An excellent entry level video editing program
Written: Dec 08 '00 (Updated Dec 16 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Intuitive interface, easy to use
Cons: Not being produced anymore
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| MotherWestWind's Full Review: Avid Cinema |
Avid Cinema is no longer being sold or developed by the company, which is a shame since this program is easy to use, fun to work with, extremely affordable and it was offered in both MAC and Windows formats. I guess the company found that writing a program for the mass market of video editing compromised their concept of editing. From what I understand they had too many complaints from the novice that their program was too difficult and decided to just concentrate on developing and promoting their professional editing software, especially now that Microsoft has come out with their video for dummies program (not for MAC I might add). Avid offers in it's place Avid Xpress v.4, which has more capabilities than Avid Cinema and of course is more expensive. (I think you might have to hunt around for a medium priced editing software program, perhaps Adobe Premiere is a good choice.)
Avid is the leader in video and film production for years. It's name is well known throughout the industry. If video and film is your major in college or your goal then you should become acquainted with the name of AVID. From the specs on their website you can garner an understanding of how much the film industry enjoys working with Avid products, particularly Film Composer XL which is touted to being an Oscar award winning program! (Look at the price, ouch - only for professionals or rich hobbyists.)
I have been working with Avid Cinema for almost a year now at our local JC for the video production classes that have been offered. I found the interface to be very intuitive and easy to learn. The manual is incredible - soooo easy to follow (unlike some competitors' manuals who need a degree in geek language to understand or are so empty of content.) Editing a video is quick and easy. First you write down your storyboard (included with the software so you can print it out) complete with stills to illustrate your ideas. Next you go out and film your project. Next you feed in your video through your fireware capture card directly into the editing portion of the program. I recommend you work with small clips as it's almost impossible to cut and paste from long clips. Stopping and starting your film capturing into segments is more logical and these clips are easier to work with, plus saving yourself the frustration of having to go back and recapture the video.
Once your video is captured then the fun of editing begins. Each clip is controlled by handles which can be daunting when working in the smallest section but you can hit the ZOOM buttons on the lower left hand corner to make these clips easy to handle. To length the clip just pull out the right handle to the right, to shorten push to the left - all the while watching the clip on the screen in front of you. Once you get it right, title it and leave it alone.
Next step is adding in your transitions and Avid has a lot of fun ones to play with. Be careful not to get TRANSITION crazy or else your video will be choppy. The one I like to use the most is DISSOLVE, which is smooth and almost invisible as we as viewers are so used to seeing it. Many of the other TRANSITIONS may seen hokey or contrived but when used creatively they work.
You can also import music and voice to complete your movie.
All in all I would recommend this program to any beginner or intermediate video/film maker.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
MotherWestWind
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Member: Beth-Katherine Kaiman
Location: Clearlake, CA
Reviews written: 87
Trusted by: 87 members
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