Should I learn Premiere or something else? And what book?
 

I'm pretty handy with Photoshop, but have never used a video editing program before. For the PC, should I learn Premiere or is there another program I should focus on instead? Also, what's a good book to read - not 500 pages, but maybe 200?

Forget reading a how-to book, I read the materials that came with Premiere first. Grab some footage and read the "how to import footage into premiere" portion. After you import and mess around a bit, then find a book to read. Go on amazon and see what the recommendations are.

Whatever software you learn, it's worth taking a 7 day free trial with Lynda.com and having a look at their video tutorials.

Use a search engine to find the 7-day trail links.

Everyone learns differently. Although I have long been a subscriber of Lynda.com and have watched a few dozen of the online tutorials, they just doesn't work for me as well as a book. I have dual monitors and place the tutorial video on one screen and follow along on the other screen with the actual product and exercise files. Often, the material just goes by too fast for me. I find myself constantly pausing and rewinding, pausing and rewinding. For the way my aging brain works, this seems to reduce the efficiency of how I absorb new information.

Even though Tony Bolante does a fine job on the Premiere Pro for CS4 Essentials video, the book from Adobe Press, "Adobe Premiere Pro - Classroom In A Book", was great for bringing me up to speed at my pace and was much more thorough than the video. The fact that I had watched the Lynda.com video first may have helped. It is also easier to refer back a specific item in the book than it is to re-download a chapter from the video and find the desired info.

Even though this book is ~400 pages, there are many screen shots and wide margins with hints and tips that make it seem less weighty. It is well-written and organized. I did find a few errors, but nothing major.

Bill

I agree, I think books help more than tutorials. I have dual monitors and also have to constantly pause and rewind.

I'm totally into trial and error. I've got the very affordable Premiere Elements 2.0, and it's so easy to use, but has so much depth that you can't go wrong.

I'm sure Premiere Pro is just that much better (I know someone who has it, along with the rest of the suite and I checked it out one time, it does seem a lot more advanced) but you'll probably be able to pick up the basics without a book, or even tutorials really.

Absolutely go with Premiere though. Either way, it's the best editing program for PC hands down. After Affects is a great companion too.

Premiere is great, but there are many other options for the PC: Sony Vegas, Avid, Edius, SpeedEdit. I bet there have been other threads comparing some of them in the past.

I don't know if Vegas offers a lite version like Premiere does though, or if it's as good. If you're going for full version, I hear that Vegas can do some pretty good things, but that After Effects is better than Vegas. I think if you've got After Effects AND Premiere Pro, you'd probably be able to deal out industry-standard work.

Or After Effects and Vegas???

I'm pretty new into the whole cinematography scene, and although my eventual goal is RED and Mac gear with Final Cut Pro, my humble beginnings are an HV30, Neoscene, and Premiere Pro. If you're used to Photoshop, then you already know how steep of a learning curve Adobe products have. With that mindset, my recommendation is much like another poster - learn how to import, then have at some trial and error using a good reference book.

Two months in and I am (and will be for some time) learning Premiere but love it. It's so flexible. I can't say enough good things about Cineform too... good stuff.

Wolf

Vegas does have a lite version..its called Vegas Movie Studio.

There are a number of different non linear editors available for windows and most if not all of them offer free trials.

Download them and give 'em a try.

Find out what works best for you and run with it.

I have had both Vegas, and Premiere (last PPro2). I gave up on Premiere because of the expense every time there is an upgrade. I can do everything in Vegas I could do in PPro, and with less hassle. Never thought I would feel that way, and I fought Vegas once, gave it up, and then came. Reason ? Cause it seemed like it was to simple and I must have been missing some important aspect.... Still haven't found whats missing.

Coming from a Premiere 6.0 I can tell you without a doubt that Premiere is great, but by no means perfect.

I dropped Premiere right around Pro. It's a resource hog and you need a beefy machine to run it properly, especially the new CS4. However, it does offer the user many tools to create great videos and like others have said, when bundled with After Effects, it's one powerful editing suite. HOWEVER...A program is only as good as its conductor.

I now use Vegas 6.0, a bit old, but it has by far exceeded my expectations and in many ways is superior to Premiere Pro and Premiere CS2.

The GUI on Vegas is VERY different and in my opinion, better than Premiere, but others like Premiere's GUI more. It's something that you need to experience first hand. No one here can tell you what to learn. My suggestion?

Download trial software of the following:

Sony Vegas 8.0 (NOT Movie Studio 8.0, it's just a watered down version of Vegas)
Avid (Never used it myself...no need to, but it is an industry standard)
Premiere Pro CS4

Also look into ULEAD as they also offer video editing software as well as PINNACLE, but I've never saw anything enticing about either of their programs.

If I had to choose an editor I'd say Vegas, BUT...if you're looking to doing composite work and heavy effects...I'd go with the Premeir Suite.

Another easy program to look is Corel VideoStudio® Pro X2. You can download a free trial and see if it's the right one for you. But as someone else said here, any program its just a tool and you are the sculptor.
VideoStudio X2 - Video Editing

Stelios

Best advice. Translation: we need to learn editing, and not editing on x software. Once you learn one, you can pretty much edit on either one of them. FCP, PremPro, and Edius are so similar, it only takes a few hours to get used to another one once you know one of them.

FCP - excellent overall editor; your only choice if you're a Mac person.
Adobe - jack of all trades, does everyting, but nothing properly. Expensive too.
Edius - the fastest. Lacks some tools on the audio and effects side, but lots of plugins available.
Vegas - very different approach to video, go for it if you come from audio.
Avid is the king if you work in a big place; built for collaboration. Best media management (essential if you have tons of clips). Steep learning curve.