Description:
Back in 1999, Apple introduced its desktop video production program that would soon change the way filmmakers thought about video. So much has been said about digital video and making home movies on your computer, it's easy to forget that just over two years ago the options were limited. Professional-quality systems were prohibitively expensive, while consumer software was often awkward, unstable, limited, or frankly, not very fun. Final Cut Pro put an end to that, at least for Macintosh users. Sure, version 1.0 had some unpleasant quirks common with initial versions of software. But its pleasing design, simplicity, and solid integration of tools assured users they were working with something special. Final Cut Pro 2.0, the long-awaited upgrade, adds several key enhancements, while the same QuickTime-based architecture and concepts from 1.0 remain intact. Improvements in FCP 2.0 include the new Media Manager, which is great for copying clips into a new project and deleting unused portions of clips. FCP 2.0 offers better support for Adobe AfterEffects plug-ins, 24 fps (frames per second) editing for film compatibility, and OMF export to pro audio mixing tools like Pro Tools. Add a PCI-based RTMac effects card, and motion effects can be viewed without rendering via QuickTime. Control of FireWire-based DV (digital video) cameras is a snap. Final Cut will look for devices at startup. From the application you can shuttle your footage to precise locations and capture video and/or audio to a selected hard drive, and log your clips with reel number, description, scene number, and notes. Final Cut Pro 2.0 uses standard source, record, timeline, and bin windows. These are referred to as the viewer, canvas, timeline/sequence, and browser. Simply import your digitized video clips into the browser. Double-click the clip and it pops into the viewer. From here, you can easily set in-and-out points, create filters, and add motion effects in the viewer, then drag the manipulated clip into the timeline. Apple claims processing power of Final Cut Pro has increased by 30 percent or more. In our test-run of Final Cut Pro 2.0 on a 350 MHz G4, we did notice a performance boost over 1.0 in terms of speed. We chose to build a quick, rough documentary-style edit. Using footage of a street demonstration, we quickly laid out short segments directly from the browser to the timeline. In the timeline we trimmed each clip by dragging its edges (a little window pops up indicating the new clip length as it's trimmed), and made some minor-level adjustments in the audio. Final Cut allows you to open multiple sequences in one project (as well as have multiple projects open at once), unlike other programs. This is a great feature for building and fine-tuning individual segments or scenes and merging them later. For our street demonstration video, we created four segments of thematically related footage, simply clicking on the tabs (Sequence 1, Sequence 2, etc.) in the timeline to move effortlessly back and forth between the sequences. These window tabs reduce desktop clutter and streamline accessibility to the features of the program. Clicking the Effects tab in the browser window brought up the list of over 75 effects and transitions. By dragging the Dissolve icon between clips we easily added smooth transitions to our segments. We have, of course, only scratched the surface of what Final Cut Pro 2.0 is capable of. Anyone working seriously with video on a Macintosh should consider Final Cut Pro. For the price, it's the best application you can get. It rivals systems that cost 5 to 10 times as much, and has quite simply revolutionized the desktop video medium by giving consumers and industry professionals access to the same technology. --John Bosch
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