Monday, May 11, 2009
moviemaker vs. imovie
I have been fortunate enough this semester to work with both Mac and PC software. Though a lot of software is now compatible for both operating systems, there are some differences as well. I have been surprised to find that working with the latest version of moviemaker is much more user friendly than iMovie. Both are great examples of video editing software, but iMovie comes with the assumption that you know something about video editing and are able to figure out how to add in sound, narration, or titles. Moviemaker, on the other hand, has a very simple task pane menu that allows you to add exactly what you want, and offers easy step-by-step tutorials on how to use each one. I think that iMovie is great software and I hope to learn more about using it, and I have already become familiar with it's layout, but for a beginner in video editing (or a classroom with young children), I would definitely recommend using moviemaker.
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I have just completed a project where I started with a non-HD video of my son and his classmates presenting their book reports in class and ended with a DVD complete with chapter selections, credits, behind the scenes, play all, etc. functionality.
ReplyDeleteI used iMovie to cut the full video into separate segments, add chapter markers, intro titles, title sequence and closing credits.
The entire video was about 90 minutes when complete and because iMovie integrates with iDVD all I had to do was choose "Share with iDVD" and iMovie compiled the entire project and imported it directly into iDVD. All I had to do then was pick a theme, customize the title & push burn.
All said and done I spent about 8 hours editing, creating titles for each child, entering the credits, etc. and about 4 hours to prepare and burn the first DVD. Subsequent DVD's took 12 minutes each.
I too have used Movie Maker on a PC and although it has a more simple interface I was frustrated by the lack of support for multiple video formats and the difficulty moving a finished movie into the DVD authoring program.
I would recommend iMovie and iDVD any day over Movie Maker - especially for children who are far better at grasping the subtleties of technology than their adult counterparts.