Any lovely person willing to help me out?

[ChrisBeeson]

Hey hope you are all well,

I've decided to take on a short job smarterning up a guys music video, but my first hurdle is that he has cut it on Final cut express??? (I imagine this is a little bit like windows moviemaker!) Secondly he has digitised the rushes in at low resolution so it all needs to be reconformed/probably re-edited/graded etc which i was going to do on Avid Symphony.

My problem is this.. I don't have Final cut and at the moment I have no means of getting my hands on one. So if anyone had a moment to generate a few CMX edls from this little sequence and give me a hint on what I let myself in for I would be forever in your debt....

Thanking you already.....

chris

[E_Tedeschi]

Chris,

trying to download your file, but having no luck... Keeps downloading a .php file....

e.

[JWRL]

I was able to download the zip file and found fortunateman.dat inside it, using a Windows based PC. Which is of course no use to you, Chris, but it might be helpful for E in finding a system to read the download.

You could also try posting your query on the Avid Symphony user forum at http://www.avid.com/exchange/forums/51/ShowForum.aspx because there may be guys there that deal with FCP as well. So there may be someone there who's able to help with your import methodology.

I also know that on the Xpress Pro Mac user forum there are people who move between Avid and FCP, and you can get to that forum from the Symphony forum.

[ChrisBeeson]

Well thanks guys for trying - to be honest I've had this problem before (link refers to a .php file) in other forums -- little bug I think.

I have now uploaded the file to www.chrisbeeson.com/files -- I hope that work when someone (or e!) will be able to find it and download it successfully. Many thanks again to e or anyone else who decides to explore the world of Final cut express!

cheers
c

[Jude]

Final Cut Express isn't that different to FCP - just it only works in DV, there's not major colour correction and you can't keyframe filters. Almost all the other functions are intact. There are some timecode issues within FCE (it doesn't display timecode) but IIRC the original timecode is retained so that it displays correctly if the project is opened in FCP.

I tried to download the file from your site but I'm getting a 'page not found' error.

[ChrisBeeson]

Thanks Jude -Now fixed the link on the site - must learn to always double check these things.

[Jude]

That .dat file is no good here. Any chance of getting the actual project file?

Can you read an XML at your end?

[ChrisBeeson]

No, it's final cut express - thats all that I can get -- are you sure there is no way to open it?

thanks

[Jude]

Hmm. You can't send the actual project file? The thing that he would double click to open the project? .dat is a very broad standard - and it's not working here in FCP.

[Neil Ryan]

Chris, do a search for the actual project name and see what turns up. It may be like iMovie projects, where the project and media get buried in a Package. The package looks like one file, but you CAN open that package and access just a mediafile or the project etc within.

Let us know how you go.

[Jude]

It should be exactly the same as FCP. It's just the project file. Looks like a clapper with timecode and a picture of people on the side of a mountain here in FCP.

[ChrisBeeson]

Humph, it's tricky because I ain't ever used the FCE/FCP kit before and my client reckons thats the only project file he's got. Oh well I'll just have to get him to take his laptop into the facility house and let them sort it out. thanks though guys.

[Matthew]

The DAT file looks like the famous Outlook Express .dat format attachment that only Outlook Express clients can read :-(

Client emailed it to you, right?

I suspect if he/she uses the Mac to Zip the original project file or EDL first, then sends it to you with the special secret bleeding Outlook attachment thingo turned OFF, you/we'll be able to read it.

Or use another mail client. Or send it on a CDROM.

[Neil Ryan]

Can we please find a solution to this, quickly;
I'm running late for my class "Technology: How It Will Make Your Life Easier"
(It's being held at the Crusty Old Cynics Institute, by the way)

I feel your pain, people ...

[E_Tedeschi]

I think I've seen the curriculum for that one. First topic is:

"Technology lasts forever... or 5 years whichever comes first."

(I think I may have ripped that quote off from another thread somewhere... :)