Any Movie Makers here?

[BIGSHCLUNK]

Any way I've got a new computer coming with windows 10 pro. They don'y come with windows movie maker included. Actually I'm good with that - Movie Maker was very "glitchy" and often froze up. I'd like to graduate from that. I'm looking for a video editing program Ol' BIGS can learn to edit with, without needing an engineering degree. and wont crash all the time. It does not need to be a "freebie". I've read good things about Pinnacle 22 but looking for suggestions from real users. If you google video editing programs you get pages and pages of hype. Anybody got "real world" experience?

 

[BeepBeepRR]

Sony Vegas Pro is pretty good. Although I dont own it I used it a little on another computer. I am the furthest from a movie maker. But that program has lots of features.

 

[65RoadRacer]

I used Pinnacle for a long time, and hate it. I termed it "Pain-in-the-***-acle", and a friend who has used it for a while felt the same. I've had problems with it crashing, problems with it not displaying video, and of course they always blamed it on my computer. I bought the upgrade to the latest and installed it on my work computer (all the bells and whistles) and it crashed three times trying to produce a 30 second video. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

So I watched a few YouTube videos and learned how to use Adobe Premiere, and I love it. CS6, if you can get it, includes it. The current is subscription based, which I'll likely do so I can have it at home. It's hard to pay for all products at $52/month, but just getting Premiere is $20/month, I believe.

I built these two videos in Premiere, the first is our 30-second TV commercial that I built after 2 hours with Premiere. It helps that I've been a graphic artist for decades, and it helps that I had used Pinnacle for about 10 years (mostly because I was used to it), but Premiere has lots of tutorials and I look forward to learning more. These videos are in HD, they might be dumbed down unless you select HD from the options.

 

[65RoadRacer]

Sony Vegas Pro is pretty good. Although I dont own it I used it a little on another computer. I am the furthest from a movie maker. But that program has lots of features.

I've heard a bit of good about that, I'd like to try it out sometime... I just saw that Magix took over, so it's no longer a Sony product, and right now it's $400 for the v16 suite. The sale ends on the 3rd of this month.

 

[Dibbons]

I have an older version of Pinnacle, had a few glitches but it worked. Was recommended to me by a relative who does wedding videos.

Still waiting for the day I can produce my documentary film: "Nerds Who Love Women." Any nerds out there that want to sign up to audition?

 

[BeepBeepRR]

I just downloaded Filmora9 im going to mess around with it to see if its good.

 

[BIGSHCLUNK]

Thanks for the input guys!
65RoadRacer - I've heard of many of the issues you describe w Pinnacle 18 / 19 / 20... not 22. Supposedly a BIG improvement (??). Wondering what version you were running? Also yes, I've seen some things on sale so I'm trying to get some info now Nice work BTW. My college training was commercial art, but that was before computers. And I've never worked as one.

BeepBeepRR - Filmora (from what I've read) kind of presents it self as "the" up grade from Movie Maker. I have not read much good about it. I wish you had some experience with it. Someone else I know mentioned SONY too. But it's a version before Magix took it over (be that good or bad).

Anybody else wanna chime in?

 

[BIGSHCLUNK]

Here's a sample of something I've done. Not professional by any means, but gets the job done. It's time to take it up a notch...

 

[65RoadRacer]

Thanks for the input guys!
65RoadRacer - I've heard of many of the issues you describe w Pinnacle 18 / 19 / 20... not 22. Supposedly a BIG improvement (??). Wondering what version you were running? Also yes, I've seen some things on sale so I'm trying to get some info now Nice work BTW. My college training was commercial art, but that was before computers. And I've never worked as one.

BeepBeepRR - Filmora (from what I've read) kind of presents it self as "the" up grade from Movie Maker. I have not read much good about it. I wish you had some experience with it. Someone else I know mentioned SONY too. But it's a version before Magix took it over (be that good or bad).

Anybody else wanna chime in?

Thanks Bigs. I was never officially trained in commercial art, I was born with some of my skills. My first real art class was in the 11th grade and almost immediately I was advancing beyond the class. I started with computer graphics (CorelDraw v3) in 1991 when I was 30, and have used Photoshop for about 20 years now.

I had a much older version of Studio (14) and refused to upgrade to a newer version because of all the issues I had. When I was chatting with their customer service, they asked me to post my system, and then told me that my issues were because I didn't have a dual processor. It wasn't a system requirement, but I actually did have a dual core processor and it stated it in my system post. Clueless, they read from a manual, not from your post. Anyway, my issue was that I had to constantly save a video in the middle and restart my computer. I couldn't have Photoshop open at the same time, that sort of nonsense.

When I upgraded at work it was because I had a couple weeks deadline to create the TV commercial, so I upgraded to the latest at the time, which was in May. Not sure if it was 21 or 22, but after installing it the program crashed and shut down on me three times. I gave up and uninstalled it. Incidentally, I had the Adobe products but didn't know how to use Premiere - had never opened the program - but with a couple hours of tutorials I created our video in 2 hours. I have tweaked it from the original after learning a bit more and getting some professional feedback, but it's never really given me any issues, and I never get that dreaded 'black screen' that I always got with Studio. It's ironic that I've hated Studio for so many years but always loved CorelDraw, and now Corel owns Studio.

Incidentally, I've used Magix Music Maker for a couple years for voiceover work, it was okay but it also crashed a few times lately since I'm still running XP on that computer. I liked it, but now I use a different program for VO work that's much cleaner, and on my new machine. The VO for the TV commercial was me. The only part of that commercial I didn't do was right at the beginning when my car was speeding down the track... well, I drove it, but a friend shot the video of it.

 

[65RoadRacer]

Here's a sample of something I've done. Not professional by any means, but gets the job done. It's time to take it up a notch...

Not bad... once you get more familiar with a decent program you'll love using it. Another thing I also noticed getting away from Studio was that when I did higher quality videos with Premiere, my text/graphics were much sharper looking. MovieMaker was okay, but the quality was a little blurry unless you kept it very small file size. I'm now creating video that's 60-90megabytes in 1080p.

This was the first video I ever published, about 11 years ago, created to animate my logo. I think it was done in Studio, long before I really learned how to use it. lol

 

[BIGSHCLUNK]

Another thing I read is that it's best to have a 4 core processor if your doing video. So that's whats coming in my new one. Curious as I've never had 4 core before. This may (or may not) resolve certain issues. (???). Decent learning curve and not breaking the bank would be good. I dont mind buying a program but to pay a monthly fee would not make sense to me. Someone who works in TV on another forum I'm on recommended this - https://www.avid.com/media-composer-first. At least he has personal experience with it. As do you with what you have recommended. I like the falling feather! The amount of hype out there when you google video programs...

 

[65RoadRacer]

Yeah, I looked at Avid too, and it seems pretty decent. I had Pinnacle because I was going to create a professional DVD for a friend and needed something, so I was just learning at the time and, like you, I had used MovieMaker a few times and got the bug to create videos. The DVD came out pretty cool and I got a lot of positive comments on it, especially being my first one. It was like 10 scenes and about 26 minutes long altogether.

A 4 core processor is pretty much standard these days for heavy graphics or video work.

Studio was affordable, Premiere wasn't, so that's why I got it. It was supposedly one of the better at the time, I don't believe that anymore, but maybe Corel will fix things with it. Premiere I have at work, not at home (yet) so it's what I used because I have it. I'm not thrilled with the monthly payments either, but Adobe got tired of people pirating their programs. I love to hate them, they've always been expensive and act like primadonnas with their software, but from as long as I can remember, they were the "industry standard".

The hype is funny... it's like the Mac or PC hype, the Illustrator or CorelDraw hype, I've seen it since the PC first came out, and have heard good and bad about them all, and I've used both Mac and PC and Adobe and Corel, they all have their quirks, despite what any Mac-loving Adobe-only graphic artist will tell you. lol

The pros I've worked with for TV stuff use a program that costs thousands of bucks... I can't remember the name of it though