Final Cut Pro X 10.4 – Apple Pro Training Series: Professional Post-Production by Diana Weynand

I just received this book, flipped through it and immediately returned it.

The graphics are unbelievably poor for a $60 book. Graphic examples such as screen shots are tiny, dark, low resolution and illegible. For a book about video images, way more attention needs to be paid to the size and quality of the graphic images.

Very comprehensive and excellent tutorial files and a “this is where you should be up to here” framework.

I have used FCP for a number of years, and love it, as I am 92 years old, and need brain stimulation. The book has taught me to use more keyboard shortcuts, and improved my knowledge of colour correction methods. There is still lots more for me to discover
I ws very impressed at the speed at which Amazon delivered here to Australia, and the book arrived in excellent condition ( and this applies to other purchases )

I tried to use FCPX for a small project by googling things I knew it should do (like inserting media, creating sub-clips out of clips, etc.) and looking things up in the Apple e-book. It was like I had a steering wheel and a tool kit but didn’t know what the rest of the car was. This book takes you through all of the necessary concepts in an orderly fashion of not only the software but of real-world applications and includes raw footage and audio clips to build and edit a project out of. I’m only through 1/3 of the way through the book but now I know about the whole car, rolling the windows up and down, starting and stopping the engine and driving down the street. And the radio. Changing the oil is next. I was initially hesitant about the price (compared with Apple’s free e-book) but I am extremely pleased with what I’m getting for the investment. I would recommend this to anyone that wants to be comfortable using all of FCPX and not just use the steering wheel and the tool kit.

I worked my way through this book twice and found it to be very helpful, particularly on a second run-through. Given the amount that you can learn for the price that you pay, I consider it a bargain.

I have seen a few reviews claiming that the book is not compatible with the 10.5 version of Final Cut. This is simply not true: everything in the manual works as it should in the latest version of Final Cut.

You need to be very careful that you follow the instructions, and this requires concentration. There are a few parts of the book that I did incorrectly the first time round but only realised on a second run-through. To some extent, this is probably a genuine problem with the book and not just the end-user. At times the language is too turgid and off-putting, but thankfully this is not often the case. I also think the book could have been better edited. Some chapters are soooooooooo long – long to the extent that you start to lose your motivation despite the fact that the content is great – while other chapters are surprisingly short.

Overall, I learned so much about Final Cut from this book and I’m very grateful to the author for putting together an engaging and informative manual.

I bought the a Kindle edition of this book to teach myself basic video editing in FCP and can honestly say that the book is excellent. It is very well laid out with clear explanations of the concepts followed by relevant exercises, working on a short video over the course of several chapters. Some of the concepts are complex but the explanations are excellent. I have only rarely found it necessary to check elsewhere (the Apple official manual) for clarity which is a great reflection on the author’ teaching ability. The book is suitable for any level of experience in video as it builds entirely from scratch and works up to a point of very decent competence in editing in FCP. I am just finishing going through the entire book for a second time so that I can feel I truly understand what I am doing with basic video Edo. The book has certainly given me a very good basis from which to move on.