Q&A: Creating home movies?
Question by Kerri K: Creating home movies?
When I bought my computer I told the salesperson I didn’t need much – just online gaming and school documents. Well since then I have been taking pictures regularlly and making home videos for my family. I have Adobe 8 Professional (no lightroom yet :o( ), Nero 9, and of course Windows Movie maker; some other things I have (and not impressed with) are Picasa2, Photoscape, and even the Nikon software that came with my camera (It was trial and not enough of a trial for me to think I might like it – which the money I spent on the camera you’d think they could at least give me the software!) Anyway, Nero was another one that I think I liked it better when I had the trial than I do now, I must be missing some things with these programs. I like certain things about them all but not an over-all positive reaction. I want PhotoShop and I am working on getting that but my thing is some type of program that allows me to make transitions, special effects, etc…in ‘beat’ to any type of music…I’m willing to spend some bucks for the right programs, I’m just not sure I’m happy with anything yet! Any suggestions?
Best answer:
Answer by J.J.’s Advice / Avis de J.J.
Windows Movie Maker used to actually be pretty good considering it came free with Windows, but I was quite dissapointed when I saw the “dumbed-down” version that came with the newest windows release. They’ve completely eliminated the timeline and gone with this whole “drag-and-drop” interface which really isn’t that usable.
As for payed software, there are a few options out there. You sort of have the real professional ones, and then there’s a huge price drop to the personal software. In the high end you have:
– Avid Media Composer ( http://www.avid.com/products/Media-Composer-Software/index.asp – $ 2.295 )
– Adobe Premiere Pro ( http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/ – $ 799 )
– Final Cut Pro (only for mac – http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/finalcutpro/ – $ 999 )
– Sony Vegas Pro ( http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/vegaspro – $ 599.95 )
Avid is the industry standard used by Hollywood. Adobe seems to be claiming that the production of Avatar was done with their software. Apple Final Cut is the best for Macs.
I downloaded the demos of Avid, Adobe and Sony. I found Avid and Adobe just to be way more than I needed, and to run too slowly on my system. I settled with Sony because I found it gave me all the features that I wanted while still not being _too_ resource-intensive and complicate to learn.
I use Adobe at school, since they have more powerful computers than me!
Quite bit lower down on the scale (in functionality, resource-intensitivity and price):
– Corel VideoStudio ( http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1175714228541#tabview=tab0 – $ 49.99 )
– Pinnacle Studio ( http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Home+Video/Studio+Family/ – $ 50-120 )
– Wax ( http://www.debugmode.com/wax/ – FREE )
I used to use Wax before I went Pro, simply because it was free. The fact that it’s open-source means there are a lot of features, but it also means it tends to be quite a bit less stable than commerial software.
I’ve used both Corel/Ulead and Pinnacle at school and home. They’re certainly not as feature-rich as the professional software, but they still get the job done, and the prices are much more reasonable for an individual.
Hope this helps!
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