Final Cut Pro gets a little brother. During his keynote today, Steve Jobsi announced a new version of the popular Final Cut Pro movie editing application called Final Cut Express. Hereis the press release:

Apple® today introduced Final Cut® Express, a new product based on Apple’s award-winning Final Cut Pro® and optimized for the DV format. Final Cut Express is aggressively priced at $299 (US) allowing small business users, educators, students and advanced hobbyists to edit video like professional video editors. Final Cut Express includes all the key features video editors need, such as the same interface and workflow as Final Cut Pro, powerful video editing tools, hundreds of special effects and easy delivery to DVD, web or tape.

“Final Cut Express is a perfect fit for the growing market of people who may not be full-time editors, but are passionate about digital video,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re thrilled to take the phenomenal success we’ve had with Final Cut Pro and expand it to this new market, with the features and price point users are looking for.”

Video editors can use Final Cut Express to capture, manage and edit digital video; apply transitions, filters and effects in real-time; create titles, composite layers, and produce high-quality graphics and animations; and perform color correction. Final Cut Express projects can be exported for use in iDVD™ or DVD Studio Pro®, saved back to tape, or exported to any QuickTime® format, including MPEG-4.

Final Cut Express projects can be directly loaded into Final Cut Pro, Apple’s nonlinear editing system that supports the entire range of professional editing formats—DV, SD and HD. Final Cut Pro was the industry’s first video editing solution to deliver professional-quality, real-time effects without the need for additional specialized hardware. Final Cut Pro also features a full set of real-time color correction tools, an integrated high-capacity offline format and seamlessly integrated editing, compositing and effects tools for an unparalleled media creation workflow.

Pricing & Availability

Final Cut Express will be available immediately through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $299 (US). Final Cut Express requires Mac® OS X version 10.2 “Jaguar,” a Macintosh® computer with a 300 MHz or faster PowerPC G3 or G4 processor with built-in FireWire®, 256MB of RAM (384MB recommended for real-time effects), and 40MB of available disk space for installation. (Minimum PowerPC G4 500 MHz single processor or 450 MHz dual processor required for real-time effects; PowerBook 667 MHz required for mobile real-time DV effects.)

You can find more information about Final Cut Express at Appleis Final Cut Express website.