I don't normally take the time to write reviews -- 'cause i'm freakin' busy!!! -- but in this case, i'm forced to make an exception. i LOVE these kinds of books. i find them incredibly helpful, and i was extremely hopeful when i bought this one.

But i'm not happy.

I'm alternately enamored and fed up with this book. i almost think i'm being generous by giving it 3 stars, but i don't want to be cruel, and it has taught me some valuable things.

first of all, this is not for novices. you don't have to be a pro -- i'm not, yet -- but if you don't have at least SOME familiarity with the FCP suite, you'll be lost from page 1. so if this is you, and you're looking to get started with FCP, stop reading this review, purchase the APPLE PRO TRAINING SERIES (APTS) books, and thank me later. those are the best, most thorough ones. they understand that learning requires degrees of repetition and reinforcement. they are well-paced and you will really understand your software when you're done with them.

having said that, let me move on to the pros and cons

PROS:

1. TEACHES VALUABLE INSIDER TRICKS. This book does a great job of teaching you little insider tricks you might not find anywhere else (like quicktime settings you want to know about, even Mac OS settings you'd otherwise overlook) and this is the reason i bought the book. i was SO IMPRESSED with the ones i saw in the teaser that i figured the rest of the book would turn my world inside out. which it did not.

2. INSPIRES CREATIVITY: this book makes you want to leave the book and just start exploring the program and make your own magic. however, you quickly realize that you haven't really learned how to do very much yet so you can't and your frustrated and hopefully you go back to the book -- or another book -- like the APTS mentioned above.

3. FUN FOOTAGE: These guys picked some really fun footage to work with. skateboarders, bike stunts, desert scenes, music videos, pink flowers... it's truly great footage and makes you feel young just playing with it.

4. GOOD INTEGRATION WITH OTHER SOFTWARE: This book isn't just about FCP, but shows you how to use it with other software, all of which you WILL need, only some of which you probably own. the trouble is, you need to read an entire book to know how to use the other software.

CONS:

1. BADLY WRITTEN AND POORLY EDITED:

a. This book confuses the hell out of me. it introduces concepts and doesn't clearly state that it's going to tell you how to do it. sometimes it tells you, sometimes it doesn't. and you never know!

b. the pictures are too far away from the relevant text.

c. there are also literally project files missing on the DVD and bizarre misprints -- tells you to do something with one item when it really means the opposite item.

d. honestly, i just don't think they took the time to reread and work with this book. they put it out there before they tested it and it's annoying as hell. it's especially annoying, because it's ALMOST a really good book!

e. The authors clearly understand their subject matter, but they don't know how to convey it to people who don't. and that's me. and probably you. and most likely anyone else reading this review let alone buying the book.

2: MISLEADING TITLE: this book isn't really about mastering FCP, it's about integrating it with other software. it's not that i don't consider this valuable, it's just that it isn't the reason i bought the book so i'm frustrated because i'm learning things i'm not ready to know and far from being able to implement.

FINAL ADVICE:

DON'T BUY THIS BOOK... YET
Take the APTS, get a grip on the software, and then (and only then) decide if you want/need this book. you'll have fun with it, but it won't take you where you need to go unless you're already almost there.

TO THE WRITER:

you have a decent product, but it was published prematurely.
your short videos are better. the way in which you express yourself lends itself better to that medium than it does the written word. Rename this book, and review it for errors, and then re-release it... or better yet, release a DVD version because writing is not your forte. no offense. there are just others doing the same thing better.

jason

This is one of the most informative Final Cut Pro books that I own. It's a great reference for me because not only was I looking to raise the aesthetic value of my work, but I also had some lingering questions that were answered. I learned from this book and feel that it was money well spent.

When looking for a Final Cut Pro book I didn't want to read a book that was a fundamental introduction to the software or a book written like an operational manual. I wanted to edit a music video with some attention-grabbing effects and not have to rummage around the internet and through various books to get ideas on how to do so. Let me be the first to say that this is a new breed of FCP book that shows you how to do the cool stuff. This book is great for someone who wants their work to appear as if it were edited by a seasoned pro and not so great for someone who wants a dry list of button functions. I will say that the capturing section of the book does clarify many of the problems people have during the capture process by explaining functionality in a more practical sense.

I thought this book would be more in depth but the book is actually more for the mid-level person. There are many things this this book does not go into, the most important (for me) is multicamera editing is missing from this book. There are books that are three times as thick as this one that don't cover it all. I gave it three stars because it was missing a few of the fundamentals that I wanted to learn. I like the book though and I did learn some things though.

I tore thru this book in about 4 days from start to finish and it was OUTSTANDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lynda.com training is good, but if more booka and tutorials could follow this books example many of us would be pros in a shorter amount of time.

Lonzell Watson (Writer of the book)...YOU ARE A WONDERFUL PERSON TO SHARE SO MUCH PASSION AND INSIGHT!!
THANK YOU!!!!!

First off I want to say that this is a fantastic book. It's not only an invaluable reference, it's also great for Final Cut newbies. Though newbies should have some basic knowledge of digital editing. But not as much as the subtitle "For Digital Video Editors Only" suggests. I think that subtitle may prevent other newbies from taking a good look at this book. What I love about this book is that you really hit the ground running, thanks to the DVD project files included. And what I also love is that the book just shows you one or two ways to achieve a desired result as opposed to the Final Cut manual which shows you literally dozens of ways of achieving the same thing. That can be daunting and overwhelming. So just use the manual for secondary reference and get this book. My only complaints are this. The book is organizes kind of weird, the author admits that it's organized atypically, and that's fine, but I think some key things should be moved around. The final chapter in the book is about the included DVD, however, if you've gotten that far into the book, you've already use the DVD. The problem with this is that no where in the beginning does it say to copy the DVD files onto your hard disc so I was having obvious difficulty trying to do the exercises off the disc. But in the final chapter it recommends doing that. There should be some kind of note at the beginning to do just that. Also, the book came out in 2008, yet it's still giving you instructions per Tiger (not Leopard) and it still occasionally references the Apple key which has been changed for almost a year to the Command Key. Like many people I switched to Mac because of Leopard, so it took me a few phone calls to friends to figure this all out. My only other issue is that some descriptions in the book are too brief. All the info is there, but often I'd have to read a paragraph a couple of times to really get something. But as the title of this review states, these are minor quibbles to a fantastic book that will have you editing like a pro in no time.

Initially I started this book and learned some things right away that I hadn't realized. Then the direction of the book seemed to jump around a bit and in the process I found sections that weren't formatted properly and in one section (pgs.60-61) the author refers to an project file that doesn't exist. In other parts you wonder what one thing has to do with the exercise just given. On page 67 it jumps from finding a particular clip within a sequence to placing markers for DVD Studio Pro.
If the book is used in a process where you check for something in the index then jump to that page, it should work out fine, but as a linear read, it really is scattered.