect because you don't need to add special effects, maybe fonts which Livetype will help. Just make make sure that you have access to hardware to export to tape or DVD, whatever media you'll choose to transfer to another machine if required or as a final master. I personally use Premiere but Final Cut Express seems similar in the few videos I've seeen of it and I also do similar projects like you in my high school.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 11
8/5/06 at 9:03pm
Thread Starter 
thats good to hear. yeah i do have the equiptment to transfer it to just about any media i need.

although, there is 1 special effect that would be useful...chroma keying. Our news room has a green screen, and it would be reeeealy cool if i could tape something in front of a green screen and add a jump back to it in final cut express. So does final cut express have "chroma keying" or "compositing" or whatever you call it?
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 11
8/5/06 at 9:29pm
I believe it does...checkout the forums in Apple.com or you can also take a look at the manual:

Forum:
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=123

Manual:
http://www.apple.com/support/manuals/
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 11
8/27/06 at 1:25am
Thread Starter 
yeah....so the final verdict...i just got final cut express today. It does a heck of alot more that i thought it would do, and seems to have most, if not ALL of the features of premier. Theres so much you can do with FCE alone...not to mention LiveType and Soundtrack. Sure, its not the best professional solution...but FCE has many many many professional features.

And yes, it does have chroma keying...and a whole bunch more compositing and keying effects.

Honestly, if anyone has a Mac and wants to edit professional videos on a budget, go with final cut express.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 11
8/27/06 at 1:52am
I am curious, does it retain its timeline management? Probably the wrong terms there, I am not looking for SMPTE timecode support, but when I import clips and then cut them up and move them in the timeline in FCP, or move just the audio etc, it tells me how off sync it is compared to the original, which I have found myself using a fair amount recently.

Seriously considering going with FCE for budget reasons myself. As I do more audio than video I would much rather use that money for tools for my audio work.

Seablade
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 11
8/27/06 at 2:37am
Thread Starter 


yeah i think i kno what ur talking about...and if its that in the pic..then yes...FCE does that to. Seriously...its does an amazing ammount of things considering its price. I can post another screenshot of its list of video effects or transitions if ya want.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 11
8/27/06 at 4:42am
Yep that was one of my main things(FCP will also label if you import a video clip with audio, and move say the audio up or back to account for a transition between takes, how much offset it is), obviously basic color corrections etc, which I believe are in there, and you already mentioned Chroma Keying, I have seen examples of some of the effects in compositing from the videos on the apple site, so overall I completely agree, it is looking very decent, expecially for that price.

EDIT: Just noticed a review on it that mentioned only a single actual editing track, that the rest of the tracks could only be used for compositing, can you confirm or deny this for me, and what it actually limits in as far as effects(Color correction etc)?

Seablade
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Notebook Audio & Video
NotebookForums.com › Forums › General Notebook Discussions › Notebook Audio & Video  › Final Cut Studio, Express, or Premier?