Best NLE software for my situation?

[stave]

Hello. Looking for some advice.
I'm a beginning filmmaker, shooting Super 8 film. I'm doing serveral projects between 6 and 40 minutes long. I need my final products to look as polished as possible, although I don't need to do anything fancy - just sync the audio and video really well, and clean up some cuts (since I'm shooting 24 fps, I only get about 2 1/2 minutes per can of film, and I have some shots that are longer than 6 minutes but need to look like we never changed cans). My flow will be Super8 - telecine to miniDV - capture into computer - output on VHS or Super VHS.

I also don't have a PC yet, so I can go Mac or PC.

Which NLE system best suits my needs?

Thanks,

Stave

[crimson]

choosing a personal desktop NLE is well... personal.

You have basically 3 choices -

Premiere 6 - very good for most basic needs and some complex ones. Very popular with hobbyist, even videographers (aka wedding video shooters), and some pros.

Media Studio Pro 6.5 - very good.The PC's 'underdog.' Does exactly what Premiere does minus robust hardware support. Added software makes it very robust (titler, 3D, etc).

Final Cut Pro - Mac only. Best feature/price ratio. Blows the other 2 out of the water IMHO. However, it might be too dense for basic cut user. A lot of room to grow. Popular with Mac heads (of course ), some indie filmmakers (the others use Avid) and even videographers.

there are others out there - but they tend to have limited hardware/software support and does not offer room to grow.

There is also Avid Xpress DV 3 (my editor). I would not commit to XDV 3 unless you are getting paid. The requirements are strict and are meant for system that is a dedicated NLE workstations.


If I would choose - its between FCP and Premiere. I would try the demo or in FCP's case use a friend's. See which is more intuitive for you. Then choose that one.

[stave]

So is Avid XDV not recommended then? The reason I ask is that my current PC (an Original Pentium 133) won't handle any of these programs, so I'll need to get another PC anyway. This one still serves well for Word processing, etc. and my other machine would be dedicated (whether it be Mac or PC). Since I'll be storing and editing my material on it, I wouldn't want to risk loading anything else anyway.

I can build a XDV system for about $700, and that's with all Avid recommends. A comparable Mac for FCP will cost me about $3000 all said and done. Both of those are without the cost of software. I work with computers for my living (at least for now), and I'm very good with building and servicing them.

I've played with the Premiere demo on my PC at work, and it seems pretty intuitive, but I don't like the idea of limiting myself creatively. I know none of these programs can ever quite be "if you can think it you can do it" but I'd like to get as close as possible.

Is the Avid learning curve really steep compared to the others?

[jessh]

Final Cut Pro with a Mac tends to be very popular for non technical types because you can get a nice little package from apple that will simply work, and Mac's are known for being easy to use. This is definatly an expensive route. Avid is some what of an industry standard, with FCP becomming a close runner up and Premiere has kind of been left in the dust in terms of popularity for "professional" filmmakers, that being said, whatever works works. I have used Premiere and although it has its problems, it tends to work well and be reasonably powerful (as long as you are not trying to edit mjpeg material, grrr). Premiere is all I have really used for real editing so I cant really tell you how it compares. Virtual Dub is a Free OpenSource program for Windows that I highly recommend getting, it doesnt have all the features of editing software, but is very powerful for doing things like converting between formats, cropping, dinterlacing, etc..... and its free!!! (I will look up the URL later if you want, or you can find it on google)

Another option is a PC (or a Mac or just about any computer for that matter) running linux, there is a free opensource full featured editor called Cinelerra, I havent gotten around to trying it myself but it looks nice, it can be found at http://heroinewarrior.com/cinelerra.php3 there are also numerous really good linux programs for doing all sorts of things with video and audio. While this aproach does require lots a much higher level of technical ability, it is a lot cheaper since all of the software including the operating system is free. There is also a program for audio editing that is aimed at the professional level and has features that rival audio editing software such as protools, it is also free, but in a somewhat beta stage. If anyone is interested in going this route or about where to find some of this software, let me know and I will stop being lazy and actually look up the links :-)

~Jess

[wahiba]

http://www.puremotion.com have a programme called EditStudio which can be downloaded as a demo and then unlocked for a small fee.

It is more intutitive than Premiere for the beginner. It is not overloaded with features so basic editing is straight forward.

They also have one of the best support sites. It can be seen at the above address.

As far as I can make out it is actually British in origin, which outside games is quite unique.

[crimsonson]

I would recommend Avid but just remember the time and money involved in commiting to such program.
Premiere can pretty much run in any modern PC.

With XPress DV, though it is the lowest Avid NLE, you will need to stick to Avid's recommendation to save you a lot of headaches. Plus, some have found the Avid way of editing very dense, too difficult to use. I have not. The software alone is $1500. You can buy a Canopus Raptor RT for about $550 with Premiere already included.
Second, many of Avid's feature are meant to be for collaboration, meaning things like OMF support, I/O EDLs, extensive customability, etc. For a personal editor this might not be of use to you. I dont know.
If you are serious about editing then by all means try Avid. It is the industry standard. I have read once that 95% percent of the features and sitcoms we watch are edited in an Avid (of course in the $50,000+ system). Plus the countless commercials, documentaries, promos, movie trailers, PSA, etc.

No decent NLE will limit you creatively. Its just a tool. With traditional narrative editing, 98% of the your cuts will be straight cuts. 1.5% will be dissolves.
If you watch great innovative and artisitic movies you will notice that even then straight cuts and dissolves are the bread and butter. For example Stephen Sodenberg's jumoing cuts from Out of Sight and Limey can be found in many 1960's French New Wave films.

There is also Sonic Foundry's Vegas Video 3. It has received a lot of good attention for users and critics a like.

[S8 Booster]

Having used Adobe Premiere since 1994 or 95 I can recommend it for your use unless you turn into some obstacles machinevise etc.

It has got a low learning treshold and the options are many and it does have some interfaces to "heavy" systems like EDL export, external capture controls++++++ etc.

In addition to the standard plugins & filters (there are MANY) you may obtain 3rd party plugin packs to extend it further.

It is an extensive tool for at least?, less than AVID environments, and normally only your imagination sets limits for editing.

As Crimson points out 98% of editing are usually straight cuts and this works very as well as setting up transitions, superimposing +100!? filters set for independant cuts and quite a few filters for Audio effects as well.

Only problem I have seen mentioned is the character generator that may cause some probelems under certain curcumstances.

You may downlaod a free30 day trial copy here:
http://www.adobe.com/products/tryadobe/ ... l#premiere

Character generator problems are described here.: (might be corrected now)
http://www.adamwilt.com/Tidbits.html#CGs

Recommended.