Final Cut Pro

Final Cut Pro was a professional non-linear video editing system developed by Apple. It was targeted towards high-end video hobbyists and independent filmmakers that use Macintosh computers.

Early development
In 1995, a Macromedia board member approached Adobe Premiere engineer Randy Ubillos with a plan to develop a new video program, code named Key Grip, for faster computers. The original 18-month plan took about 3 years before Final Cut was demonstrated at the NAB Show in April 1998.

Acquisition by Apple
Apple's interim CEO Steve Jobs expressed interest in the Final Cut project after it had been shown at the 1998 NAB Show. Jobs had also asked Adobe Systems to provide a consumer version of Premiere that could be bundled with a future Macintosh computer. However, as Apple had been financially struggling at the time, Adobe declined and focused Premiere on the Windows platform. In response, Apple acquired Final Cut's source code and its development team in May 1998. Adobe then met with Apple's management seeking to shut down the Final Cut project. However, Jobs made a case that Final Cut was different than Premiere and would be beneficial to the overall desktop computer market. It was released as Final Cut Pro in April 1999.

Awards
Final Cut Pro won a 2002 Primetime Emmy Engineering Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences on August 21, 2002 for its impact on the television industry. Adobe briefly abandoned development of Premiere for the Mac and released Adobe Premiere Pro 1.0 in August 2003 for Windows only. Apple at the time was offering Premiere owners $500 discounts on upgrades to Final Cut Pro 4 HD or a free trade-in for the consumer version, Final Cut Express.

Redesign
A completely redesigned version, 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.

Articles

 * N.A.B. 1998: Final Cut by Philip Hodgetts at learnDYNAMICmedia (archived 1998-05-25)
 * How do I export a high quality movie from Final Cut Pro 7 or FCP X? by Josh Mellicker at DVcreators (2014-06-02)