Which editing program to choose?

[B-Twien Bytes]

Hello all,

I am new at this forum and want to start of asking a question about 'which editing program' to choose....

We are living and working in West-Africa, Mali and are going to start making short video clips. We are currently looking into program-possibilities...

I would like to have a program such as Final Cut Pro 5, with multicam editing, multiple soundtracks etc. but....cheaper (we do live in Africa , user friendly and if possible not to use with a Mac.

Who can suggest a program? And why?

Thanx!

[murraymile]

Welcome...


To start this off, If you want user friendly then go with windows platform. With that said, I would recommend Adobe Premiere Pro. Great editing software for windows. Now there are other programs that you can use but Premiere is great because if you have that, then you can work with After Effects and Photoshop. These are all Adobe Products and whats cool is that you can import any adobe files while keeping everything in separte layers. good stuff. I can write on forever about Adobe and what the pro and cons are of this program. Try google and search for articles that are out there about what editing software is great and what their pro's and con's are.

Now a days, it comes down to what is good for you (the user). Films and Video in the industry are using Final Cut Pro, Avid and Premiere. Anyone can edit any program, its if you know how to cut a good product and being really creative. Final Cut Pro is good and you dont need to know MAC's that well to be good at FCP.

Good Luck,

Murray

[B-Twien Bytes]

@ Murraymile

Thanks for your welcome and concrete answer...

I do understand programs as mentioned are very good and user friendly, but also...too expensive in West-Africa

Are there other programs than named that are 'almost' quite as good, but a lot cheaper? I know there is an OpenSoftWare program called "Kino" out there, but I have no experiences yet how it works and what possibilities are in there...???

Now you bring up the Mac - question. Do you think (and others with you that you should better use a Mac while editing, or does it depend on your combi hardware - software wheter to use a Mac or not??

Thanks again!

[edDV]

The multi camera editing requirement limits choices. Can you refine you needs in this area? Premiere Pro Version 2 is the least expensive program that does this well.

If you want to go both cheap and MAC, you are limited to iMovie which is very basic. More is available for the money on a PC. You can save even more by using older versions of Prosumer software, but again, the multi camera requirement limits your choices there.

http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/newfeatures.html

[B-Twien Bytes]

@ edDV

Thanks for your answer....I will read more about the programs you are suggesting....

Refine multi camera editing needs? Right now I am using a program (Pinnacle 9) for basic editing...Here you need to come up with tricks in order to be able to have 2 or more camera views at the same time....

Also with separate, multiple sound tracks it is not an easy job. The thing I really liked about Final Cut Pro is, that is looks sooo easy

But anyway, I am not sure if I made it any clearer what I would like to have if it comes to this point?!