AVID Media Composer

[Richard Sanchez]

Truthfully, I didn’t find it the most intuitive program to learn from the get go, but once you understand why it works the way it does, it makes more sense. Regardless of whether it’s easy to pick up or not, if you’re serious about getting into editing, you should learn it. If you buy 5.5 at this point, you’ll get a free upgrade to 6, so I say go for it.

There are tons of tutorials here, and the Avid store sells great tutorials on DVD. Pick up one or a few and go with it.

Richard Sanchez
North Hollywood, CA

“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks

[Brian Hughes]

Do you find Media Composer to be a more suitable program for beginners than FCP?

I am not Apple based, and am not looking to spend the money to upgrade at this time, but I do love Apple products.

My friend is an Avid Expert and said he would help teach me, so I’m definitely going to take advantage of that opportunity.

Thank you for your feedback. It is greatly appreciated.

[Richard Sanchez]

I wouldn’t base your decision to learn Avid upon up whether it’s easy to learn or not. FCP is less widely used than Avid, and FCPX stuck a major blow to people’s confidence in it. FCP7 is still a valid product, but it is end of life, so it won’t continue to be updated to support modern workflows and camera formats.

If you’re serious about wanting to get into editing, I would highly recommend you learn Avid. There are still FCP7 available, so if you want to take advantage of your buddy training you, of course take advantage of that as well. Two years ago, I was of the opinion of learning both FCP and Avid since they are the major players, but with FCPX being not quite up to snuff, I’ve been focusing on getting my Avid chops as strong as possible. Maybe FCP will come back, but for now it’s not very useful.

Richard Sanchez
North Hollywood, CA

“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks

[Shane Ross]

Avid isn’t the most intuitive program, no. For absolute beginners, it will be pretty daunting. It is best to get some one-on-one training on it…take a class. There are settings, and workflows, that aren’t very obvious. It is a very powerful app, and the standard in Hollywood. So if you want to work here, you need to know this.

If you just want to start editing your own stuff…Premiere might be better. Heck, FCX might be too. But for work on broadcast TV and features, Avid is the answer.

Shane

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[Andrew Rendell]

Don’t forget that operating the kit is only a very small part of the job. Editing is mostly about knowing what to do with the pictures and sound in order to achieve the required result (aka, telling the story, but it can be a bit more complicated than that phrase might imply). Operating the kit is the necessary evil that allows you to get the job done.

Also, remember that you don’t get employed because you can operate any particular piece of equipment (although that does come into it). You get employed because people trust you to get the job done to a particular standard, which has both technical and emotional/creative aspects.

[Brian Hughes]

Thank you everyone for all the responses.

I am definitely looking forward to learning Avid products. This has been a decision that has been a long time coming.

All the great feedback is greatly appreciated.

Hope everyone is well.