Actually, there's pretty good support from Blackmagic. There's also six or seven user groups out there on the net where you can often get answers 24/7, whether you pay $299 for the software or not. 90% of the situations are answered by the manuals and textbooks. It's the other 10% that can get frustrating and complex.
Back in my days doing computer animation, we had much worse support on software that sold for $35,000 a seat.
DaVinci Resolve was initially $300,000 back in 2004. The previous daVinci 2K (1999 and on) was $400,000 if you got it with all the options... and that did not include an image source (like a tape machine or a telecine).
Ok.....so some bad news. My HP Laptop specs are: Memory - 16GB not further expandable Processor - i7 7500 @2.70 ghz C drive: 220.48 GB D drive: 15.77 GB So, with only 16 GB of memory, I dont believe I can use the laptop for video editing. However, my home workstation, so which I built a couple of years ago, should have 32 Gb, I will check tonight. It also has a SSD for the OS (Windows 10)and a USB 1 TB of external drive. So it looks like I will be using that. Plus it has the 24 inch monitor, and I will probably add a second monitor, and expand the memory if possible to 64 GB....I have to check the motherboard.
Who told you that 16gb isn’t good enough for video editing? I was running premiere about 2 years ago on a 16gb with no problems That being said, if you have a rig with more RAM and a better CPU/GPU use that!
With DaVinci Resolve being freely downloadable, there's absolutely no reason you can't try it on both computers.
If you live in Brooklyn, the most obvious location to get freelance work is in the city. Forget all the small stuff - learn Avid Media Composer. You are a stone's throw from tons of places that hire and the pressing need is for Avid. Tons of work in news and sports.
Good, savvy advice. The professional level is on Avid Media Composer. However I think the OP needs to start small and build up experience. He also must learn the basics about visual composition and matching shots, adhering to the axis, not to mention rhythm, timing, pacing, cutting on eyelines, holding on the listener as opposed to the speaker, etc. There is so much to know.
Naaaa, I'm one of the biggest loudmouths on the Resolve support groups helping other people, or at least making a stab at it.
I tried to do one of my projects on it since last week, and determined that it was not going to work for my purposes. It wouldn't natively load in some of the formats of the cameras I use, and then crashed without even an error message. I'm totally spoiled on Edius, which loads the five different formats I use. It's not popular, but it's rock solid and I've been using it, or its predecessor DV-Rex, since the late 90s. The sort of work I do, I don't have time to transcode anything.
Yeah, there are quite a few H.264-based formats that are just bad for post period. They can work with Resolve to a point, but you need heavy-duty hardware to pull it off. Resolve is a complicated program that has an enormous amount of capabilities; there's a reason the manual is 3016 pages long.
Wanna work? I know this is sacrilege, but a lot of this stuff is not necessary knowledge. Do I think it's important? You bet. BUT, you'd be surprised just how much work does not rely on this type of thing at all. There's a lot of editing work that is not "editing" in a creative sense. Can't believe I just said that, but there ya go. From that standpoint, none of the other softwares are a "stepping stone" to Avid. It's old school, and doesn't have specialized tools that dumb the non-linear process down. Pretty much ALL softwares used most of the same conventions (Final Cut X excepted) and you can download Media Composer's "lite" version for free. Get that, go on youtube, and start playing around. Don't get too excited about effects, etc. You are NOT the guy they are hiring to do that. I've been at this for 25-30 years and the lack of passion for "filmic" skill is astounding. Lots of folks working and getting paid without all that. Stunning really. I see you're in the LA area - different market here.
I would also suggest that you watch movies and TV shows in an analytical manner. Note how often the transition is a cut, versus a dissolve or fade. And how it is virtually never a wipe. Seconded. Cut, cut and cut.
Thinking in football, I like to regard the cut as the running play of editing. You can pass or run a trick play now and then, but yep - cut cut cut.....
I run Adobe Premier and After Effects all day long on a big powerful PC. Dont listen to anybody telling you that you must get a Mac.
Dear god no, don't get a mac. They are so overpriced it's ridiculous. I bet you could build a pc twice as powerful as a "top of the line" mac for the same price
I believe you mean cuts. "Jump cuts" refer specifically to cuts in time of the same camera view of the same subject, like an interview where they only used a single camera.
If you are forced to use jump cuts due to the material, effects to cover them are forgiveable - like a defocus/focus transition. Although younger viewers raised on YouTube/Twitter/Facebook/Instagram/TicToc may be far less sensitive to jump cuts.
this is why I stopped using Macs many years ago. For a long time, they were the only game in town. Once when I was an art director in an ad agency, everybody had Macs, and I spent as much time trying to fix messed up Macs, as drawing anything. As soon as PCs caught up, I jumped ship. That being said, I absolutely LOATHE the eternal Microsoft updates. They always "fix" something that wasnt bothering me to begin with, and then wreck something that I actually use. Over and over and over. Adobe has been terrible with their stupid updates too. I use CC 2019 and they forced a download onto me for 2020 versions of all the programs. Fortunatley I dont have to use them... yet. Anyway, aside from that, I would never get another Mac, until the prices come down. There is nothing of significance you can do on a Mac that cannot be done on a PC. The Mac fanbois are more rabid, I'll give them that.
True, I would think in this modern world where Internet personality cut out any mistakes /umms that morphing effects would be more popular to hide edits
