Basic editing set-up

Kingda Ka

Kingda Ka

Hi,

I am experimenting with the Adobe Cloud programs. I appreciate there are probably superior programs.

I do not plan on doing much editing myself, I just want to familiarize myself with the process to be able to communicate with editors.

After Effects is suggesting I install an NVIDIA video card. I've got a couple extra PCI card slots. Can someone recommend a good card for basic learning? The machine I will be using is a Dell with Windows 7 with 8 GB of onboard RAM, I think it is expandable to 16.
 
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Aren't you getting around.

The big 3 are Acid, FCP and PP. PP is a fine piece of software for editing.

What video card will do depends on a number of factors. What will you be editing (footage wise). For instance, if you're editing h.264 footage, the CPU will be more of a factor on PP.

When you get up to footage like r3d (from Red Cameras), you may find yourself needing an expensive video card.

This also depends on your workflow. If you transcode to a production codec, that will reduce the strain to a point where most footage will work on most modern computers.

If in doubt, grab a Nividia card in the $150-$250 range and you should be mostly fine with everything but the top end footage. If you're dealing with 4k footage, it's typically advised to get a video card with 4gig of ram.

RAM makes a world of difference. Once again, it'll depend on what footage you're working with. 16gig is what I consider a minimum with 32/64 being closer to that sweet spot.

If you're transcoding footage and keeping a high bitrate, hard drive speed is then a factor.

All this isn't really relevant in being able to talk with an editor. It'll help you get to the point where you can learn to press the appropriate buttons. Don't focus on the buttons. While it's important to know how to use the software, telling the story and having the audience feel the intended emotion of the material is the primary function of the editor.

This might not make a lot of sense to you yet and that's fine.

You don't need to talk editor speak. What you do need to do is to make sure the director (and everyone else for that matter) does his/her job properly. This allows the editor to focus on their job instead of turning the editor into the "fix it in post guy."

If you really want to learn more about the craft of editing, I'd suggest doing a few courses on the topic. Consider www.insidetheedit.com, moviola.com and even Lynda.com.

Last but not least, what's described here is an overly simplistic view of editing. Don't take it as gospel.
 
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