who here uses final cut express?

INDXShoGuN · **Posted:** Mon Nov 22, 2004 8:11 pm

my brothers and i love iMovie, and push it to its limits, but from what i hear final cut express would make the movies look a helluva lot cooler and better. who here uses it, and how much memory and what type of GFX card do you recommend for using this software?

-Indo

Sailfish · **Posted:** Tue Nov 23, 2004 1:23 am

Moved to video

Cory Cooper · **Joined:** Sat Apr 24, 2004 11:50 pm **Posts:** 5400

I have FCE 2, but haven't used it much. It is a HUGE step up from iMovie. I would recommend at least 2GB of RAM and an ATI 9800 Pro as hardware to run it effectively. Because it is video, not 3D, the graphics card doesn't have as much effect as the RAM does. It benefits greatly from dual processors and fast HD's as well.

I know that's not a lot of help, but I figured I would at least give some info.

Cory

INDXShoGuN · **Posted:** Mon Nov 29, 2004 5:40 pm

are there more FX (other than the 18 or so in iMovie) and more Sound FX?

-Indo

zogli · **Posted:** Sun Mar 13, 2005 2:44 am

Me!

I just did one small movie in iMovieHD — my first ever! Not very experienced, am I?. Then I turned around and started learning Final Cut Express HD.

A whole different ballgame to be sure. With FCEHD, I have just wasted two whole days trying to capture the same footage that came so easily into iMovieHD. No luck at all.

Posing a few questions on the Apple FCE forum has revealed my misunderstandings of the (poor) documentation and where I was going wrong. So tomorrow, just maybe, I might manage to capture a few frames.

It seems I would really benefit from Tom Wolsky's book. But he doesn't have a FCEHD updated version yet, so I'll wait.

Can't rush these things.

Tchr6 · **Posted:** Sun Mar 13, 2005 8:25 am

Tom Wolsky's book (Final Cut Express Editing Workshop, for those who aren't familiar) is very well done. The DVD walks you through each step in a logical and sequential way. You might want to check out the section on the differences between iMovie and FCE. It was very helpful!

INDXShoGuN · **Posted:** Sat Mar 19, 2005 10:05 am

i have it now, maybe i'll look at this book because FCE HD has me completely confused.

-Indo

zogli · **Posted:** Sat Mar 19, 2005 5:40 pm

I now have the book from the "Apple Pro Training Series", "Final Cut Express 2" —Diana Weynand, and I'm gradually working through it. I must say that this is a wonderful and detailed introduction to FCE and I'm really enthused to at last be learning about pro-level video editing.

I have Tom Wolsky's book on back order. I can't wait for this to arrive since everyone is extolling its virtues. However, if it never comes, Weynand's book will do me very nicely.

Best