Rough Cut & Multitrack Editing with iMovie
The Advanced Editing Tool! Why did I not know about this before? One of my biggest gripes with iMovie was the occasional difficulty I experienced with the selection process in the event browser and getting it to the timeline. Sometimes the software just seemed to have its own idea of what it wanted to do. The Advanced Editing Tool is a huge time saver as it simply allows you to rip through your raw footage and add footage to your timeline just by selecting it. It cuts out the click-and-drag to the timeline step. This is a great too for roughing out your edit quickly. 
Another complaint from many experienced editors (including me) was that iMovie did not allow you to have multiple video tracks, so performing edits like cutaways or picture-in-picture was not possible. To bad this isn’t true. iMovie just made it so easy to do that I missed it. I kept trying all these workarounds to emulate old school editing software when all I really had to do was drop one clip on top of another and select the option that I wanted. Now all you experienced editors can stop complaining, iMovie really can perform most typically used edits, and it makes it all so simple.
I have been getting a wake up call on iMovie too. Not that I can do much in FCP, but iMovie does seem to be able to produce great results. I too enjoyed the snap to beat function. Where did the images you used in the video you posted come from? Amazing the way a handful of screen grabs turns into a music video. Is there a tool like that in FCP?
ReplyDeleteSapreem had said he loves FCPX, have you gotten a chance to use it? I presume there are still many things in iMovie that are limited, but the whole drag and drop as opposed to setting a mess of ins and outs seems like the way to go.
The footage our students shoot on sets on stages in my course, they take to the Avid course that follows mine and use it to learn that program. That editing instructor, who I have to work closely with, tells me that FCP is like a Chevy and Avid is like a Ferrari. I'm not sure what the details of that metaphor are, maybe mostly about the speed and agility the comes when most commands are keyboard based, but I imagine there is more. I wonder if he might end up calling FCPX a Tesla or something. There is Moore's law - this stuff should be getting better, and Apple has some of the best software designers on the planet, so time will tell.
Sadly, sometimes when a particular UI gets very deep penetration into a vertical market, it can be almost impossible to dislodge it with something even better. This is the case with CNC machining software. You'd think something as seemingly hi tech as CNC (Computer Numeric Control) which we tend to associate with the most modern manufacturing techniques, would be state of the art. But the reality is Numeric Control was invented during WWII to address two problems, the need for lots of highly machined parts and the loss to the military of skilled machinists. In fact CNC machining was the first industrial application of computers. So it is mostly still all based on a G Code system designed to be run with punch tape programming, making all the compilers that work behind CAD CAM systems stupidly clunky. A bit of this may be happening with Avid.
Sorry for the diversion, glad to hear that someone who knows their way around FCP can still come to like iMovie. It sure loads faster!