Okay, so you’ve just finished shooting your film, and now it’s time for editing. Editors sing the praises of Final Cut Pro, but it’s a complex software with the capacity to do awesome things. You know some basics, but want to take full advantage of the software and all its abilities. Where do you turn? Total Training for Final Cut Pro 5: The Essentials.
Clocking in at almost 12 hours on two DVD ROMs, host Brian Maffitt walks you all the through the basics of FCP, showing the various features of the software. If you have little to no experience with FCP, this Total Training is… well… a total training, complete from beginning to end. If you have a decent working knowledge of FCP and want to really know how to make the most of the software, this will increase your knowledge.
Understandability
TTFCP5:TE includes an example project that is designed to be run on FCP while you’re going through the training. It’s a kind of virtual version of the “follow along in your book” exercises that we used to do as kids in school. As Brian shows you the various features and abilities of FCP, you can click from the training to the sample project and back again as needed throughout the training sessions. This is extremely helpful. Because there is such a large amount of complex information to learn and process, I was concerned about how hard it was going to be to retain said information. But because you’re doing the editing yourself as you’re being instructed, the memory retention is significantly improved.
For those with smaller, slower computers, you should still be able to run both Total Training and the SD sample projects on FCP at the same time. (Obviously, the included lesson on editing HDV with its associated footage would be an exception.) On one of our slower Macs--a G4 dual 450 with a gig of RAM--I was able to run the training and work on the project in FCP simultaneously without stuttering issues. (Older machines with less RAM may start yielding pops and audio glitches when running both TT and FCP at the same time.)
Depth of Information
The fact that the training is a total of 12 hours long should give you an idea of the huge amount of information covered. That’s more information than many quarter-long classes on the program at a local community college. FCP is a complex software in and of itself; so it needs this time to flesh out the basics. If you know nothing about video editing, you can pop this in and start learning how to effectively use FCP. But even if you’re well-versed in the ways of FCP, there are still a lot of little things you’ll be able to learn to improve your craft even further. (And of course, for advanced users, Total Training will undoubtedly be releasing an Advanced course in the near future to teach you even more.)
