nice editing software

Hi!

i am again in a hurry. need a program to edit a short film a few friends made...

I have tried Final Cut Express, but it seems to difficult for me. Besides, even my hard efforts, i couldnt believe it had a 1150 page manual!! I thought it was "Express" not "Biblical"!!!

anyways, iMovie is too simple, and FCE is too hard... i need something in the middle, but never like Pinnacle (PC)!! is there ULEAD MEDIA STUDIO or something like that??

please help!!

thanks!

There are a few out there. Norrkross Movie looks interesting but may not be for you.

What do yo need to do that iMovie can't?

i was thinking on Premiere Pro CS3.... is that more difficult to handle than Final Cut Express?? if so, what could i get??

by the way, imovie is way too simple and has not many effects nor transitions or text effects...

I guessing you are talking about iMovie 08. As an iM08 user, you can download iMovie HD, the previous version which has more capabilities.

Premiere Pro is a pro level application like Final Cut Pro. I haven't used it, but I can't see how that would be any easier than FCE 4 which is a slightly stripped down and easier version of FCP.

No matter which application you use, you'll need to put in some learning time. If FCE came with an introductory tutorial, then go through the whole thing. Else buy a book. There are also online tutorials you can find.

I learned photoshop using online tutorials...so you could probably learn FCE that way too. It will take time, but you'll be glad you put out the effort.

thanks. the thing is that i dont want to make professional films in which you take hours to edit;D .... you know, FCE and FCP are just another level....

i was finding something similar to PINNACLE for PC or ULEAD VIDEOSTUDIO...
its something like iMovie but a little better...

are there any equivalents to these two for MAC?

thanks!!

premiere is an excellent program but has some undesirable features. you said you wanted to make professional looking videos but without hours of work- that sounds great but very unrealistic. final cut is an absolutely fantastic program- once you learn the basics you can (more or less) whiz by. just search youtube for some quick tutorials. if you devote a couple hours just learning the basics, the process will go by faster than you trying to figure it out yourself and i think you'll be happy with the final product of your video.

can you make nice movies with FCE in less than 4 hours??? for example, with Pinnacle (PC) i could do so in 3-4 hours, and results were impressive... however the films i made always looked the same:Blushing:

FC Express. If you actually want to learn how to use FC Express, yes it's possible to make movies in 4 hours.

jolulure said:

can you make nice movies with FCE in less than 4 hours??? for example, with Pinnacle (PC) i could do so in 3-4 hours, and results were impressive... however the films i made always looked the same:Blushing:

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As a video student I've been told that a good editor is not limited by the software he/she uses. Granted, some programs have specific abilities and extras for making something flashy. If I knew what you were trying to achieve I could recommend a few different programs. I don't recommend Premiere if you had a hard time with FCP. I've never used the Elements version but personally I love FCP. As posted earlier, once you know the basics it's fairly easy to piece something together.

Another program that I've enjoyed using (back in my PC days) because of it's user friendly-ness and powerfull plugins is Sony Vegas. The suite comes with their DVD editing software that was quite good in it's own right.

As far as to why your pieces all look the same, it's possible that you are exhausing the limitations of your software but more likely that it's just because they were all edited by you and you've put your own style into it. Are you using alot of pre-fabricated graphics and special effects? If so, try staying away from them and just making a straight cut sequence to switch it up a bit.