Understanding the Main Screen of a Digital Video-Editing Program: Part 1

Imagine a sports stadium with two lone competitors, facing each other behind two computers in the center arena. The stadium is filled with enthusiastic supporters of each competitor, urging their heroes on. The rabid crowd is now standing on their feet, trying to out-shout each other with their hero's names, "Avid!" "FCP!" "Avid!" "FCP!" Who will win, and who will be defeated? Time will only tell. Sound a little silly? Maybe.

Personally, I can care less which platform wins out. The reason being is that whatever ten to thirty thousand dollar editing system my employer invests in is what I will edit with. This is something to remember if you want an editing career in this industry. Look, just because you know everything there is to know about the latest version of FCP, and you think it is the greatest thing around, let me ask you this. What if you are hired by an employer with an Avid system, or better yet, an older Media 100 system? Are you going to tell them to get another machine? Their response will be, "find another job." This is what they invested thousands of dollars on, and they want to get every single cent they can out of their investment. Trust me, in the last eight years of various jobs I have worked with Avid on a PC and Mac, older versions of Premiere or Media 100, and FCP. One place is still using the Media 100.

Unless you actually own one of these high-priced, high-end systems, your loyalty is not going to make much of a difference anyway. If you do happen to own one of these machines, I doubt you are using it for weddings and sweet sixteen parties. Owning one of these systems means that you are most likely competing in the high-end market. You have also invested thousands of dollars more in cameras, lights, and other equipment. For those of us that do not have high paying clients breathing down our necks for finished product, or projects that are earning thousands of dollars, we neither have the money, or the need for that matter, for either of these systems.