Here to ensure that users start taking advantage of Final Cut Express 4's powerful editing capabilities immediately is a thoroughly updated task-based guide to the program from best-selling author and digital video expert Lisa Brenneis. Users who are eager to make effective, compelling videos but don't want to invest heavily in training or equipment will welcome Lisa's simple step-by-step instructions, strong visual approach, and sound professional advice. In short order, they'll find themselves editing video; applying special effects and transitions; mastering the program's compositing, titling, and audio tools; and outputting their finished work. Readers will also learn about all that's new in this major upgrade: importing iMovie 08 projects, open format Timeline, built-in AVCHD and more.
Final Cut Express 4: Visual QuickStart Guide
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I neglected to read the reviews on this page before I purchased the book, and had I done so, would not have added this book to my library. That would have been a great loss.
I bought the software for Final Cut Express 4 three months ago and have struggled with a learning curve that seemed at times vertical. Particularly annoying was that the highly recommended book I bought at the time included a DVD which I at first thought was a good idea, but came quickly to realize that chopping about in someone's deadly dull movie is no fun at all. I dreaded doing the lessons. Worse, they tied me to the computer, for without the computer the book went from irritating to useless.
Recently I stumbled across Lisa Brenneis's book. Brilliant! Fun to read lucid prose written in an engaging and conversational style and sans the labored jokes other series include; an intuitive index which really enables you to find things (the above mentioned h.r. book has a thwarting index) and a useful Table of Contents. Every page of 600 is informative. Each time I open the book I discover something new. The first paragraph on something tells you what you need to know, its basic function, and then below it, as your eye drops down, additional information and tips. Opening this book is like FCE itself, an ancient carved box; lift the lid, and inside are hundreds of strange and wondrous tools. You lift them up, turn them over, glance at Lisa's book and light dawns - ah, yes, how marvelous. But then, you turn the tool another way, puzzled, until Lisa tells you of further uses, applications of which you had not dreamed.
Terrific, too, is that you do not have to be at your computer to read this book and enjoy it. Wait for your spouse to get his or her hair done, or shop for truffles or something, and you can find a chair, open the pages, read with delight and stick in a bookmark to use the information as soon as you get home. Try that with the other books out there.
To anyone who wants to learn FCE4 from scratch, I would suggest watching the free Izzy videos on FCE4 available online; ditto for the free LiveType tutorials; thus armed, open this book. Lisa is a born teacher and writer and I cannot recommend her book too highly. I wish I had discovered it earlier. The prose is crystal clear, the book is of tremendous value, and the negative reviews I see on this page are incomprehensible to me. It is unquestionably the best book on software I own and the only one I can say I enjoy reading.
G. W. Marsh
Final Cut Express 4: Visual QuickStart Guide
I bought the software for Final Cut Express 4 three months ago and have struggled with a learning curve that seemed at times vertical. Particularly annoying was that the highly recommended book I bought at the time included a DVD which I at first thought was a good idea, but came quickly to realize that chopping about in someone's deadly dull movie is no fun at all. I dreaded doing the lessons. Worse, they tied me to the computer, for without the computer the book went from irritating to useless.
Recently I stumbled across Lisa Brenneis's book. Brilliant! Fun to read lucid prose written in an engaging and conversational style and sans the labored jokes other series include; an intuitive index which really enables you to find things (the above mentioned h.r. book has a thwarting index) and a useful Table of Contents. Every page of 600 is informative. Each time I open the book I discover something new. The first paragraph on something tells you what you need to know, its basic function, and then below it, as your eye drops down, additional information and tips. Opening this book is like FCE itself, an ancient carved box; lift the lid, and inside are hundreds of strange and wondrous tools. You lift them up, turn them over, glance at Lisa's book and light dawns - ah, yes, how marvelous. But then, you turn the tool another way, puzzled, until Lisa tells you of further uses, applications of which you had not dreamed.
Terrific, too, is that you do not have to be at your computer to read this book and enjoy it. Wait for your spouse to get his or her hair done, or shop for truffles or something, and you can find a chair, open the pages, read with delight and stick in a bookmark to use the information as soon as you get home. Try that with the other books out there.
To anyone who wants to learn FCE4 from scratch, I would suggest watching the free Izzy videos on FCE4 available online; ditto for the free LiveType tutorials; thus armed, open this book. Lisa is a born teacher and writer and I cannot recommend her book too highly. I wish I had discovered it earlier. The prose is crystal clear, the book is of tremendous value, and the negative reviews I see on this page are incomprehensible to me. It is unquestionably the best book on software I own and the only one I can say I enjoy reading.
G. W. Marsh
Final Cut Express 4: Visual QuickStart Guide
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm fairly experienced with Final Cut, but every once in a while i get stymied by some odd event or set of procedures. That's when i reach for this reference manual. The book isn't really designed like a over-arcing tutorial guide, like a step-by-step from beginning to end, and maybe that's what some reviewers desire. It does have step-by-step guides, but for very specific events. It covers the basics, but for beginners, the entire final cut suite of products can be like hitting a brick wall - you have to be patient and keep editing, and the wisdom will eventually come. It's not easy, but i found this guide helps me.
And reviewers should really lay off the personal attacks on authors, that's just ugly.
...just you wait until Zombie Charles Dickens comes knocking on your door...
And reviewers should really lay off the personal attacks on authors, that's just ugly.
...just you wait until Zombie Charles Dickens comes knocking on your door...
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is not a "How to" book. It explains the functions but not the procedures, It does not tie anything together and gives no examples at all on how to do anything with Final cut express, It just explains what the particular function does. The photo's are terrible. Unfortunetly it was the only book avaliable on Final Cut Express at the Big Block type bookstores. I knew from the get go I was not going to enjoy this book, The software PDF manual is way better to bad that's not in print..
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Saves Time
I worked solidly for 3 weeks reading Apple's 1152 page manual for Final Cut Express 4, and had NOTHING to show for my time. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Sherwin Gooch
Not a good choice
Don't waste your money. I could say more, but that should suffice.
Not a usable source of information. Read more
Not a usable source of information. Read more
Published 22 months ago by KSS33
Complements the online manual nicely.
This book has been my indispensable companion to the online manual that comes with the program. The 1152 page online manual is well written and edifying, but one can emerge from a... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Sage of Orinda
Huh?
So, I read the first four chapters and then went to chapter 5 to import my video. How exciting! The problem is what I saw on the screen did not match anything in the book. Read more
Published on March 7, 2010 by jpenkethman
Quick Start Guide for Final Cut Express 4
Peach Pitt Press and the Quick Start Guides always satisfy and in this case for Final Cut Express 4 it did not fail. Read more
Published on March 4, 2010 by Arnie Brooklyn
Don't Waste your Money!
I purchased this book to help me understand the basics of Final Cut Express 4, but it falls well short. There are no detailed explanations or "How To's". Read more
Published on January 19, 2010 by Marty Edwards
A waste of money and time
Let me just say flat-out that this is one of the worst software reference guides I have ever seen in my life. I really wish that I had not spent the money on it. Read more
Published on November 21, 2009 by Henry
Just what we needed!
This is a well organized, easy to use reference. Visuals are extremely helpful.
I would highly recommend this as a valuable resource for students as well as more advanced... Read more
I would highly recommend this as a valuable resource for students as well as more advanced... Read more
Published on April 30, 2009 by Post Production Fan
As helpful as printing the 1100 page PDF? Maybe not!
I have been a ULead video editing software user for 2 years. ULead provided a helpful how-to book written by a man who videos weddings and other events for a living. Read more
Published on September 15, 2008 by K. Strom
excellent source
A great source for reference. The book has a very good breakdown of the elements of fce. If you can think it,then you can look up how to do it.
Published on April 24, 2008 by D. Brown
Inside This Book
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
(learn more)
trim edit, trimming edits, current timecode, capturing video, creating transitions, scratch disks, match frame, video generator, track height, project properties, recent clips, favorites bin, cross dissolve, clip clip, thumbnail cache files, audio transition, track layout, nondestructive editing, total free time, new bin, outline text, render settings, sound cue, particle noise, text control settings Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Final Cut Express, User Preferences, Easy Setup, Choose File, Auto Select, Yoga Lesson, Item Properties, Capture Project, System Settings, Choose Modify, Choose View, Filters Motion, Video Out, Fine Cut, Reconnect Media, Voice Over, Basic Editing, Color Corrector, Choose Mark, Mark Out, Video Stereo, Sequence Settings, Transition Editor, Final Cut Pro, Choose Edit Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
trim edit, trimming edits, current timecode, capturing video, creating transitions, scratch disks, match frame, video generator, track height, project properties, recent clips, favorites bin, cross dissolve, clip clip, thumbnail cache files, audio transition, track layout, nondestructive editing, total free time, new bin, outline text, render settings, sound cue, particle noise, text control settings Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Final Cut Express, User Preferences, Easy Setup, Choose File, Auto Select, Yoga Lesson, Item Properties, Capture Project, System Settings, Choose Modify, Choose View, Filters Motion, Video Out, Fine Cut, Reconnect Media, Voice Over, Basic Editing, Color Corrector, Choose Mark, Mark Out, Video Stereo, Sequence Settings, Transition Editor, Final Cut Pro, Choose Edit Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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