Best Amateur Editing Software?

[TheSlicingEdge]

So I am an amateur and I feel like I need something more than iMovie(Im on OS X) but my budget is only like $50. I want something that a lot of people use so that if I am confused I can find a video/forum.

[ALwin]

DaVinci Resolve 12, Free (on both Windows and OSX)

HitFilms Express (not sure if you can use it on OSX)

LightWorks Free (not sure about OSX support)

[FunkyFeatures]

I would recommend Adobe Premiere Pro. By far the easiest once you've learned the basic.

It probably will go over budget, but there may be ways of getting older versions a different way

[nickl]

I have been using Resolve for some stuff, and it seems to work very well. Its free.

[AlanAlan]

23 hours ago, ALwin said:

DaVinci Resolve 12, Free (on both Windows and OSX)

HitFilms Express (not sure if you can use it on OSX)

LightWorks Free (not sure about OSX support)

Out of these three which one is the best?

[ALwin]

4 minutes ago, AlanAlan said:

Out of these three which one is the best?

There is no "best".  There is only how knowledgeable you are about the software, understand what it can and can not do, and whether you prefer using it or not.

 

Between a green apple and a red apple, which one is the best?

[AlanAlan]

9 hours ago, ALwin said:

There is no "best".  There is only how knowledgeable you are about the software, understand what it can and can not do, and whether you prefer using it or not.

 

Between a green apple and a red apple, which one is the best?

Do you know any free 1080p samples for 2-3 minutes long?

[RBPE-Joe]

I would obviously recommend Premire Pro or any Adobe creative cloud product but obviously the high price cannot be justified for many people. Personally I feel that any variety of Sony Vegas (Movie studio or Pro) is great software for someone to start out editing, its simple to use and has a lot of functionality (and some quirks) but as you are on a Mac it would require you to run the program through bootcamp. If you do not wish to do this I have heard lots of good things about hit-film, there are free versions available; if you would like to find out more i'm pretty sure there have been Film Riot episodes on you tube covering the software.   

[Joshlikescola]

I use Final Cut Pro X. It's pretty similar to iMovie but just has much more features and capabilities. It isn't quite as powerful as premiere but it's a one time purchase of £200 or so. Although that is probably still over... 

Hitfilm Express 3 isn't the easiest thing to use but it's pretty powerful and you could buy a few of the feature packs for it.

[ALwin]

12 minutes ago, Joshlikescola said:

snip

While I've never used Final Cut 7 (previous version) or Final Cut X, I hear from people who have used both that they would prefer to use the previous version if possible and the biggest reason they are using FCX now is because of the support for newer cameras and formats.  Some are even switching or preparing to switch to Adobe.

 

I'm not saying FCPX is not a great piece of software, it actually is.  But I guess Apple has changed it to make it easier or more intuitive for the user (which to some seems like Apple has dumbed down the software) and removed some of the "pro" functionalities or I guess the "pro" style of working that were found in FC7.  That's what I gather from some of my colleagues at the office and they have (or had) both systems running in parallel until they upgraded their Macs to the latest version of OSX.

 

As for the best free/budget NLE systems, I stand by the three listed in my first comment.

[Joshlikescola]

Just now, ALwin said:

While I've never used Final Cut Pro (previous version) or Final Cut X, I hear from people who have used both that they would prefer to use the previous version if possible and the biggest reason they are using FCX now is because of the support for newer cameras and formats.  Some are even switching or preparing to switch to Adobe.

Yeah I've heard some professionals got annoyed with it but many people have said that for $200 it's great for amateurs. Adobe is £50 a month although I think you can get plans that include just Premire Pro for a lot less. 

I have used Final Cut and it's still a solid bit of editing software and for amateurs it'll be pretty good although it doesn't have the sort of layout, etc professional editors rely on for working as efficiently as possible... It's very well optimized though and I've even managed to edit 4K videos on a Mac Mini with relatively little pain.

Hitfilm 3 Express might be your best bet though. Could buy the starter pack for £8 and you've got some pretty decent software then! 

[ALwin]

Just now, Joshlikescola said:

snip

I edited my post.

 

From what I can gather, FCX is wonderful combined with Motion and Compressor.  The entire combo costs less than 1 year subscription of Adobe CC.  Unfortunately I can't use FCX as I need to have a software that runs on both OSX (mobile editing) and Windows (stationary workstation), and I'm already paying for Adobe CC anyway.  Sadly this also means I can't use ProRes.

[Joshlikescola]

3 minutes ago, ALwin said:

I edited my post.

 

From what I can gather, FCX is wonderful combined with Motion and Compressor.  The entire combo costs less than 1 year subscription of Adobe CC.  Unfortunately I can't use FCX as I need to have a software that runs on both OSX (mobile editing) and Windows (stationary workstation), and I'm already paying for Adobe CC anyway.  Sadly this also means I can't use ProRes.

I might try out the 30 day trial of Premire because I'd be interested to see the difference. Premire looks pretty powerful.

[ALwin]

2 minutes ago, Joshlikescola said:

I might try out the 30 day trial of Premire because I'd be interested to see the difference. Premire looks pretty powerful.

For video, my main tools are Premiere for primary video editing and a bit of light color grading.  After Effects for any graphics that I need to add.  Luckily DaVinci Resolve is free so I can use that in conjunction with Adobe for serious color grading.

 

Resolve will also work together with Final Cut.  Make the main edits and cuts in FCPX, export the edits as an XML, open Resolve with the video footage, import the XML, finish color grading and use Resolve to render out the final product.