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FCP OMF Export for ProTools
Hi, I’m a junior editor working for a production company and we’ve just got a lock on our first feature.
The director and producer are flying out to the states on sunday for the sound mix so I’m trying to canvas the best way for me to export the OMFs for use within ProTools at their end in the U.S.
I’ve done a preliminary test with a trailer of ours: Exporting two OMFs ( one with the pans, transitions etc and one without ) 48Khz, 16-bit with one second handles.
The files sizes amount to 360mb for each. Given that the film is around 80 minutes it’s likely that the total size required OMFs is around 10gb. If I need to break down the the size is it best to do it in parts of the whole sequence of by individual tracks?
Someone has recommended creating an audio only FCP project and mediamanager-ing the assets onto an HDD as a back up, which sounds like a good plan.
If anyone could shed any light on the best ways to do this and offer any better suggestions/ criticisms of my current suggestions i’d be mightily appreciative.
The time delay between us and the studio means communication is extremely hard so I’m trying to collate as much knowledge as possible.
Thanks
Andrew
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4 Replies
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[Andrew Cross] ” If I need to break down the the size is it best to do it in parts of the whole sequence of by individual tracks?”
Up to you. I generally break up the project into 20 min reels. And make sure to have 2-pop at the head and tail of each one, and keep them at the original timecode locations they appear in the timeline. So for 80 min, I’d have 4 sequences. OMF file size limits are 2GB.
[Andrew Cross] “Someone has recommended creating an audio only FCP project and mediamanager-ing the assets onto an HDD as a back up, which sounds like a good plan.”
FCP doesn’t do “audio only” unless you specifically set it up to capture audio separate from video. FCP captures footage as QT files, and it joins audio and video, unless you specifically tell it not to. (Unlike how Avid does things). You cannot separate the audio from the video. You can make a project that reflects only the footage used in the project via the media manager. Use the COPY option, and check DELETE UNUSED.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
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Thanks for clarifying Shane, much appreciated!
Might be a silly question but could I literally take an FCP project and delete all the Video channels and then ,after using the media manager to and HDD, my director would be able to access this project’s audio through FCP on his laptop when in the states in case any extra exports need to be ran?
Thankyou
Andrew
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Yes. But deleting the video channels does nothing. It will remove them from the timeline, but when you media manage, they will still be there, with the audio. You will have QT files of your shot footage containing video. So the file sizes will still be large…unlike Avid where you can consolidate only the audio and the file sizes are small, because you really are only dealing with the audio.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Media managing is a total waste of time. FCP makes the OMF by ‘media managing’ just the audio into individual files plus handles. Trying to Media Manage first with FCP will not achieve anything but heartache.
Ask the sound post facility if they want pan, transitions and levels and how they want the reel breakdown. Never assume and do not expect editors to know better than sound post people who drive the software at their end. Good idea to ask opinions of the FCP end here as you might have made a nightmare for yourself mucking around with Media Manager which has always been buggy.
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