anyone work with Final Cut Pro?

[theReal]

I just started working at a small local tv station and found they are working with Final Cut Pro for Mac. One of the editors told me that he found Premiere was ok for personal use, but Final Cut Pro was much better for a higher working speed (which is important in the business).

As I'm going to stay at this company for a professional training, I'm going to work with Final Cut Pro sooner or later - just wanted to know what you guys are thinking about it.

[DDogg]

Just in case you do not have this, it is a pretty good forum on FCP.

http://www.creativecow.net/index.php?forumid=8

[Arky]

Never worked with it (cos I don't use a MAC), but I have heard consistently good things about it.


Arky ;o)

[Dali Lama]

Hi theReal,

Yes, Final Cut Pro is very good and I have had the priveledge to use it. I really enjoyed it, because it is not complicated and very powerful to use.

Check out these excellent tutorials at apple.com. They will get you going on the right foot and you can pick up the advanced features easily.

http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/theater/

If you are willing to spend some cash on it. Here is a tutorial product from apple:

DMTS: Inside Editing with Final Cut Pro (http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/71802/wo/4Q3oER9CA0qf29L5hiMrCK0H6z5/8.3.0.5.8.3.5.13.0)

There are more free video tutorials...I will try to find them and make a list.

Take Care,

Dali

[Arky]

There is a DV-only version of Final Cut Pro reviewed in this months Computer Video. It does lose some features, but it is dramatically reduced in price. Final Cut Pro 4 (FULL version) is reviewed next month. BTW, I have no affiliation to the mag - I just read it whenever I see a good issue, and like to share a bit of info with other forum members if I think they might be interested in reading a particular article.


Arky ;o)

[FishB8]

Even though I can't stand Macs (Well, Mac X is an major improvement over Mac 9, but still...) I have used FCP and it's not too bad. There are several problems I have with it though. First, fades, crossfades, or basically anything that works with transparency doesn't quite work correctly. When fading from one video track to another for instance, it always "snaps" at the end. When one video track is almost completely faded out it has a very noticeable jump to being totally faded out and it is very annoying.
Second, most codecs that come standard with a Mac all suck. The DV codecs are very buggy. Many are poor quality or don't provide reasonable compression. Sorenson3 is the only codec offering reasonable quality, and it's compression ratio isn't really that hot when compared to codecs such as Xvid. When doing production work for TV I would strongly recommend working with the MJPEG codec if you can afford the disk space.
Just my 2¢

[PowerMacG4]

DivX 5 encoder for Mac OS 9/X has been released.

[sh0dan]

If if was made for Windows I would definately use it. But Apple have other interests to defend. :sly:

[Arky]

For miniDV work, Pinnacle Edition is equally as good, really, despite being less hyped than FCP. Only thing I really wish Edition had in comparison to FCP4, is the new 'LiveType' fonts (http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/livetype.html) feature, which is very cool. Even so, Boris Graffiti can do better, and will plugin to virtually any NLE on the planet, Edition included.

I must admit that Apple do have a very nice (software) product line now, with DVD Studio Pro2 (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=54250) and FCP4. I refuse to buy into the dead-end that is MAC, though. MAC hardware is way behind Windows hardware at the moment (why do you think Apple made the G4 dual? It's because it's the only answer they currently have to compete with more powerful Intel processors), and I shudder at the draconian level of control Steve Job's strives to exert over the platform, with the result that the MAC hardware consumer loses out in a closed-market platform with no (within-platform) competition.


Arky ;o)