iMovie or Final Cut Pro, and…Editing Lasagna?

Lasagne_closeup,_June_2008

Wikimedia Commons, CC 2.0, Christiano Parra.

Video editing, in a lot of ways, is like cooking lasagna.  If you don’t know how to cook, or you’re in a hurry you could make a few quick choices at the freezer compartment at the local supermarket.  If you know a little bit about cooking and want to build your own lasagna, you might layer together some ground hamburger, pasta sauce, noodles and cheese to assemble your dish. Or, you may want to take the time to handcraft your own pasta sauce…grate a mixture of cheeses and roll out your own noodles.  No matter the method, you end up with bubbly deliciousness,  but you have different levels of control of the elements allowing to put your stamp and nuance into the dish.

As this example shows, deciding on a program depends on your needs and how much work you want to put into your video editing.

Some video editing apps are like the frozen lasagna…a few quick choices and you’re done. And, we can say iMovie is like making the dish with pre-made ingredients…and using Final Cut Pro (FCP) is like taking the gourmet route. Apps like iMovie are great for immediately posting video from your computer, or iPhone/iPad onto Facebook, or Vimeo, or Youtube.  If you need to quickly and painlessly edit a shorter, relatively straightforward project, iMovie is perfect for you. Or, if you want to shoot your videos on an iPad or iPhone, you might also want to edit it on your mobile device using iMovie. As Apple puts it, “iMovie is a Major Production without the Major Production.”

But, FCP can take you beyond the basics of trimming clips and making one-step enhancements. For example if you need to work  on a long and complex project you might need its powerful media management tools. FCP will also make things easier if you work with a variety of video and audio formats, or need more audio and video layers for the project. The program also offers  pro-grade tools for enhancing video and audio, plus tons of powerful customization options for your effects, transitions, titles, etc.

You could always start learning about video editing with iMovie and then transition to FCP when (and if) you reach the iMovie ceiling. Moving to FCP will be seamless, as all your iMovie projects will migrate to FCP, retaining all your edits, transitions, titles and effects. FCP has an iMovie-friendly user interface and you’ll be editing and learning new tools in FCP very quickly. You can always download a free 30-day trial of FCP to see if you want to purchase this software and spend time learning it.

You can create powerful, slick content in either app. And, after all, it doesn’t really matter what editing tool you used as long as you created something worthwhile and enjoyed doing it.

iMovie_FCP

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