How to 2: Moving from Final Cut to Pro Tools
Intro: W and I have been working together across the country on our most complicated editing project ever. To keep our work consistent and legible over the months and to save ourselves from spending time repeating discoveries, thought-processes and mistakes, we’ve been writing ourselves instructions and standards. We thought we might as well post them on the internet. If they’re useful, great. Or if you have suggestions, we’d really appreciate that too.
Abstract: Digidesign sells a DV Toolkit that does all this stuff automatically. But we don’t feel like spending $1000+. Still (especially cuz our Scoopic only sometimes kept crystal in the jungle) we find the Pro Tools Elastic Audio functions very useful for editing dialogue. And in general for mixing, etc., the Pro Tools interface is so much better looking than Soundtrack Pro. So…
Note: The system in these instructions is a Mac OSX 4+, with Final Cut Pro 5 and Pro Tools M-Powered 7.4.
1. In Final Cut Pro, open your sequence.
2. Add BITC. Select all your video clips. Go to Effects>Video Filters>Video>Timecode Reader.
3. Export a reference video. Solo your in-sync dialogue tracks. Go to File>Export>Quicktime Movie. Leave settings at Current Settings, include Audio and Video, and leave everything unchecked. Create a directory called Pro Tools/Sc{#}/Ref_video/. We save as b_Sc{#}_{todays date}_v{#}. For example: b_Sc09_070908_v01. (the “b” is for blondes, btw)
4. Export to OMF. Make all audio you’ll be editing in Pro Tools audible. Select all. Go to Edit>Remove Attributes and check “Filters” and “Speed” if applicable. Go to File>Export>Audio to OMF. Uncheck “Include Crossfade Transitions.” Include a healthy handle, like 00:00:10;00. Create a new sub-directory in the Sc{#} directory you created in the last step called “OMF”. Save as b_Sc{#}_{todays date}_v{#}. Quit FCP.
5. Open OMF Tool 2.0.8. (This is a free download. You will also need to be able to run OS classic.)
6. Convert your OMF. Go to File>Convert OMF to Pro Tools>Open (Apple + 1) and open the file you created in step 4. Save your new Pro Tools project in the same OMF directory. Check “Pro Tools 4″. Quit OMFTool.
6. Open Pro Tools.
7. Create your new session. Or open your template session (ours has 8 dialogue tracks, 4 bg tracks, 4 foley and 2 music, with subs for each). Save as Sc{#}_v{#} in your Sc{#} directory.
8. Import the ref video. File>Import>Video. Select the quicktime you made in step 3. Location: Session Start. Include Audio. Save the files in a new sub-directory you create called “Audio Files”.
9. Lock the ref track. Select the reference audio. Click Apple-L to lock.
10. Import your converted OMF. Go to File>Import Session Data. Find the .PT file you created in OMFTool. Select all the tracks and set their destination to “New Track.” Rename your new tracks “OMF Dial 1,” “OMF Dial 2,” etc. Using the grabber tool, Option-Control-Drag the sound clips to “Dial 1,” “Dial 2,” etc.
11. Right click to Hide and Make Inactive the OMFs. These originals will come in handy when you screw up your dialogue beyond undoing.
For more tips on working with dialogue in Pro Tools, I very much recommend this. And not this (for anything.)
OK,
L