Apple Pro Training Series : Final Cut Express 2

Rating:
Summary: GREAT BOOK, EASY TO UNDERTAND
Review: I recently picked up a copy of Final Cut Express when I bought a miniDV camera to record some 16mm home movies to disk. I captured the DV stream with iMovie because that's what I was familiar with and was able to do simple cutting and splicing using FCE2 by just feeling around. I could see however, I was fumbling and there were obviously easier ways to accomplish even the simple things I was doing, let alone 99% of FCE2's features.

After getting my feet wet with the home movies I wanted to do something *interesting* with 5 hours of videocam footage I had recorded years ago thinking "some day I'll make a little movie from this". For this I needed to become familiar with the FCE2's capabilities. I read through the documentation that came with FCE2 but I didn't really get it. I wasn't familiar with the terminology, the concepts were foreign to me. So I grabbed a copy of the Apple Pro Training Series Final Cut Express 2 book and committed to learning some things. The book comes with a DVD containing lesson materials.

Some of the material in the first lessons was basic even for me as I'm familiar with the Mac interface. In some cases I would just read through the exercises and not bother using the computer. But the exposure to the basic terminology was already useful.

After those first few chapters I found pretty much every exercise valuable. I appreciated the author's style of repetition and reinforcement of concepts and techniques. When I completed a lesson I was satisfied that I had learned something I would use. With my own project in mind, I would visualize how I'd apply what I had learned but was glad I didn't go off and start working on my own stuff until I had finished the book.

When I did complete the lessons I was comfortable with FCE2, which before I opened the book appeared almost hopelessly complicated. With the lessons under my belt I was able to get more out of the FCE2 documentation because I understood the terminology and what questions to ask. I was also able to read through online discussions and understand what people were asking and suggesting.

Having read the book and, most importantly, done the exercises I felt I was really taking advantage of FCE2 when I used it for my project. Even if I didn't remember everything I read I remembered I had read there was a way to do this or that and found the details easily. Sometimes I'd refer back to the book but most often I used the FCE2 help document or just looked in the menus.

I found the book a great way to come up to speed with Final Cut Express 2. After completing the book I was able to make good use of FCE2 to take boring footage, modest effects, an incredible soundtrack and nice titles to tell a story in an entertaining way. The book made FCE2 accessible, FCE2 made my project a reality, and I'm very pleased with the results.

Rating:
Summary: A great introduction to Final Cut Express
Review: I recently picked up a copy of Final Cut Express when I bought a miniDV camera to record some 16mm home movies to disk. I captured the DV stream with iMovie because that's what I was familiar with and was able to do simple cutting and splicing using FCE2 by just feeling around. I could see however, I was fumbling and there were obviously easier ways to accomplish even the simple things I was doing, let alone 99% of FCE2's features.

After getting my feet wet with the home movies I wanted to do something *interesting* with 5 hours of videocam footage I had recorded years ago thinking "some day I'll make a little movie from this". For this I needed to become familiar with the FCE2's capabilities. I read through the documentation that came with FCE2 but I didn't really get it. I wasn't familiar with the terminology, the concepts were foreign to me. So I grabbed a copy of the Apple Pro Training Series Final Cut Express 2 book and committed to learning some things. The book comes with a DVD containing lesson materials.

Some of the material in the first lessons was basic even for me as I'm familiar with the Mac interface. In some cases I would just read through the exercises and not bother using the computer. But the exposure to the basic terminology was already useful.

After those first few chapters I found pretty much every exercise valuable. I appreciated the author's style of repetition and reinforcement of concepts and techniques. When I completed a lesson I was satisfied that I had learned something I would use. With my own project in mind, I would visualize how I'd apply what I had learned but was glad I didn't go off and start working on my own stuff until I had finished the book.

When I did complete the lessons I was comfortable with FCE2, which before I opened the book appeared almost hopelessly complicated. With the lessons under my belt I was able to get more out of the FCE2 documentation because I understood the terminology and what questions to ask. I was also able to read through online discussions and understand what people were asking and suggesting.

Having read the book and, most importantly, done the exercises I felt I was really taking advantage of FCE2 when I used it for my project. Even if I didn't remember everything I read I remembered I had read there was a way to do this or that and found the details easily. Sometimes I'd refer back to the book but most often I used the FCE2 help document or just looked in the menus.

I found the book a great way to come up to speed with Final Cut Express 2. After competing the book I was able to make good use of FCE2 to take boring footage, modest effects, an incredible soundtrack and nice titles to tell a story in an entertaining way. The book made FCE2 accessible, FCE2 made my project a reality, and I'm very pleased with the results.

Rating:
Summary: The best way to learn is by doing
Review: I recommend the Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Express 2 because it comes with a DVD full of Final Cut Express 2 (FCE2) projects that the reader modifies as he or she progresses through the book. Before I bought this book I tried another (less expensive) book, the Visual Quickstart Guide (VQG) to FCE2, but it was difficult to really learn what I had read without applying it. I tried to use some of my own video to fiddle with as I read the VQG, but I found importing video in FCE2 to be non-trivial.

This book, on the other hand, gives you several example projects per chapter. As you read through a given chapter, you modify one or more of these projects with a particular editing tool or group of tools. The examples are put together well and do a fantastic job of illustrating how to use FCE2. The book is also full-color and has lots of pictures, making it easy to match what you see in the book with what's happening on your computer. With this book I was able to become fairly proficient with FCE2 in only a few hours (and by the time I started importing video, I was comfortable enough with FCE2 that doing so was easy). I highly recommend this book!

Rating:
Summary: The Perfect the Enemy of the Good.
Review: In product reviews, I am wary of adjectives such as "amazing" and "great," especially when there are only a couple of reviews. Weynand's FINAL CUT EXPRESS 2 is thorough and carefully put together, if not quite amazing, but by the time I got to Chapter 5 and floundered around, and gritted my teeth in 6 and 7, I realized that the perfect can be the enemy of the good pedagogically as well as morally. The trees are clear in her manual but the forest is nowhere in sight. That's my insight on this book. If I ever get out of this forest, I will let you know.

Rating:
Summary: The Perfect the Enemy of the Good.
Review: In product reviews, I am wary of adjectives such as "amazing" and "great," especially when there are only a couple of reviews. Weynand's FINAL CUT EXPRESS 2 is thorough and carefully put together, if not quite amazing, but by the time I got to Chapter 5 and floundered around, and gritted my teeth in 6 and 7, I realized that the perfect can be the enemy of the good pedagogically as well as morally. The trees are clear in her manual but the forest is nowhere in sight. That's my insight on this book. If I ever get out of this forest, I will let you know.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT BOOK, EASY TO UNDERTAND
Review: This is my first experience with a self paced course...this book was really terrific...got me started and now I'm editing like a video professional...the lessons are well paced, easy to understand....literally talks you through the operation of the whole editng process as if the instructor is right there in the room with you...for someone who had never edited before I found this book amazing...highly recommend it to anyone who needs help with Final Cut EXpress...great software program too!