Optimizing Your Final Cut Pro System

Apple Pro Training Series : Optimizing Your Final Cut Pro System is probably the best reference book for all levels of FCP users. I wish this book came out early last year so that I wouldn't have to jump through many trials and errors when I started out in the post production field.

People think an editor works alone, but he is actually supported by many people, not just assistant editors. With increasingly sophisticated and complex digital editing systems, editors are overwhelmed with options beyond making simple cuts of early days. Before becoming an editor, before you make single cut, you better be knowledgeable in this digital technologies have to offer in order to succeed.

This book goes beyond using FCP for editing, filled with technical details of emerging digital technologies that are employed in the professional field. Any aspiring editor should be well-aware of the technologies and terminologies in this book in order to secure a job, in my opinion. The book can be daunting at first, but the details become clear and handy as you get more exposure and gain more experience handling FCP systems and digital, high-definition elements.

I believe you'll appreciate this book more and more as you start out as an assistant editor, prepping editing stations for the editors, setting up & troubleshooting FCP systems for clients, and become more versatile and proficient in the taming wild, proliferating technical details of digital video and editing.

I'm waiting for the day when I will implement and manage XSAN at a post facility beyond my humble editing system in my room, with the help from this book. I simply wish there was a book like this for Avid editors as well. And I eagerly await for next edition of this book as technologies progress.