Customer Reviews

Final Cut Pro 2 Editing Workshop

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the best of the recent books to come out, from the well-know Guide at 2-Pop.com. The author not only knows the program, but you are always getting tips and hints on how to edit, not just what button does what. He tells you why you might want to do something and when it would be appropriate too. His style is very accessable, he's easy to understand even when it's pretty complicated. Comes with a really good tutorial CD, it's like going to film school.

Reading many, if not most, software instruction books, is akin to being clubbed by a thousand hammers...overload, overload. They are constructed as reference books, but one has to fight through tons on incidental material to figure out how to use the program.

Tom Wolsky's Final Cut Pro 2 book is, instead, a precise tool, which gets you cutting in no time. Wolsky's credits list him as an editor and a teacher, and his book make it clear he is outstanding in both regards.

At first glance you might think that this book is the same as the other FCP click-step books for the manual-adverse. You'd be wrong. Tom has crafted an excellent instructional work that richly supplements, rather than reiterates, Apple's enormous, exhaustive FCP 2 manual. Certainly he has featured many pages of clear dance-step instruction throughout the book. But, more noteworthy, Tom also incorporates a great deal of contextual insight into why certain features might be useful to the reader and draws upon his professional experience to give readers insights into the professional post-production process.

This book quickly became the mainstay of my FCP editing library. The only feature that would improve upon it is a spiral binding enabling it to lie flat while open!

I wrote this to Wolsky, might as well share it with the world:
Hi, guys. I met you at the fcpug last Weds and bought a (signed!) copy of your book. I haven't started to do the tutorial yet but I can't put the book down. It's so clear and easy to understand, and I'm already implementing the stuff I've picked up just from reading, "Now, did he say.... option X? Oh, wow, it works." It's the best book I've seen and I tend to look at everything in hopes that where one person confuses me another will set me straight. Anyway, this is a fan letter. And the writing is extraordinarily fine, literate and grammatical. Thank you.

The author is candid in his discussion about editing with Final Cut Pro. The most valuable information to me was his numerious comparisons between FCP and other editing software. For example, he points out those areas where other programs might be stronger in certain areas than FCP and specifies those programs. I read the book cover to cover and continually refer back to it as a guide and inspiratoin when editing.

Folks aspiring to write Final Cut Pro books are probably pretty intimidated by Apple's whopping 1400 page manual. "What's left to be said?" right? Tom Wolsky has found plenty to say and presents it with a clear, conversational style that's easy to follow. Lots of examples of how to accomplish specific effects, like the Brady Bunch opening. It takes a while to get started. I could have done without the first sections of how to get your camera to talk to your computer, for example. I would have left that to the manual since we all use different cameras and setups, etc. But once he gets going, he rolls. And I appreciate his frankness. He loves the program, obviously, but he's no Apple cheerleader and when he believes something could have/should have been better implemented, he'll tell you frankly. Book is highly recommended! Accompanying CD is very helpful!

I love this book. It's a robust mix of exercises and software how-to, unique among all the FCP books I've read. I'm very glad to have it in my library.