Or should I call it the movie disaster?
I have never, ever run into a photo-related program that I couldn’t figure out, until I bumped into Final Cut Express. Day after day, of bumping my head against walls. Was it that the program was so difficult? Have I had a stroke, or bunch of burnt-out neurons since the last time I picked up a program.
I went through tonemapping, infrared (both digital and film), Lightroom, Photoshop (and a few other photo programs) and never felt so helpless.
It’s as if every button I press in Final Cut has been programmed to do the opposite of what I think it’s going to do.
I think there should be some intelligence test handed out with this program; some meter to see whether you have what it takes to make FCE work for you. I have to admit, it is very frustrating. Nope. I’m putting it down. I’m giving it (make that me) a reprieve.
I admit that Final Cut has beat me silly. I don’t know what the fight was about, but I would’ve done better trying to break a wild horse in a movie, and since I’ve never even been near a horse – you can get some idea of where I’m at. For all you geniuses who mastered the program – you have my admiration.
For photographers, in terms of ease of use and overall control of effects, I’d list the movie programs like this:
iMovie (is very easy, but it also does too much for you. )
Final Cut Express (This is the most convoluted program to learn. I’m sure that once you get past the brick-wall barrier, it has all the capabilities you’ll need, but I have a very bad feeling after being beaten down by it)
Adobe Premiere Elements 8 (windows only) I used Adobe Premiere Elements 7 under windows, and frankly – I don’t think I ever had to look in a manual. It came to me very easily. All the older movies that I put on YouTube (BeckermanPhoto) were made with it. And there just wasn’t a whit of trouble. If there was a version 8 for the Mac, I’d get it.
Adobe Premiere 4 on the Mac, is not as simple as Elements 7 was – but it can do more stuff (I guess).
Frankly – for now – I’ve got to take a break from movie making… mostly because it simply wasn’t as easy as I remember (Elements 7). I simply don’t have the time to relearn stupid stuff like panning and scaling, and to be frank – FC is one of those programs I’ve run into where I feel like one screen is not enough, and where I’d like to have someone who knows it looking over my shoulder.
No, I haven’t tried Final Cut Pro because they don’t have a TRY version, and it’s over $1000. But if it’s anything like Final Cut Express – eeks. I would hate to have paid that sort of money (not that I would have) for a sideline that I thought might be interesting for viewers.
Of course I can measure whether the problem is mine, or the programs’ by re-installing Adobe Premiere Elements 7 under windows and see how it runs in parallel mode on the mac. That’s probably the way to go for now… though I think it was a bit flakey the last time I tried that… but I can’t remember for sure… Yes, it’s possible this is all part of my first serious senior two weeks.
So I just installed the old Premiere Elements 7 in the windows section of the computer, and sure enough – works like a charm… Yes, I updated the software. It reads all the still files I’ve got. And the interface just makes complete sense. So I don’t get it. Why that should be so straight-forward, and the other ones are so more complex. It’s a mystery.
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And finally, just to be thorough – I downloaded the Windows version of Premiere Elements 8 (trial version). Remember, I’m running this stuff under parallel on the Mac (Win 7). Premiere 8 was not very happy. It complained about my graphics card not being up to snuff. It told me that I had a NVIDIA something or other and complained that it wouldn’t be able to playback with that card and to change cards and then tell it that the card had changed…
Both programs – 7 and 8 – are really pushing Photoshop.com as a backup site. I haven’t found a way to turn off that stupid splash screen in either versions, though I have to believe it’s there somewhere. But anyway, Premiere Elements 7 still works just fine. And I’m going to work on a picture / movie over the weekend. Maybe it’ll be stuff from John Prine. I don’t know.
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