Visual
QuickPro Guide: Final Cut Pro 6
By Lisa Brenneis
http://www.peachpit.com
687 pages - $34.99 list
lafcpug Store Price
: $23.09 (click
on FCP Books under the Amazon logo)
Review by Steve
Douglas
With each new version of Final Cut, I anxiously
await for Lisa Brenneis to dust off her accumulated notes and
author her latest edition updating the long standing Visual QuickPro
Guide published by the Peachpit Press. I have given several Final
Cut Pro based books away to friends over the years. However,
I have saved every copy of Ms Brenneis' QuickPro Guides for my
library. (I might have missed out on the 4.5 version)
It's been said before and I'll
say it again, while there are several excellent Final Cut Pro
tutorial books and DVDs on the market, it is the Visual QuickPro
Guide for Final Cut that I keep closest at hand. It is the first
reference book I go to when I need to learn a new feature or
have to look up a specific procedure for a given task. The QuickPro
Guide continues in much the same format as its previous versions
providing step-by-step instructions accompanied by many visual
graphics to help demystify the workings of Final Cut. Most of
the chapters and sub chapters are also the same as in previous
versions; however, it is all updated for Final Cut Pro 6.
Whether you are an experienced
professional or hobbyist or a complete newcomer to Final Cut
Pro, this is probably the reference book you will continue to
go to first. Most every topic you might want has been updated
and covered whether they be simply learning to work within the
interface, correctly applying transitions and filters, proper
media and capture settings, rendering, audio tools and techniques,
media-management strategies, and export.
This is not a tutorial book where
you are given a media disc and tasks towards finishing a project.
Those books and DVDs certainly have their place and value and
can provide essential experience utilizing many of the same techniques
found in the QuickPro Guide. Final Cut Pro 6 by Lisa Brenneis
is strictly a reference tool and has been the king of the hill
since its' inception with version 1.
Unlike the Peachpit Press's Apple
Pro Training Series of tutorial books, the graphics in the Quick
Pro Guide remain in black and white. They are still easy to see
and clearly demonstrate the technique and steps being applied.
I was not bothered by the black and white graphics at all. There
is, however, room for improvement. I was disquieted to find that
the single page covering the time remapping parameter under the
motions tab did not cover it at all. Rather than demonstrate
and explain its use, the reader is referred back to the original
owners manual and a 9 page PDF article at Peachpit online. To
gain access to this and other sections not covered in the Quick
Pro Guide you need to register your book at Peachpit which allows
you access to several other FCP 6 related pdfs. Unfortunately,
as the pdfs open up in Preview, you can not use the 'Save' or
'Save As' functions. This means that anytime you wish to access
these pdfs, you will have to go back to the Peachpit Press site,
log in and then access the article. This is very inconvenient
for anyone who, perhaps while editing in the field or elsewhere,
does not have internet availability. It is interesting to note
that the Brenneis book for FCP 5 does include a proper section
on the time remapping functions. I do not understand why, for
the Final Cut Pro 6 version of the QuickPro Guide, it was done
this way. It seems to me that a complete reference book is supposed
to be just that, a complete reference book.
My bottom line for the new version
of the QuickPro Guide for Final Cut Pro 6 is that even though
they have changed the composition of the cover art for the first
time, a leopard still does not change its' spots. Despite a few
flaws, it has been and remains THE reference book to have. My
guess is that no book on the horizon will change that.
Purchase
in the lafcpug Store for $23.09
(click on FCP Books
under the Amazon logo)
Steve Douglas is a certified Apple
Pro for Final Cut Pro 6 and underwater videographer. A winner
of the 1999 Pacific Coast Underwater Film Competition, 2003 IVIE
competition, 2004 Los Angeles Underwater Photographic competition,
and the prestigious 2005 International Beneath the Sea Film Competition,
where he also won the Stan Waterman Award for Excellence in Underwater
Videography and 'Diver of the Year', Steve was a safety diver
on the feature film "The Deep Blue Sea", contributed
footage to the Seaworld Park's Atlantis production, and a recent
History channel MegaDisaster show. Steve is one of the founding
organizers of the San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition and leads
both underwater filming expeditions and African safaris with
upcoming excursions to Kenya & Lembeh Straits in Indonesia
in 2007, the Coco Islands, Costa Rica & Truk Lagoon in 2008
and safari in Africa for 2009. Feel free to contact him if you
are interested in joining Steve on any of these exciting trips.
www.worldfilmsandtravel.com