Tom

I think you can probably see that there aren't alot of us with enough experience in both programs to give you the answer to that question...beyond what's already been said, ie...FCP is a more advanced program with multiple layers of audio and video and very few creative limits. imovie is a cut and paste program targeted at the casual user who wants to make cool home movies.

As Jeff said, iMovie is free (and as a mac owner you already have it...so give it a whirl....and let all of us FCP snobs know what it does or doesn't do well. If you find it throws up too many roadblocks to what you are trying to accomplish then FCP (or premiere, editdv et al) may be something worth looking at.

I think the point that some of the FCP users were trying to make is that once you've gotten used to FCP...iMovie is an excruciating experience, because so much of what you take for granted in FCP just isn't there.

(another thought...apple has a forum dedicated to iMovie...which might have way more info than any of us have to offer...)

Barry

I thought the whole point of iMovie was that you would not have to spend time over a manual. Isn't it supposed to be intuitive like iDVD, iTunes and iPhoto? The eight year old son will probably become a brain surgeon one day. I never opened my FCP manual.

i-movie
 

i-movie is so easy to use, I can't believe people have trouble with it. Its perfect for cutting demos, a piece of cake to use out of the box, so to speak. I teach high school kids with it and they have cut some very creative projects. i-movie is ideal for beginners. FCP is great for professional or even prosumer work, but all else can be covered by i-movie.

Well put Chris. I have two Nikon F-5's and lenses from 18mm to 500mm all AF-d,
I've seen people with a $200 camera take some 1st prize winning photos.

It aint't what you got, it's how you use it!


Bruce

I've done about three vids on iMovie now. Prettys lick little program for not seeing anything in the computer video editing arena.
Compared to the twin VHS decks of high schoo lin the late 80s, this is amazing :)

Tom,
congrats! now go to the apple/iMovie fee stuff page and download tons of sound fx, effects, and transitions ( I think most of it is in plug ins pack 2)

Then go to Geethree.com some free SLICK transitions and effects -I spang for the actual disks. Email me for further details if you want.

Bruce