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Streamlined for seamless use with other Mac devices.Extremely easy-to-use with little ramp-up time to become proficient.And it gives you plenty of controls tailored for making professional-looking cuts without much work. It’s streamlined for syncing with your Mac devices to easily pull in files or footage you might have shot on your iPhone. While it’s not going to beat Final Cut Pro (or Adobe Premiere Pro) in terms of features and controls, it’s actually not as far off as you might think.įor a free program that comes pre-installed with your Mac computer or smartphone, iMovie is actually great for capturing, editing, and sharing video content.
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However, over the years, iMovie has really made great strides in terms of form and function. It’s easy to think of iMovie as the professional video editor equivalent to GarageBand, which itself is meant more to be a fun introduction to music recording and mixing rather than an industry standard software. iMovie for video editingįirst released all the way back in 1997, iMovie - with its familiar clapboard logo - has been a signature program included with the vast majority of Apple products since its inception. Final Cut debate a bit more in-depth below. Whereas Final Cut Pro is considered the more sophisticated option that requires a bit longer of a ramp-up process in terms of learning all of the functions and controls, yet offering more advanced features and tools which experienced editors might desire.Īre these preconceived biases true though? Let’s explore this iMovie vs. In short, iMovie is often thought of as the easier-to-use yet less sophisticated option, ideally for creators just starting off with video editing and who might be OK with sacrificing higher end controls for keeping things more simplified.
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However there are certainly some features that might be better for a video editor with different experience levels and needs. Over the years, Apple has made strides to make both programs solid options for filmmakers and creators with different video editing skills. However, for those starting off as a video editor for the first time, the appeal of working with a more direct (and already installed) program like iMovie is certainly understandable. (And while Adobe Premiere Pro might be the slightly more popular option today, after a few down years Final Cut Pro has returned to nearly the same level.) When I was first starting out as a video editor, Final Cut Pro was considered the industry standard software to edit videos with.
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