Buying a mac and FC Studio

I have A delema I am twenty and about to start film school, now will it be worth my while to buy a power mac G5 dual 2GHz and FC Studio just the basics for now to use and learn through out film school or should i wait. I know that many of you are professionals in the field so from a professional stand point which would be best get the mac and software, or hold off till i'm out of school?

thanks

I don't know how anyone can tell you it will be "worth your while" without knowing what you want to do (Direct, DP, Edit, Write, etc). Some people find that the most powerful Titanium Powerbook G4 loaded with RAM is best because it runs FCP HD & Avid Express Pro as well as all the GFX Apps...oh and it's portable. That, a G-RAID and a Transcoder (DAC-10) and you have a mobile studio.

Personally, I would have never made it through Film School without my PowerMac 9500. All the video cards fried in the PC lab (of course) and I had a Targa 200 Pro card in my machine at home (I was the only one out of my entire class with my own editing gear). The graduation video (as well as 4 of my buddy's demos) was edited by me at home.

My tuition came with a $1500 credit towards the computer of my choice - so I used it. I would not wait...and I would spring for the Dual 2.7. Find out if your school can swing an Academic Discount.

Good Luck.

- Joey



When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

quite a few of the students at my school have Powerbooks.
it means they can take work home with them.
some have iMcas at home, and just travel their drives back and forth.

i;ve been pluging iMacs lately, as there are some good deals about on the previous model, they're pretty decent computers, and very convenient.
not exacly portable, but TRANSportable.

by the time you;re out of school maybe the new intel Macs will be here?

nick

Sean:

Ok well Nick you seem pretty knowledgable so i'll ask you, how does
final cut studio run on iMac vs power mac vs power book as far as
stability, speed, reliability etc... keep in mind i just want the
basics "a mac that will run final cut studio" something while i'm in
school nothing really fancy BUT i want reliability etc...

What did you or do you use in school and how did you like it?

thanks for your help if you don't mind keep in touch by e-mail

Sean

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prefer to keep it on the list, if that;s ok.
it's better for everyone.

well right now im running FCPStudio on my old powerbook 800MHz, and 768MB Ram.
im not doing much at the moment, so it's ok for me.
last year i cut a feature on this machine, but features are very simple: cuts and disolves, and the odd bit of text.
no big deal.
that was FCP4.11, too.

since then i;ve ben using a 1Gig Powerbook with 1.5G of RAM
it gets by.

The school has Dual 1Gig (I think) G5s
they sure are snapier than my old machine!
depends if you are going to be doing a lot of effects work, and more to the point, needing to do it in a hurry.
(i've done effects work on my powerbook....overnight renders were not a problem on those films)

at school we're still on FCP4.5, and will be till next year.
we've got issues enough with our suites without upgrading to a pointzero release of the software
i cant claim that the G5s are any more "reliable" as there are always things that catch you up on any system.
most of our problems are due to interface issues: i.e. the boxes we are using to get our video in and out.
plus problems possibly caused by having only ONE internal drive for both system AND media!
that is pretty basic, and it's being changed since i and another knowlegable guy came on board.
it's slightly out of my hands, but the solution is every student gets a 500G FW drive.
this does make sense as the students can be mobile with their projects, taking them home if they want, or moving to another machine if they have to

as iMacs are G5s, they'll just as a matter of course be better and faster than a Powerbook.
plus they are a fair bit cheaper.
not much room for expansion:
you wont be able to add an extra capture card, but that;s probably not an issue. DV has been fine for me in the last 5 years.
plus you're stuck with a single screen, unless you feel ok about using "Screen Spanning Doctor" and voiding your warantee.
again a 20" screen will be comfortable enough for a lot of work.
also, FW drives are the order of the day with an iMac.
Pitty they dont have FW800.
that really restricts you to DV.

i think FC will run on any of the machines you mentioned, but i'd be looking more to a G5 than a G4Powerbook, unless you value the portablilty.

i suspect a G5 tower would have the berst re-sale value, too, but joe woud likely know more about that than me.

cheers,
nick

Meyers...


Which school do you teach at?

hey, johan.

i'm at AFTRS.
a bit of treaching,
bit of tutoring,
hand holding,
what have you.

it's a realy good editing department, every student has their own room.
FCP for a year,
avid for a year
not too many "official" student films being made there this year,
so lots of exercises.. recent one is 4 mini docs in combination with SBS, and will air sometime soon,
and many "off-slate" productions.


where are you based?

nick

Any machine you buy now will be done in 4 years. But if you want to learn editing, you'll need a machine of your own- so get DO get something.

I'd advise the portablility of a 15 in powerbook or iBook. 17 are too heavy for convinience (but great machines). Just spend the extra $ on a NTSC (or PAL) monitor. You'll need that FAR more than another 2 inches of screen space.

Rendering speed and power of a G5 are a light yearfaster - but good EDITING is not about effects. While learning the craft, making it painful to frill everything up is a good thing.

If you want to play games AND COMPOSITE / do Maya and 3-D, get the G5

In any case, get at least one bus powered portable drive.

Ian

4 years??? If your EXTREEEEEEMELY LUCKY.

I am right at the end of my Quicksilver (2002) G4's lifespan. Only reason I still have it because I can't afford a new one yet. I would have went to a Dual 2.5 the day they came out (glad I waited).



When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

sean wrote:
i'm seriously leaning towards an imac because of the G5 and it's cheap.
on a power book and power macs i added up the computer and FC Studio
software and it's roughly $4,700
with an imac it all comes to $3,500
but anyways as far as an external drive for extra memory can an external hard drive be connected to an imac?
and over all would you say for a film school student interested in a film editing career an imac would do my job??

thanks

sean

--------------------------------------------------------------------

they;'ll all do the job.
with a Powerbook you trade off some speed for portability.
but the iMac can be put in it's box (or a "iLugger" bag) and put in hte back of a car pretty easily.
you can hook up any FW400 drive to an iMac. why they dont have FW800, i dont know. pretty stupid move if you ask me.
but FW400 is fine for DV

dont forget to get more RAM:
750 absolute minimum, but really bump it up to 1G

cheers,
nick

Thanks nick i was thinking about 2G, but any how thanks.

good to hear,

whatever system you get, you'll have a great time making films come alive.

enjoy your studies,
nick

thanks i appreciate your help

End of the Quicksilver 2002 lifespan?

Are you kidding! My Quicksilver 2002 dual 1.0 GHz system is perking along just fine with Studio and a ton of other applications. Sure I will get a G5 or whatever when they hit 3.0 GHz (that is the promise I made to myself) but in the meantime, what a deal!

"My Quicksilver 2002 dual 1.0 GHz system is perking along just fine..."

So is mine...and I'm not kidding. It's a great machine - probably the best Mac I ever owned...but for the newest GFX packages - Motion is dragging (RAM Previews are NECESSARY), and I do a lot more GFX / 3D than a straight FCP Studio Editor (Cinema 4D R9.1 / After Effects 6.5 Pro / Photoshop CS / Ilustrator CS all EAT RAM). Every person has different needs from their machines and my needs have outgrown the measely 1.5 Gigs of RAM.

It will make a nice home computer for my 7 year old boy when my Dual 2.7 / 4 Gigs 'O RAM gets here.

- Joey



When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

"when my Dual 2.7 / 4 Gigs 'O RAM gets here."

Cool - but don't be under the illusion you'll spend more time editing and less rendering.

You are going to run into the corollary of the old saw "Work always expands to fill available amount of time." In this case it is "Art design always expands to fill available amount of rendering time." :-)

Ian

Ian,

If you're talking about rendering in FCP, I wouldn't know because I do not do any grafix work in there (After Effects 6.5 Pro / Cinema 4D / Photoshop / Illustrator / Motion).

All due respect, I have to disagree with you because I will be spending A LOT less time Compositing & rendering on a G5 Dual 2.7 Gig / 4 Gig RAM than my Dual 1 Gig G4 / 1.5 Gig RAM (as a matter of fact, it will be almost HALF as much time). This allows for the creativity to flow quicker and gratification comes MUCH FASTER (I am much more "grafix app intensive" than a straight editor).

I am under no "illusions". I do tons of research before a purchase (barefeats.com, render tests, forum banter, etc). I use a G5 Dual 2.5 Gig / 4 Gigs RAM at work and it renders eveything in HALF THE TIME of my Dual 1 Gig / 1.5 Gig RAM G4. I know what I am getting, what I am using it for and what I will get out of it.

Thanx for the advice

- Joey



When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

I was speaking more of work flow than of any particular software or hardware. It's a generalization, but I have seen it time after time as hardware and software has granted new capabilities. The result is always the same.

Don't miss-understand me either. That's not a bad thing, and the extra time you get by very fast renders leads to a sophistication that results in a superior product. The amount of time you spend doing one chore or another changes but the overall work flow of a project is not likely to radically shift.

Put another way - If there's three hours budgeted for the opening - you'll still spend all three hours doing the open. The difference is that you'll be tearing your hair out less often.

Ian