Video editing - The Sequel

daytripper!

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Excellent thread here recently on video editing discussing mega powerful £££ computers and detailed rendering etc. Our daughter is now leaving uni and venturing into free lance journalism and wants to be able to edit the interview videos recorded on her mobile phone (using ext mics) at outdoor protest rallies etc and indoor meetings and needs to add narrative. The edited results will be submitted to various webzines. What would be the panel’s advice... on computing power (ideally laptop) and the software needed for editing such videos made on a mobile phone. It’s another project being funded by the Bank of Mum&Dad so am hopefully seeking real-world budget tech rather than NASA levels of computing power and IMAX resolution - thanks!
 
Judging by the benchmarks I’m reading lately: a MacBook Air or Pro with M1 (Apple Silicon) would be a more than decent machine for that type of linear editing (normally not a super power hungry activity).
Might need and external SSD though.
 
If you want to go inexpensive. Decent mid range laptop with SSD for software and external HD for completed projects. Linux Mint os free(or win10) and Kdenlive for Linux or W10 for editing also free and works well with lower spec. Kit in Linux or W10.
 
I can't comment on the laptop, but divinci resolve will be worth a look for editing software. The free version will be more than adequate. Have a look on YouTube as there are plenty of reviews.
 
Even a low spec Macbook will run Final Cut, which does as much as she will ever need. Being a Mac she will get years out of it, software updates are free too. An external SSD will also be required, meaning you’re stumping up a substantial amount of cash, but it’s important that she has the right tools and that they don’t let her down when she has a deadline. There is a reason Apple is industry standard in video production, despite the cost. If she gets a full time job at some point it will be a big bonus if she is already experienced at using professional level tools.
 
Daughter was weaned on Windows but i guessed that an Apple recommendation might appear here. FWIW she is currently Windows based with an Android phone. Guess IF she was to go for an Apple laptop then an iPhone would make sense or is that irrelevant? Adding in an iPhone would defo blow (maybe even double) my optimistic £1k budget! I guess this is the stuff that The Missenden Flyer and TeapotOne etc are using? Thanks for the replies gents, any other comments appreciated as am hoping to tie this in with the BlkFriday - CyberMonday sales.
 
A second hand MacBook Pro £500 - £600 as are often sold on here will do just nicely. An external 1TB SSD will set you back about £120 or so providing you buy from a trade outlet. Have a look at CCL computers, they are based on the outskirts of Bradford but do mail order. I highly recommend them. Download a 90 day free copy of Final Cut Pro X also known as FCPX which is what Teapotone uses. For well under £1000 your daughter has the capability to start earning straight away.

Phone wise, I can’t see what difference that makes, FCPX will handle video from an android phone no problem at all.
 
She just has to transfer the video files from the phone, so she can.

my optimistic £1k budget
Click to expand...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the type of editing she is planning to do is very simple. (I'm also assuming she might not do everything in 4k).
With the 1k budget you can easily looking at buying a 2016 MBP, even the 15" + an external SSD or mechanical drive and that will be, again, more than enough.

My main machine up to just a few weeks ago was that (i7 2016 MacBook Pro 15" - 16gb RAM and sadly 256GB SSD) and when I looked the price on eBay to "price" it I think it was at around 800/900 quid. You can also find way cheaper.

I don't do video as a job, but my job sometimes includes some basic video editing (and some extremely basic compositing here and there) + I play with it for fun, and the MacBook went through it without a itch (and my i7 2012 Mac mini before that), if not the annoyingly small internal storage space. But that's solvable configuring the software properly. ;)


Looking ahead, software-wise. Adobe provides (also available on Android) Premiere Rush that can do quite a lot on a mobile directly.
It is very nice, give a try.

But, in general, FCPX is obviously extremely fast + it does the automatic transcoding I think, and that's handy. But it needs compressor to export, and that's an extra license if I'm not wrong (it was up to a few years ago).
 
Thks for the pointers chaps. Premier Pro and Premier Rush seem to be part of the same pkge enabling video editing on 'any camera, any format, any platform'. Found the website very informative inc the step-by-step stuff and there was a 'Systems Requirements' section but bizarrely it has omissions, eg says: needs 7th gen cpu and SSD but omits to specify which chip eg i5****H, 4 core blah blah or size of the SSD eg 512Gb. Helpfully it does state amount of RAM for processing HD or 4K (16gb / 32gb respectively) which graphics card and size of GPU needed (4gb). FWIW I think my daughter might be phased by switching to an Apple laptop, also the nefarious may take in interest in an Apple machine whereas the Windows ones all look the same :augie. I will read on! DT
 
I switched from Premiere Pro to FCPX because when using Premiere Pro on my iMac it kept freezing and couldn’t handle 4k material very well. In contrast FCPX even on my 2015 model iMac work’s seamlessly. I was led to believe that as FCPX was designed to be used on the Apple platform that’s why it works so well, not sure if that’s true or not.
 
I use Premiere because I already pay the Creative Suite subscription and saves me paying for another license, also I don't do video too much and I loathe the UI on FCPX. I was an old Final Cut Pro 7 aficionado.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LxKYuF9pENQ" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

FCPX's workflow is mind boggling fast compared to Premiere. That's a given.

what’s compressor?
Click to expand...

Haven't used Final Cut Pro X for a few years, so things might have changed, and I suspect so as I just noticed the license for FCPX is more expensive.
I used FCPX at work up to ~3 years ago.

You can edit the video, but compressing/encoding into different video formats was extremely limited. I realised then, that the low cost of the FCPX license was due to having to also buy Compressor (a separate app) to do all that.
https://www.apple.com/uk/final-cut-pro/compressor/

I didn't really care much as I used Adobe Media Encoder instead.

Again, not sure if this is still the case.
 
Final Cut X does have some exporting functionality but for Compressor does add a lot to it. The bundle including FCP and compressor is £199 for students, which is extremely good value.

Itchy Boots does all her videos on Final Cut, not sure about TMF. The BBC has been using it for News for about 6 years, which is a pretty good recommendation I guess.
 
I'm simply using a free trial of FCPX which states its a 90 day trial. However when that trial ended I simply downloaded it again, yes naughty I know but it works and I now have another 90 days. I will buy it eventually even at £300 as in the long run it will work out cheaper than what I was paying through Adobe for Premiere Pro which was £20 per month.
 
Ta for the replies. Never looked at Apple stuff before but that was the collective tosser advice here and have to say the new Apple Book Air M1 (£999) looks a real market tech changer ~ or may be I'm being sucked in by the hype! I see it comes with iMovie which appears to have video-editing capability, and rumour has it the Air M1 can run Final Cut out of the box tho for something heavy like Premier Pro you need 16Gb RAM which is a £200 option at purchase & then only available direct from Apple because the components are soldered in to min weight and size. At least an Air M1 from Apple should be a top quality product with many years of service in it.
 
because the components are soldered in to min weight and size
Click to expand...

That's not exactly the reason (it was, partly, on the previous MacBooks).
The M1 is what it is called System on a Chip. It includes CPU, GPU, shared RAM Memory, and some other processor on a single silicon chip. The shared memory is one of the things that makes it as fast as it is.
Yes it is a bummer to be forced to order RAM this way at Apple prices, but for the laptops it has been this way for a few years now.


But, yes, solid laptops.


I see a lot of people mention some vloggers as sample of what they want to achieve: iMovie will be enough.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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