Apple’s new Final Cut Pro Studio 2 is truly a beast.  It is a relentless workhorse that allows the user to create an impressive project with a dynamic suite of powerful, integrated programs. I have been testing it now for almost four months but have barely scratched the surface of its possibilities. Before you go to www.apple.com and watch the videos of all it has to offer, I want to share what I found when I used it for the first time to edit a 12 minute short in HD.

Apple stays on top of the format wars, so FCP works well with most of the new formats. I used two Panasonic HVX200 cameras, one with a P2 Card, and one with a Firestore 100 from Focus Enhancements.  FCP worked well importing DVCPro HD files from both sources. While that may not sound like much, many editors have had serious issues with importing these files with other programs in a timely manner. I also learned that the 24Pn format gives you almost double the recording time on your Firestore or P2 card, and is a native format for FCP. The only downside, of course, is that with 250 minutes of recording time you may need to buy extra batteries for your Firestore.

The next step was to learn to use my new MacPro 8 core machine with the AJA Kona LHe card and Break-Out Box. Fortunately, AJA has fantastic support and quickly helped me to get everything installed and routed properly.  Having been mostly a PC guy since the days of the 286 machines, learning the Mac and FCP interface was a difficult challenge since Apple will not support review copies in a proper way. Learning these tools got pretty frustrating. After reviewing editing software for years, I really just needed to learn the new interface. Doing so would help me find everything I needed to edit my film. The manuals tediously thick and the help files were unable to deliver useful information in a timely fashion. The information is probably available, but when I want to learn how to burn a DVD I need all of the steps laid out in an easy to understand format.  After the rather difficult process of creating a DVD of my movie, I tested it successfully on my computer and home DVD player. The next evening, however, I took it to play at a film festival only to discover that I had missed setting the “First Play” option. As a result, over 100 people attendees were disappointed, and I was left wondering why it had to be so difficult to make a simple DVD with no menu.  After spending more time with the DVD manual and the help files, I called a friend of mine and he walked me through the process in 15 minutes.