Movie editor recommendations?

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John Roberts

Movie editor recommendations?

Post by John Roberts »

Hello to all at the IAC forum.

I haven't made movies for many years but was an active member of my local
Cine and Video Club where I made a number of short dramas which won several
awards. I now would like to re-enter movie making at a basic level again,
primarily for making promotional music videos for myself.

I dont have a great deal of equipment, but I would like some ideas regarding
cheap or freeware/shareware editing programs. I have a Panasonic NV-GS17
digital camera, with firewire connection to my (new) PC, running Windows
XP with 3Ghz P4 processor and 2Gig RAM. I have got installed some Nero software
for video capture which seems to work ok, I also have a freeware copy of
MovieXone which i believe has limitations on the output resolution but can
edit, I also have Windows Movie Maker v5.1 alhough I am completely unfamiliar
with this.

Can anyone recommend any decent software for me? I plan to import a single
(or maybe two) audio files and edit the video cuts to the pre-mixed music
track. I'm not interested in fancy wipes or fades, just basic, honest features.

Many thanks - John
Fraught

Re: Movie editor recommendations?

Post by Fraught »

If money is tight... and you have the patience... Pinnacle Studio 9 is great
and easy to use... the only bad side is it can be a pain to get installed
and working properly... and the Pinnacle support is pretty naff! But i've
got the software working fine on my PC, and i love using it to edit.


"John Roberts" <forums@theiac.org.uk> wrote:
Hello to all at the IAC forum.

I haven't made movies for many years but was an active member of my local
Cine and Video Club where I made a number of short dramas which won several
awards. I now would like to re-enter movie making at a basic level again,
primarily for making promotional music videos for myself.

I dont have a great deal of equipment, but I would like some ideas regarding
cheap or freeware/shareware editing programs. I have a Panasonic NV-GS17
digital camera, with firewire connection to my (new) PC, running Windows
XP with 3Ghz P4 processor and 2Gig RAM. I have got installed some Nero software
for video capture which seems to work ok, I also have a freeware copy of
MovieXone which i believe has limitations on the output resolution but can
edit, I also have Windows Movie Maker v5.1 alhough I am completely unfamiliar
with this.

Can anyone recommend any decent software for me? I plan to import a single
(or maybe two) audio files and edit the video cuts to the pre-mixed music
track. I'm not interested in fancy wipes or fades, just basic, honest features.

Many thanks - John
Ned C

Re: Movie editor recommendations?

Post by Ned C »

Sony Vegas Studio may be suitable, it is easily integrated with Sound Forge
Studio (sort of Sound Forge Light) for editing and managing sound. Even though
these are "low end" nle programs they are very poewerful and allow for future
growth and experiments. The website is www.sonymediasoftware.com

Hope this helps,

Ned C

"John Roberts" <forums@theiac.org.uk> wrote:
Hello to all at the IAC forum.


Can anyone recommend any decent software for me? I plan to import a single
(or maybe two) audio files and edit the video cuts to the pre-mixed music
track. I'm not interested in fancy wipes or fades, just basic, honest features.

Many thanks - John
John Roberts

Re: Movie editor recommendations?

Post by John Roberts »

i did have a look at that but was put off by some of the reviews, I also looked
at Studio v10 and that seems to be slated in favour of v9! I also looked
at Ulead Videostudio 9 and that also seemed to have similar reviews - either
very good or completely unstable! Maybe if I work on a budget of say under
£100?


"Fraught" <info@fraught.net> wrote:
If money is tight... and you have the patience... Pinnacle Studio 9 is great
and easy to use... the only bad side is it can be a pain to get installed
and working properly... and the Pinnacle support is pretty naff! But i've
got the software working fine on my PC, and i love using it to edit.
Ian Gardner

Re: Movie editor recommendations?

Post by Ian Gardner »

"John Roberts" <forums@theiac.org.uk> wrote:
Hello to all at the IAC forum.

I haven't made movies for many years but was an active member of my local
Cine and Video Club where I made a number of short dramas which won several
awards. I now would like to re-enter movie making at a basic level again,
primarily for making promotional music videos for myself.

I dont have a great deal of equipment, but I would like some ideas regarding
cheap or freeware/shareware editing programs. I have a Panasonic NV-GS17
digital camera, with firewire connection to my (new) PC, running Windows
XP with 3Ghz P4 processor and 2Gig RAM. I have got installed some Nero software
for video capture which seems to work ok, I also have a freeware copy of
MovieXone which i believe has limitations on the output resolution but can
edit, I also have Windows Movie Maker v5.1 alhough I am completely unfamiliar
with this.

Can anyone recommend any decent software for me? I plan to import a single
(or maybe two) audio files and edit the video cuts to the pre-mixed music
track. I'm not interested in fancy wipes or fades, just basic, honest features.

Many thanks - John
You certainly have a nice system.
As for film editors. Premiere Elements has got good reviews. Also Seref
Movie Plus has had good reviews.
If you want to be really cheap, then go into your local newsagents and buy
a editing mag. DVD monthly has everything you need. It may be called something
else! It`s £4.99. If that`s too dear!!! Then I don`t know any other way!

Ian Gardner
John Roberts

Re: Movie editor recommendations?

Post by John Roberts »

Thanks Ian, the system I have was bought out of necessity really, I am a musician
and needed something 'decent' to run new music software when I switched over
from 'semi-digital' to 'more digital' lol. I got the best system I could
afford as it wasn't worth upgrading my old one, hence the nice bits of software
on it and some bits that I transferred from my old PC.

I will have a look at Premier Elements to see if it caters more or less for
what I need. Not sure what you meant about the 'DVD Monthly' though? Is it
because certain issues may have free cover mounted software? I will look
into this next time I'm browsing the newsagents. As for reviews, I thought
I would cut out the middleman and go straight to the 'end users!'

Many thanks - John


"Ian Gardner" <ian@gardner44.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
You certainly have a nice system.
As for film editors. Premiere Elements has got good reviews. Also Seref
Movie Plus has had good reviews.
If you want to be really cheap, then go into your local newsagents and
buy
a editing mag. DVD monthly has everything you need. It may be called something
else! It`s £4.99. If that`s too dear!!! Then I don`t know any other way!

Ian Gardner
Ian Gardner

Re: Movie editor recommendations?

Post by Ian Gardner »

"John Roberts" <dollymanson@btclick.com> wrote:
Thanks Ian, the system I have was bought out of necessity really, I am a
musician
and needed something 'decent' to run new music software when I switched
over
from 'semi-digital' to 'more digital' lol. I got the best system I could
afford as it wasn't worth upgrading my old one, hence the nice bits of software
on it and some bits that I transferred from my old PC.

I will have a look at Premier Elements to see if it caters more or less
for
what I need. Not sure what you meant about the 'DVD Monthly' though? Is
it
because certain issues may have free cover mounted software? I will look
into this next time I'm browsing the newsagents. As for reviews, I thought
I would cut out the middleman and go straight to the 'end users!'

Many thanks - John
You are correct. Forget the middleman. We are all budding speilburgs waiting
to be discovered!
Yes. Sorry if I wasn`t better with the description of what I mean`t with
the mag. There is a mag out with a covermount DVD that had all sorts of software
on it cattered for movie makers.
Have fun and keep us posted.

Ian Gardner.
John Roberts

Re: Movie editor recommendations?

Post by John Roberts »

Thanks Ian, I assume that's a recent mag - I will have a browse at my local
24 hour T*sco later tonight. It's just something basic I need initially,
preferably with MPEG output and selectable compression rates so I can output
a 'high quality' edit and also, say, an edit for use as an internet clip.
MovieXone (the freeware restricted version) seems to only output as a WAV
or AVI file, and I think the minimum compression is 2Mbps at 720x576 resolution,
although I may be wrong on this, so not really the 6 to 8 Mbps bit rate I
seem to see bandied about a lot for DVD use.

Certainly I'm not in a massive rush to shoot videos, I'm currently stuck
in the studio composing our next CD, but I want to get to grips with how
the editors work so that I can consider making promo movies of the songs
on the album.

Will keep you posted! Cheers!


"Ian Gardner" <ian@gardner44.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
You are correct. Forget the middleman. We are all budding speilburgs waiting
to be discovered!
Yes. Sorry if I wasn`t better with the description of what I mean`t with
the mag. There is a mag out with a covermount DVD that had all sorts of
software
on it cattered for movie makers.
Have fun and keep us posted.

Ian Gardner.
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