FCP -> Davinci -> FCP Strategy

[Brendan Dillon]

In FCP media manage your sequence then make an EDL with ‘EDL Notes – File Names’ checked.

In Resolve make sure ‘Extract Reel Names from EDL Comments is on then set “Assist using reel numbers from the source clip file path name’ to */#R

Add all your clips to the media pool – the reel column should show the file name.

Load your EDL and grade the sequence then load the Master Session and Render in ‘Source’ mode.

Relink to the rendered clips in FCP and your sequence is as it was with all motion effects, resizes etc but now, hopefully, with nicer looking pictures.

[Steve Strickler]

Thanks a bunch for the tips. The media manager tip is brilliant. I’ll give it a try!

[Ola Haldor voll]

I tried this on a 30 sec ad now. First time since Color I asked for all source material+EDL instead of a single QuickTime movie+EDL.

Most clips links just fine, others don’t link at all. I have no idea why. If I remove Assist using reel numbers from the Source Clip file pathname with Pattern */%R it works without any problems, with the Extract reel names from EDL comments on.

The other problem I realise I have is that all clips are slightly off compared to the offline. Some clips are as much as a few seconds off, while some are one or two frames off.

Luckily it’s only 30 secs and 13 shots, but it would be a real pain to do this on a feature with hundreds of shots!

[Sascha Haber]

One question :
Did you ask for an offline with timecoe embedded to check if the off frames are actually an Resolve problem or just a badly adjusted tape recorder ?
If you do, can you check the timecode in the EDL against the offline ?
Did you try to assemble the thing in FCP , Color or something proper like Smoke or Scratch ?
Good luck 🙂

[Blase Theodore]

To clarify, first off duplicate your sequence into a new one.
Select all the clips and make them independent. Then do a media manage, set to copy, and make sure to delete unused media.

Resolve will render each clip based on its source file name. So if you have 2 clips on your timeline that come from reel1.mov, both clips will be rendered to reel1.mov, and the 2nd will simply overwrite the first.

By setting to delete unused media, you are creating a reel1-1.mov and a reel1-2.mov for those clips within FCP.

By making clips independent before doing this, you are telling FCP that you want a single QT per clip, not a trimmed reel1.mov that contains both subclips.

[Kim Krause]

or just grade in color then send back to fcp…sorry i couldn’t resist…the round tripping is one of the best features of color and fcp and i still haven’t seen an easier way. i guess you could always import the video as one chunk then import the edl or use auto scene detect then grade it…..

[Brendan Dillon]

Not sure why this isn’t working for some, or why the Color workflow is better. I just tell my client to media manage the project to a drive, bring it to my suite – I open the FCP project and export an EDL, add the clips to Resolve, import EDL and start grading.

The FCP project is then linked to the graded footage and all supers, effects (including motion effects) etc are preserved.

It even works with multilayered sequences – layer one will be all the clips in the EDL – grade that sequence first and then any clips left ungraded in the Master Session will be clips from the other layers so grade them in the Master Session and render from there.

[Niki Kizer]

Just curious, what were your render output settings?

I’ve been able to get by with doing shorter commercial spots, but I have a feature coming up (dpx exports for film) and was curious if there could be some light shed on approaches for the workflow out of DaVinci back to FCP. Loaded question I know, but any info to expedite my research and tests would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Nik