Final Cut Pro
Frameline is an ideal companion application to Final Cut Pro (FCP). The application can be used as a complete Media Asset Management Solution for FCP, as all the video & metadata stored in Frameline can be seamlessly transferred to FCP by means of FCP XML.
Generate a Final Cut Pro XML by choosing Export from either Edit or Notate modes (for single files) or for cross-file filters from the Clip Filter. Once the file has been created, open the file in Final Cut Pro either by choosing ‘Import/XML', or by dragging the XML icon to the FCP icon in the dock. This process will create a Bin in a FCP Project, inside the bin each segment will appear as a discreet clip.
All Frameline 47 fields are transferred to Final Cut Pro, as shown in this table:
Frameline 47 |
Final Cut Pro |
Who & What |
Master Comment 1 |
Thread & Event |
Master Comment 2 |
Place & Time |
Master Comment 3 |
Keywords |
Master Comment 4 |
Value |
Comment A |
Description |
Description |
Transcript |
Scene |
Notes |
Log Note |
Managing the FCP Browser Window
You can load a 47 Metadata ‘View’ directly in Final Cut Pro’s browser in the following way:
1. Open the 'FCP47_Layout_Template' file from the 'Extras' folder of the application's installer package.
2. When in Final Cut Pro, ctrl+click on a heading in the browser, and choose ‘Load Column Layout’:
3. Your Frameline 47 Columns should now be in place, however you will need to re-name the headings, the quickest way to do this is shown above, ctrl click the heading & select ‘Edit headings’. You can also bring up a dialogue box to re-name. Choose: Menu / Edit / Project & Properties:
Following is an example of how your browser might look:
Filtering for Segments in Final Cut Pro
You can use Frameline 47 metadata in Final Cut Pro to enable you select sequences of segments by filtering (searching) for content tags. For example, if I have a fully notated feature film, I could create a new version of the feature film composed only of segments featuring the lead character by:
1. In FCP, perform keyboard shortcut Apple + F, the find window will appear:
2. Type in your search criteria (referring if required to the 47 to FCP data map shown above)
3. To open a new folder with all the search results, click Find All.
4. To add the segments in order to your sequence: Click on the ‘Out’ heading in the FCP browser to order the files according to their presentational sequence. Drag the Search Folder onto your FCP sequence timeline.
Working with Segments & Groups & Final Cut Pro
Whether or not you have used Group & Segment Notation, or just Segment or Group Notation, will depend on how you wish the two applications to interact.
Scenario 1: Described Segments
This is the most straightforward scenario, as segments are directly translated to clips:
Scenario 2: Described Segments & Un-Described Groups
This option forces us to provide the user with a choice as to whether or not group information is retained.
Option One is to create segments as clips & therefore lose group data:
Option Two is to maintain both segment & group structures, by creating a ‘Sub-Bin’ to represent groups:
Scenario 3: Un-Described Segments & Described Groups
This option forces us to provide the user with a choice as to whether or not segment information is retained.
Option One is to create groups as clips & therefore lose segment data:
Option Two is to maintain both segment & group structures, by creating a ‘Sub-Bin’ to represent groups. However in FCP, bins cannot be searched for in the application’s find function, therefore with this example, we will need to ‘copy down’ the metadata from the group to each of the segments.
Scenario 4: Described Segments & Described Groups
Again, this option forces us to provide the user with a choice.
Option One is to create groups as clips & therefore lose segment data:
Option Two is to maintain both segment & group structures, by creating a ‘Sub-Bin’ to represent groups:
Back to top >>