Who should read this?

Final Cut Pro users, editors, assistant editors, tech support staff and the like. This book is clearly written and illustrated, for both novice and advanced users.

Why you should read this?

First off, finding everything contained in this book will take you on a very long surfing safari, plus many trips to your friendly neighborhood post facility. Save yourself some time and money, learn how to be an expert in your field, and spend more time doing what you love.

Second, this is Apple-certified courseware, which means that it comes in the regular APTS lesson-based format, with lesson reviews at the end of each chapter, and material on the DVD-ROM. There are now instructor-led classes devoted to the subject, as more and more facilities switch from another platform to Final Cut Pro, or move up from miniDV to the broadcast world. Now’s your chance to learn from the masters and become one yourself.

How to cram years of experience in one 888-page book

I’m often amazed at the quality and detail of the work that some Final Cut Pro editors churn out using a DV-only setup. Let’s face it: the vast majority of FCP aficionados use their favorite software with their DV camera and output to a miniDV tape or to DVD. They are not aware of the “other world”, the realm of post houses and television-friendly tech specs.

As a trainer and consultant, I often teach these principles to FCP users, those who get that “special gig”, that elusive commercial that’s going on air, or that project that needs to be cut in DV, but onlined in HD. I love helping these creators on the path of knowledge in the wide world of broadcast standards. Such knowledge you usually find by talking to other “senior” editors, surfing the web for articles, trial and error, and hopefully you find out just enough before the tapes are couriered to your studio.

All of this research takes precious time, and complete resources were hard to find, or didn’t quite relate to the whole FCP experience. Until now, thanks to the great new book in the Apple Pro Training Series, “Optimizing Your Final Cut Pro System: A Technical Guide to Real-World Post-Production”. This book will take you through every necessary step required to approach most kinds of editing projects with confidence. It crams a wealth of hard-earned knowledge from a bunch of FCP geniuses that you may have heard of: Sean Cullen, Matt Geller, Charles Roberts and Adam Wilt, to name a few.

The book is conveniently divided in five sections:

1. Using Final Cut Pro in Real World Workflows

In this first section, attention is given to workflow. When you embark on an editing project, you often don’t know exactly when it’s going to end, unless you have a very specific deadline. Still, it’s nice to have a few bearings before setting sail, and here you will find many, including:

2. Fundamentals of Video Standards and Hardware Primer

This is the goldmine that a whole lot of newcomers are going to love. Hundreds of pages are devoted to video technology, in both the analog and digital realm, and how they’re linked to non-linear editing. It starts off with a primer on the fundamentals of video, how frames and fields and color work together. Video formats are explored, from DV to HD, in all of its flavors. Frame rates, compression ratios, storage devices, nothing is left behind. I love the section on the various wires you’ll find dangling from decks and hard drives, and it’s got pictures!

It includes a roundup of capture cards available at press time, as current as possible. If you’re wondering how to jump onto the HD bandwagon, this is a good place to start looking.

3. Configuring Final Cut Pro and Managing Your System

OK, you’ve got your gear together, now what? Optimize it! These chapters contain a slew of hints and tips gathered in the trenches of heavy duty editing. Learning to tweak Mac OS X guarantees a smoother editing experience, and installing Final Cut Studio in the proper way helps you avoid troubleshooting down the line. Once you’ve installed and updated FCP, you’ll learn to configure it, in order to help it blow your client’s socks off with all those real time effects.

The book covers an essential but often overlooked aspect of the editing process: effective project management. How many times have you lost files, or found your way into a folder with hundreds of files named “Untitled”? If you’ve got a hard time managing your files, you’ll learn a great many tricks to help you out, including a very cool tip on how to let Mac OS X’s built-in search-engine, Spotlight, help you out. Oh, and let’s not forget to backup!

4. Integrating Your System

Moving up in the world? Graduating from the mini-DV class to an HD indie feature? You’ll need a bigger G5 or two, more storage, a new capture card, and maybe an XSAN. “Whoa”, you reply, “how do I put it all together?” This section explores that very question, starting with an interesting piece on selecting the right capture card. Installing hardware, creating RAID sets, connecting your workstation to the network, you’ll find out all you need to set up your new rig, if you’re a “do it yourself” kind of editor.

A whole chapter explains how to plan, install and setup an XSAN, but I still recommend dealing with a knowledgeable network specialist, hopefully one who is Apple-certified. Trust me, configuring a whole XSAN network is not for the faint of heart. Unless you also want to pull your hair out while you troubleshoot your system. Which leads me to the next section…

5. Troubleshooting Final Cut Pro

Hours and hours of service calls, the questions and the answers, they’re all here. There’s over twenty pages on dropped frames! Quits, crashes and kernel panics, most usual problems and their solution are covered. A well-earned break for the editor who finds he can’t see the video output at 3:00 am, with no one to call.

Conclusion

All in all, this is one of the best books of its kind that I’ve read. It fits right in with the Apple philosophy of giving power to the users. I recommend it to all you editors who not only need to know how the system works, but why it works that way.

They say curiosity killed the cat; I don’t know about the cat, but my mouse is alive and cutting!

Marc-André Ferguson is founder of Final Cut MTL. When he’s not teaching Apple software, he spends his time as director/editor and consultant for his company, Luminance.