Not wanting a PC v Mac debate...

[Ghost Donkey]

Apart from money the software consideration is an issue. If video quality is an issue windows movie maker is pants. The basic edits such as cuts and fades render very badly (not a hardware issue, it's not done real time). You can however get adobe premiere elements which is much cheaper than the full version and will most likely do what is required. Premiere is pretty easy to get used to and teenagers are especially good with this kind of thing on any platform.

Imovie on the mac is much better than movie maker but still only has one video channel. The interface is userfriendly and I like it. If your son only needs one video channel it won't be a problem. If you have compatible hardware avid free DV was always good but you most likely won't have compatible hardware. It uses the same interface the higher end avid software which I used to be familiar with so was a doddle for me to get around but I couldn't digitise or import video which made it useless on my machine.

If you get a PC there are several good editing packages available which may prove to cost less than a mac.

As for web design it again depends on his needs. I've been trying to learn how to do it in notepad which means I have to learn it and how it works properly so I can support it better. There a lots of free web editing software online or installable.

 

[Carwash]

As for web design it again depends on his needs. I've been trying to learn how to do it in notepad which means I have to learn it and how it works properly so I can support it better.

A laudable goal of which I heartily approve. You might prefer to use a better text editor though, as Notepad is a bit... well, pants. Give emacs or vim a try.

 

[Ghost Donkey]

On Windows, Notepad++ is free and very good as well.

Give emacs or vim a try.

Thanks for that. I'll take a look at those.

 

[Ghost Donkey]

Should have made clear that he has already invested a lot of time in learning to use Movie Maker, and has produced some videos that look pretty good for me. One of them was about a school visit to the war graves at Ypres which was shown in a city wide rememberance day ceremony, and mentioned in the local paper.

He is already getting to the point where he is frustrated by some of the limitations of Movie Maker, hence my question whether iMovie would offer any real benefits over Movie Maker.

Having said all that I have strongly advised him that if he is really interested in film making he needs to approach it seriously and properly learn the basic elements of the craft, rather than just thinking about creating fancy effects with whizzy software programmes. As a result he is going to be going on a taster course for a film making A Level in a few weeks time.

If you have a competent PC I'd buy a good video editing package for it. Adobe premiere elements included, especially if you are running windows XP. A new PC would most likely come with Vista which takes up a lot of your systems resources so a good PC may not be great anyway. If you plump for the option of a new PC for this reason only you could always buy some PC video editing software, try it on your current machine and if you decide to buy a better one you can use the same copy.

 

[another_dave_b]

As a result he is going to be going on a taster course for a film making A Level in a few weeks time.

What software does his school use, when teaching the A Level film making course?

 

[Danny]

What software does his school use, when teaching the A Level film making course?

He has to move onto the sixth form college, so don't know at the moment.

However some of the respondents to this thread will be delighted to know that the college does use Macs for all their creative stuff.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

if budget is still a concern, you can get second hand macs from ebay. i have a mac bought in 1991 that still works, so they are pretty durable machines. just check it fits the minimum spec for final cut express (pm me if you need advice). you can always beef up the ram if needed, not to mention budgeting for some additional hard disk space for all those video files.

this looks good, for example.

 

[Abitrary]

macs are the liberal democrats of the computing world - neither windows nor linux.

Liberal democrats that will tax you more than either party for not a lot in return.

 

[Carwash]

macs are the liberal democrats of the computing world - neither windows nor linux.

Liberal democrats that will tax you more than either party for not a lot in return.

It's my fault really. I did ask you in another thread to write a load of nonsense about Macs. And you have kindly obliged.

Yes, OS X is not Windows. And OS X is not Linux. Well spotted. I don't see how that makes Macs Lib Dems though.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

surely linux is the lib dems, fairly sensible and its proponents less prone to extremism as the other two camps…

 

[Ghost Donkey]

surely linux is the lib dems, fairly sensible and its proponents less prone to extremism as the other two camps…

You obviously haven't met some of the same people I have. I'd say there's some people who have a love of open source software which can easily rival those of the others.

 

[Carwash]

You obviously haven't met some of the same people I have. I'd say there's some people who have a love of open source software which can easily rival those of the others.

Amen brother!

 

[alecstilleyedye]

in that case linux would be the socialist workers party…

red hat, red star?

 

[Carwash]

in that case linux would be the socialist workers party…

red hat, red star?

You're not the first one to suggest that.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

that's geekery, running linux on a blueberry g3 imac…