Deciding between FCP or Avid

I'm not trying to start a discussion of which is overall bettter beyween FCP or Avid, but I know there a lot of people out there who use both and I was wondering what types of things you consider when deciding which to use on a particular project. I use to use Avid only but have been strictly FCP for the past year. I just got a new copy of Avid and am trying to decide which to use for different projects. What types of things do you think about when deciding?

Josh,

Purely from a creative point of view, especially since FCP5, there's really nothing you can do in Avid anymore on any given project that you can't achieve in FCP.

From a work point of view, it's a matter of what your client base requires. What type of editing do you do? If you're an indie with your own suite and editing to finished deliverables, then you're much better off financially/competitively making FCP Studio your strong suit.

If you're a freelancer selling your talents to post facilities or broadcasters or maybe producers with their own rigs, then Avid is going to get you more work initially and is certainly a requirement, although longer-term not the only one. There's this kind of mentality out there that says learn Avid = work forever and make good bucks in the film biz. Watch out for that, its just not true anymore. A lot of the Avid work today, especially with broadcasters, is absolutely low pay mind-numbing monontony. Nothing glamorous or creative or rewarding about it. Watch out for that too.

My 2 cents.


Clay

My suggestion is cost if the main factor - which it may not be - check out what you get for $1299 in Final Cut Studio vs what you get in Avid Express for MAC.

Depends on your workflow. If you will be going to an Avid at any point (such as going to an Avid Symphony to online) the get Avid. If you will be doing it all yourself, then FCP might be for you.

A lot of it depends on what kind of Avid software you have. You see Avid disables some of it's functionality depending on which software you're using.

Other than that, I'd go with what Shane said. It's not necessary, strictly speaking, but it's just easier not to have to make any conversions or concessions to cross platform/software.

Andy

If your workflow is staying Avid through finishing (Symphony, DS), Avid's the way to go.

- Joey



When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Whatever the producer wants. Ah, it's good to know both tools.

As I understand it, Avid handles color correction better. For example, you cannot use "curves" in FCP.

Hi Josh,

I'd have to say that it has to do with your workflow. How YOU edit. I've cut two features on FCP and two documentaries on Avid, and I find FCP just much more 'natural' to work with (but I've been using it since 1.0). I hate going into sequence mode when I want to move a clip. FCP answers questions you don't even ask - Avid makes you hunt for answers to questions you shouldn't have to ask. (is my audio out of sync? What's the duration of this clip? How do I throw in 20 seconds of black?)

And yet, Apple still makes many of its effects so arcane to get to. AVID assumes you're going to do a set of sometimes cheesy video effects, and makes them laughably simple to enter.

I've been lucky, my major projects have been color corrected on DaVincis. And until FCP and Avid offer Power Windows, they basically are at the same level for color correction. But I find AVID's color correction eaiser to manipulate- I've actually crashed-out FCP sequences so I can color correct them on Avid and then reload them into FCP.

If you're buying it for your freelance use, I'd say FCP. But if you 'grew up' on Avid and are comfortable with the interfeace, use AVID. Whatever makes your workflow more comfortable will make you a better editor.

BTW, don't install consumer Avid programs on a PC with an ADM processor. There's some 'F.Y.' code that will cause you some problems. (This is from an Avid employee)

Hope that helps -

Michael

Usually a lot of my decision comes down to whether I will be doing an offline to online edit. Obviously if I'm going to be doing a lot of media managing I work on the Avid instead of FCP. I was just curious about what other people who edit on both base their decisions on when starting a project.

BTW I am the Josh that started this post, just using a different computer.



Post Edited (09-12-05 17:59)

You can edit with curves with Effects Essentials Plug-ins.