Advanced Color Correction & Effects in Final Cut Pro 5
Review by John Foley
Author: Digital Film Tree and Alexis Van Hurkman

The book published by Peachpit Press titled Apple Pro Training Series: Advanced Color Correction and Effects in Final Cut Pro 5 is a complete study of the capabilities of Final Cut Pro 5 effects and color correction tools. This book is in a series of basic and advanced training books designed to bring the new or experienced user of Final Cut Pro to new levels of understanding of how Final Cut Pro does it’s magic.

The book is written in the style we have come to expect for the Apple Pro Training Series with multiple chapters beginning from the simple to the more complex tasks utilizing provided media content and project files. Each chapter comes with its media and a project file that has finished examples of each project and a starting base to let you work completely through re-creating the finished example. You may also recognize that some of the content from earlier Digital Film Tree books has been reused in this version dedicated to the training of Final Cut Pro 5.

The book ISBN- 032133481 is the book that focuses on the effects capabilities of Final Cut Pro 5. It has 18 chapters that are called lessons. The first step in utilizing the training is to copy the contents of the provided DVD ROM to a local disk. You will notice that each lesson has it’s own folder within the master folder which makes navigating between lesson contents very easy. The 18 lessons are learning techniques that sequentially build from one lesson to the next lesson. Some of the media you completed can be used toward completing another lesson or you can open the completed lesson project and work forward. It allows you to work based upon your best style of learning.

Lesson 1 – Begins by familiarizing you with the Final Cut Pro interface and each of it’s attributes by stacking 5 DV streams on top of a background movie and then adding 4 Photoshop layers to the completed sequence.
Lesson 2 – Familiarizes you with the Final Cut Pro filters that allow you to affect the look and feel of a video for a specific effect.
Lesson 3 – Walks you through compositing modes where at least two tracks are melded together via Alpha modes of making one image appear in another.
Lesson 4 - Teaches you what travel mattes can do to enhance your graphics. One common use is to make a motion graphic appear within text with an additional background.
Lesson 5 – Moves on to Animating Effects such as multiple images utilizing split screens than resize with time. It utilizes keyframing to move those tracks around the Canvas in a way that enhances the presentation with text over video and other motion path types are also discussed.
Lesson 6 – Nesting is a complete study of the advantages of using nesting to allow ease of adding multiple effects to all the enclosed tracks at once.
Lesson 7 – Details Speed Ramping and Variable Speed by starting with adding slow motion with the Modify>Speed dialog that adds additional frames to simulate slow motion. It also demonstrates the Time Remap Tool that allows you to vary the speed within a clip from frame to frame.
Lesson 8 – Adding text to a sequence talks about lower thirds and subtitles using the Boris text tool embedded within Final Cut Pro.
Lesson 9 – Color Keying – how to deal with Green/Blue screen content for keying out the background image to allow you to add different backgrounds to the foreground motion images.

The next 6 lessons focus on the use of the color correction tools included with Final Cut Pro: These lessons focus on specific color tasks through the use of Scopes and visual indicators. Beginning with Lesson 10 and evaluating images, you learn to color correct, enhance and output visually perfected images using the tools supplied in Final Cut Pro 5.
Lesson 10 – Evaluating Video Images explains color and gray scale in detail and using the video scopes. Understanding the attributes of a good image is key to proper color correction.
Lesson 11 – Controlling Contrast delves deeply into accurate color correction techniques
Lesson 12 – Controlling Color is more about color balance and color correction
Lesson 13 – Correcting and Coloring Images take really bad media shots and shows how to correct each problem
Lesson 14 – Color Correcting for Scene Continuity look over a sequence to insure the color in all frames is normalized
Lesson 15 – Secondary Color Correction is where you learn to change the color of a dress or a coat without affecting any objects colors.

Lessons 16 – 17 and 18 are all LiveType training lessons for using animated type in Final Cut Pro The book covers each topic thoroughly and brings precise conclusions to the use of the Final Cut Pro tools for accurate video effects and color correction.

Conclusion: The book Advanced Color Correction and Effects is a valuable tool for those who work in demanding situations where color control is a must. Each lesson takes about 45 minutes to one hour to complete. One thing I have noticed about the print style is that a lot of information is included on one page where it becomes hard to tell which instructions are specific to the task and which is informational. In my opinion it would benefit the reader to use horizontal lines between major idea changes on the same page to differentiate the points to be taught. This book is a welcomed addition to the arsenal of training tools available for using Final Cut Pro 5 and Alexis Van Hurkman and Digital Film Tree provide a well though out training style that allows for the maximum retention of material studied by those who learn well from books.

John Foley is the owner of DigiMedea, a video production company.