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  • importing into iMovie vs Final Cut 7

    Posted by Chris Gen on November 7, 2009 at 6:07 am

    Hi, I’m new to this forum and Final Cut Pro.

    I need an advise about importing movies into FCP in the fastest way.
    I am a Youtube partner and I need to make one video a week about traveling in Japan.

    So far I’ve been using iMovie9 for all of my edits but when I edit movies that is captured in AVCHD and is over 20 min long and has effects, music, cutaways, subtitles, even my Mac Pro with 8GB ram begins to seriously slow down iMovie9.

    So I moved to Final Cut Pro 7.

    I’m running into an issue with importing files. I am used to being able to put the basic structure of the video extremly quickly but I find that importing each video track from the camera to FCP and labeling each clip is tiresome and costing me a lot of time. My after effects/Cinema 4D guy recommended a workflow where I import the original clips into iMovie, do a simple organizing of the film and exporting it to FCP7 for the final edit.

    However, I read somewhere on this forum that one should simply stick with FCP and not do the iMovie to FCP export workflow.

    Does anybody have a sold advice on this matter? I am willing to put the time in learning a new workflow if this is going to help over time.

    Should I save time by using the iMovie to FCP workflow? Or a FCP import faster after one get’s used to it?

    Does anybody have any resources on where one may learn a quick import workflow?

    I find the iMovie edit work flow was so intuitive and easy to use that I hesitate to spend the time labeling each imported clips in detail, making bins and organizing them in so far, time consuming manner. I really hope I’m doing this the right way… Can anyone point to a source that has a quick import workflow?

    I really appreciate any advice in this matter and I hope I’m not offending anyone by posting this. I looked on this site for similar posts but ones I found were from 2007 and the versions of iMovie was different. It’s my second post on this forum and I hope I can make some cool friends here.

    Thank you.

    Chris Gen from Tokyo
    Youtube StreetEnglishTV
    New Japan Travel TV
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3K6NLBxiYA

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    Scott Cook replied 16 years, 4 months ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
  • 2 Replies
  • Rafael Amador

    November 7, 2009 at 4:01 pm

    Hi Chris,
    If you capture as for iMovie, the files (apart of not having TC) will need to be rendered again in FC.
    If you want to work with FC, you will need to learn how capture and organize your self.
    After you won’t want to hear about iMovie.
    Rafael

    http://www.nagavideo.com

  • Scott Cook

    December 31, 2009 at 2:48 pm

    Chris, did you find a solution to your question? I too find iMovie fast and intuitive. And Final Cut often not. Right now I’m needing to Ken Jones a series of photos which is a snap in iMovie and I’m told painful in FCP. So wondering if I should do it in iMovie first and import that into FCP.

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