Video Editing

All my video projects are strictly amateur, home video, garden variety, family stuff so my needs aren't great. I used the software that shipped with my Mac (iMovie) for quite a while. It's pretty good and worked remarkably well even on my old G3 iMac. But I started to run into the limits of the tool and decided I needed more control and flexibility. A couple of years ago I upgraded to Final Cut Express (FCE). Now I have to tell you that for the inexperienced video editor FCE is like stepping into a race car when you're used to driving a mini van. "What do you mean I have to shift gears!?"

As a result my ramp-up has been slow and arduous. If I spent every day for weeks at a time doing it, maybe things would have been different but when you're doing it in your spare time, things tend to take a bit longer. I bought a book and went through the tutorials, etc., but just found myself crawling instead of running. The terminology was very foreign (e.g., ripple, roll, slip, slide, keyframes, bin, canvas, viewer...) When it came time to doing a school project with my daughter last year I resorted to iMovie except for the voice over part where FCE came in. In fact, I have to admit that my video output was probably approaching zero. Sure I started lots of projects but I haven't finished very many.

So along came our trip to Maui and some new raw footage. Full of new energy I decided to tackle the project. Now I don't know when the lightbulb went on, but wow FCE rocks. Here's what I like:

• I can organize all my clips with bins (a.k.a., folders)


• Clips stay where I put them in the sequence (manual transmission instead of an automatic)


• Color correction! It's amazing what you can bring out of a dark shot.


• Mutliple sequences in one project.


• Non destructive editing. (I think iMovie supports this now too). Great when you change your mind.


• Better titling options


• Many available video and audio tracks (99 of each).


• Superimposing titles and other clips is a snap with multiple tracks.


• Real-time effects. I still have to render the odd thing or two, but this is great.


• Short cut keys everywhere. I hardly touch the mouse.


• Multiple windows. iMovie has one simple window. With FCE I can reorganize things for the task at hand.


• Much better audio management.

I don't know if my repertoire as a video editor has expanded yet with all this new found flexibility but I think I'm finally into an efficient editing mode again. I'm betting this video will be out the door before the end of the week. Then I can start looking into all the motion, animation, and compositing capabilities of the tool. And if things go well maybe I'll look into the new Final Cut Express DV.