Submitted By

Anoob.E.A

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.

Final 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 depoppers 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.

The 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 variablespeed scanning, forwards or backwards through a clip) and a
jogging interface (for frame-by-frame advancing).

Keyboard shortcuts
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.

History
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 videoediting 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.

A Final Cut Pro Project technically consists of separate files:

Project File
Media Source Files
Render 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 file
The 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 files
Either captured from tape or loaded/imported from the file system.
Render Files, cache files, etc
Files which are generated by Final Cut Pro, i.e. audio waveform display, filter
effects, etc.

The 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)