Finding an Editing Software

 As of right now, I have been using iMovie simply to piece together clips, finding out what I need to shoot later today and what parts I enjoyed. However, I did want to venture out into color grading, to exploit a certain tone and color palette within my shots, and iMovie does not have this feature. My other options include:

Adobe Premiere Pro

Arguably one of the most popular options, Premier is part of the Adobe suite and is known for its sheer power within the application. There is so much to learn about Premier, which is intimidating, but due to its popularity, there are also a lot of tutorials and resources to learn the basics. Using Premier would be a big step up from iMovie, and I have heard great things about it. Typically, I would have to purchase Premier as part of an Adobe suite package. Luckily, my dad really enjoys venturing out into these different editing programs, and he has Premier already. There are also a few people in my class who used Premier last year and have chosen to use it this year as well. I think the major drawback would be having to spend the extra time to understand the complexity of the program. But, a major plus would be that there are just so many resources available for Premier throughout Youtube, blogs, and elsewhere.

DaVinci Resolve

This particular editing software I did not know about until a classmate mentioned using it for years. DaVinci is a free downloadable editing program that also has more features, including the ability to play with color. While there is a paid version for extra features, I think this blockade would allow me to be more focused in my research on how to navigate this specific software. Similar to Premier, there are a few resources and tutorials on how to use certain features, especially those deemed for "beginners". Many blogs and question forums argue that DaVinci is amazing for beginning editors and filmmakers. One drawback would be that DaVinci is supposedly not as memory efficient as other software, but I am not entirely sure to what extent this is. Since my project is not a full-length film (yet), and I do not really use much of the memory on my laptop, I do not think this would be a problem for me. 

Final Cut Pro

I remember Final Cut Pro being mentioned all around Youtube when I was in middle school. This was around the time that lifestyle Youtubers would create "How to become a Youtuber" videos, showing what tools they used to produce their own content, and Final Cut Pro seemed to be a common thread amongst them. This is another program that my dad has used, so payment would not be an issue, but I do not recall him enjoying the software. Similar to Premier, FinalCut is notorious for being complicated because of how many features are available within the program. However, due to its popularity, there are also a lot of resources on how to do beginner techniques and simple features. One major drawback of Final Cut that I do not know I would be able to get past is how much stress running the program would put on my old-ish Macbook Air. I have seen some videos in which Final Cut has given up or crashed mid-project on a more powerful desktop Macs, so I fear for my own project.

I think I will begin by downloading DaVinci, especially since the "paid" version blockade would stop me from going down a wormhole of researching each and every feature. DaVinci also seems to be the most simple option of the three I was considering, and my main goal is to venture into color grading, a feature in the free version. I will begin this weekend, most likely Saturday after work, with editing the final draft with the new shots.