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Can I start with the $100 & under editing programs for this, or need to go all out?

msp1518

msp1518

Can I start with the $100 & under editing programs for this, or need to go all out?

When I did my short back in 2001, it was edited on AVID and I sat it with the editor. Times have changed. You can edit yourself. Awesome.

Now the problem is, in doing research I am not sure what I need. Two things are happening...

1. I am going to shoot two shorts over the next six months, one fully HD using a Canon D60 and the second a mix of mostly HD with some Super8 footage (that will be HD scanned, of course). First short is 5 minutes. Second short should be 15.

2. I want to have my original short film scanned/transferred into HD (either from 35mm blowup or 16mm ABC rolls) and will want to color correct, add grain, zoom in a few shots to alter framing. Doing that in a telecine bay is way too expensive. Gotta do it myself.

Can I get away with using Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD or Adobe Premiere Elements 9 for now? Or would I need the full suites that cost a grand or more to tackle HD with color correction, reframing, adding grain, etc? or is there a program I am not thinking of?

I'm a PC guy. I've got a Shuttle XPC Prima running Windows XP Pro with an Intel P3 2.83 GHz chip and 4g ram. My video card is an NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+.
 
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I'd download trial versions of both Premiere Pro and Elements - you'll have a month before they expire, though from what you've said I think it's very likely that you'll need a more expensive prosumer edition to do everything you need.
 
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I edited a short that was accepted at six festivals last year on Vegas 9 Home, the $99 version. It all depends on what you need to do in post. My film didn't have any extensive special effects, and we lighted properly so extensive color grading was unnecessary. Audio was recorded properly, so no extensive audio post was needed beyond what Vegas could handle.

color correction, reframing, adding grain
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These can all be done with Vegas Studio, but I'm not sure how it stacks up to other programs.
 
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chilipie said:
I'd download trial versions of both Premiere Pro and Elements - you'll have a month before they expire, though from what you've said I think it's very likely that you'll need a more expensive prosumer edition to do everything you need.
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+1 To taking advantage of the demo. A month straight in the program can come in handy
 
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The tip I got and am using to use expensive software for free is to download the trial, when your trial is up you reinstall your OS and redownload the trial. Awesome innit?
Of course this only works when you can get full version trials.
 
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Just downloaded Vegas 10 demo and will give it a go. Certainly can't hurt. Thank you for the tips.

IndieBudget, i have balls, but they must be small because i'm not sure if I want to try something like that. :)
 
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msp1518 said:
mix of mostly HD with some Super8 footage (that will be HD scanned, of course).
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Heh, I once shot a mixed media short, and thought I could get away with plain SD telecine with HD footage. It looked awful after I had to stretch the telecined S8 out in the timeline. :(

Your plan to get an HD scan is really good, but it will be much more expensive and not every lab can do it. It's definitely what you want to do, though.


Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD or Adobe Premiere Elements 9 for now?
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A buddy of mine just bought Sony Vegas (the $125 version) which had simple presets for DSLR footage. It crashes a lot on his system, which is a brand-new PC that runs nothing else. Vegas tech support has been useless (even the paid type), while his Vegas crashes after the timeline gets to about 10 to 15 minutes long.

I don't know how well the other similar brands handle the DSLR footage.

Aside from that, all those $100-ish editing programmes are pretty darn good for the price and will do almost all you need. (Not sure about the CC capabilities).

I've got Vegas up on my system and will be playing with it shortly
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Test it with a lengthy timeline, and see if you have better results than my friend.
 
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I found a place that can handle the Super8 and provide exceptionally good quality. I'll do a full on test with them before committing, of course.

Still haven't had a chance to mess with Vegas. been so so busy. I need to clone myself.
 
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A buddy of mine just bought Sony Vegas (the $125 version) which had simple presets for DSLR footage. It crashes a lot on his system, which is a brand-new PC that runs nothing else. Vegas tech support has been useless (even the paid type), while his Vegas crashes after the timeline gets to about 10 to 15 minutes long.
Click to expand...

I should have mentioned that I covert all HD footage to Cineform's Neoscene ($100 plug-in) before editing in Vegas.
 
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