HD For Indies

If you look quickly at Macworld's front page, the iMovie '08 review may still be top and center. Why do I care? Because I wrote it!

Here's a direct link to the article:

Macworld: Review: iMovie '08

In it, I go over the controversial changes in Apple's consumer video application, which for our purposes, boils down to this:

1.) They have firmly pulled iMovie OUT of the prosumer space and pushed it firmly INTO the consumer space. Existing iMovie users using it for prosumer purposes? Perhaps it is time to step up to Final Cut Express - your nearly free proxy for a "real" editor isn't being updated, Apple apparently decided the best use of their resources was to try to make consumer editing applicable to a much wider audience rather than refine the current software used by a minority (but voracious) population of iLife users.

2.) It is way, way different from the way other traditional NLE's work. I perceive it as MUCH more akin to iPhoto for video than a traditional NLE.

3.) However marginal the old version was for pro work, this one is thoroughly NOT appropriate for professional work, for a variety of reasons.

4.) LOTS of features from prior versions are now gone.

5.) BUT....it has some excellent new features, most notably skimming (a killer sweet way to preview what's in a clip), and ultra simple Sharing options to get movies onto the dramatically improved .Mac Web Galleries, with .Mac's new vastly increased storage and bandwidth limitations. So MAKING your movie in the old version (which stays installed if you "install over"), exporting a freestanding movie, then using the new version to publish to .Mac, Youtube (3 clicks!). MacWorld doesn't speculate, but I do - look for skimming in some future version of Final Cut Pro (maybe next year at NAB? No clue.)

6.) They also support a BUNCH of new formats: aside from DV and HDV that were previously supported (only at standard broadcast NOT 24p modes), now they include support for MPEG-2 (SD only), MPEG-4 (SD & HD), and AVCHD. For Moms, this is great.

If that's not enough, I'm also featured in a MacWorld podcast also out today:

Macworld: Podcasts: Macworld Podcast: iMovie '08 and iPhone hacking

I talk about why I think this makes sense is was a good call for Apple from a broader market perspective, and prattle on about the new, the cool, and the annoying in this version.

I also possibly created a new term - "Mommable technology", as in "This technology is something my Mom could use - it's Mommable."

Read and listen, for today's news.

-mike

PS - working on a Red update since they are scheduled to ship first cameras this week.

UPDATE - forgot to mention in the podcast - you can mix SD & HD & different video formats, in REAL TIME, in iMovie 08, which is awesome - skips all the complexity, just lets you work with it and NOT HAVE TO CARE.

Also, for those who remember my Happy Hilltop - day off in analog land off topic post from a couple of years ago, the sample pics & vids in the article are from that trip. : ) Always fun to get an Easter Egg in there somewhere.

-m

Labels: consumer, iLife, iMovie, Mac, NLE