premiere export for final cut pro?

sbaileymediaman

sbaileymediaman

Active member
I'm using premiere pro cs4 on a mac but want to know how to export it so that an editor using FCP can make changes.

The situation is that a local marketing agency is considering outsourcing some TV Ad production to my business. Although I own a Mac Pro Edit Suite I don't have FCP. I only use Adobe Video Production products (love the workflows with dynamic linking, etc).

IF they do get me to produce some ads they would like to be able to make minor alterations, if necessary, in their edit suite which has Final Cut. (E.g. One of their clients wants something basic like a sound effect removed)

What is the best way to convert a project from Premiere Pro CS4 to a Final Cut Pro project? or will I eventually need to purchase Final Cut?

Thanks
 
At the moment, your only option may be exporting an EDL from PPro for import into FCP. PPro can import a FCP timeline, but at the moment - that's it...talk about FCP export is said to be coming at some point - just don't know when.
 
EDL is simply metadata that tells you where the cut occurs and what files were used, but it's not an editable file in itself. There's no integration with FCP at this point. The best you can hope for is to give them audio tracks that are not mixed down (i.e 1 Dialogue, SFX, musics etc.) along with a raw file and hope that they can work with that.
 
sbaileymediaman said:
So how well does that work?

Would they be still be able to move individual shots around and sound effects?
Click to expand...

I've never exported out and EDL for ingest into FCP so I'm not sure how it would turn out, but in theory you should be able to create the EDL file in PPro and open it in FCP, re-connect all the media, and then you should be able to edit the project. I suggest doing some tests with small projects to see how it works...be aware, any plug-ins or PPro specific transitions you used won't come over.
 
An EDL is going to be far too limited if you do any kind of effects or graphics work on the spots. EDLs will usually only work with cuts-only sequences or those with really basic SMPTE transitions. In my experience, any effects you apply (color correction, motion effects, etc.) aren't going to be transmitted through the EDL.

A better candidate is AAF, which Premiere Pro can export (and import, for that matter). FCP, unfortunately, does not provide out-of-the-box AAF import capability, but Automatic Duck's Pro Import FCP may provide this. Note that I haven't tried Pro Import, but its function is to provide FCP with a way to import project files from other editors and compositing applications. Premiere Pro is not one of the specifically mentioned applications that it supports, but since it can export to an AAF file, this could possibly work.

Of course, it's not cheap--about $500. You wouldn't need it, but your client would. Supposedly, FCP XML export is coming for Premiere Pro--it was originally rumored to be in 4.1, but was mysteriously absent.
 
Not sure if they would be interested in purchasing software, more likely they would be telling me to get Final Cut!

I think the sort of setup that might work is having elements separated on different layers. E.g. Footage on layer 1. Some overlayed graphics on layer 2. The titles on layer 3, etc so that they could make minor alterations. All layers rendered out separately with alpha.

HOW DOES THIS SOUND?:

During production I load up each rough cut via FTP as a smallish h.264 file. That way they can email or call me, say they want xyz done, I go into After Effects and half an hour later upload another h.264 file for their approval. When happy I load up a larger file so that they can show their client it in near full quality. If they are unhappy we to and fro again. When approved it gets loaded up to AdStream and I hand over a disc or send the separate layers to the marketing agency so that if in a years time the client comes back and wants something modified, and I'm unavailable, they can make some small changes themselves.


Is this how some production/post facilities work with marketing agencies?
 
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