Since formatting the drives in a PC format and having the Mac interact with them wasn’t working, I had to figure out how to write the drives in Mac format and get the PC to interact with them. That’s when I discovered MediaFour’s MacDrive. MacDrive (which is currently in it’s 7th release) is a $50 program that allows your PC to read and write to Mac drives. Even cooler, it allows your PC to recognize Mac video files, like those recorded by Final Cut that don’t have *.mov extensions.
As my review of MacDrive last year shows, it’s really a very useful program that makes working between the two platforms seamlessly easy! (Unfortunately, folks who have Windows XP x64 or Vista x64 are out of luck, as MacDrive is not available for the x64 operating systems. However, from what I understand from some seriously intelligent insiders, with the exception of 3D rendering, 64-bit operating systems give you very few performance benefits over the professional 32-bit operating systems, despite what you would think with the doubling bit depth.)
Now that I had figured out how to convert from Mac to PC, I had to figure out how to convert from FCP to Premiere Pro. While I could find no way to get FCP files into Premiere Pro directly, I did discover a workaround. A company with the strangely mechanized name of Automatic Duck creates a software package called Pro Import AE 4.0. This program will read XML .EDLs that FCP (versions 4-6) can generate and import that data directly into After Effects 6.5-CS3. Despite running a rather steep $500, it can definitely pay for itself if you have a lot of work you need to get from FCP to PC or just to After Effects in general. (Read our review of PIAE 4.0 in this issue.)
In addition to the main program download, Automatic Duck provides a free XML exporter which you can download and install as a plugin in FCP. This XML exporter just makes it really simple to get the most powerful XML file that PIAE 4.0 can accept.
For those interested in knowing my exact workflow for exporting and importing into my MacDrive installed PC, this is the one that seemed to be the best:
Before exporting anything, make sure to minimize any unnecessary splits in video/audio tracks (as each split is transformed into a separate layer in After Effects) and that the timeline has been fully rendered before export (as unrendered media seems to have issues in the XML transfer process).
Next, before using Automatic Ducks XML exporter, use the media manager in FCP to export the timeline to a new folder along with both the clips that are referenced as well as the rendered media.
From here, simply export using the Automatic Duck exporter, saving the XML file to the same location as the new FCP EDL that was created with your Media Manager export.
Drag the folder including all files and the XML file onto a Mac-formatted portable HD.
Take the files to the PC with AE on it, then open up After Effects and choose the Automatic Duck Pro Import option from the Import menu. (For maximum simplicity, I would recommend choosing to precomp grouped layers, as this will look more like what the timeline looked like in FCP. Failing to do so will yield a huge number of layers. Additionally, one can precomp audio tracks, which also cuts down on clutter without detracting from the ability to edit the audio in AE.)
After importing into After Effects, I had to go through and do some clean up. While Pro Import transfers a lot of information from FCP, complex edits tend to require adjustment. For example, I had a scene that is watched on a video monitor, composed by a layer of video warped over the shape of the monitor screen. Because the warping that FCP does is different than the corner pin option it is translated to in After Effects, the video overlays were shrunk into the screen and needed to be resized a bit. Additionally, things like fonts lose their font face tags and their placement, which requires them to be repositioned.
From here, I went to try to export it directly to Premiere Pro as Premiere Pro project. However, there appears to be a current conflict between Pro Import 4.0 and the CS3-version of After Effects I was testing it on, as this caused the system to crash. I’ve talked with both companies, and hopefully something will get figured out before long.
Since the direct export to Premiere Pro Project currently doesn’t work, I activated Dynamic Link from AE CS3 to Premiere Pro CS3 and was in business. I could now see all the footage in my Premiere Pro timeline and make touch up improvements in After Effects.
Now I can finally go back and touch up things on my first film. It was a long process, but, in the end, I found it was worth it.
For those of you that want to know what you’ll pay to make a similar setup (with one portable drive and 4 portable drive caddies for a total of a terabyte of storage), here’s the list and cost breakdown:
MacDrive 7 $50.00 Pro Import AE 4.0 $495.00
NexStar Drive Enclosure $29.99
Lian-Li Portable Rack $39.99
Lian-Li Caddies (4 x $9.99) $39.96 Hitachi 250 Gig ATA HDs (4 x $71) $284.00 $938.94
Hope this helps keep the creative juices flowing when it comes to overcoming the obstacles that we often run into in the realm of micro-budget filmmaking!
-JH
The
director of two feature length films and half a dozen short films,
Jeremy Hanke
founded Microfilmmaker Magazine to help all no-budget filmmakers make
better films. His first book on low-budget special effects techniques, GreenScreen Made Easy, (which he co-wrote with Michele Yamazaki) was released by MWP to very favorable reviews. He's curently working on the sci-fi film franchise, World of Depleted through Depleted: Day 419 and the feature film, Depleted.
