1 Quick Start: An Introduction to FCP

“FCP X was built for the future as we saw it developing — more cameras, much more footage, reliance on metadata, the need to simplify complex and technical tasks to focus on creativity. You can see that this imagined future is exactly where we are right now.”

— Steve Bayes, Final Cut Pro X and ProRes Product Manager, 2010–2018

“After 10 years as a video editor in the 1980s, Steve became the first certified instructor for the Avid Media Composer and eventually the Principal Product Designer. In 2006 he became Apple’s Senior Product Manager for FCP. From 2010 he product managed the development and release of the ProRes video codec and FCP X, including the almost 30 subsequent releases. Steve retired from Apple in 2018 and continues to consult and invest in developing new technology for film and video.”

— www.thestevebayes.com

Welcome. In this book, you’ll learn how to use Apple’s flagship non-linear editing application, Final Cut Pro, from a standing start — and it’s going to be fun. As I won’t assume that you already know how to edit, this chapter will guide you through a few of the fundamentals of editing, give you a broad overview of the Final Cut Pro interface, show you how the editing workflow functions, and give you a few tips on what kind of hardware will help you further down the track.

Video editing is a huge field, and there are many, many ways to proceed, either on your own or as part of the wider industry. You’ll hear many opinions on best practices, and, indeed, not all of those opinions will agree with the advice I’ll give you here. And that’s fine! Wherever there are conflicting opinions, I’ll do my best to explain why I’m making my specific recommendations, and you can feel free to go a different way if you have different needs. It’s all good.

Before I get into the details of Final Cut Pro — frequently abbreviated to FCP — I’d like to take you on a quick tour of video editing more broadly.

IMPORTANT NOTE

You can tell a story with any software, but the technical details do matter, and a lot has changed. This book has been completely updated to align with version 10.7.1 of FCP. Although Final Cut Pro for iPad is available, and very good for touch-based editors, this book is about the fully-featured Mac version.

This chapter will cover the following main topics:

• A brief history of editing
• Interface basics
• An editing workflow overview
• Hardware recommendations

By the end of this chapter, you’ll have a great understanding of what the app is about, what this book is about, the editing process that you’ll learn, and the gear you’ll need to put it into practice.