Learning to edit video...
 

This summer I plan on making a neat video, more for myself then anything, kind of just a video documentry of my summer, I plan to travel alot and just have fun, and want to get lots on one of them small hd video cameras.

(the odds of more then a couple minutes hitting the web are very low, its just someone I want to do).

Right now I can do basic stuff with premier, like cut clips together and use the built in fades to transition.
It looks like shit, and I can never get the audio to work right with it.

I have been thinking of getting a new mac book pro, and someone said it comes with a great video editor.

I am on the fence about the Mac or Windows, is the mac worth it for editing videos?

Where are the best places to learn how to edit video well?
On that note where is somewhere that shows how to take a video so its not borning to start with, lol.

Go mac. The results for someone who doesn't know much about video will be better than trying to go the PC route. You can up your chances of success by making sure you HD camera is one supported specifically by Apple's editing software.

Good luck.

I was thinking about getting a mac for editing too... however, my roommate just got a decent PC with dual core processor and 2 gigs of memory. No stuttering or slowdowns in premiere, protools, cubase, reason etc.

Sweet thanks :)
Looks like a good number of cameras are supported by Apple :)
So the built in editor is good enough :) what if I want more abilities, is the mac still better? and is it only better because of the software available?


The fact that there is a firewire in on the mac is good too :)
I cant find any pc laptops with firewire built in.

Editing is easy to learn. PC or Mac doesn't matter except insofar as you may already have one or the other and be happy with it or perhaps you want to save money with PC components over more expensive Mac hardware and software. You should download trial versions of the editing apps you want to try like Adobe Premiere (which I prefer) or Sony Vegas and see which you like. If you want to switch to Mac that's up to you, FCP is a powerful app too.

The platform you edit on doesn't matter. Its all about what YOU can do with your editing program... understanding the basic principales of montage and directing.

I suggest you get a book on how to direct movies (they will mostly teach you the basics of editing). Try "Film directing, shot by shot" on amazon.com


If you think you've got the eye to simply edit without any prior training, then by all means, just open up any programs manual and learn how to use your editing program.

Chances are you won't though. Editing comes with time and lots and lots of experience.

www.lynda.com has some excellent video tutorials that will teach you how to use Final Cut Pro & Compressor. It costs but well worth it!

If you can spare some bucks , get avid express mobile workstation. LOL

If your a PC user, stay with PC, if your a Mac use, stay with Mac.

Why's that? it's not like and PC and Mac are worlds apart. I happily switch from using one to other all day long.

Thats probably cause your used to both. But for people who've never used a Mac, it can be quite confusing and vice-versa for PC

somethings might be confusing, but to say PC users should not try Macs and vica versa is wrong.

Doesn't take long to adapt to the differences of each OS.

vegas video seems much easier to use than premier. premier is consumer software and vegas is a bit more professional, unfortunately vegas isn't made for macs . .

I haven't looked at Vegas since version 3, but I have always found Premiere's interface more intuitive. I've been using it since 6.5, now with Pro version 2.0 and the Aspect HD Plugin.

The reality is that one can edit professional videos with Vegas, Premiere Pro or FCP for Mac. It just depends on if you want to stay with PC or Mac and which apps interface and features you prefer and also if you want to take advantage of the integration with their respective DVD authoring apps, like in my case Adobe Encore, plus Photoshop for design.