The Great Macbook Quest

RWangs

Some of you helpful lads may remember me from a few weeks back. I was the stubborn guy getting the 17" Macbook Pro with the 4 gigs of RAM for a small fortune.

Well I scaled back a little, and went for the high-end 15" Pro with 2 gigs of RAM (essentially the second stock option). I also took a few of my own funds and purchased the academic version of Final Cut Studio 2. I really can't wait to get all of this.

So the software package will be coming sometime at the end of this week or, most likely, at the beginning of next week... while the laptop is only arriving in 3 weeks.

So I'm just wondering if I should, once the Studio Suite comes in, if I should go ahead and install it all on my Mac Mini G4 and see what runs (lol nothing) or if I should wait and install it properly on the laptop, register and be merry. The latter requires patience however, and I do not think I have it.

So you guys might be thinking, "hey, that wasn't actually a question" and you would be correct. So here's a few: Can any of the video editing enthousiast in the room suggest any helpful apps, scripts or plug-ins to make my rebirth into the editing world easier/fun/self-enlightening? I'm just looking for anything; may it be freeware or cheap. I've paid over 800$ for FCS2 and I don't plan on paying anything beyond pennies beyond that for a while so keep in mind that I'm soon going to be a college student. :P

Actually, now that I think about it, would anyone know of any good books or sites devoted to video editing and improvement on the other cinematography branches? I'm looking forward to making this a full-time hobby and hopefully maybe doing some freelance work during the semester.

RWangs

Did my post rant on too long to find the questions? :P

EggyToast

You shouldn't run into any problems installing it, but I wouldn't bother. Half of the suite won't install -- hell, perhaps most of it, depending on your video card. If you can't install it, the question solves itself.

As for video stuff, don't be afraid to use iMovie as well. I know you spent a lot of money on FCP, but sometimes when you just need to crop video for the web, plopping it into iMovie is a LOT faster.

Other than that, keep filming. You spent all this money; you better have content to use for it.

RWangs

Well I have been bumming my local film co-op's copy of Final Cut Pro 5 for the last year so I know what to expect from it, although the use of the full suite is what I'm looking forward to. I like using iMovie for importing sometimes. It actually works better than Final Cut when I just want everything that's on the camera (Final Cut Pro gets a lot of timecode breaks on my mini... probably because it's so slow) and I was using it for a few months before getting into Final Cut. I can't stand iDVD, however, and I can't wait to learn to use DVD Studio.

Speaking of which, anybody know of free tutorials for DVD Studio Pro? Or is it really easy to use and I'll just have to learn from experience?

bluemaggit

when i bought it it actually came with a final cut pro tutorial(DVD), now i'm trying to figure out if it came with DVD tutorials for motion, soundtrack and DVD studio. as for learning more about it, when it gets delivered it isnt just the software it comes with like 9 books on how to use each program to it's fullest (granted 5 of those are just for FCP) but they are really helpful as long as you arent too lazy to read them :P but you'll love all the programs and how they integrate with each other. i went to school for film and also did the whole saving half the price of the program haha its a great deal, anyways ya just play around with them get a feel for them and ahve fun!! some other programs you should check out (or download if your into stealing programs :P) are after effects and shake, both of them have incredible features and effects as well as motion. also FCS comes with a pretty cool text program called livetype so play around with that theres some cool stuff in there too!! anyways hope this was some help and not a complete waste of time!

RWangs

Hey, not at all, that was really helpful! I totally forgot about the bibles Apple packs in with their pro software :P

The program should be coming in tomorrow if I'm lucky... I guess I'll have some reading to do until the laptop comes in. :P

bluemaggit

that program will change your life i swear !! :P haha

EggyToast

DVD Studio Pro is great, and you likely won't need much help getting up and running with it. The only shitty thing is that there's no good alternative if you don't want to own the full suite.

RWangs

Oh the whole thing is very much bought. :P I know what you mean though, I had to use iDVD for all my projects and that was seriously lacking in creative control. :P

RWangs

The software just came in tonight. The box weighs a ton and a half! Looks like I've got a lot of reading to do!

RWangs

I just went through the first 2 manuals and I can honestly say I already knew ALL of that information. That brings me a certain sense of pride. I was never quite aware that I had learned so much about video editing in the last year.

After watching half the tutorials DVD, I REALLY want to start using Motion. It just looks so damn sexy. This is definitely going to encourage me to start doing higher grade work. Now I just have to find out if there's a film co-op in Halifax...