Why Learn Final Cut Pro?

Final Cut Pro is Apple’s exclusive video editing application. With Final Cut Pro, users can quickly and efficiently edit video files in big and small ways. Have you ever explored all of the things Final Cut Pro can do?Final Cut Pro is an excellent skill to learn for both amateur and professional video editors. Learning how to edit videos can help open up various career opportunities or help non-professional video editors produce more professional projects. 

Here, you’ll learn more about the careers that benefit from Final Cut Pro and how it can enhance your professional life. Learning Final Cut Pro is a valuable and impressive skill to add to your resume regardless of your goals. 

What is Final Cut Pro?

Final Cut Pro is Apple’s first-party, non-linear video editing software. Final Cut Pro is a tool professional and amateur filmmakers use to edit video clips, cut and combine video files, and otherwise add or remove elements from film. Final Cut Pro is a versatile video editing tool, useful for both elaborate editing projects and personal video productions. New features of Final Cut Pro allow users to import and edit videos taken on iPhone 13s in stunning cinematic detail, making Final Cut Pro an ideal program to learn for amateur artists looking to break into the world of video editing. However, the program retains all of the essential features that make Final Cut Pro comparable to other professional video editing software, such as Adobe Premiere Pro.

Final Cut Pro users can automatically synchronize shots from multiple cameras, chroma key out green screen effects, add animated 3D titles to their work, and insert or import closed captioning directly into a file. These features have contributed to the rise in popularity of Final Cut Pro, making it an ideal program for new video editors, particularly those interested in working on elaborate personal projects to learn. While it has not reached the market saturation of Adobe Premiere Pro, partly due to its macOS exclusivity, students won’t be making a mistake if they opt to learn Final Cut Pro for their video editing needs.

Read more about what Final Cut Pro is and why you should learn it. 

What Can You Do with Final Cut Pro?

Final Cut Pro lets users edit, compile, manipulate, and otherwise cut video files from virtually any macOS device. With Final Cut Pro, users can quickly and efficiently make minor edits to video files, making the program ideal for anyone who wants to shoot their own footage (including on devices like an iPhone 13) and immediately begin working on their edits. Final Cut Pro has advanced editing capabilities for users who want to create more professional video productions, such as multi-camera editing functionality, chroma-key removal tools, and built-in 3D animation modeling capabilities.

Final Cut Pro is also an excellent skill to learn for creatives who want to work on editing their own content. Since it is such an accessible tool, you’ll be able to quickly pick up the basics of Final Cut Pro, letting creatives work on basic editing tasks without needing months of video editing training. As the landscape of digital content creation becomes more and more crowded, creatives looking to have their voices heard know that their output needs to look as professional as possible. No matter what kind of video project you aspire to create, learning how to quickly and effectively edit those projects will be invaluable for online content creators.

Common Professional Uses for Final Cut Pro

Almost no video project, regardless of its content, can go live without going through several rounds of editing. To get a video to look professional, editors will tirelessly work to ensure that each cut, addition, or manipulation is deliberate. Owing to this, any industry that produces video content, whether TV and film, advertising, persuasive or instructional videos, education, or online entertainment, just to name a few, will want to employ skilled video editors who have a mastery of programs such as Final Cut Pro. Some of these positions include:

Video Editors: Video Editors are professionals tasked with ensuring that all of the video content that directors, artists, and other creatives produce is compiled and assembled into a finished product. They will use programs like Final Cut Pro to make the necessary edits and changes to a video file in preparation for its completion. Video Editors will often work closely with storyboard artists, writers, and producers to ensure that the final edited video project is in-line with the goals and objectives of their team. Video editors will be responsible for maintaining continuity and creating meaning through how the film is cut. Even if they aren’t working on elaborate video editing projects, they will still need to understand the fundamental theories and principles behind video editing.

Video Managers: On larger video projects, teams of creatives will collaborate to bring a project to fruition. These teams will include editors, directors, storyboard artists, and producers, all of whom will have a specialized role to fill in completing the project. Video managers oversee these teams and ensure that a finished video project meets the team's goals and specifications. This will require them to work directly with clients who organize the video production. In addition to video editing skills, Video Managers will need to learn other creative skills, such as motion graphics and digital storytelling, to work with diverse teams of creatives. Plus, they will need people skills since they will also manage the human element of a video project.

Motion Graphics Designer: Another common career path for trained Video Editors is the field of motion graphics design. Motion Graphics Designers will build the digital and computer-generated assets that Video Editors later edit into video files using programs like Final Cut Pro. Motion Graphics Designers will often be responsible for creating visually memorable effects that make modern video productions vibrant and life-like. In most contexts, even though they use many of the same tools, the difference between the responsibilities of a Motion Graphics Designer and a Video Editor lies in the kinds of digital alterations made to a video file. Motion Graphics Designers tend to emphasize visually-impressive or noticeable computer graphic alterations to a video file, while Video Editors are more concerned with tiny, frequently hard-to-notice changes.

Make Professional Quality Videos

Video content production is becoming a staple component of almost every industry that wants to persuade or address a public audience. While many such projects will employ professional Video Editors, up-and-coming entrepreneurs, small business owners, local politicians, or prospective crowdfunding projects may not be able to afford a full-time editor. For these professionals, learning how to edit their videos can significantly improve their work's persuasive or rhetorical quality without requiring them to expand their team. Learning Final Cut Pro is an excellent place to start learning video editing because the program is user-friendly and accessible for non-professionals.

Make Your Content Stand Out

Given the rise of online content creation and the expansion of platforms for turning an individual’s creative passion into a career, many prospective content creators are looking for ways to be noticed. One way to ensure that your work stands out in this crowded marketplace is to learn how to edit your content professionally. Video editing skills will signal to your audience that you take your content creation seriously, and they will be likelier to stick around. You’ll need more than this to stand out amongst the crowd, but making your content look professional is a necessary first step.

How to Start Learning Final Cut Pro

Many different options are available to students who want to learn how to use Final Cut Pro. They can enroll in live instruction courses to receive guided training, control the pace of their lessons with on-demand courses, or experiment with Final Cut Pro using free video training tutorials. Each option has its advantages and disadvantages, so students must decide for themselves which option is best for them. To help students make this decision, Noble Desktop provides users with the Classes Near Me search tool, which they can use to find all of the Final Cut Pro classes they can attend.

Most students find that live instruction is the best way to learn a new skill. These classes pair students with experienced instructors who can guide them through the challenging early stages of learning a tool like Final Cut Pro. These courses, available in person and online, are ideal for students who want an immersive, guided experience in their Final Cut Pro education. These courses are also best suited for students learning Final Cut Pro for professional purposes. The drawback to these courses is that they tend to be the most expensive and time-consuming options. Both will require students to stick to a live classroom meeting schedule, and an in-person class will have a commute time. Online students won’t have to commute, but they won’t have access to a training center's computer labs and will miss out on one of the most significant advantages of in-person classes.

Students who can’t attend a live classroom session or want more flexibility in their training may want to consider enrolling in an on-demand Final Cut Pro course. These classes vary in style and cost, but they all have the advantage of letting students learn at their own pace. Some students with family or work obligations will need to space out their training and learn Final Cut Pro when they can. Some students will want to quickly pick up some of the program's basic skills and not wait for a seat to open up in a live course. On-demand classes give these students the freedom to learn Final Cut Pro skills when best for them, in the manner they choose. The drawback to these classes is that learning professional video editing skills is as much about learning techniques as learning the tools. This means that without a live instructor to help guide them, students could be learning how to use Final Cut Pro without learning how and why they should make certain cuts and edits.

Finally, some students may consider taking advantage of free online tutorials and training seminars. These tutorials, such as Noble’s Getting Started in Video Editing course and the compilation of video tutorials on the Video Editing Playlist on their official YouTube page, are great places for students to start learning the basics of editing videos using Final Cut Pro. These free tutorials are useful because they carry a minimal risk for students and can be paused and returned as a student’s availability changes. If you aren’t sure that film editing is the right path for you, video tutorials are a good place to explore the programs and see if more training is the right answer. The drawback to these courses is that they will be less complete than a paid training course, so students who discover that they want to learn about Final Cut Pro will need to enroll in more immersive training programs.

Read the full guide on how to learn Final Cut Pro.

Learn Final Cut Pro with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop

Students looking to learn how to edit videos using Final Cut Pro have many options available through Noble Desktop. These courses, offered at Noble’s Manhattan campus or through live online instruction, offer students the opportunity to learn the skills they need to start a career in video editing. Students will receive hands-on experience working with Final Cut Pro in classes taught by experienced professionals with years of video editing experience. Even online, class sizes are kept small, ensuring that students won’t be competing with each other to get the attention of their instructor, who can provide them with real-time feedback and assistance. Plus, all of Noble’s courses come with the option to retake the class within a year of a student’s initial enrollment, giving students even more time to work closely with their instructors and receive direct Final Cut Pro instruction. 

For students looking to learn the ins and outs of Final Cut Pro, Noble offers a Final Cut Pro Bootcamp. This course will teach students how to use the basic and advanced features of Final Cut Pro, ensuring that students leave with a complete understanding of what the program is capable of. Students will learn the fundamental principles of film editing, such as how to clip video files, combine those clips, and how to insert transitions between clips. Then, they will work with Final Cut Pro’s more advanced video editing features and learn skills such as chroma-key replacement, multi-camera editing, color correction, and altering footage speed. These lessons will train students to begin editing their videos or compiling a demo reel for a professional editing portfolio. Students taking this course online must ensure they have access to a copy of Final Cut Pro and a macOS device that can run Final Cut Pro.

Students looking for a more career-focused training program to help them break into the world of video editing should consider Noble’s Video Editing Certificate program. This course is built with student professionalization in mind. Rather than learning basic video editing skills, students will learn all major film editing software applications, including Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, and After Effects. These training courses will ensure that students are comfortable with every aspect of video editing and ready to work on nearly any project. In addition, since these are career-focused courses, students will receive professionalization training, including one-on-one career mentorship sessions, professional demo reel development seminars, and hands-on training with real-world editing projects. This course is an immersive experience designed to take students from amateur to professional video editors.

Key Insights

• Final Cut Pro is Apple’s first-party video editing application. It is a user-friendly, easy-to-learn tool that allows Mac users to seamlessly edit and clip video files.
• Video editing skills are utilized across various industries and professions, including television and film, government, non-profit, and advertising.
• Video editing skills are also helpful for non-professional editors who still want to make professional-looking content, like small business owners making commercials or crowdfunding projects making announcements.
• Creatives who want to break into online content creation will want to learn how to edit videos using programs such as Final Cut Pro to set themselves apart from others in this emerging but crowded marketplace.
• No matter why you want to learn Final Cut Pro, Noble Desktop is ready to help by providing comprehensive training courses both in-person and live online.