I'd like some help with my mac and iMovie...

[Superfletch 1]

I just recently purchased a Mac G4 533Mhz tower. It's an older model and I hope it will do what I'd like. I have 1.5GB of Ram, a 120GB Hard drive and a Superdrive. It came loaded with OS 10.3.7 and iLife '04. What I'd like from all you Mac users is some advice. For now I'm using iMovie4 to edit with. Is this good enough? Should I check into a different program? Is the computer itself beefy enough to handle video editing? Should I consider a processor upgrade? If so, which one? Where can I find different transitions for iMovie? Anyone got any that they would like to pass on? Is there a good book/manual for iMovie that should be considered a must read? I'm very, VERY new to computer editing and could use any help anyone would like to offer. I'd like to make a year end video of sorts from my footage of last year. Perhaps I would even like to edit tandem videos on the computer but right now it's just easier to use the soundboard and VCR method. Any suggestions for a newbie? Thanks in advance people. Inspire and inform me.

.

Gary "Superfletch" Fletcher
D-26145; USPA Coach, IAD/I, AFF/I
Videographer/Photographer

[jdhill 0]

You should be able to do video on this machine with no problem... if you are just getting started, iMovie can do enough... if you want to start getting fancy you may want to look a Final Cut Express... there are extra transitions available, GeeThree-Slick has a bunch...

If you are doing a lot of "red button editing" while you are shooting, liniar is going to be faster for turning out tandem videos, but if you have a little time to play with it, doing them on the computer will turn out a nicer product.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. - Edmund Burke

[pope 0]

You'd be doing well to upgrade to a dual processor, to be sure.
iMovie will suit your needs well for now, but I recommend FCE as an intermediate step to "real" non-linear editing on a mac. When your comfy enough, you'll want to invest in a beefy dual G5 and Final Cut 5 or whatever version is the most current at the time (look into Apple's "production Suite" when you upgrade--FCP, DVDSP, and Motion).

You'll want to get another couple of storage drives as well, unless you'll be purging all raw captured footy off of your machine after each edit. 120GB doesn't go far in NLE systems! I'd look into a Serial ATA RAID card and the largest drives it will support. if your computer supports it. I believe Acard makes one that will suit your needs. Either way, don't get suckered into an external irewire Drive unless you absolutely need it--way slower. If you do end up with an Ext. FW drive, at least try and go with FW800 instead of FW400 (if your machine supports it. And even then don't edit straight from the FW drive--only use it for backups.

As far as books go, the "For Dummies" series has always been a great first book for mac products. Surf the user groups at Apple.com/support--they will help you immensely. The bottom line is that if you want to learn the program(s), you gotta put in the time! So I definately recommend buying a case or two of Go Fast! right off the bat. Good luck making your tandem vids on a NLE system in less time than the standard linear edit.

Have fun!
pope

[Superfletch 1]

Thanks for the great advice, unfortunately that's a little (ok, a lot) out of my price range. I just bought this machine off of eBay to play with. It won't be generating any kind of an income for me. I've got a room full of older macs. I just needed a machine that had firewire ports so that I could hook up my camera to it. I just wanted something that would put out a nice end product for small projects and such. For now I am thinking of it as just a toy. I've never done any kind of video editing before. I used to be in the print media field. I helped start a service bureau in the Los Angeles area a long time ago. Star Link Co. I used to use my macs everyday for a living, now I just play on them occasionally and get on the internet. I would like to get back into the computers but I have been out of the game for a very long time and don't know where to start. If this machine is beefy enough to handle low end stuff then I will stick with it as is. I was just kind of wondering what other skydiving videographers out there were using and what they were doing on their machines. Specifically, the types of software and add-on software that they were using. I'd like to develop some kind of leader to our tandem videos just to dress them up a bit. We have a very small family orientated dropzone in Missouri. I'd like to bring it into the 21st century and dress it up a bit. I wish I had a high speed connection so that I could see some of the movies that you all have put out but living here in the stix my only choice is DirecPC and that is just WAY too expensive. Like $70 a month or something like that. I'll just have to visit other dropzones in person and have somebody show me their stuff while I'm there... hehehehehe

I film most of my jumps which are usually tandem videos, IAD exits or student coach dives. I did get to make a fun jump last weekend. (almost forgot what those were like) I love being able to give my students video of themselves. When I was coming up we only had one video guy and he was usually pretty busy filming tandems. It made me feel so good when ever I got to be on a jump with him and he caught me on film. "Spielburg" never asked me for a dime, just gave me the video. Thanks Shawn, you inspired me!

Now I'm jumping video and all my students know to bring their tapes to the DZ with them when they come. I feel like I'm giving back and it makes my day to make someone else's day. ;) Unfortunately, I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I'm getting real bored with just dropping videos to tape with a little music. I'd like to be able to edit the jumps together and give them something a little more professional looking and plus it let's me get creative again. Something I haven't been in quite some time. Who knows, perhaps someone with a camera will start jumping at our DZ again and I'll get some footage of me. :) Then I could do a project with me as the star... that would be neat. Until then, I'll continue making the day of my students.

What are some or your favorite transitions or titles that you use? Any ideas anyone could give me would be appreciated. Like I said before, I've never done anything at all like this ever, but I learn quick. I'll check into the "iMovie for Dummies" book the next time I'm in "town". (It's a 20 minute drive for me just to get to the nearest stop light. The closest book store is over an hour away. :/ Anyhow, thanks again.

.

Gary "Superfletch" Fletcher
D-26145; USPA Coach, IAD/I, AFF/I
Videographer/Photographer

[murrays 0]

I just finished our club's year end video on iMovie...about 38 minutes altogether on an 800mhz G4 iMac with 768mb ram. I think you'll be ok with your machine....they are always slower than you'd like!!!

You can do lots of great stuff in iMovie...in fact, it's more your selection of shots, how you put them together, match the edits to the music, choose the music than the computer or software that you use.

The most common transition is.....a straight edit, just a cut to the next scene. I use cross dissolves and straight edits and that's about it. Cross dissolves are usually either...quick...10 frames, just to smooth some transitions that seem too jarring as a straight edit or longer to slowly slide into the next scene....it's a mood thing.

I bought a plug-in called Sebsofts Slow Motion Smoother a while ago and like how it smooths out slowmotion when you apply it to a clip. I have another Soft focus from GeeThree or ??? (Can't remember and I'm typing this from work.)

Go to versiontracker.com and do a search on iMovie and you'll get all kinds of ideas. Most of the add-in websites have good little videos of how their titles and transitions work.

I bought an iMovie2 Missing Manual book by David Pogue and found it quite helpful. I also bought iMovie2 Solutions and quite liked it.

Have fun!!!

--
Murray

"No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

[Superfletch 1]

Thanks... I'll keep all that in mind. I'll have to check into that slow motion smoother you were talking about. I would like to use slow motion and have it be smooth and not choppy. I think if the slow motion was too choppy it would just distract from the video. Can anyone tell me if there is a way to slow down part of a clip in iMovie 4. I don't want to have to separate the clip into the regular speed clip, slow motion clip and then back to the regular speed clip. I would just like to be able to slow down a portion of one clip, say, in the middle of a sequence and then speed it back up again.

.

Gary "Superfletch" Fletcher
D-26145; USPA Coach, IAD/I, AFF/I
Videographer/Photographer

[murrays 0]

I think you can do what you want if you use Slow Motion SMoother otherwise you have to split the clip up and apply slow motion to the middle clip. You slow things up/down in iMovie by selecting the clip and switching to the timeline mode (Where you can see the audio tracks) It's a slider at the bottom of the screen.

--
Murray

"No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

[murrays 0]

Gary,

I took a look on Amazon to see what books were available for iMovie4 and discovered that David Pogue updated iMovie2 - The Missing Manual with iMovie4 and iDVD4 - The Missing Manual This would be a good book for you to get. I really found the iMovie2 book useful....especially with regards to Quicktime related stuff and codecs, etc, etc.

--
Murray

"No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

[DavidKing 0]

You can not slow a portion of a clip, so you must split it. Drag the playhead to the portion of the the clip you would like to slow/speedup and
press command T to split then move to the end of where you want the slow/speedup and Command T again. Now highlight that section and slide the scale towards the turtle icon, done. Your Mac should do OK although a pross upgrade would make a big diff.

[Superfletch 1]

Is anyone out there working with a processor upgraded Mac? I'd like to know if you are running into any compatibility issues or anything like that.

Gary "Superfletch" Fletcher
D-26145; USPA Coach, IAD/I, AFF/I
Videographer/Photographer

[DavidKing 0]

Gary, my Dad ran an upgraded processor for a while with great results.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/accelerators/OWC-Mercury-Extreme/
David