The missing link in video editing: Why we need iMovie for PC

If you’re interested in journalism education, or video editing, I recommend to you the conversation going on over at Mindy McAdams’ excellent blog.

She’s comparing video editing platforms available for educators and learners. And that’s the point. There just isn’t ONE that does the job. It’s plain bonkers.

As every educator and editor I know has been asking for years: Why on earth isn’t there a decent quality, affordable video editor that works on both PC and Mac?

If that isn’t a gap in the market, I don’t know what is.

What I’d really like to see is iMovie for PC. Apple did it for iTunes, so why not? Yes, I know there’s megabucks in music, and I know Apple wants you to buy a shiny new Mac. But what would it be worth to Apple for the worldwide video community (still growing fast, we’re told) to see the natural progression as iMovie to Final Cut?

In my humble opinion, it wouldn’t be just Apple that reaped the rewards, or amateur movie makers, but journalism.

Here’s the comment I made. Please feel free to disagree:

The problem for us all is that there’s isn’t a good cross-platform video editor with a fast learning curve.

An Audacity for video or iMovie for PC would enable me to deliver so much greater value for journalists taking on multimedia. But since we’re stuck with what we have …

iMovie blows WMM away, in my view. BUT – no-one should be teaching on, or learning on, iMovie 08. It’s junk compared with 09, which does the essentials, such as cutaways, very well.

FC or Premiere? Not much to choose between them. Final Cut Express is an outstanding application with easy transition to Pro. Having said that, I bought Premiere Elements for my last newspaper group newsrooms (PC-based) and had excellent results with minimum learning effort. At current prices, Elements is fantastic value, too.

My real point is this:

It’s choosing the right medium, for the right story, and being able to turn it around fast and with confidence that’s important … not the ability to operate technology.

If you’re not editing at least one video a week, even apps like FC Express can be an inefficient use of newsroom resource. In some UK newsrooms I know, where staffs have declined by up to 50%, video production has virtually ground to a halt. That’s reality.

I’d rather see journalists juggling shorthand with a Flip, mobile, iMovie, Audacity, Soundslides and Google Maps – until people-focused, value-added, multimedia story-telling becomes second nature and fun – than see them get bogged down by Final Cut Codecs.