Could you recommend me a device to use for offline editing my debut indie film?

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Mohamed,

Fab that you are going to edit a feature film, tough times ahead, mixed with excitement, and happiness when you reach the other side of that experience.

You are not going to get far with a $500 PC.

Just stepping back, why are you using Premiere Pro for the job?

Why not use the free version of Davinci or low-cost Vegas or similar, where you are not paying a monthly subscription fee? The money saved might help you finance a better PC or Mac to work on. And, PPro is just not stable enough to do a feature film on IMHO and from recent experience.

Obviously you need something with enough power, memory and drive space that can run the software, without lag as you suggest.

“Also, Heavy smooth browsing (+100 tabs) for researching my scripts and will be reliable for 3-4 years with no lag or freezing”

Just forget about using your main editing system as a distraction for browsing and searching on the internet – even a 100+ tabs will eat your memory and slow down your project. Instead get a cheap tablet or Chrome book or old Mac Mini, but under NO circumstances run that kind of folly whilst offline editing a feature film on a minimum spec system – sorry for being blunt about it, but I too am one of those who will never think twice about running 1,000+ tabs in my web-browser. Do NOT do it whilst editing.

The lag itself is mainly going to come down to the size of your files and the speed of your media drives – SSD is preferential for editing and HDD can be used for back-up.

Off-line = proxy files, or down converted files for the purpose of working on a lower speed system and be able to store more.

Before deciding what to do, run a test for what proxy file format works best for you, and if you can do an online from the data at the end of the project?

Hope this helps get you started?

Atb
Mads

[Mohamed Yehia]

Hi Mads Nybo jørgensen,

thank you for your help

I used to use Premiere for my editing work and color on Resolve and link via XML
I know many turned fully to resolve, but I did not try to edit in it before

for the tabs, it is meant for browsing during screenwriting and has nothing to do with the editing stage, and will not be done while editing

the problem is my CPU was damaged at an early stage, and I need to consume writing and have
No time for new setup tasks: pc cleaning, thermal paste, PC case cable Management… etc
I want something more convenient now that will successfully do the creative job of smooth browsing 50-100 tabs or above for writing and also proxy editing after shooting

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Mohamed,

So writing first, then shooting, then editing, but not at the same time.

As you are tight for money, and most likely to be 6-12 months before filming is complete, if started, I would go for either a Mac Mini, or even a refurbished form factor PC like this DELL:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/OptiPlex-Desktop-Computer-Windows-Renewed/dp/B09XHQ7Y6F

It is not perfect, but it is a 2022 model with an i7 processor and 16GB of Ram + you’ll have money left to buy an external SSD drive.

Keep in mind that your ask is “off-line” on a small budget.
I would rather that you spend money on back-up of project and source footage, and if your internet can handle it, a cloud storage solution like Google Drive, OneDrive, DropBox or what takes your fancy.

You may even find that 6-12 months down the road that you have fixed your broken computer, or someone has spotted your brilliance and invested in a better setup for you.

But sweating and procrastinating over it, will not get your movie made, right?

I am sure that there is smarter people around here who will be able to share their experiences. Do listen out for those too.

Atb
Mads

[Mohamed Yehia]

Hey Mads Nybo jørgensen,

Yes, I need to finish the script, pitch, and prepare for pitching before the end of April

I don’t know what will happen next, but my budget doesn’t allow buying two devices, one for writing and another for editing

It looks absurd to hold a script writing and waste weeks on rebuilding my PC , understanding the case overflow, PC cleaning products, BIOS upgrade…etc, eat out the allocated budget/time for creative work, and miss the opportunity of making the debut or writing a good script

That is why I want a more convenient solution, ready-to-go, that does the job of both heavy browsing & offline editing, transcoding, and opening the raw files

Thank you for your recommendations