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which way the wind blows
Ok. I’m looking for reasoned opinions. Here’s my dilemma. I am a video production teacher at a high school. I have recently moved to a new site. It’s a mixed crowd with only a handful seriously interested in the field. I need to teach all three stages of production: pre-production, production, and postproduction. I am a certified FCP editor learning AVID, but not up to speed yet. I have inherited 20 still shrink-wrapped copies of FCS 3. One voice says, “Try to get a refund or exchange or credit from APPLE. FCP 7 has too steep a learning curve to burden students with an EOL app.” Another voice says, “You have a total of 25 copies of FCS 3, use em, whatever you teach now will be replaced in the future and the basics remain the same.” Yet another voice says, “Install Imovie (6) HD, teach it in a week, and when you master AVID enough to teach and find the funding for an AVID site license make the transition.” I’ve used Imovie (6) HD in the past. Students enjoyed it and it got the job done for most school projects. We are shooting with HDV cameras. For special projects, I use a ki pro, apple ProRes 422 and will edit in FC or Avid. Another advantage of Imovie is I only have a limited number of new Imacs. To teach the full classes, I will be using a computer lab with lower end Imacs (I think I3 processors). These will most likely not cut it for higher end apps. I also have a limited number of external drives to use as media drives. Will be looking in the future for either more or some sort of networked storage.
OSX 10.5.8; MacBookPro4,1 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.
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4 Replies
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I’m struggling with the same problem at the Colorado Film School. I came to the conclusion that teaching FCP 7 until FCP X is either totally thrown out the window by pros, or the industry moves to Avid or Adobe. in other words, follow the industry. Today, I’ll wager 90% of the FCP 7 users are still using FCP 7 and will for a while yet… We teach Avid at the school too. This semester I’m mixing FCP 7 with FCP X in the “FCP class”. Again, we are also teaching Avid.
Hope this sheds some light. I think that anything they learn using FCP 7 will translate to another app down the line too. I’ve taught Avid, FCP and Adobe, and the students learn FCP 7 fastest BTW, but once they’ve learned one app, it’s easy to learn the next. The aesthetics you teach will definitely pass on to the next system, and those lessons are the ones that are the more important anyway.
That said, you’ll need more external hard drives for media storage no matter what you end up teaching…
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer, Producer, Writer, Director Editor, Gun for Hire and other things. I ski. My Blog: https://blogs.creativecow.net/Jerry-Hofmann
Current DVD:
https://store.creativecow.net/p/81/jerry_hofmanns_final_cut_system_setup8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO2 with MAX – Cinema Displays I have a 22″ that I paid 4k for still working. G4 with Kona SD card, and SCSI card.
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Thanks Jerry. I follow. Thanks for the encouragement/insight. I know FC will be around for a while. But mine are students who, for the most part, haven’t yet developed an interest in editing. The fact that FC is EOL really bothers me. Not yet over the shock. But as you point out, editing is editing and variations in interfaces can be learned. Good thing we are all going to live forever, have unlimited resources and capacity to learn new tools, time is not precious and artistic crafts are not something that is mastered over a long career but rather ingested and spit out like sticks of bubblegum. Will FCS, AVID MC 5 or Adobe Prod. Suite work on I3 Imacs?
OSX 10.5.8; MacBookPro4,1 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.
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You’d have to post the exact specs… these are intel core duo 2 machines? If they just meet the minimums, they’ll work but they’ll be slower or crippled a little somehow. The specs for the current software can be found on the manufacturer’s site. You’re looking for system requirements.
Thing is all the modern software is heavily relying on the GPU’s more and more, so that becomes an issue with older iMac’s no doubt. Render times etc might be really slow on some things.
You can certainly get a free copy of Adobe software to try.
Apple Certified Trainer, Producer, Writer, Director Editor, Gun for Hire and other things. I ski. My Blog: https://blogs.creativecow.net/Jerry-Hofmann
Current DVD:
https://store.creativecow.net/p/81/jerry_hofmanns_final_cut_system_setup8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO2 with MAX – Cinema Displays I have a 22″ that I paid 4k for still working. G4 with Kona SD card, and SCSI card.
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Thanks Jerry, Yeah I know the drill. Just thought maybe I3s were a no go and you or someone might know off the top. I’ll boot em up, write down the stats, and check the min. for Adobe, AVID, FC. This too shall pass. No way they were ordered with higher end graphic cards. My guess is FC will be slow but will work. Probably not color or motion. Avid maybe not. This is where the Imacs’s lack of upgradeability becomes weak link. Still they should be fine for preproduction and Imovie. Would love to see an update on your article that gave the recommended system requirements/QT versions etc for all the different editing choices. Remember the one on different versions of FC/OS X?
OSX 10.5.8; MacBookPro4,1 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.
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