Upgrading from iMovie 11 to Final Cut Express, Worth It?

I was thinking about upgrading from iMovie 11 to Final Cut Express. I know the cost and I was wondering if it is worth it, is it?

Since Final Cur Pro X will be release in June, you may want to wait for it.
Allan

Similar Messages

  • How do you import music from itunes to Final Cut Express 4?

    I tried dragging and dropping the file from itunes to Final Cut Express, but that doesn't work, so I tried to import a file using the "import file" and that didn't work either. Then I found the original file using finder, and dragged it into Final Cut Express, which did put the file there, and I can hear the audio in the sample player, but when I try to play it in the sequence, this weird beeping happens. Any help?

    jpaulholl wrote:
    Then I found the original file using finder, and dragged it into Final Cut Express, which did put the file there, and I can hear the audio in the sample player, but when I try to play it in the sequence, this weird beeping happens.
    The beeping is relating to audio you have placed into your sequence that doesn't match your sequence settings, therefore needing to be rendered.
    Here is an article for iTunes to FCE http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93165 and here http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93463 that should aid with addressing your current audio woes.
    Enjoy.

  • Any suggestions for an animation program using photographs that can be incorporated into iMovie or Final Cut express?

    Any suggestions for an animation program using photographs that can be incorporated into iMovie or Final Cut express?

    The MTS files will always be grayed out. Do not drill down into the folder structure. Select the top level of the AVCHD folder structure. If this is a hard drive it may take a very long time to load. People have reported 20 minutes to half an hour.
    Other possible problems, conflicts with other software like Perian. Also if there is mixed media on the drive; media in different formats can make the directory unreadable. What are the exact specifications of your media? What settings are you using in FCE?

  • IMovie vs Final Cut Express

    I've been away from using Final Cut Express for a while. I'm thinking about getting back into making some very short documentary films. My goal is not for broadcast but rather to putting these on my website or YouTube. My thought is that I would be well served just using iMovie and that this would be a very painless way of uploading to my site. Am I correct in my thinking? Thanks.

    My goal is not for broadcast but rather to putting these on my website or YouTube.
    I find Youtube is a bit buggy (The most famous bug is the inability to post a text comment).
    These work better.
    http://www.the-top-tens.com/lists/best-alternatives-youtube.asp
    http://www.youtubealternative.com/

  • IMovie vs Final Cut Express and Pinnacle Studio

    Before I had the Imac (6 months now) for my video or photos I use Pinnacle Studio 11. Now I want to update the IMac to Leopard with ILife 09. Now I also want to use Final Cut Express for video editing. However since I seen the introduction of IMovie 09 I'm not sure which investment to make.
    My question to you: with my experience with Pinnacle will Imovie 09 apply for video editing or should I also get the FCE. And what about my projects done in Pinnacle Studio.
    Thanks in advance for all your reactions.
    Ron

    I migrated from using a PC and Pinnacle Studio 11 to a MacBook Pro and Final Cut Express about 9 months ago. I had no previous experience with a Mac, so it has been a very steep learning curve for me. But I have been studying the bright minds on this forum for awhile and have also been taking advantage of various Final Cut tutorials on the web. I eventually stopped regretting leaving Pinnacle behind and I have come to love Final Cut and the greater creative control it offers. As for iMovie, I found it a little too basic for what I want, but it may be suitable for your needs.
    As far as your Pinnacle projects are concerned, finish them up and then immerse yourself in Final Cut. I think you'll be glad you did.

  • Imovie or final cut express, which one works best?

    I am sick and tired of all the bugs in imovie. And I feel bad for everyone who are going out of their minds with soooooooo many problems with imove. I'm ready to buy final cut express, but does any one know if final cut express will run alot smoother and more relieable than imovie?
    Thanks, ED

    Hi M
    I also use iMovie (pref v6) and FinalCut Express (3.5.1) and FCP (5.x.?).
    FinalCut Express and Pro are rather same in work flow. iMovie is mentally
    somthing completely different.
    You need to be a very organized person to get the best of FCE eg. numbering all
    Your tapes (tape unique numbering), preparing a structure from beginning etc.
    BUT: The freedom of about 99 video and audio tracks. Resizing a video track
    above another (pic-in-pic), rotating a slightly off horizon eg 2 deg, color-
    correction (much better than in iMovie), Green/blue screen and so much more
    that needs plug-ins to iMovie (with a cost) as standard.
    Can give Your creativity a real spinn.
    Yours happy with both worlds: Bengt W

  • Bizarre results importing imovie into final cut express?

    I have filmed different interviews which were captured in imovie. I am now trying to import them into final cut express. But when I import one interview called, say, Gavin I get Karen's interview instead. The clip is labelled Gavin but the footsage is from a different interview. No matter who I import I get a completely different project and there is no rhyme nor reason to the footage that opens up.
    Basically I get the wrong footage with every clip I open.
    Please help before I end up in the loony bin!
    Exasperated,
    Clare

    I bought Final cut express just after capturing all my files in imovie (having heard that it was supposed to be easier to cature and trim in imovie before sending the files to fce - is this what you have heard?). If it weren't for a solid week capturing and trimming 40 hours of film I would recapture in fce!!
    I have even replaced the captured media within the scratch folder but still it opens the wrong files.
    The files are labelled as the interviewees name. All the books say that you can import imovie projects into fce and then render and save as fce files.
    I have tried various methods of importing, opening and even dragging a clip straight from imovie into the browser of fce - which works but opens an original untrimmed version rather than the short trimmed version and again it will be an interview of the wrong person.
    I have since been turning the imovie files into .mov files and opening them in fce - this seems to work but hope there is no change to quality.
    Would this be the way to go? I would so appreciate an answer!
    Thanks

  • Bringing vector graphics from illustrator photoshop final cut express.

    I'm having a heck of a time getting my logo from illustrator to photoshop to final cut express. It is squishing it. It looks jagged in photoshop. I am cutting and pasting from an eps file to a photoshop doc that is for film and video. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.
    Thanks to anyone who has answers.

    If you have a problem with working with Photoshop you probably want to go to the Adobe forums.
    If you're placing the vector graphic in a Photoshop file make it whatever size you need it to be. You're video image is the square pixel equivalent of 720x540. If you need the logo to fill the frame from edge to edge then make it that size. If you need it smaller, make the PSD smaller.

  • IMovie to Final Cut Express

    Took an iMovie edited ad I did for a painting event in our town and transferred it back to Canon HD CMOS camera. Transferred that into Final Cut Express for some more color tweaking and the quality dropped significantly. Why? It was brought in the correct format as the camera HD 1080/60.
    I brought a rough edit into the camera before and brought that back into iMovie as a clip and that quality is great.

    New Question as well. It took ages to render the project clip sequence in the timeline. Then I was attempting to experiment with zooming into a scene. Set Motion Key frame, then marked an in point and noticed everything on the timeline is now unrendered again. What? I noticed that before in short shots on another project, but this is so huge to re render again and again. what have I done wrong to "unrender the sequence?" Do I need to cut up the section I;m working on first in the wireframe, so it doesn't affect the entire clip/project and unrender it?
    Thanks for your help! Signing off for the evening, will check in again in the AM.. You guys are the best.
    Monika

  • Imovie 06 & Final cut express

    I have iMovie 06 and i am trying to import projects into Final cut express but i am having trouble, need help??

    Hi
    There are no 100% way to do this.
    If You want Your Timeline with edits (transitions etc) to come over to FCE in a
    still editable version.
    • Not possibly - transition, text- tools are to different
    If You want Your TimeLine movie over and accept that spelling errors etc. if fixed
    and can't be altered.
    • Best way is to connect Camera and insert a new miniDV tape and Copy to Camera
    Use this and You'll get best quality possibly
    To open the iMovie project and drag material over to FCE will partly work but
    1. unedited raw material
    2. Audio doesn't work the same way but needs to in FCE be rendered (every time anything
    changes very irritating)
    My penny to this
    Yours Bengt W

  • Converter from D3100 on final cut express

    like converting the video recorded from nikon d3100 and importing them on final cut express.
    I am italiano

    Where are you importing from, a camera, a file?????
    Please provide some type of specific info regards the import.
    FYI: FCE works with only DV, HDV and AVCHD codecs.
    Al

  • Flip mino or flip ultra HD to use in imovie and final cut express

    i am contemplating either flip mino HD, Flip ultra HD or creative vado HD. Which one has a good video quality and design style? Is it necessary for 2 hrs movie or actually i like the flip mino coz its slimmer but only takes 1 hr video. By the way, What kind of format the flip camcorder will save as coz someone says its .avi but some says Mp4 format? If in Mp4 format, is the quality still good? most of the time i will shoot in ultra hi definition setting. I will use imovie and final cut for edit and does the Flip compatible to imovie and Final cut? How about creative vado? any recommendation?
    But most likely i will get the flip.

    The Flip cameras are easy to use and pocketable.
    Unfortunately it is their very simplicity that drastically limits what they can do.
    They are OK for someone who wants to take daft pictures of their friends and post them on YouTube but for serious film-making they are non-starters.
    They record low quality highly compressed video onto an internal memory.When you have shot your 60 minutes of video you can’t use the camera any more until you get it to a computer and download it.
    The lens is a small aperture fixed focus with no zoom.
    Actually to be correct there is a 2x digital zoom, but as we all know, digital zooms are a total waste of time and only reduce the quality still further. You can get the same effect by enlarging your picture 2x in the computer - not to be recommended.
    So what at first sight, to the uninitiated looks like a very cheap camera, quickly turns out to be a very expensive toy.
    Much better to buy a proper camera (which won't cost all that much more) like Skalicki suggests.

  • From Photoshop to Final Cut Express to iDVD Problem

    I can't seem to figure it out. I'm creating a widescreen presentation. I'm using photoshop to create a slide, I then export it into final cut express to create a slide show. When I export it using file>export>quicktime movie... the quality looks terrible, and isn't in 16:9. It looks pushed together, and font looks incredibly blurry.
    When I export using quicktime conversion (which I think takes the chapters ability away) it looks great cause I export to extremely high settings. Then when I insert the movie into iDVD, its back in 4:3 nasty pushed together mode.
    WHAT AM I DOING WRONG!
    thanks,
    Shawn

    And just to clarify a bit. Anything I'm exporting, even if its widescreen footage, using file<export<quicktime movie... is 4:3. Why the **** is this happening?

  • IMovie Vs Final Cut Express/pro and making$$$?

    Sorry, another post from us (interchangeably Graeme or Leanne).
    We have been making home movies with various versions of iMovie for about 5 years now and for the most part (except the bugs) love it. Recently we have decided to try and start using our filming and editing skills to earn some money in our spare time (not that we have much of that with two kids 3 and under...).
    We have done a couple of weddings, baby movies and a little corporate function work so far and are just at the point of registering a business, domain name, buying better equipment etc - in other words, getting more serious. My question is as wannabe (semi) professionals, should we be making the effort to learn and use FCP or is it OK to keep using iMovie?
    We do get a little frustrated occasionally with the limitations of iMovie but on the whole, it usually produces fantastic (and seemingly impressive) results to our clients. I guess we feel reluctant to learn a whole new complicated package when iMovie seems to be doing the trick. We just worry that maybe we're being lazy and not very professional by using such an 'off the shelf' consumer product.
    In some ways, we think our filming and techniques and editing creativity are what's important and the editing software is just the tool that allows us to put it all together so we shouldn't be software snobs.
    Are other people using iMovie to make money?
    I would really appreciate any thoughts about this?
    I think I have read posts in the past (by Karl possibly - to the effect that iMovie is not to be sneezed at...)
    Sorry for the ramble,
    Leanne
    PS We do have a copy of FC Express by the way - just never used it because iMovie is always so invitingly easy every time we start a new project.

    I'm not a video professional so my opinion doesn't count for much. (Which won't stop me from expressing an opinion. :-))
    I love simple tools. My bias is always to use the simplest tool I can find, if it does the job. I don't like spending days or weeks learning software, or having to re-learn it if I haven't used it for a while. I dislike the nuisance and the cost.
    You see where I'm heading here...
    But wait. That tool can't limit my imagination. It has to be able to deliver, create the stuff I want to create. It has to meet whatever demands I place on it, not get in the way.
    Since I don't consider myself a particularly imaginative guy, it also has to inspire me. Show me what's possible. Help me discover what's out there that I can do.
    (Great software is like seeing an Ansel Adams collection for the first time. It lets you see what is possible with a simple camera and a simple darkroom.)
    David Babsky, perhaps one of the more creative and artistically sensitive people here, creates wonderful stuff with iMovie, as do many others. He doesn't seem limited by iMovie. He's probably a lot less limited than I am, for he's more creative.
    Other people create great stuff too. I'm constantly amazed at the wonderful videos created by novice users. iMovie hands us the tools to make great-looking stuff. Even more so with iMovie 6's Themes.
    If there's a bottom line, it may be this: The "best" tool is the one that works best for you. For users who revel in complexity -- who are perhaps inspired by it -- Final Cut warrants a good, hard look. If complexity just gets in your way and your creative juices aren't stymied by iMovie, its simplicity is wonderful.
    One other thought: If iMovie doesn't offer a feature I need I can usually create it with QuickTime Pro. I recently needed to create video-over-video, not a feature offered by iMovie. It was a short video of a seated woman talking into the camera -- a talking head. I wanted a series of photos to fade in and out inside a small picture frame on the wall behind her. (The pictures were a kind of subplot which, as the talking head fades to black, reveal an inside joke.)
    I built two iMovie projects, one containing the photos and one containing the talking head, exported each to a Full Quality DV movie, then using QuickTime Pro, "placed" the photos on the wall behind her. It worked perfectly. With simple tools.
    It's a very subjective call. If the software inspires you and lets you do good work, it's the one to choose.
    Karl

  • Importing transitions from imovie to final cut problems

    Hello, I made a musicvideo in imovie, it´s all finished with cuts and transitions but I want to make the "final touch" with balance, colours etc in final cut.
    The problem: when I import the imovie project into final cut pro x the clips and the transitions changes the duration so the clips nolonger sync with the music and some of the clips are much longer/shorter than the original. I don´t want to do all the job again, editing and add new transitions in final cut as it already took me a long time......Anyone have any solution?

    You can delete the transitions in iMovie and re-add them after importing into FCP X. Granted, this is some work, but it should not be all that much. It is easy to add a number of transitions and to set their parameters all at once.
    Like BenB said, transitions behave differently in both programs, and they do not match, so this conversion can cause problems, as you are now well aware.

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