Movie Making Software

[Cindi Hammons]

I used to have movie making software that I downloaded from a friend. It was great, and had lots of cool tools. So, we had a computer crash, and former friend no longer has the software available...and I can't remember the name. ANYWAYS...I would like to have your recommendations on good movie making software that offers more than just inserting an image and putting music behind it...such as allowing one to zoom in on an image.

Windows Movie Maker is a pain and doesn't give you much in the way of creativity. On top of that, my DVD burner won't burn any movie made with WMM.

Let me know if you have any suggestions.
Thanks!
Cindi

[Shea Zellweger]

I have Adobe Premier. It works pretty well, but for some reason it REALLY slows down my computer, even though my specs far outstrip what it says it requires. I've uninstalled, reinstalled, changed settings, disabled certain background programs, etc, but everything still slows to a crawl as soon as I open it up. There's a really great program my school uses, I'll try to grab the name of it. You can rip clips from existing movies, do voiceovers, special effects, etc...

[Paul DeBaufer]

Final Cut Pro, is without a doubt the best. I had it and loved it. The industry standard would be Avid, I have it and don't like it as well as Final Cut. Problem with Final Cut is it is Mac only. Avid is very expensive, $2500.00 I think. I also have Adobe Premiere CS5, it's not bad. For me it ranks just after Avid. Not sure the cost as I got it with Master Collection which runs $2500.00, but includes all of adobe's suites of applications. My friend uses Pinnacle's Liquid edition and likes it very much and it is much more affordable.

[Shea Zellweger]

Final Cut Pro... oh, yeah, Paul beat me to it :)

[Cindi Hammons]

Oh, well...no Mac, and no $2500. I'm looking for home use. I'll look at Adobe. :)

[Cindi Hammons]

Okay, I ordered Adobe Elements Premiere 9 today. We've had great experience with Adobe Photoshop, so I thought it was worth the risk...along with Shea's recommendation. I just hope it doesn't run as slow as Shea's...we'll see.

Thanks guys.

[Cindi Hammons]

Shea, you aren't kidding! It is almost so slow that it is not workable! The learning curve is pretty steep as well (at least some parts are). I'm not going to give up though. :)

[Lucas Finch]

Windows Movie Maker is actually a better free program than it is frequently given credit for. You just have to learn how to use it to its greatest potential. Check out the highlight video I put together from my district's teen camp last summer as an example of what can be done with it:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdA7uk2N9C4

It does crash a lot, though, so frequent saves are required. I also don't burn video DVDs very often, so I cannot comment as to the ability to do so with Movie Maker videos. I'm pretty sure I've done it before, though.

I am in the process of transitioning to Apple products, though, so I have begun using iMovie as much as possible. It does not play the audio on the videos for the format that my video camera records in, though, and converted files loose some of the quality, so when I need native audio I still mostly resort to Movie Maker. I really hope to be able to purchase Final Cut Express soon. I would prefer the "Pro" version, but $1000 is a little too much for me to pay for it.)

Here are a couple of videos that I have recently made using iMovie. The first is of a sledding trip that I took my youth group on last month, and the second is a promo video for our teen camp this next summer that I finished up just yesterday afternoon.


http://www.facebook.com/v/10150090622708230


http://www.facebook.com/v/10150101431578230

[Gary Creely]

Final Cut Pro, is without a doubt the best. I had it and loved it. The industry standard would be Avid, I have it and don't like it as well as Final Cut. Problem with Final Cut is it is Mac only. Avid is very expensive, $2500.00 I think. I also have Adobe Premiere CS5, it's not bad. For me it ranks just after Avid. Not sure the cost as I got it with Master Collection which runs $2500.00, but includes all of adobe's suites of applications. My friend uses Pinnacle's Liquid edition and likes it very much and it is much more affordable.

I think Final cut may soon take that industry standard spot.

[Gary Creely]

Adobe premiere elements is I think the best choice of the affordable PC options.