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August, 2004
Final
Cut Pro HD (4.5) for Mac OS X
Visual QuickPro Guide
Published by Peachpit Press
By Lisa Brenneis
ISBN 0-321-26918-7
List price: $29.99 U.S.
766 pages
Review By Ken
Stone
Book excerpt follows review.
Purchase 'Final Cut Pro HD
for Mac OS X: Visual QuickPro Guide' from the lafcpug
store.
As night follows day, each time Apple updates Final Cut Pro,
Lisa Brenneis updates her Visual QuickPro Guide for FCP. The
FCP 4.5 free update also know as FCP HD contains bug fixes, program
tweaks, a few new features, changes to old procedures but is
also about the inclusion of the new video format, DVCPRO HD.
The 'Final Cut Pro for Mac OS X
HD' book jacket indicates that this book is for the Intermediate
and Advanced user and not for people who are new to editing and
FCP. For the beginner there is a tutorial that ships with FCP
as well as a number of excellent beginner books and DVD tutorials
to start you off. However, once you begin learning FCP and have
started on your first project, you are going to need this book,
even if you are still learning the basics. The first four chapters
of this book are devoted to introducing you to FCP. There is
a tour of the interface, installation and set up, hardware requirements,
start to finish workflow concepts, presets and preferences, and
very thorough explanations of all the terminology associated
with FCP and video editing. The lessons (chapters) are laid out
in a sequential fashion just as one would do a project. For a
book that is not aimed at the Beginner it does an excellent job
covering the basics.
Final Cut Pro HD (4.5) for Mac
OS X is a reference book and therein lies it's power. The book
is completely indexed and you use the index to locate any topic
or procedure that you need to learn about. The book is written
in the Peachpit Press "Visual QuickPro Guide" format
and as such, is an efficient means of getting to the information
you need quickly. The reference nature of this book means that
the information and lessons are delivered in a simple and consistent
format, starting with a definition and explanation of the topic,
step by step instructions are provided to accomplish the task
and often alternate methods are offered. There are numerous captioned
illustrations of the FCP interface and informative dialog boxes
run side by side with the instructions so that you are able to
see both the process and workflow required to accomplish your
task. In addition, keyboard shortcuts, "Tips", and
"FCP Protocol" sidebars add additional information
to help you further understand and accomplish the task at hand.
Okay, maybe you have the 'Final
Cut Pro 4.0 for Mac OS X: Visual QuickPro Guide' and you are
wondering if you need the FCP HD (4.5) book. Many things have
changed in FCP, even from FCP 4.0. For example, since the release
of FCP 4, the procedure for copy and pasting in the Timeline
has change three times. You can't follow the game without a scorecard.
(grin)
When I started out with FCP 4 years
ago, Lisa Brenneis' first book was instrumental in guiding me
through the complexities of this very powerful NLE. I have reviewed
all subsequent versions of her book and in each review I stated
that this is the only book that sits next to my FCP Mac. It was
true then and it's still true today.
Enjoy,
--ken
Book Excerpt from "Final Cut Pro HD for Mac OS X",
pages 468 - 469. By Lisa Brenneis.
Using the
Audio Mixer
Purchase 'Final Cut Pro HD for
Mac OS X: Visual QuickPro Guide' from the lafcpug
store.
This article first appeared on www.kenstone.net and is reprinted here
with permission.
All screen captures and
textual references are the property and trademark of their creators/owners/publishers.
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