Final Cut Pro X to Premiere CS6 workflow destroys FCP X events

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Final Cut Pro X to Premiere CS6 workflow destroys FCP X events

Hello,

I just got a call by a customer who tried to convert and FCP X project via XML to Premiere CS6 for a further AfterEffects workflow. He experienced the following problem, which I can rebuild completely. These are the steps:

1 - Export an FCP X project which relinks to transcoded optimized media to XML

2 - Convert the XML (.fcpxml) with Xto7 app to legacy XML (.xml) format

3 - Open Premiere CS6 and import the XML (.xml)

4 - Close Premiere CS6 and open FCP X and the exported project

FCP X warns immediately that something has been modiefied. This is just an information which I can only accept. All the clips that were optimized are reded out and marked "Modified File". Now do the follwing:

5 - Try to relink the modified media and chose the optimized media file in the transcoded media folder

As soon as you accept the relink FCP X deletes the file in the event library and ALSO in the Original Media folder AND in the Transcoded Media folder and moves both files to the trash. This could be destructiv, if you are working on a SAN storage, like an EditShare system.

But even if you are able to restore the files and move them back in place, there seems to be no chance to relink the files in FCP X to make your project working again. As soon the relink comand is executed the files will be moved to the trash again. If I do not try to relink, the files keep marked red and as Modified Media. If you have a look in the metadata, you will see, that they have been modified by Premiere, which seems to cause the trouble.

Does anyone has a workaround or working handover to AfterEffects? Or does anyone else encounter similar problems with XML or third party apps destroying metadata within FCP X files?

Appreciate all solutions!

Btw: This only affects transcoded media. Every time I worked with original media only, the handover to Premiere works undestructive, but the media was pending in Premiere until the app crashs.

Posted on Nov 22, 2012 1:24 PM

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Answer 1

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gpMac Author

Level 1

31 points

Dec 15, 2012 1:30 PM in response to gpMac

Finally I solved the problem by myself, doing a deeper web research.

Actually it's Premiere CS6 or AfterEffects which adds some metadata to the clips, that causes FCP X to ignore those files and shows them as "Modified media". But - and that's the good thing - you can turn off this behaviour in AfterEffects or Premiere. Here is how:

In AfterEffects

go to Preferences > Media & Disk Cache and uncheck the boxes refering to the XMP metadata

In Premiere

go to Preferences > Media and uncheck the box "Write XMP ID to Files on Import"

Those XMP metadata help CS6 to share media cache files and previews and may improve stability and performance but if you are in a more FCP X based workflow, deactivating this option may prevent from loosing media.

A fast check with the same procedure discribed above went well and everything stays untouched and online in FCP X.

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