Need help getting MXFs into Final Cut.

benhuddleston

benhuddleston

Well-known member
I tried a quick search for this, but didn't find what I need. I am shooting a ton of footage, and shipping full hard drives back to an editor in LA. He told me that it's going to be extremely time-consuming for him to deal with my footage because his tech guy told him that he would have to convert all of the MXF files into FCP individually.

I told him I thought there was an easier way to get FCP to deal with the MXFs, but to be honest, I'm not an editor and I don't know.

I used P2 Genie to transfer all cards to the HDDs, so each card is represented with an individual folder, containing the original folder structure (CONTENT with its subfolders, and that text file).

If he has 280 Gb of footage so far, or 40 P2 cards worth, what is the easiest way to have them be accessable to FCP?

Sorry for the ignorance....
 
Use the import Panasonic p2 command and then navigate to which p2 volume copy you wish.

You get thumbnails, can set i/o and change the names as well.

Or use p2 Log/Pro and do it that way

This is pretty simple and straightforward in FCP 5.1.4.

I don't know what "extremely time consuming" means; it's seems just as efficient as any other import and is faster and more economical than tape and log and capture.
 
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Either the editor is using an old version of FCP, or he/she doesn't know what he/she is talking about, or both.

FCP has a very nice P2 Import window that shows you the clips on a P2 card or in a folder that was created from P2 card contents. You can select any or all of the clips, and FCP will re-wrap them into QuickTime containers.

If the editor hasn't upgraded to FCP 5.1.4 yet, I'd do that before doing anything else.
 
There are a couple of ways to go about it. Either one wil be less time consuming than if you'd given the editor a bunch of tapes.
1) Import all the footage into FCP by using the import P2 window and selecting all the cards. This will take the editor about 5 minutes to perform the actual steps required then about 2-3 hours for the footage to be converted to QT files.
2) The editor could still use the P2 import window but actually log the clips using in and out points as they would with tape capture. Doing it this way they could just import the footage they need and not import any unwanted clips, hence saving hard drive space and time later by not having to sift through all the footage once it is in QT files inside FCP.
Either way the editor still has to watch all the footage and give it names or descriptions that they will understand and be able to access when needed.
It's just a matter of when they do that, either prior to importing, or after.
Which ever way they choose to do it, make sure they keep the original HDD with the MXF files as they would their MASTER tapes.
 
You can index all your P2 volumes using HDLog, then easily search all of them to find the shots you want. Drag and drop clips into a single list and export for FCP (or virtual P2 volume). Get Silver or Gold edition for cross file log searching.
 
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