Premiere Vs. Final Cut

[dewman77]

Hi Everyone.
I am relaunching my studio with the goal of offering indi film makers a smooth, easy 4k workflow to do everything they need for their production.

I'm getting 2 mac pro's but don't know if i should go with Adobe Creative Suite CS4, with Premiere Pro and After Effects - Or to go with Final Cut Studio 2, with Final Cut Pro 6 and Apple Motion. I need a complete suite for the user.

Would love to hear what you, the film makers would rather use if you were coming in looking for a complete workflow for your film.
Thanks.
-Dewey

[David Taylor]

Dewey, if you would consider CineForm as a supplemental option for both PPro and FCP you could have a pretty smooth cross-platform workflow, running Prospect 4K on Windows and Neo 4K on Mac. Files will easily interchange between platforms and you'll have a real-time editing workflow with renderless Active Metadata processing. Your workflow would be online all the time, and you can use Express files for those times when you're in the field running a laptop.

[Dave Blackham]

FCS 2 every time but with catDV to look after workflow management. It may be you add After Affects to the set up. You need various effects plugins though (Sapphire, Joes filters, Tiffen and more)

Id consider this as a powerful system software wise, you need to ensure that the Macs have very fast GPUs in them.

Dave
UK

[amrrahmy]

final cut is much more reliable than premiere, also fcs2 comes with color which is worth the price alone, and can be a time saver in some sitiuations.
but you probably need photoshop and after effects, so production premium would be the choice, it comes with after effects, photoshop extended and illustrator among other things like premiere, u can get that and if u notice tons of crashes with no reason, or just importing small simple files being a headache, u can always get fcs2 later since u probably will need after effects and photoshop anyway.

[Dave Blackham]

FCS 2 every time but with catDV to look after workflow management. It may be you add After Affects to the set up. You need various effects plugins though (Sapphire, Joes filters, Tiffen and more)

Id consider this as a powerful system software wise, you need to ensure that the Macs have very fast GPUs in them.

Dave
UK

With this set up I've posted many very high value series for Television. amrrahmy is completely correct Color is a real asset here worth every penny.

The only aspect which needs consideration is that some effects bundles need an FCP licence and AE licence but you may be able to negociate your way round this if both packages are on the same machine.

Dave
UK

[Julio Quintana]

If this were for your personal use, I would say it's up to you. But since you need to attract customers, I recommend Final Cut Studio with After Effects. If all you offer is Premiere Pro, you will be PERCEIVED as being amateurish, whether it's true or not. For most professionals, there is still an imagined hierarchy of professional systems, and this is the order: AVID, Final Cut Pro, Premier Pro.

[Sam Roberts]

Hi Everyone.

I'm getting 2 mac pro's but don't know if i should go with Adobe Creative Suite CS4, with Premiere Pro and After Effects - Or to go with Final Cut Studio 2, with Final Cut Pro 6 and Apple Motion. I need a complete suite for the user Dewey

why not install both and take advantage of the best each has to offer?

[Mike Harrington]

If this were for your personal use, I would say it's up to you. But since you need to attract customers, I recommend Final Cut Studio with After Effects. If all you offer is Premiere Pro, you will be PERCEIVED as being amateurish, whether it's true or not. For most professionals, there is still an imagined hierarchy of professional systems, and this is the order: AVID, Final Cut Pro, Premier Pro.

i agree there is that perception.....but
out of these 3 programs only 1 can do 4k raw in high bit depth RGB.....
In november Adobe will also have native .R3D import being the first program outside of scratch (i beleive)to do so.

So you have to ask yourself if you want to look professional to others.....or do you want to do an online RAW 4k edit....

With cineform and premiere you have 2 options (as of November) to do online 4k raw...

Final Cut can do cineform as well....but not as fast,with a cropped 4k(no big deal) and Color cannot import cineform....and no native R3D....

so if you have the money, I would get both.....one to wow the clients, and show them the on set proxies....and the other to do the edit

cause once you deal with how easy cineform is....you won't want to bother with online/offline/EDL......

[Julio Quintana]

i agree there is that perception.....but
out of these 3 programs only 1 can do 4k raw in high bit depth RGB.....
In november Adobe will also have native .R3D import being the first program outside of scratch (i beleive)to do so.

So you have to ask yourself if you want to look professional to others.....or do you want to do an online RAW 4k edit....

With cineform and premiere you have 2 options (as of November) to do online 4k raw...

Final Cut can do cineform as well....but not as fast, and Color cannot import cineform....and no native R3D....

Excellent points. The question is whether or not he can convince his customers of this...

[Mike Harrington]

i agree....

depends on the situation I guess.....and you are right, Final Cut has a little more prestige