Final Cut Express or Final Cut Pro? For my own movies (HMC150?)

[Robert Turchick]

I'll reiterate a few things that caught my eye as I scanned through this thread and add my own take...

FCS is the only way to go...when I first started thinking about video, I tried iMovie for a week, then went to the Apple store to see FCE and finally a friend showed me FCP. If you have a vision in your head, you need to be able to execute it and FCS will not limit you. Make sure you have a BIG hard drive for uncompressing those AVCHD files to Pro Res and you'll be thrilled with the results.

Lynda.com has good training tutorials for just about any app you could think of.

Find/hire/beg/bribe someone who knows FCS to help install and setup your system and show you the basics. This will save you a lot of headaches.

HMC-150 is a great camera. Make sure you get the big battery and a decent tripod.
Sennheiser G3 wireless will work fine.

AND NOW....the big one...

How does the old saying go? "Lights, Camera, Action!"
You need lights my friend! Minimum of 2, 3 preferred. There are plenty of cheap solutions out there. I've seen 3 light kits with soft boxes for $450.
Bottom line is no editing software can fix poorly lit video. Sure it can help but that's yet another skill set to pile on the long list of jobs you want to master.

All this said, seems like another part of your budget should be for a person to help you get the basics down on all these areas.

As a one man shop myself, it's taken me a long time and a lot of buying lunches or hiring pros to assist on shoots to get proficient with that end of the production. The editing was basically a lot of reading and hours upon hours locked in front of my rig learning. I had 15 years of audio engineering/editing experience before diving into video which made the learning curve much smaller.
Most importantly, watching TV and movies in a very different way...from each job title's perspective.

It's kind of come full circle as I have several "clients" who are either actors, journalists, or writers who I have helped build systems for and it's great because we all feed each other work.

Being originally from Albany, NY I am familiar with most of the production companies in your area. You may have to travel to get to some of them but it's worth making some phone calls to get experience on a pro crew or even to pick someone's brain to learn the secrets. Don't be afraid to barter your acting talent either!

Check the colleges for "star" students or recent grads as they would probably help for very little money!

You will learn much faster from a real person than tutorials and books.

[Ben Tolosa]

Originally Posted by Robert Turchick

I'll reiterate a few things that caught my eye as I scanned through this thread and add my own take...

FCS is the only way to go...when I first started thinking about video, I tried iMovie for a week, then went to the Apple store to see FCE and finally a friend showed me FCP. If you have a vision in your head, you need to be able to execute it and FCS will not limit you. Make sure you have a BIG hard drive for uncompressing those AVCHD files to Pro Res and you'll be thrilled with the results.

Lynda.com has good training tutorials for just about any app you could think of.

Find/hire/beg/bribe someone who knows FCS to help install and setup your system and show you the basics. This will save you a lot of headaches.

HMC-150 is a great camera. Make sure you get the big battery and a decent tripod.
Sennheiser G3 wireless will work fine.

AND NOW....the big one...

How does the old saying go? "Lights, Camera, Action!"
You need lights my friend! Minimum of 2, 3 preferred. There are plenty of cheap solutions out there. I've seen 3 light kits with soft boxes for $450.
Bottom line is no editing software can fix poorly lit video. Sure it can help but that's yet another skill set to pile on the long list of jobs you want to master.

All this said, seems like another part of your budget should be for a person to help you get the basics down on all these areas.

As a one man shop myself, it's taken me a long time and a lot of buying lunches or hiring pros to assist on shoots to get proficient with that end of the production. The editing was basically a lot of reading and hours upon hours locked in front of my rig learning. I had 15 years of audio engineering/editing experience before diving into video which made the learning curve much smaller.
Most importantly, watching TV and movies in a very different way...from each job title's perspective.

It's kind of come full circle as I have several "clients" who are either actors, journalists, or writers who I have helped build systems for and it's great because we all feed each other work.

Being originally from Albany, NY I am familiar with most of the production companies in your area. You may have to travel to get to some of them but it's worth making some phone calls to get experience on a pro crew or even to pick someone's brain to learn the secrets. Don't be afraid to barter your acting talent either!

Check the colleges for "star" students or recent grads as they would probably help for very little money!

You will learn much faster from a real person than tutorials and books.

Hey Robert: Thank you for this positive message!!

I was here just killing some time while FINAL CUT STUDIO is installing on my iMac!! and I happen to read this thread ^_^

The installer just asked me for the disc called 'Audio Content 1'

And I do have a year subscription at Lynda.com since a few weeks and they are AMAZING!! I am very happy with their trainings. I've been learning about Final Cut Studio and Garageband.

Once agan Robert, thanks for this positive message!!

Peace,