I-Movie 09 is a Big Bummer!

Question

Am I the only one who is really let down by Apples reconfiguration of I-Movie 06? As a video instructor who start's his kids off with I-Movie 06 I was awfully disappointed with 08, and never installed it. After hearing the bugs were out of 08, I bought 09. Well i think apple has taken steps back, not forward. My students really hate 09. It takes more steps to do what was easy to do and easy to understand in 06. I don't get it? Who at apple wanted to change this platform? The audio rubber banding was in front of you and easy as pie, the apple T trim function was awesome, placing effects a breeze. Insert editing, extracting audio, stacking & locking audio was easy and effective! Saving the project to the desk top was cool, now that's gone, choosing wide screen is gone, I and my students, are still very disappointed with the release of 09, and all my kids download 06 once buying their new mac's, and do not use 09. My 2nd year students use final cut express, but even them when pressed for time, go back to 06 to pump out projects running late. Does anyone else feel this way? I herd they are going to let 06 go the way of the trash? Real bummer man! I do like the new effects in 09 and some of the titles, and that's it. You cannot even run 06 and 09 at the same time! Apple what the ???
Thanks Steve

Answer 1

"And in all of this I have learned that iMovie 06 is similar to the other editing programs I've tried. Whereas iMovie 08/09 seems completely different from everything else.
One of the problems that I see in teaching with iMovie 08/09 is that when your students advance to more sophisticated software they will have to "un-learn" iMovie 08/09."
IF iM06 had Mark IN and Mark OUT -- it really would be like every other NLE at any price range. The drag-to-select makes no sense IF you have been editing since Premiere 4. So I didn't like 06.
Because 08 was so radically different -- there was nothing to unlearn. And, other than the lack of rubberbanding audio it offers quick editing. IMHO iM08 is visually obvious. The Force is with you.
I'm less sure I like iM09 because after clicking on the single "button" on a clip you must choose WHICH operation you want. That's an extra step for EVERY operation!
Worse, I -- like I bet many -- have hours and hours of DV I want to edit someday. (Or, VHS xferred to DV.) iM08 and iM09 fail at this task. I sure don't need less quality! Bad move by Apple.
Also, iM08/09 still will not import anything not "popular" like AVCHD, You need to use a program like MPEGStreamclip or iPhoto. (With Avid Media Composer, I can import ANYTHING QT can import because it uses the QT import function. No separate program to run. This is how IMPORT should be!)
If you are teaching -- your students get locked into the Apple way. And, your library of photos and videos are locked into Apple. And, now your AVCHD archeive is locked into Apple. With Apple having such a limited world-wide market share of computers this sounds like not a good place to put students. Keeping OPEN is the smart way to go. In fact, if Adobe ported CS4 to Linux, there would be no reason not to go this way. I'd love to escape from both Apple and MS.
I think the case can be made that with Windows 7 --running on a Mac (bootcamp) or Sony -- offers a less risky future. Applications like EDUIS (better than FCP) or Vegas from Sony or Premier/Premiere Elements from Adobe are less exciting than iM08/09, but over the long haul may be better for students who are LEARNING EDITING. (And, anybody in media uses Adobe apps and "everybody" uses Office.)
However, if kids are just editing to tell a story -- then iM09 is fine. (Likewise iWork is fine for writing student reports.) So it depends on why they are learning editing.
PS: There are those who think that IF there is an FCP 6 it will be very much like iM. Now that would be interesting in Hollywood.