I was wanting to edit a movie I took with my digital camera, and was looking for a good program to do so. It is a decent length (about 45 min in length and I'm looking to make it like 10 min at max) and I believe my camera records in a MPEG format. I need to just delete some parts of it, and rearrange different parts because some of it is out of order.
I don't know the first thing when it comes to movie editing software, and I'd really appreciate it if anyone had some good suggestions on what one I should use.
I already tried my luck with Windows Movie Maker, but the stupid thing instantly crashes whenever I attempt to import a video file into it, however, it has no problems with audio or pictures for some reason.
I don't have much extra money at this time, so my options are basically: find a good free one, one that is rather cheap, or find a way to fix that error in Windows Movie Maker.
Yeah well, AVID is $5000 for the software alone. You can buy a what's called a turnkey system for $10,000+ that comes with a computer that runs AVID, the software, a DVCAM/Mini-DV editing deck, and an NTSC reference monitor.
$55 for Vegas seems kinda cheap in comparison.
Alternatively, If you are in or near Los Angeles, New York, Chicago or Miami, you could have all your footage on a hard drive, and then just rent time at a post-production house.
Of course, most of them use AVID, only a few use Final Cut Pro. Sorry to say Fhajad, nobody in the real world uses Vegas for editing.
You're not the real world of filmmaking, Machinima is not the real world or filmmaking.
Hell, most editors didn't use Final Cut until Walter Murch (This guy is important, you should probably know his name) used it to edit Cold Mountain.
Vegas is cheap, intuitive, and somewhat powerful. But as good as it is, there is no way to push being proficient at it into a marketable skill. All you'll be able to do is just cut home movies with it.
And although I don't condone piracy, or the use of pirated software, you could at least try and use the free 30-day trial you can find on Adobe's website. As stated by Fhajad in an earlier thread, "Premiere Pro gets shit done. Vegas gets shit done faster." (It was something along those lines) Anyhow, the decision itself would be more based upon your personal preference and how you'd like to work on your project. Be it faster, swifter, yet not as accurate? Or maybe have a more professional and prepared presentation?
...I myself use Premiere Pro CS3 for school projects at any arising time, and I usually leave my classmates and teachers wowed. It is very good if you want to work on any presentation, project or exposition. But I'd have to recommend you at least getting some help from a few some good tutorials. Premiere Pro is no begginner's software, bare that in mind.
But I'd suppose you'd like to go for the simpler, quicker and more "hobby" way of software, for a case like yours, I'd have also have to consider Vegas.
My conclusive statement would have to be suggesting you download the trials. SONY's site for Vegas, Adobe's for Premiere. In the end, it's about personal chioce, and work preference.
Everyone in here things anyone that asks for some software or something is always trying to go pro. Vegas is good enough for people that are looking to be professionals and just want to get some videos together.
I have been using pinnacle studio 11, while it has been great for a few "home movies" i have made. It lacks the abilities and polish of a professional editor, and the ready made effects and titles are horrible and cheesy. .
Also, I'd like to bring to everyone's attention that Vegas has a basic edition that's perfectly capable of editing video easily and logically, but because it has a fair deal of the more advanced features stripped from it comes in at a cool $55.
Always found the Vegas interface somewhat counter intuitive for some reason, always took me so much longer to do anything in it. I could actually get similar results in WMM with much less effort.
Eventually I moved onto FCP, but in that low price range you don't have much choice other than Vegas really.
I've seen people get good results with it, but it's one I'd probably suggest people trial before they buy it. Because it's something that some people can find really difficult to get to work. From what I recall of it it's mostly the interface rather than any problems with what it does.
If you can figure out the interface its a decent suite though.
