ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

12 years, 4 months ago - Mariana Beja

Thanks for taking the time to share your opinion. It's very helpful and I decided I'll invest the money I have learning Avid since it's a different platform and completely new for me. I guess if Premiere is intuitive as it's said and somehow similar to FCP I can give it a try on my own. That will have to do it.
Cheers everyone!

12 years, 4 months ago - Jon-Paul Washington

It's really interesting to gain opinion on this topic.... i work in education and of course I always have one eye on the industry trends with software and hardware. Avid does indeed appear to be used in the mid to high end of the industry more often than others mentioned, although I think it is also worth mentioning that 'bespoke' software and interfaces are created fit for purpose at the highest end of the industry... after all...to my knowledge... that is how the aforementioned Lightworks started out and of course look at how many programmes there now are for grading!!

Avid of course is a little more complex/costly to run (in an educational enviornment) which is a shame as we are supposed to be preparing students for life in the industry... Therefore many educational establishments seem to be now running Adobe Premiere CS6 or FCP7 and/or FCPX.... so for someone in my shoes... ideally.... i have to learn Avid, Premiere, FCP 7 and FCPX!! if i want to progress in my current FT career. An uphill task, i'm sure you will agree.

So, i would look at it like this... as alluded to by others... If you're applying for jobs at the high end of industry, Avid. Low to mid range, indie, etc, for now FCP7 and FCP X (yes, I know, completley different interface)... then gauge in a year.... then you may find for low to mid of the industry, its either Premiere or FCPX.

I was putting my money on Premiere... however with recent developments with the latest release of FCPX... i'm now backing FCPX for the low to mid end of industry. There will always be the acceptions.

On a personal note.... i hope you don't experience, like i did the other week, going for an interview and test on FCP7 (as advertised when i applied) only to find that the test was on FCPX! talk about being thrown a curveball!

Good luck wth your learning and job hunting.

J.P.

12 years, 4 months ago - Mariana Beja

Thank you Paddy! I think i'll go for Avid indeed, seems to be the wisest thing to do. I will take a look at lightworks too. Cheers for that!

12 years, 4 months ago - Jonathan Walton

I've been working in broadcast music shows for the past 10 years and I'm afraid it's no longer as simplistic to say Avid for TV, and FCP and Premiere for the lower end of the market. 90% of the clients I have worked with in the past 10 years were FCP based - I only received one job offer in all that time for Avid. It's true Avid has a hold on the drama/film market, but FCP was still widely used in broadcast. Many of those FCP users will switch to Premiere over Avid in the coming months, because of it's flexibility - cutting almost any codec with no transcoding or background conversions. I've used it to cut shows for Channel 4 and BBC already in 2013 and its performance has been amazing.

It's probably not the answer you want to hear, but I think any editor will double their chances of getting work by knowing all 3 of the major NLEs - Avid, Premiere and FCP. It's a lot to learn, but at the end of the day they're just tools - it will be your skills that will keep clients coming back to you, and by knowing all of the softwares, you'll ensure there is no barrier to your creativity.

12 years, 3 months ago - Jason Porthouse

You know FCP well already. Transitioning to Avid, after Version 5.5 will be fairly painless - there are some very different things in terms of how media is managed, and the way Avid handles effects feels primitive compared to FCP - but overall I'd expect you to be able to cut on it after a couple of days with the manual. Premiere (certainly the new version due soon) does seem to want to be 'FCP8' and should be fairly easy to get your head around. So try all 3, as I think the post production landscape will look very different in a year's time. Don't forget X too - I wouldn't spend too much time on it (much as I like it) but I think it could be a bit of a 'stalking horse' if Apple get it right - it's seriously quick in the right hands.

Don't get too hung up on the software though. If you're doing lots of effects heavy work for instance, learn AE for graphics as it's completely cross-platform. If your editing is mainly doc/current affairs/ factual though, you should be able to have enough working knowledge of all the main NLEs to be OK - I find most jobs have a couple of days 'ease in' time at the start anyway, so by the time I'm cutting in anger I've got into the mindset of whatever NLE I'm in front of. Don't try to learn every function of every NLE, as that will drive to to the funny farm. I've cut on FCP7 now for years, Avid like wise and there are lots of functions I've never used, and probably never will!!

12 years, 4 months ago - Peter Ward

Many are still clinging to FCP7--but Final Cut has otherwise been abandoned. Avid and Prereimre are both good. I'm not u\sure of Paddy's comment re: transcoding/ importing--if anything Premiere is much more versatile in the formats it will accept, including FCP XML. For Avid everything has to be done Avid's way--and there's a million plugins to get AMA to work. Ideally one should learn both. Premiere is intuitive to pick up anyway. But failing l that, find out what's being used where you hope to work--both apps are legit professional choices,

12 years, 4 months ago - Pedro Ribeiro

Avid sem dúvida.

12 years, 3 months ago - Lee 'Wozy' Warren

Depends on what you want to edit for? TV, movies? Are you editing or onlining or grading?

I've used Avid for almost all film cutting and DaVinci for grading. Personally I wouldn't bother with Premier if you want to work in mainstream tv/ film.

12 years, 3 months ago - SP User

Forget FCP. FCP is dead. Go for Avid for pro-long form projects, corporates and low budget productions would use Premiere. One gets what one pays for. All the best
Marco
www.pixelkitchen.co.uk

12 years, 4 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Avid. Avid systems are used at some stage in 85% of modern film and TV according to their blurb, but even taken with an pinch of salt, avid stuff is still the industry norm.

Avid products were written from the ground up with teamwork in mind, they share an (sometimes counterintuitive but identical on Mac or PC) interface, they know movies are not made by a single user on domestic hardware, but that there are specialists at specific stages, so integrate fully. Some other systems eg premiere and final cut came from domestic single user backgrounds and collaboration is an afterthought. They are much better than they were, but give someone in the trade a bunch of mxf files and an avid edl and they will know how to work with them without needing to import, translate, transcode, worry about frame rates etc. The workflows for avid are mature and well supported. You can work on Mac or PC, entirely your choice.

At the end of the day, they all do the same thing, but I'd suggest you're more likely to be hired for avid skills than premiere or final cut, except for smaller projects/web stuff.

If you want to go even further though, learn the interface of lightworks (now free! Used to be very premium) and quantel (serious kit, different interface again).

12 years, 4 months ago - Peter Stewart

I thought I'd also add, if/when you start to learn Avid, it's worth starting with Media Composer 5.5, although 6 has been about for a while, you're quite likely to come across 5.5 still.

12 years, 4 months ago - Maik Kleinschmidt

For a career in broadcast I would specialise in Avid. I've used FCPX for a few projects now (I freelance) and while it has some annoying quirks and limitations, it saved me a lot of time compared to FCP7. But things like having to buy Compressor to be able to properly adjust export settings are a pain, so I might move to Premiere instead until the new FCP has evolved a bit.

12 years, 3 months ago - Mariana Beja

Thank you all for your input! Clearly Avid is the general choice.

12 years, 3 months ago - Vasco de Sousa

What about Boris and Grass Valley? Or Sony Vegas?

I think Avid is a solid choice, as it's used a lot in Television (especially in Europe.) So, from a market perspective, it's a good one.

12 years, 4 months ago - Felipe Madureira

Mariana, it depends on which part of industry you plan to focus, if you are aiming towards movies and broadcast, Avid would be the best option. Final Cut Pro it's a joke now. I spent the last 12 years working with it and suddenly they killed it with FCX. I would advise you to stick with avid. But is always good to now more, so you can try to learn some Premiere as well, since you work with FCP the interface wouldn't change very much and you can even use the same keyboard shortcuts if you want it.

12 years, 4 months ago - Scott Clements

Premiere is going to take all the corporate & low budget indie work. Avid is a legacy app that will stay firmly entrenched in film and television, not because it's better, but because busy editors have invested so heavily in learning it like the backs of their hands. FCP X could develop into an amazing piece of software (it almost is) but I think pros no longer trust Apple, so they're reluctant to invest in learning their software 0 the company has a habit of killing stuff off on a whim (e.g.. Shake, FCP 7)

12 years, 4 months ago - Peter Stewart

Thought I'd add my two pennies worth and agree with what most people are saying, go for Avid, if you want a career in post production, it's undoubtedly the best way to go at the moment.

While I still keep it around for legacy projects, FCP7 will be a distant memory soon enough.

At the same time, don't just limit yourself to one application, you don't want to think of yourself as an Avid Editor, a Premiere Editor, FCPX Editor etc.

Start with one, but as time allows, try and dip into all of them and learn them all and keep up to date with the tech. It'll take time, but once you've learnt the workflow of one, then you can apply that to all of them and know what questions to ask of the other NLEs to get the work done.

You'll end up with your personal favourite, like all of us, but, particularly if you're working freelance, you never know when that dream job or next step up will come along (or if you just need the money!) and they want the candidate who'll work on a particular platform.

So I guess my advice, put simply, is learn Avid (it's the industry standard), but don't let that stop you from learning the others as and when time permits.

All the best and good luck!