Jeremy Gray Posted June 12, 2008 Share Posted June 12, 2008 (edited) I really dont know if I should get a mac a a pc laptop.I think I would like to get a mac and then once I finish college get FCP studio. Can anyone with FCP Studio give me your input on the software compared to adobe premiere pro and affter effects? Thanks very much!! Edited June 12, 2008 by Jeremy Gray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member John Sprung Posted June 12, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted June 12, 2008 I really dont know if I should get a mac a a pc laptop.I think I would like to get a mac and then once I finish college get FCP studio. Can anyone with FCP Studio give me your input on the software compared to adobe premiere pro and affter effects? Thanks very much!! FCP and Avid are widely used in the industry for features and prime time TV shows. They're the two user interfaces worth learning if you want to edit for a living. -- J.S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chance Shirley Posted June 12, 2008 Share Posted June 12, 2008 Mac all the way. You can get After Effects and Premiere for the Mac if you want, but I would definitely recommend FCP over Premiere for editing. Here's a blog post by a friend of mine that explains several Premiere pitfalls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Paul Bruening Posted June 12, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted June 12, 2008 I find a loyalty amongst Mac users that is phenomenal to me. I'm all PC. Both work. There's not much difference between them except for the personal experiences of the software and OSs now that Mac has gone zeros and ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Phil Rhodes Posted June 12, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted June 12, 2008 Premiere is much more video editing for computer people, whereas Avid, which is much like FCP, is computers for video editing people. I'm very much the former. Premiere does have some alarming problems; I'm not really sure what market they're going for anymore, and the bundle doesn't have anything like Color. I'm not sure there's anything much more wrong with it than there is with FCP, though. There's no way of getting timecode into FCP other than embedded in a Quicktime movie, so you can't very easily use it to conform offline projects in a file-based workflow unless you cut it all on Final Cut anyway. I could go on. I don't think either of them support DPX I/O or MIDI control surfaces. If that guy had it taking 20 minutes to export 45 seconds of audio he was doing something stupid. And OMF is just stupid. P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Joofa Posted June 12, 2008 Share Posted June 12, 2008 (edited) I really dont know if I should get a mac a a pc laptop.I think I would like to get a mac and then once I finish college get FCP studio. Can anyone with FCP Studio give me your input on the software compared to adobe premiere pro and affter effects? Thanks very much!! If you are in college you can get very good deal on Adobe Production Premium (which includes Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop Extended, Flash, Encore, Soundbooth, Illustrator, Ultra, OnLocation, any some more) for about 300-400 dollars. Final Cut Studio can be had for about 500-600 dollars. I personally think that Adobe Premiere has reached a stage where it is equal to or better than Final Cut Pro. Of course, the dynamic link combo of After Effects and Premiere is something that Apple does not even come close to with Final Cut Pro and Motion or even Shake. And Shake is not part of Final Cut Studio, but a useful software. Edited June 12, 2008 by DJ Joofa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre LeBlanc Posted June 12, 2008 Share Posted June 12, 2008 Having used both Mac and PC extensively, I can say one of the biggest reasons to use a Mac is to be able to properly interface with small post production facilities for doing your digital transfer services, such as coforming EDLs, etc... The majority of them are using a Mac with FCP in my experience. I ran into a lot of problems when trying to get files back and forth (even simple EDLs) from my PC world to the post production company's Mac world. Coming from a very technical background myself, and having no real bias of one platform to the other, I would use a Mac for all my future editing projects. A Mac is basically just a PC with a different operating system. They even use Intel processors now. In terms of software, I can say whole heartedly that I like *both* the FCP suite and Adobe's suite, and I can think of several reasons to use both for different situations. You can get both these suites for the Mac now. Plus, there's no reason you can't have a Mac with both OSX and Windows running on it if you think you might need both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Matthew W. Phillips Posted June 12, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted June 12, 2008 I personally use a PC. I know this generates much laughter in this field since many think MAC is king. From my use of both platforms from a software developer point of view, PC was superior in design and coding options. Stability is a hot issue but it's really a non-issue because it's the software, not the hardware, generally that affects stability. I would say that unless you have the money for different systems for different things, get a PC. You have many more options of software, from Commericial to Indie (some of which is good stuff) to choose from. If you have the money to have a dedicated editing machine, a Mac may serve you well since FCP is extremely popular in the industry. Just remember to use your head and cut through the hype and fanboy-ism. Remember, both platforms have been used by some Professional at some point so they both must be capable machines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Gray Posted June 12, 2008 Author Share Posted June 12, 2008 (edited) If you are in college you can get very good deal on Adobe Production Premium (which includes Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop Extended, Flash, Encore, Soundbooth, Illustrator, Ultra, OnLocation, any some more) for about 300-400 dollars. Final Cut Studio can be had for about 500-600 dollars. What do you have to do to get it that cheap?? Edited June 12, 2008 by Jeremy Gray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Joofa Posted June 12, 2008 Share Posted June 12, 2008 What do you have to do to get it that cheap?? Nothing. Just have to be a student. Many colleges/universities sell them on campus. And for those who don't, you can always try online sites such as http://www.academicsuperstore.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Satsuki Murashige Posted June 12, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted June 12, 2008 If you are in college you can get very good deal on Adobe Production Premium (which includes Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop Extended, Flash, Encore, Soundbooth, Illustrator, Ultra, OnLocation, any some more) for about 300-400 dollars. Final Cut Studio can be had for about 500-600 dollars. What do you have to do to get it that cheap?? Apply for the student version of these software bundles. With Apple, they don't bother to even check if you really are a student, it's the honor system. With Adobe, you have to send in proof that you are a current student in order to purchase. Or your school may have a student bookstore which carries the software, mine did. For Apple: http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/routingpage.html For Adobe: http://www.adobe.com/education/products/cr...ite/production/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chance Shirley Posted June 12, 2008 Share Posted June 12, 2008 > There's not much difference between them except for the personal experiences of the software and OSs... Well, yeah. That's kind of the point of the discussion. For both video and audio work, I find Apple's Mac OS superior to Windows. And, bang-for-the-buck, the Final Cut Pro software package can't be beat. > And OMF is just stupid. Unless you need to move a media project from one software application to another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Joofa Posted June 12, 2008 Share Posted June 12, 2008 And, bang-for-the-buck, the Final Cut Pro software package can't be beat. Not true anymore with Adobe CS3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member John Sprung Posted June 12, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted June 12, 2008 Apply for the student version of these software bundles. How much does the student version differ from the regular version? Is it just a banner on the splash screen, or do they put in limits on various things, such as the size of projects, or how much storage, etc? I'd guess that they'd track the serial numbers to know that something was bought on a student discount when you go to upgrade. -- J.S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Joofa Posted June 13, 2008 Share Posted June 13, 2008 (edited) How much does the student version differ from the regular version? There is no difference in functionality while usage. Upgrade to a newer version is something I am not fully sure about. However, updates (not upgrades) such as newer fixes, etc., are the same as with regular retail version and come at no additional cost. BTW, its jut not students who are in for a free ride. I think faculty and staff of colleges/universities also get a reduced price (though slightly higher than student price, but nevertheless, much less than retail price). Edited June 13, 2008 by DJ Joofa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Gray Posted June 13, 2008 Author Share Posted June 13, 2008 Which program is easier to use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Satsuki Murashige Posted June 13, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted June 13, 2008 How much does the student version differ from the regular version? With Apple, the only difference is that you have to pay full price for the new software when you upgrade, ie. when FCP 7 or FCS 3 comes out. Updates (ie. FCP 6.1, 6.2, etc.) are still free. Non-student users get a discount when the upgrade. I'm not sure how it works with Adobe, but I suspect it's much the same thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chance Shirley Posted June 13, 2008 Share Posted June 13, 2008 Not true anymore with Adobe CS3. I guess "bang for the buck" is subjective. Adobe = $799, Apple = $1,299. Adobe is obviously cheaper, but I think the Apple package is more than worth the extra $500. A lot of the decision probably has to do with your workflow. I cut features, I don't deal with videotape, and I farm out stuff to other editors and effects artists on occasion. Apple is the only way to go for me, if for no other reason that all of the other editors and effects people I deal with are using Apple. I maintain it's the most flexible and robust solution for beginning editors (I started with FCP 2.0 and DVD Studio Pro 1.0). And beginning computer users, for that matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member John Sprung Posted June 13, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted June 13, 2008 Can anyone with FCP Studio give me your input on the software compared to adobe premiere pro and affter effects? There's one big difference between FCP Studio and everything else, including Avid. In the beginning, there was the EDL. It turned editing into a process of creating lists of pointers and instructions, leaving the original picture and track unmodified. Later, we had decision lists for color correction, etc. What FCS does is bring all of post into a single common world of pointers and instructions. So, for instance, you can place titles and credits before or after color correction. You can update any of the instructions in this big common list environment at any time. When you're happy with everything, only then do you push "Go" and spit out a tape. This kind of fully integrated file centric post looks to me like as big a revolution as we had 20+ years ago going from film to tape for TV shows. -- J.S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Hibner Posted June 14, 2008 Share Posted June 14, 2008 If you buy a PC, especially the Intel Core 2 Duo, you'll have the ability to run Leopard. I haven't read a lot into Macs running Vista, Xp, but from my experience, I can run Leopard flawlessly on my PC. Just use a portable HDD for your Leopard OS, buy the liscense, and you'll have best of both worlds. Save the cost of buying a MAC and get a laptop/PC that can do both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Paul Bruening Posted June 14, 2008 Premium Member Share Posted June 14, 2008 Funny how time draws unusual perspectives. My first editing experience was on an 8-plate Steenbeck with a grease pencil and tape splicer. There were bins (real bins of rod and cloth bags) over-piled with workprint and shelves of three ring binders with little trims of 16mm film taped to notebook paper. Both Mac and PC systems are so easy and powerful compared to the "good ole' days" that they seem barely worth parsing. They both work great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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