Any lurking independent film makers here?

[Bhaisahab]

i wanted to ask a few questions to anybody who's made videos on the cheap, for commercial or personal purposes...

1. what software is the best to edit camcorder footage?
2. some people say a mac is better than a pc when it comes to creating videos. is it true?
3. how good is the quality of a video edited in a pc/mac? is it good enough for large scale screenings (ie in festivals/TV)?

That's all for now. If you can help me understand these topics, or know someone who can, please give me a hand, ok? i went through websites but they're too technical and confusing, hence the Lounge. always my preferred starting point.

Thanks and happy Sunday!

[jpgray]

1. Dunno, but I miss thebigidea (nt)

[Midnight Rambler]

2. Film student here, does that count?

I haven't had a whole lot of experience making films, but I'll try and answer the best I can.

1. The preferred software seems to be Avid. According to most of my profs, that's the industry standard when it comes to digital editing. It's not that hard to learn, and I've used it a few times. Pretty good program. Unfortunately, I haven't had much experience with other programs (Final Cut, etc.), So I couldn't compare.

2. Most of the editing software is made for Macs rather than PCs, and it's incredibly easy to hook up your camera to your Mac and upload your movie, literelly just plug it in.

3. The quality of the video depens mostly on what you're actually shooting on. The computer or the software doesn't make much difference as far as I know. But, as long as you have a good camera, festival screenings shouldn't be a problem.

Hope that helps.

[fishwax]

3. Macs are better for almost all media functions

for publishing and for video, macs have long been the preferred platform, though I think PCs are closing the gap. (At least, I know a lot more people in publishing who work on Windows than I did five years ago.)

[Taverner]

4. Well....not a sucessful indy filmaker but...

1. I like FinalCut Pro. Youd be surprised what you can do with it. You know all those Starwars fanflicks that were made? FinalCut Pro...
2. Yes. Especially the dual processor macs.
3. Yes. The pros use them, albeit with high end graphics cards, lots of memory and they edit the footage raw, without compression.

[feistydem]

5. Mac. Adobe Premier.

I'm an indy screenwriter and my filmmaker friends all use macs to edit, even though their software preferences vary most cut their teeth on Final Cut Pro and then transitioned to Adobe Premier.

[Bhaisahab]

6. Thank you all!

these were great answers! thanks again..

[Schema Thing]

7. Simple as one two three

There is very competative software and hardware for editing on PC, and it's likely that you can get into a powerful system much cheaper.

The editing platform you use, will not be the difference as to whether your project sucks or excels.