Customer Reviews

Final Cut Pro 4 for Mac OS X: Visual QuickPro Guide

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

 

 

So you just shot all your scenes, now what do you do? If you got an Apple then you should probably also have Final Cut Pro to go along with it, and if you got Final Cut Pro then you should have this book. You want to get right in and start editing your film/video, well look no further, here it is. A thick book filled with so much info your head will spin, but the best part...you ready for this.... It is actually very easy to read and you can start doing editing almost immediately. Capture/Log Store/Compressing/Titles/Input/Output/Transitions/Fade In/Audio - it tells you everything - Great Book for all Final Cut Pro users!

I love Final Cut Pro (FCP), I have used it for the last 4 years and have found it to be an incredible program but the text that comes in the box is not realy that good, this is true for all three versions of FCP that I have worked with. Lisa Brenneis has done a great job in this version as she has done in others. This text has been a lifesaver for me many times. I could not imagine trying to work in FCP without it. For those who have upgraded from a previous version of FCP I recommend you also update to the current version of Lisa's book I have found that the quickest way to get my head around the many changes FCP has gone through is to read the upgraded text. Lisa has true mastery of FCP and understands how to communicate, which is rare in tech manual writers.

Beware, I have been editing on FCP4 for 12 months and this was the book I bought when I first started-I found it totally incomprehensible for a beginner. After a year of relatively sophisticated editing I still find the book virtually useless. Although packed with 700+ pages of writing, Lisa Brenneis somehow manages to turn simple concepts into mush. If you deliberately tried to write the most confusing description of each FCP operation it would be difficult to achieve Brenneis' level of mind-spinning prose. When she does not over-complicate an operation she glosses over the practical steps for implementation. We had a whole class abandon this book last fall. There could be a few very advanced users out there who actually fathom her illustrations and explanations but they would have no need for this monster. I suggest either the "Dummies" book or Apples training series.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

I have been cutting on FCP now for 4 years and this has been my goto FCP reference guide book. This book definitely has a lot of good information in it, however I have found quite a few of the procedures I am looking for to not be outlined clear enough that you can read that section and accomplish what you had hoped to do on the first try. (quite a few procedures require a bit of trial-and-error) I have also found it difficult to look in the index for certain topics and been able to find what I was looking for easily. This book is better than the manual which comes with FCP, but if you are looking for clear, simple instructions that are easy to find and follow, I would look to another book.

It seems that the author does not understand what someone getting this book would want. To begin editing. I am not a rank amateur, but this book made me feel like one. The process of actually beginning did not start until chapter five - (page 159) and even then you don't really have a clue what's going on. Finally in Chapter 9 (page 281) you start Basic Editing. It was too complicated, but my thought was to start with Chapter 9 and then go back and put together what I might need to know. I found this book to be a disaster. Swimming through a lot of information I would only need if I were editing Star Wars X, instead of trying to organize a documentary with six hours of interviews.

Great great complete readible and easy to understand book. It's become my BIBLE along with the FCP manuals..but it's condensed all into one book where as FCP has five. This is good for the beginner as well as the advanced user.

I think that J. Ewing, who wrote the negative review, is on crack (metaphorically J.Ewing, not literally, chill - don't try to sue me for slander. Geez, you need to relax J. Ewing, you need to relax). This book is a definitive guide to Final Cut Pro 4 just as all of Lisa Brenneis' previous version have been for previous versions of FCP. Check out the rest of the amazing reviews for this book. Then, if you too are on crack, listen to J. Ewing. If not, buy this readable, helpful, insightful, and concise guide to FCP 4.