Video Editing software for A Level Media Studies

[bede]

We are kitting out a room which will be partly used for A level Media Studies. Likely hardware will be iMacs.

 

Question is: what software for video editing?

 

Choice seems to be between:

 

• Adobe Premiere Pro
  
• Final Cut Pro X
  
• or maybe DaVinci Resolve or Lightworks or ?
  
• or maybe iMovie is sufficient?
  

 

In the past I might have argued a case for Serif MoviePlus, but this is discontinued and the choice of iMacs is partly to add extra flexibility for rooming the teaching of photography/music tech.

 

Looked around web - many comparisons found but primarily aimed at enthusiastic amateurs or [semi-]professional film-makers. Example

- interesting and educational but not really aimed at school level implementation given our parameters appear to be:

 

a) complexity/depth for learning about Media at A level

b) smaller projects than most/many productions

c) students have other stuff to learn, and other subjects (and hopefully a life as well) and thus limited time to learn software and implement a project (alongside other media projects)

 

Complication is that with the move to Computing at KS4, there is no formal IT teaching after age 14 (at least here) where some video manipulation skills could be taught.

 

Situation not helped by the exam board - although the spec has not been finally approved (at time of writing) it is possible/likely they may 'expect' software capable of delivering complexity beyond needs of most students (or the time they have available) - even if not explicitly.

 

We already have site licence for Adobe CS4 (excl Premiere). Upgrading to AdobeCC would benefit Photography and the school publications team (not least as sooner/later CS4 will not be supported).

 

However, the feeling from my research and comments from Media teachers is that Final Cut is more accessible.

 

From financial/whole school point of view Adobe would be the better way forward but is Premiere Pro going to be a bridge too far* for students/staff to assimilate in the time available? (thus making the extra investment in Final Cut worthwhile)

 

We would welcome views/experience from other schools delivering A level Media Studies.

 

- thanks in advance.

 

(have seen similar questions here from a few years ago, but things have moved on and/or were not aimed at A level specifically)

*apologies for over-used cliche

[hardtailstar]

We use Adobe for all subjects here.

[rad]

We use Adobe here, compatable for both Mac and Windows and students may have it at home too.

 

They use the package across various subjects so for us it is worth the site license.

[LTurner692]

up until the course was pulled we used final cut pro, its actually really simple to use.

[pete]

We've been using Final Cut Pro here for years. The learning curve is pretty shallow but there's sufficient depth to get decent results and the local uni (where a lot of our film/media students go) also uses it.

 

I use it for editing IT instructional videos, GoPro footage etc and picked it up within an hour or so, though there's a couple of obscure things (mainly lining up clips and avoiding audio "pop") that I had to ask out media dept about.

 

My last experience of Premiere was in the early 00's though, so I'm not sure how the two compare.

[Snoochieboochies]

I'm old enough to remember the old Betacam editing suites. People who've only used digital don't know they're born.

[psydii]

If you don't already have a Creative Cloud licence, then the mac/FinalCut combo is pretty financially compelling when viewed in the long term.

 

Premier is pretty easy too - provided you train your teachers well ahead of time, so they can enhance their Schemes of Work to included resources supporting teaching the kids with it.

 

In your case however, CC may be the better way to go, but I worry about their pricing structure.

Edited June 23, 2017 by psydii

[SamanthaD]

Used to just use iMovie for the students who wanted to do their project on a Mac. A little configuration was needed to redirect project files to the local drive (not network), and telling the students to use the same machine. Otherwise nice and simple.

[Olliekai]

I'd say Final Cut X over iMovie. iMovie will do the basics but at Level you will want more features and you'll always have that one student that's making the next Avatar.

 

- Reasons for Final Cut over Adobe:

> Easier to use

> Familiar to students - if they have an iPhone, mac or iPad they will probably have played around with iMovie

> Reasonably priced - I think its about £150 a licence these days

> Can use iMove to learn with and move on to Final Cut X for Mat if required.

> Works quite similar to DaVinci Resolve - useful if they end up working at home on a windows PC

 

I believe most media courses or attest videography focused (going on my experience so could be very very wrong) use FCPX so it gets them used to software.

 

The other option is the above mentioned DaVinci Resolve. It's pretty damn good considering its free. From the limited use I've had of it it seems pretty professional.

 

So basically my suggestions are FCPX if you want to spend money, DaVinci if you don't.

[bede]

Thanks for all the prompt replies. An interesting mix so far.

 

A follow up question please - how relevant/important are 'AfterEffects' features for A level Media Studies?

 

If yes, then can/does Final Cut or DaVinci Resolve do the same kind of thing? (or is there separate package, at extra cost)

thanks

[Brimstone]

Thanks for all the prompt replies. An interesting mix so far.

 

A follow up question please - how relevant/important are 'AfterEffects' features for A level Media Studies?

 

If yes, then can/does Final Cut or DaVinci Resolve do the same kind of thing? (or is there separate package, at extra cost)

thanks

 

You would need to buy Apple's Motion for these features as well

[Snoochieboochies]

After Effects has a very steep learning curve.

 

It's more complex than Photoshop to get to grips with. But there's some cool stuff that can be done with it.

http://www.videocopilot.net/

Edited June 23, 2017 by Snoochieboochies

[Al_NetSupport]

I am a big fan of adobe suite, but it comes at a cost, for Video editing ( set up for our school so they could green screen etc) I always recommend Sony Vegas - or as it's now called "Vegas creative suite" - it's really easy to use and a good alternative to Adobe Premiere

 

Video editing software ? VEGAS Movie Studio Platinum

 

Definitely worth downloading the free trial.

 

Al.

 

 

extra note added - sorry I missed an important detail - you wanted for Macs - doh!

Edited June 23, 2017 by Al_NetSupport

[bede]

After Effects has a very steep learning curve.

 

 

It's more complex than Photoshop to get to grips with. But there's some cool stuff that can be done with it.

VIDEO COPILOT | After Effects Tutorials, Plug-ins and Stock Footage for Post Production Professionals

 

See what you mean.

[dhicks]

Likely hardware will be iMacs.

 

What video camera hardware will you have available? Final Cut Pro might handle Apple Prores encoded video better, and there's hardware available that supports Prores nativly now.

 

Possibly as an addition to other software at A-level, I'd take a look at WeVideo - online video editing. It's not going to cover all the "pro" features you'd get from other, desktop, software, but ITN and BBC news use similar systems for their reporters to upload and edit video in the field, and it's priced cheaply enough that it could be bought in addition to other software.

[bede]

What video camera hardware will you have available? Final Cut Pro might handle Apple Prores encoded video better, and there's hardware available that supports Prores nativly now.

 

Possibly as an addition to other software at A-level, I'd take a look at WeVideo - online video editing. It's not going to cover all the "pro" features you'd get from other, desktop, software, but ITN and BBC news use similar systems for their reporters to upload and edit video in the field, and it's priced cheaply enough that it could be bought in addition to other software.

 

Thanks - unsure of camera(s); direct editing of camera footage would be bonus, but with the limited time available [hopefully] reducing length and shooting ratio, then some transcoding before editing is not the end of the world.

 

Had not thought of WeVideo in this context - will have another look. Might need to be careful about storage, retention and data protection, in case the students get a little introspective and/or angst-ridden. Might give us another option however.

[dhicks]

Thanks - unsure of camera(s); direct editing of camera footage would be bonus, but with the limited time available [hopefully] reducing length and shooting ratio, then some transcoding before editing is not the end of the world.

 

AVCHD format footage, certainly a few years ago, used to be a bit of a pain with iMovie / Final Cut in particular as, for some reason I can't remember offhand, the user had to remember to copy the whole contents of the memory card over, including all the metadata and index files, not just the video footage itself, otherwise iMovie / Final Cut would take ages to import the footage. That might be something to bear in mind if you're purchasing new cameras. I'm suitably impressed by the quality / compression of H.265 (not H.264) footage that some newer cameras are using, although I haven't tried importing any of that footage into iMovie yet.