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Movie Making: Tools of the Trade (opinions from Mac Folks welcome)

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I'm looking to do some basic movie making with a DV camera. Mostly so I can learn it. Not sure what my options are as far as what good packages (editing, low-level effects, soundtracks, etc) are available. I keep seeing Final Cut for mac, but as always my problem with that is the Macs are so expensive. Would FC run on an iMac vs the Mac Pro? Is there a good WinTel equivalent to the FC studio? Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced camera?
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I can only discuss what I've used. I've used both Final Cut and Adobe Premiere, and I find them both quite good. Honestly, I haven't used Premiere since I used Final Cut. I'm really not sure what to say beyond that. All my editing has been done on a Mac, so I really don't know if I'm the best person to help you. I'm sure there's probably a version of Premiere for Windows.

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First off, for cameras, I reccomend the Panasonic GS series. Looks like the 150 is out of production and the 320 is the closest thing now. The reason I liked the higher-up one is that it shoots anamorphic, but if you're just starting out, that probably won't matter. Looks like the GS80 would do you just fine.

I primarily edit on my PC using Premiere, which I enjoy very much. The Mac version of Premiere is a pain and not worth the trouble. I have edited with Final Cut, and I still do when I am mandated to because of a class project. The two programs are pretty easy to pick up. If you can do one, you can do the other. I haven't found either one to have an advantage over the other. FCP allows you nice add-ons like Soundtrack Pro and LiveType, but standalone programs for PCs can do that same kind of thing.

As far as effects go, I really don't know what there is for a Mac. For PC, I know there's Adobe After Effects, which is really powerful if you learn how to use it properly. There might be a Mac version, I'm not sure.

It pretty much boils down to whether you want to work on a PC or a Mac, I would say.

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Thanks for the info GT and RB.

Adobe Premier looks like it has promise. I'll check it out, especially due to cost considerations with the Macs.
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What are the prices of DV cameras by the way? What's an inexpensive camera but still somewhat good quality?
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Originally posted by: JediSage
I'm looking to do some basic movie making with a DV camera. Mostly so I can learn it. Not sure what my options are as far as what good packages (editing, low-level effects, soundtracks, etc) are available. I keep seeing Final Cut for mac, but as always my problem with that is the Macs are so expensive. Would FC run on an iMac vs the Mac Pro? Is there a good WinTel equivalent to the FC studio? Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced camera?


Dude, spring the dough for a Mac because by the time you get a PC with enough RAM and processor speed to cut down on rendering time, you're in Mac range anyway.

It's so damned easy on a Mac it's ridiculous. Shoot movie. Plug camera in. Dump footage. Import to FCP. Edit away.

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Couple more things...

For a beginner, FCP is way more user friendly than Premiere. When you look at the screen, it just makes sense. There's my video tracks, there's my audio tracks, perfect. There's my master window, there's my edit window, cool.

I always found Premiere's layout to be confusing and convoluted. One of the biggest turnoffs for someone starting out is a confusing layout. Same goes for After Effects, which, unfortunately is the route you're going to have to go if you want something "affordable."

I can't say enough good things about FCP, it is such a well designed program and everything is really intuitive. I'd seriously stay away from Premiere unless you know what you're doing.
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Really? Because in my editing class last year, he introduced us to Premiere and then, on our next project, taught us Final Cut, and, honestly, I don't really see a lot of difference between the two.

But, yeah, how much would a mini-DV camera run for?

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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I think the general concensus is that anyone who uses Final Cut, pretty much likes it so much that they stop using everything else. I believe this is especially true of editors who are former users of Premiere. Adobe killed Premiere for the Mac after Apple came out with Final Cut because that version of Premiere had been languishing and couldn't compete. Adobe is re-entering the Mac market with their new version of Premiere, so it will be interesting to see if they are serious about competing this time.

The time old myth of Macs being so much more expensive is really tiring! Go do a feature for feature comparison between a Mac Pro and a similarly equipped Dell Xeon workstation and you'll find that many times the Mac Pro is actually far cheaper. And yes, Final Cut will run on the consumer Macs quite well. I run Final Cut on an old 1GHz G4 iMac with only 768M RAM and it does just fine. Final Cut should scream on a new Intel iMac, I'm quite sure, in comparison to my old rig. I've even heard of people here running Final Cut on their Mac Mini's acceptably. I'd love to have a Mac Pro, but I don't have to have one to do nice work. End of rant. Sorry....

But ReverendBeastly is probably right. Do you want to work on windows or a Mac? If you buy a Mac, you can do both...

You can go about your business. Move along, move along.

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Camera wise, it depends entirely on your budget. Professional DV cameras cost tens of thousands of dollars so obviously you aren't going near those, but "pro-sumer" miniDV cameras are will give you a relatively good image and the most bang for your buck; the Panasonic DVX100 is practically the standard for this, and if you are going this route i recommend this camera and this camera alone, and you can find it for about $3000 or so nowadays. If you are thinking camcorder style, ie under $1000, there are a bunch out there that i have seen some people using but i am not very knowledgable about these; some DV websites have good lists. You can probably find a used Sony PD-150 for under $1000, which is pretty good considering that this was the best in pro-sumer technology less than five years ago.