IMovie 08 to FCE4

Not sure if this is the place to ask this, but I am looking at making the switch to FCE4 as I have worn out the usefulness and creativity of iMovie. For those out there that have made the switch recently; what are your thoughts on usability, value, etc? I have never used FCE4 of FCPro.
Cheers,
Mason

If iMovie no longer satisfies you, I think you are ready to switch to FCE. I guess you also tried iMovie 06 which has some more flexibility than iMovie 08, but it also has most of the limitation of a "toy" editor.
The switch to FCE has a steep learning curve, and you have to forget many of the iMovie techniques in order to learn how to edit using a semi-professional non-destructive editor. FCE (not to mention FCP) has a lot more tools, a lot more flexibility, but requires you to clearly understand how to use them. That, in most cases, is completely different from iMovie.
A very good starting point is Tom's book "Final Cut Express 4 - Editing Workshop".
Don't start a new critical project while learning FCE: play first with it, apply Tom's lessons to learn the FCE basic techniques. When you feel confident you learned at least its very basic tools you may try with a real project; but don't stop experimenting. So take your time to dig into new techniques and solutions. In most cases FCE allows many approaches to solve the same problem, and also many ways to apply the same command (from an application or contextual menu, using the mouse, using keyboard shortcuts): it's up to you with some experience to select what is better for your project, for your purposes, for your editing style.
FCE value is incredible: only $199 for an application which has most tools of the corresponding full featured professional FCP, only missing what is needed for a pro production (basically a large selection of editing formats, additional pro applications like motion and compressor, and some others). Just a clarification: different from FCP, FCE uses only 2 kinds of native formats: DV (for both NTSC and PAL) and AIC (for HDV and AVCHD) but can import from and export to any format made available by Quicktime: it simply converts them to or from its own available native formats.
I hope this helps a bit
Piero

Similar Messages

  • Importing from iMovie 08 to FCE4 - aspect ratio!!

    Hello All,
    I have clips recorded in iMovie 08 (captured from built-in iSight cam) which I'm trying to import into FCE4. Using the standard FCP XML export in iMovie and opening in FCE4, the aspect ratio of all clips is lost.
    I am using the built-in iSight cam to record a video blog (please don't give me flack about not using a dedicated cam), is there a way to preserve the 16:9 aspect ratio from iMovie? I have used the motion settings on the clips to attempt to restore the original aspect ratio (-33 seems to be close), but this seems terribly unscientific and mostly guess work. Thanks.

    In the browser (view as list) check the Anamorphic Flag associated with both the imported clip and your sequence: both should be set. My guess your sequence is not 16:9, in this case you only have to set that flag in the browser to fix it.
    Setting Aspect Ratio = -33 in the Motion tab restores the right proportions of the original video but creates top and bottom bands in a standard 4:3 video and reduces the original video vertical resolution. The anamorphic flag, instead, fixes the video aspect ratio without losing video quality.
    Hope it works
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  • When I export 1080p XLM from imovie 09 into fce4 it appears as 720x480 ???

    FCE4 really ***** compared to Adobe Premiere!!! Here's my problem. When I export a 1080p file from imovie09 using the XML export function it appears as 720x480 in fce4 ???? Also will the file suffer from the infamous single frame processing that imovie does???

    FCE defaults to DV-NTSVC as you sequence setting.
    Adjust the Easy Setup to match the incoming file BEFORE starting a Project and then import.
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  • Importing clips from iMovie HD to FCE4

    Hi. Have read with interest a couple of questions on this same issue, with the advice from Tom Wolsky seemingly being to not mix the two applications and just get stuck in with FCE. However, i'm finding FCE difficult to like/get to grips with. But more importantly, after attending some Apple onetoone sessions, it seems my Canon camcorder might be a little long in the tooth and there may be some tape slippage as I was getting time code errors when trying to import directly to FCE. The fix seemed to be to capture the footage via iMovie and import to FCE using 'show package contents' route. Having now though imported some footage from a second tape, I have some of the clips showing as Offline for some reason. Is the trick to import clips from IMovie as per Tom's suggested route on 9/8/08?

    I import video from my camera into iMovie 4, because that is the last version of iMovie, I believe, that was capable of flushing unwanted video off the hard drive, and I can bring an entire tape into iMovie, trim it down for FCE, and then get rid of the unwanted footage. iMovie 6, like Final Cut Express, is a nondestructive editor and can't erase unwanted footage from the hard drive, and as you know, video uses up hard drive space FAST. To get rid of discarded edits, you either have to use iMovie 4 or Final Cut Pro.
    iMovie is also much easier to import video into than Final Cut Express, with all the latter's complicated controls. With iMovie, you just plug in your camera, iMovie then says "Camera Connected," and you hit Play and Import. Stone simple. Also, in iMovie you can hear the audio as it comes in, and if I remember right (it's been a while since I did it in FCE), you can't hear your audio tracks as your video imports into FCE. Not a big deal, but an annoyance.
    Once the video is in iMovie, then I cut and trim the video to get rid of all substandard/unwanted stuff, and then Empty Trash, which erases the unwanted video off the hard drive, saving mucho space over the course of a project. Otherwise, you're just stuck with the unwanted video, and all it does is fill up your hard drive. Then you export (or "Share," in iMovie parlance) your video from iMove as a QuickTime movie, and drop that QT movie into Final Cut Express's Browser. Then create your FCE project from it.
    The only objection I have ever seen to this procedure is people complaining that their QuickTime movie from iMovie has to be rendered in FCE before FCE can use it, and this takes a bit of extra time. Well, that's true, unless you export your video from iMovie in a form that FCE can use natively. Then it doesn't need to be rendered at all--it's just as though you had imported it from the camera directly into FCE. Most people don't know how to set up iMovie to do that.
    Here's how I do it: (this is iMovie 4; I assume other versions are the same), Select Share > QuickTime and choose Expert Settings. On the next screen, select Export: Movie to QuickTime Movie, and click the Options button. In the Movie Settings window that this brings up, on the upper (video) part of it, under the Video checkbox, click the Settings button there, and for Compression Type choose DV/DVCPRO-NTSC, and under Compressor Quality, move the slider to Best, and click OK. Under the Sound checkbox, click Settings, and then choose Linear PCM, Stereo, and 48.000 kHz for Sound Settings. Under Render Settings, choose Qualty: Best. Just below that, uncheck the "Prepare for Internet Streaming" box. Then click OK, and the window will go away, and you're ready to export.
    Give the video a name, and a place to save to, then click SAVE. The QuickTime movie that results from this can be dropped straight into FCE and requires no rendering; it works just as though you had imported it directly into FCE from your camera.
    Tom B.

  • FCE4 and iDVD Anamorphic Ken Burns

    I created a 60min movie in iMovie8 using three media: 1) NTSC Anamorphic DV from a Panasonic PV-GS80, 2) JPEG 2816x2112 stills from a Panasonic DMC-FX3, and 3) 848x480 motion JPEG video from the DMC-FX3. An iMovie 8 project in 16:9 aspect was burned to DVD by iDVD and viewed on a 16:9 LCD TV with no problems encountered and pretty decent quality.
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    Finally there is the issue that Ken Burns style pans and zooms create unacceptable aliasing and shimmering in the output, even if the motion is minimal. Easing zooms by changing Scale fast at first then slowing down doesn't help. Easing pans by changing in several steps (because the Center parameter can't have Bezier controls) makes the aliasing even more noticeable by changing the rate of shimmering in discrete steps. When still images contain significant detail and linear edges, there seems to be no level of Ken Burns motion that will result in a reasonable image on DVD. Why are these artifacts so much worse than with iMovie?
    As a newcomer to FCE4, I am very disappointed in Apple's failure to ensure a reasonable migration path from iMovie. Perhaps they have forgotten how the basic "bait and switch" strategy is supposed to work! I hope someone here can help more than two hours of hold time with Apple Tech Support helped me. I would be interested in any recommendations for other vendors' products that produce better results with less aggravation. If not, I am about ready to get my money back for FCE4!

    "This will explain what you can do about this..."
    I shouldn't be required to purchase QTPro just to fix the anamorphic bit in the movies exported by FCE, especially when iMovie8 sets the bit properly. Seems like an obvious FCE bug to me. Tom, any thoughts on why a segment with an anamorphic clip first is handled properly?
    "Where are you seeing the image degradation? Are you looking at the output on a video monitor?"
    I'm editing using a 21" ViewSonic LCD monitor, but then I burn DVD's to view on an LCD HDTV. The artifacts are apparent on both displays.
    " Changing anamorphic values after the material has been edited into the sequence will result in image stretching."
    I assume you mean setting the Anamorphic bit on my JPEG stills: I haven't done that. I'm saying that after using Anamorphicizer, some still images were definitely stretched horizontally. I created these by simply dragging a folder of JPEG images to the FCE browser. Other than setting the still duration default, I don't know what else I should do.
    "If you add motion to the images interlacing will be introduced. "
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    I've also found that even though FCE claims to be a reference editor, not touching the original files, there is a problem with handling portrait versus landscape JPEGS. After importing JPEGs, sometimes the FCE image matches the file in the Finder, and sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't, I have found that if I rotate the Finder file, Save it, then Rotate it back and Save again, FCE will finally get its version rotated correctly. This never works by only changing the source file one time: I must do it twice.
    "If you're uncomfortable or unhappy with the application you might be better off using another one."
    I am mostly disappointed that FCE seems to be so out of sync with other Apple apps, and perhaps buggier than many. My guess is that iMovie and FCE are on a collision course instead of a rational product relationship. I would be happy for any recommendations, because I feel that the time I've invested in learning to use this seemingly overly embellished software may not have been well spent. On the other hand, if someone can correct my misunderstandings, I will be very grateful.

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