Focal Easy Guide to Final Cut Express

Director and Founding Member of the UK Final Cut Pro User Group and an Apple Solutions Expert. A freelance television director and editor with many years of broadcast experience, including work for the BBC, Sky, ITN, CNBC and Reuters. Also a Final Cut Pro Consultant, Rick has attended numerous UK and US exhibitions, is a liaison to the US FCP user groups, and author of the best-selling series The Focal Easy Guides to Final Cut Pro.

* Author's Preface
* For new users

* The Old and the New
The Digital Laboratory
Inside Your Mac
Hardware and Software Requirements
How Much Hard Drive Space?
Decks and Cameras
Firewire
A World of Different Standards
Television Aspect Ratio

* Hands on
Loading the Software
Initial Set-up

* The Interface
The Interface
Arranging the Interface
Learning a Custom Layout
Building a Film Structure
Important Details About the Interface
Saving Projects

* Setup and Capture
DV Audio
Easy Setup
Setting Scratch Discs
Working with Formats other than DV
Methods of Capturing DV Footage
Deck Control
The Capture Window
Capture Clip
Capture Now
Working Around the Lack of Batch Capture
Getting the Most out of the Capture Process
Dealing with Timecode Breaks
Importing Music from CD
Converting Audio Sample Rates

* Sorting Through Your Footage
Viewing Clips
Playing Video Through Firewire
Setting Poster Frames
DV Start/Stop Detection
Working With Bins
Working in List Mode
Searching For Clips

* The Cutting Room
Insert and Overwrite Editing
Getting Started With Editing
Distinguishing Between Insert/Overwrite
Three Point Editing
Other Editing Options
Modifying "in" and "out" Points
Directing the Flow of Audio/Video
Locking Tracks
Adding and Deleting Tracks
Essential Editing tools
Undo/Redo
Linked/Unlinked Selection
Moving Edits in the Timeline
Selecting Multiple Items in the Timeline
Edit Like Using a Wordprocessor
Snapping and Skipping Between Shots
The Razorblade Tool
Magnifier Tool
Bringing Clips back into Sync
Creating New Sequences
Slow/Fast Motion
Rendering
Using the Realtime Effects
Subclips
Freeze Frame
Match Frame Editing
Split Edits
Drag and Drop Editing
Extending/Reducing Clips by Dragging

* Effects
Single and Multi-Layered Effects
The Concept of media Limit (handles)
Applying Transitions
Changing Transition Durations
Applying Filters
Compositing
Methods of Creating Multiple Tracks
The Motion Tab
Image and Wireframe
Titlesafe
Working With Multi-Layers
Keyframing Images
Multi-Layered Dissolves
Copy and Pasting Attributes
Titling

* Working With Audio
Setting Correct Audio Levels
Getting the Most Out of Your Audio
Converting Clips into Stereo Pairs
Adjusting Audio Levels
Adding Sound Fades
Adding Audio Cross Fades
Adding Audio Tracks
Mixdown Audio

* Output
Playing it Safe
Print to Video
Other Forms of Distribution

* Final Cut Pro 4
Final Cut Pro v/s Final Cut Express

* Epilog