Editing Software - What do you use?

stingman · Post by **stingman** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 10:51 am

Dear all fellow film-makers,
I was just wondering what Editing Software you all use and if you liked it and how you got on with it.

I use Premiere Pro (I have PremPro2, but cannot use this yet because of computer hardware). I love this programme as it does everything I need. I can do PIP and Blue screen, great transitions and I have even imported extra transitions to use with it. What I don`t like about it is it takes a really long time to Render an hour DVD in `Export to DVD` Hours spring to mind!
The quality of the finished film is really good. The programme can be as simple or as hard as you like because you have soo much features to play with and adjust. I am still learning from it and i`ve been using it for over 3 years.
All the other editing programmes seem a bit too simple and basic for me. They all look prety with there coloured designed layout and graphics but with Premiere you have even got adjustment with the layout and what you have display. I use two moniters so I can have one for the output and the other has the workings and timeline on.
If it was a woman, then it`s the Pam Anderson of the editing world. Sexy and ........ Better stop there...!

Once you can do the basics then it is really easy to use. My friend asks me to edit all his multi camera shoots as it`s really easy to do as all the camera footage can be in there own tracks on the timeline, upto 99 tracks I believe. I have had about 18 video tracks in one of my productions. Even this is easy. My friend says ` You`ve got premiere`! enougth said.
I`ve tried the basic editors and find them really hard to use for what I want.

So you can see how exsited I am with Premiere, did I mention Pam Anderson....... Oh yes I did!

So to sum it up. Brillient software but very dear unless you get a copy off of *bay.

Post by **Dave Watterson** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 12:01 pm

I too am an Adobe Premiere Pro user - in my case v1.5. It certainly has enormous power for all normal editing purposes. I have, but have not explored, Adobe After Effects, with the vague thought that I might someday need to use its power for special effects.

I do a fair bit of subtitling and like the power of Adobe to let me tweak fonts and colours so that the text remains clear and looks right. (e.g. bold quotes from Shakespeare in a heavy, majestic font, song lyrics in light italics and so on.)

For making DVDs I use Adobe Encore which allows me to set up menus, specify chapters and so on.

I have played with the Windows Moviemaker software which comes free with Windows XP onwards and it does seem capable of doing a decent job. Given that most of the time we do not want or need PIP (picture-in-picture) and fancy transitions - simple can be better.

My main gripe is that my Adobe programs all crash from time to time. With careful saving I can recover but it peeves me that the stuff is not more stable.

Dave

stingman · Post by **stingman** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 12:21 pm

Hello David,
I`ve got After Effects and couldn`t get on with it. It looked exactly like Premiere! It didn`t seem to have any other features that I could find! I`ll have to have a play again.
What I understand on how it could help me is that you edit your movie and then just export the clip you want to do effects on. Effect it in After Effects, Export the clip and load the new improved clip into Premiere.

From what i`ve heard, Encore is the biz and best for useing it if you want menus and a good frontend on your dvd.

As for the stability of Premiere. It can be quirky and only last week it bombed out while I loaded up the `New Title` option. I lost about 30 minutes of work. I save after every complicated move. As you know, I use a dedicated Home Built PC for it and it very rarely crashes. I have no need for FireWalls and Virus checkers and basicly it runs very fast and boots up in about 15 seconds! Now if I was to do this on my other computer with internet it would be very slow and unstable. This computer takes 4 minutes to load up and is very low on resourses.
David, if you are going to get more serious, then you should really think about getting another computer just for editing and picture manipulation and DVD burning etc. Your system would be really stable.

ned c · Post by **ned c** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 3:36 pm

I have Final Cut Studio which comprises Final Cut Pro 5.1 HD the editing program, Soundtrack Pro which is an audio editing/sound sweetening program and Motion a motion graphics program. FCP projects can be moved in and out of the other two programs. I have used FCP since version 2, mainly because I began NLE on a Mac with EditDV (now defunct). I also have Final Cut Express HD which was on special offer for $99 and quite honestly it does almost everything FCP does. Macs come with a basic editing program iMovie that works well even editing HDV! The problem with programs like FCP is the steep learning curve and although I have been using it for years I have probably used about 50% of its capabilities.

We use PCs for office work and have a back up edit system on the office PC. This is Vegas Studio Platinum, which I have used but can't get along with it as the interface is so different to FCP.

Ned

ned c · Post by **ned c** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 4:01 pm

ps Forgot to mention that FC Studio also includes DVD Studio Pro 4 a very powerful DVD creation program, a program so powerful I have a hard time with it.

Ned

stingman · Post by **stingman** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 4:45 pm

Hello Ned.
It`s good to here from you all those miles away! I`m glad your part of our extended family!
Someone has to use a Mac! I`ve seen it demostrated at our club and it looked good.

I`ve just found out that Premiere Pro2 doesn`t do HD-DVD! You can work in HD and edit in it and render it as a film etc, but you then have to use another programme to actually burn it in HD-DVD or Blu-Ray whatever HD format you choose.
I went onto one of the Adobe Forums and got a little roasting for sugesting that PremPro2 was `a bit rubbish` when it come to DVD aurthorising!
I remember Prem 1.5 or whatever didn`t do DVD burning, untill they brought out 6.5 with it built in. I had to load my film into Unileads one just to burn it! What a pain in the **** THAT was!

Post by **Dave Watterson** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 5:10 pm

One German film maker who has a large output on DVD swears by Ulead and he has used most systems on the market!

Prompted by Ned's mention of his sound editing programs I want to mention the shareware program Goldwave which I use more often than Adobe's Audition because I am more familiar with it.

BUT having given a course recently where almost half the audience was wearing some form of hearing-aid I am becoming much more conscious of sound clarity. I wonder if there is anyone we know who might prepare a set of relatively simple tutorials for the website on using a cheap sound editor like Goldwave. We could have examples to play.

Ideally such a course would suggest common ways to improve the sound recorded by a typical low-to-mid priced camcorder with modest mics. I know you should get it right in the first place, but few of us do. As one well-known film maker said to me the other day: "We have an evening at the club once a year about how vital it is to do all your camcorder settings manually and always use separate mics or else you are not a real film-maker ... and everyone nods agreement. Then for the next 364 days they leave their kit on auto and depend on the built-in mics!"

Dave

billyfromConsett · Post by **billyfromConsett** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 5:37 pm

I use Premiere 6.5 with a Canopus Storm edit card.

It works fine for me, and the Storm stops the need for much rendering at all.

I've looked a Premiere Pro, but I like the twin line timeline of v6.5. I also can't be bothered to learn another edit program, so I'll stick with the one I know.

For DVD creation I use Sonic MyDVD version 6. The menus are good enough, and with Rytek DVD's, I get very few dud disks.
I bought MyDVD version 8 (made by Roxio), found it awful and got my money back. People like me really don't like change.

fraught · Post by **fraught** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:57 pm

I'm currently using Pinnacle Studio 10 Plus.

I find it really easy to use, with some nice results.

Mike Shaw · Post by **Mike Shaw** » Wed May 02, 2007 10:22 am

For me, Avid Liquid is the best. I started out with Studio (from Studio 400 through to Studio 8 ), I tried the others (Media Studio Pro, Premier, Magix) in an attempt to move onto something a bit better. In my view, none matches the multitude of features, capabilities and power of Liquid.

Having said that, I guess the best editor for anyone is the one that lets them work, in 'comfort', the way they want to work, and does all the things they want to do without having to dream up 'workarounds'.

Michael Slowe · Post by **Michael Slowe** » Wed May 02, 2007 11:12 am

I have arrived a bit late on this topic having been busy editing on another computer. I would not have my editing computer on line, much too dangerous for corruption (media files, not me!).

I use Media 100 for editing. It is now owned by Boris and has all their wonderful soft ware incorporated for titling and effects. Media 100 is the nearest thing to what we did as film editors and whose only rival in the commercial world is Final Cut, which has a much steeper learning curve and of course Avid which is used exclusively by big production companies.

Media 100 latest versions can deal with HD and DV on the same programme, has channels in which opacity can be adjusted, and as many other channels as you want, both audio and video. They also have audio equalisation facilities which enable an infinite variety of adjustments to be made to audio, a subject Dave was referring to. Colour adjustments are not as easy as in some other systems however, apart from the usual brightness, contrast, tint, saturation etc. The media management is supurb and I can find any one of 500 clips almost instantly.

I have in the system DVD Studio Pro for formatting and burning DVD's but my encoding is done in BitVice (double pass at a variable bit rate) and the Dolby ac3 audio files prepared in Compressor. With this production path I never have a DVD play problem on any equipment and neither has anyone to whom I have sent DVD's. All this is done on a Dual Mac G5 with external drives for media, I understand it is not good practice to put media on internal drives. The only problem is that I am editing in uncompressed HD and therefore need a lot of capacity (currently 5.5 Terrabytes) and it has to be fast.

All this means nothing of course if the final product is no good. The only criteria is what is up there on the screen so the question posed is pure curiosity I suppose.

Brian Saberton · Post by **Brian Saberton** » Fri May 04, 2007 11:55 am

After a few years using EZDV I now use Premiere Elements version 2 which I find to be a very good programme that does everything I need. I compile my commentaries on Audacity via a rather ancient mixing console and also use this system to transfer music from CD as it gives me a good degree of control.

One thing I would like to see is more emphasis on the theory and art of editing rather than the mechanics which is mostly what we get nowadays. I run an annual video workshop at Crieff for the Scottish Association of Moviemakers and on the Sunday morning this year I put together a workshop on the art of editing which was very well received.

FILM THURSO · Post by **FILM THURSO** » Tue May 08, 2007 6:06 pm

We use Ulead Studio 10 having upped from Studio 8. They are easy to use and the only reason we went to Studio 10 was to get Blue Screen in-house. If our pc was up to it we would have gone for Studio 10plus which enables Dolby 5:1 surround although the basic version has Dolby Digital stereo. Mind you we have a surround encoder box if we really want surround.
Studio 10 has other features which widen production potential but we try to keep the impact of a picture in live-action cinematography using effects only as a means to enable or enhance the story telly. Elements of other photographic software are also used to create some elements that may be required from time to time.

Mike Shaw · Post by **Mike Shaw** » Tue May 08, 2007 6:22 pm

Ulead or Pinnacle/Avid Studio 10?

Peter Thomlinson · Post by **Peter Thomlinson** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 11:30 am

Ian - I use anything that works! I know that some programs do more, and are easier to use, but most editing is straight cuts, and personally I can do without all the fancy transitions which are mostly gimmicks!

Reliability and speed, with ease of use would be my main criteria, and most programmes fullfil these needs to a reasonable degree, especially these days.

Peter

(Sorry if this sounds a bit smug, it is not meant that way!!)