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iMovie to FCP — XML issues
Hi there–
I’ve just signed on to edit a low-budget feature — and the director had her rough cut saved in iMovie (’09). I’m running FCP 6 on a Tiger system, so I can’t open her original project file on my computer — and of course I’d rather work in FCP than iMovie any day. But when I try to import the XML I created on her system yesterday, the sequence it creates has major gaps, some clips play for about half a second and then go black, and the entire movie is completely incomprehensible. The error log at the end of the import is long, with most of the messages looking like this:[sequence]: Unable to edit [clipitem] “Still 9.jpeg” into [sequence] “Psycho-Path rough – iMovie”.( line 30978 )
Or this:
[sequence]: Unable to edit [transitionitem] “” into [sequence] Psycho-Path rough – iMovie”.( line 3 )
I’m not sure what camera the movie was shot on, but the director tells me that the footage is incompatible with newer versions of FCP. Opening the project gives me the error message that the “media files are not optimized for Final Cut Pro.” They’re in Apple Intermediate Codec at the moment.
So the way I see it, this could be a problem with the clips themselves — in which case I’d to convert all the footage to ProRes with MPEG Streamclip or Compressor, then edit the XML so it refers to the converted files.
Or it could be a problem with the XML I got from iMovie, in which case I don’t know what to do — I may try re-exporting from iMovie ’11 on a friend’s computer and see what happens.
Anyway, any help on this would really be appreciated. I’m hoping I don’t have to convert everything since there is a massive amount of footage to deal with — so I’d like to know if that’s the solution before I try it.
Thanks!
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7 Replies
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Hi Caleb,
Instead of an XML, take the iMovie Project, and “Left-click: Open with FC”.
May work better.
rafael -
Rafael- Thanks for the suggestion but no dice – FCP won’t read the iMovie file.
I thought that maybe I’d answered my own questions in my original post, so I tried using a new XML created in iMovie ’11 – then I tried using Streamclip to recompress the project files into ProRes and changing the XML in TextEdit to reflect the new file locations. Neither idea worked – the sequence is still completely unrecognizable as the cut I saw in iMovie on the director’s computer.
Why someone would use iMovie to create a rough cut of an entire feature is another question entirely, but I’m at a loss for what to do now. I would suck it up and continue to work with the original project file, but as I said, my computer runs Tiger and still only has iMovie ’06 – I was using a friend’s system to run ’11, and I can’t borrow it for long enough to edit a feature. Sorry for repeating myself; I just have no idea what the problem here is and thus no idea how to fix it.
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IMovie has a big problem: Is not based in Time Code.
Reconnecting, syncing and managing media is often an issue.
Can you open again the XML in iMovie, and try to save it as an iMovie project?
rafael -
The xml exported from imovie to fcp, from what I have read, only includes basic cuts and I think some transitions. It was true that Apple added support for some camera formats in the, then, new Imovie that had not yet come to FCP. You need to find out what it was shot on. Make a copy of her project and get rid of all stuff other than basic cuts. Then try again.
Even with the mess, can’t you see in FC what format the footage is in?
It might be possible, by now, that you can start with a better codec than she did. It all depends on the original footage. Since she started adding so much detail, what is left to be done?
It is amazing how much time we are all spending with formats and software versions and making them ‘just work’.
Another option would be to get the latest Imovie, which most likely can read this file. Then export to Imovie Pro (FCP X). Should work. (Just kidding.)
OSX 10.5.8; MacBookPro4,1 Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 GHz
; Camcorders: Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A. -
[Craig Alan] “Another option would be to get the latest Imovie, which most likely can read this file. Then export to Imovie Pro (FCP X). Should work. (Just kidding.)”
Your big chance to go down in history as the first feature project to be cut, graded and mixed for cinema inside FCP X.
I am sure they have put Export>DCP in the menu somewhere.
🙂
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Well… after a long and arduous night of trying to figure out XML coding, I’m still no closer to resolving the issue. It seems like the issues originate from the transitions in her original cut, but the machines I have access to don’t have enough RAM for me to go into iMovie and remove them — later on, I’ll try borrowing one that does, but sorting this before then would be ideal.
I tried opening the XML in Oxygen and removing all elements. The new file seems to open fine in FCP, but when I try to open the sequence there is no content in it at all — the run time is correct, but there are no clips to play.
What started as a fairly simple editing gig has turned into a disaster, and I’m still not sure where to go from here. Thanks for all the suggestions; please keep ’em coming!
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Sorry, “all elements” should read “all transitionitem elements.”
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