[Frameworks] query for those who teach filmmaking

[Beebe, Roger W.]

On the original topic of editing software, I’d throw my weight behind switching to Premiere.  At the University of Florida, I experimented for a semester with FCPX, and I found it buggy & dumbed down in ways that made it hard to do things that I’ve come to expect from my editing systems.  The magnetic timeline is one of the worst innovations I’ve ever encountered, and the commingling of audio and video tracks just makes everything look chaotic.  I’m sure I could’ve applied myself & gotten more familiar with the quirks of this system, but I preferred instead to switch over to Premiere, which had much more of the feel of FCP 7 and also had the advantage of integrating seamlessly with Premiere and After Effects.  

I’m also on the UFVA list and this discussion has come up frequently.  FCPX does have a few defenders, but it has produced much more dissatisfaction.

I’ve just relocated to Ohio State, and we’ve started anew in Premiere.  The person who had been teaching the video classes here was teaching FCPX, but he seemed excited to switch over after the troubles he’s had with FCP.

As for hardware, here at Ohio State, our labs all have iMacs.  The older ones really do slow down when you attempt to do anything slightly complex; even the newer ones are noticeably slower than the Mac Pros I left behind in Florida.  It is a great cost savings though, and if you only have to pay with your time, it just depends on how much you’ll hate having to go make a pot of tea while you render a sequence.  It’s certainly not impossible to do interesting, layered work on an iMac though.

2 cents,
R.

On Apr 17, 2014, at 9:42 PM, Aaron F. Ross <aaron at digitalartsguild.com> wrote:

> I would steer clear of iMacs for video editing, they are underpowered. If you want to render HD video, it's going to be slow and painful on even the high end iMacs. The Mac Pro is very fast, but very expensive. It is only available with small solid state drives, so you have to buy additional external hard drives.
> 
> Aaron
> 
> 
>> I disagree with $4000.  A 21" iMac - what a school would likely be running Final Cut on - starts at $1299.  I assume there are bulk discounts for schools, but they likely already have the computers.
> 
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> 
>      Aaron F. Ross, artist and educator
>      http://dr-yo.com
>      http://digitalartsguild.com
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