Making Movies with Final Cut Express

I read a couple of FCE books. This is by far the easiest to follow and the one I learned the most from. I came back to it a few times as a reference. Having some initial experience with FCE makes it even more useful.

Although I am a highly technical person that works with computers and networks every day, I do not enjoy dry, technical books that bear a striking resemblance to user manuals. From the moment I read: "Why Work With Final Cut Express? - Final Cut Express rocks." on page xiii of the intro, I KNEW I was going to enjoy this author. This step by step guide with accompanying DVD of material for the lessons is simply outstanding. It is far preferable to learn how to use FCE from a professional film editor than from a computer programmer than only offers an endless list of "...and it can do this and this and this and..." The author uses the material from the DVD that was specially selected to illustrate key elements of editing and how to use FCE to accomplish each task. You aren't going to get experience like this by taking your latest home movie and using a manual of features to edit it. You are going to both a better filmer and editor for learning these lessons. I am bursting at the seams with enthusiasm for my first project in FCE now! (And might I add my in my professional opinion: Macs rock too!)

I threw in the Final Cut Express add-on when I bought my new iMac G5 - I didn't think I really had that great a need for it, but figured what the heck. At first I was disappointed as it wasn't as intuitive as iMovie (silly me). However, the more I played with it I realized all I needed was a guide book to help me along. This book filled that role perfectly. It starts out explaining the basics of professional video editing, which cleared up about 50% of my confusion. It is easy to read and easy to jump around to pick and choose topics to explore. The text is structure as a start to finish tutorial, but I found it worked really well as a reference, too. I was able to quickly jump from the index to a topic when I got stuck or wanted to know how to do something. Within half an hour, I was editing old footage of a Half Dome hike - not necessarily "like a pro". However, I was creating segments, adding text, importing Photoshop images (maps of Yosemite), and chopping out all the slow spots to put together a short "not quite as boring as before" video of the hike. =) This book was perfect for me. I'd highly recommend it to anyone comfortable with iMovie who wants to move on to Final Cut - you won't need iMovie any more.

I have been playing around with iMovie for about a year or so, I finally made the move up to Final Cut Express to have more control over my editing. So I got the program and found that it had a very complex interface and no written manual! After reading through a few books at a local bookstore I decided on this book. Not only is the book a good price but it includes a DVD with footage that the author walks you through to teach how things are done in Final Cut Express. The author has a very relaxed writing style that is easy to read and enjoyable. I really believe Apple should have this book as a bundle option with the purchase of Final Cut Express, this is the written manual that should be in the box.