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Submitted ByAnoob.E.A

Final Cut Pro

Abstract Final Cut Pro is a non-linear video editing software developed by Macromedia Inc. and later Apple Inc.The most recent version, Final Cut Pro X 10.1, runs on Intel-based Mac OS computers powered by OS X version 10.1.2 or later. The software allows users to log and transfer video onto a hard drive (internal or external), where it can be edited, processed, and output to a wide variety of formats. A fully rewritten and re-imagined non-linear editor, Final Cut Pro X, was introduced by Apple in 2011, with the last version of the legacy Final Cut Pro being version 7.0.3.

Since the early 2000s, Final Cut Pro has developed a large and expanding user base, mainly video hobbyists and independent filmmakers. It had also made inroads with film and television editors who have traditionally used Avid Technology's Media Composer. According to a 2007 SCRI study, Final Cut Pro made up 49% of the United States professional editing market, with Avid at 22%. A published survey in 2008 by the American Cinema Editors Guild placed their users at 21% Final Cut Pro (and growing from previous surveys of this group), while all others were still on an Avid system of some kind.

FeaturesFinal Cut Pro provides non-linear, non-destructive editing of any QuickTime-compatible video format including DV, HDV, P2 MXF (DVCProHD), XDCAM (via plug-in), and 2K film formats. It supports a number of simultaneously composited video tracks (limited mainly by video format and hardware capability); up to 99 audio tracks; multi-camera editing for combining video from multiple camera sources; as well as standard ripple, roll, slip, slide, scrub, razor blade and time remapping edit functions. It comes with a range of video transitions and a range of video and audio filters such as keying tools, mattes and vocal de-poppers and de-essers. It also has a manual 3-way color correction filter, videoscopes and a selection of generators, such as slugs, test cards and noise.Final Cut Pro 7 claims better integration with Apple's other professional applications and improved codec support for editing HD, DV and SD video formats, including encoding presets for devices such as iPod, Apple TV, and Blu-ray discs. A technology called DynamicRT built on the RT Extreme technology was released with Final Cut Pro 4. DynamicRT allows a real-time multistream effects architecture, which can be set to automatically adjust image quality and frame rate during playback to maintain real time effects. For example, when there are a large number of video streams playing simultaneously it will, in real time, switch to a mode that reduces the quality of the playback so that all of them can be seen in real time; when the computer is capable it will automatically return playback to native quality (that is, when there are fewer simultaneous video streams). Final Cut Pro also supports mixed video formats (both resolution and framerate) in the Timeline with real time support.

InterfaceThe Final Cut (Pro and Express) interface was designed around traditional (i.e. non-computerized) editing work-flows, with four main windows that replicate tried-and-trusted methods of organizing, viewing and editing physical tape or film media. The Browser, where source media files (clips) are listed, replicates the editor's traditional film 'bins' or stacks of videotapes. The Viewer, where individual media files can be previewed and trimmed, replicates the source monitor of older tape-based systems. The Canvas replicates the 'program' monitor in such systems, where the edited material is viewed. The Timeline, where media are cut together (assembled) into a sequence, replicates the physically edited film or master tape of earlier systems. There is also a small Toolbox window and two audio-level indicators for the left and right audio channels.Both the Viewer and Canvas have a shuttle interface (for variable-speed scanning, forwards or backwards through a clip) and a jogging interface (for frame-by-frame advancing).

Final Cut Pro uses a set of hot-keys to select the tools. There are almost 400 keyboard commands that allow the user to increase the speed of edits.This combined with the nonlinear approach that digital editing, provides Final Cut Pro users with several editing options.Users can also set their own customizable keyboard preferences.

Keyboard shortcuts

Randy Ubillos created the first three versions of Adobe Premiere, the first popular digital video editing application. Before version 5 was released, Ubillos' group was hired by Macromedia to create KeyGrip, built from the ground up as a more professional video-editing program based on Apple QuickTime. Macromedia could not release the product without causing its partner Truevision some issues with Microsoft, as KeyGrip was, in part, based on technology from Microsoft licensed to Truevision and then in turn to Macromedia. The terms of the IP licensing deal stated that it was not to be used in conjunction with QuickTime. Thus, Macromedia was forced to keep the product off the market until a solution could be found. At the same time, the company decided to focus more on applications that would support the web, so they sought to find a buyer for their non-web applications, including KeyGrip, which by 1998 was renamed Final Cut.Final Cut was shown in private room demonstrations as a 0.9 alpha at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) exposition in 1998 after Macromedia pulled out of the main show floor. At the demonstration, both Mac and Windows versions were shown. The Mac version was working with a Truevision RTX dual stream real time card with limited real time effects. When no purchaser could be found, Apple purchased the team as a defensive move. When Apple could not find a buyer in turn, it continued development work, focusing on adding FireWire/DV support and introduced Final Cut Pro at NAB 1999.

History

File formatA Final Cut Pro Project technically consists of separate files:Project FileMedia Source FilesRender Files, Cache Files

The location of the Media and the Render/Cache Files is not standardised. Final Cut Pro can be configured where to store them. Some users have a central directory where they store all their Source/Render/Cache files, some set those file paths to their specific project directory, so that they have all project files at one place.After having finished a project, one can erase everything but the project file, to save disk space, and at a later time Final Cut Pro can re-capture/re-link all source data and recalculate all render and cache data, provided it can access all linked sources.

Project fileThe first versions of Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express used a binary file which contained all montage information such as timecode information, clip's in/out-points, size/crop/position, composition nesting, filter settings, automation data, etc. It didn't have a file suffix, instead it used the Creator code KeyG and the Type code FCPF and it started with the magic byte sequence \162 K e y G \n (0xa24b6579470a).More recent editions of Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express, before Final Cut Pro X, used the file extension .fcp.The latest version of Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Pro X, uses a new file extension; .fcpx. Apple has come under some criticism for not supporting the older .fcp project files, when it does support importing iMovie projects (.imovieproj files).Media source filesEither captured from tape or loaded/imported from the file system.

Render Files, cache files, etcFiles which are generated by Final Cut Pro, i.e. audio waveform display, filter effects, etc.

Major films edited with Final Cut ProThe Rules of Attraction (2002)Full Frontal (2002)The Ring (2002)Cold Mountain (2003) (Academy Award nominee for Best Editing – Walter Murch)[6]

Intolerable Cruelty (2003)Open Water (2003)Napoleon Dynamite (2004)The Ladykillers (2004)Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)Super Size Me (2004)Corpse Bride (2005)Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story (2005)Happy Endings (2005)Jarhead (2005)Little Manhattan (2005)Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)300 (2007)[6]

Black Snake Moan (2006)Happy Feet (2006)Zodiac (2007)The Simpsons Movie (2007)No Country for Old Men (2007) (Academy Award nominee for Best Editing – Roderick Jaynes)Reign Over Me (2007)Youth Without Youth (2007)

Balls of Fury (2007)Gabriel (2007)Enchanted (2007)Traitor (2008)Burn After Reading (2008)The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008)The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) (Academy Award nominee for Best Editing - Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall)X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)(500) Days of Summer (2009)Where the Wild Things Are (2009)A Serious Man (2009)Tetro (2009)By the People: The Election of Barack Obama (2009)Gamer (2009)Eat, Pray, Love (2010)True Grit (2010)The Social Network (2010) (Academy Award winner for Best Editing - Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall)The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) (Academy Award winner for Best Editing - Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall)Twixt (2011)Courageous (2011)John Carter (2012)Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012)

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