Conforming within FCPX

Hi Everyone,

First time poster. Ive been editing for two years but I still consider myself pretty new .After watching the presentation video of Michael Cioni from "The Girl from the Dragon Tattoo" explaining how they reconformed their proxy footage (off-line editing?) to the original high res red files, I wondered is that possible in fcpx?

My current workflow is to edit the my 5d mark ii files directly without any conversion since my computer is more than fast enough to deal with it. I would like to take my final editing project and conform it to a 4:2:2 based codec (Prores/Cinform) for color grading either in fcpx or in Davicini Resolve lite. Is it possible to do this without completely converting all my initial footage before editing?

Yes, this is possible. You can transcode your footage either upon import, or in your case, after your project is edited. You might try optimizing to prores 422 initially and edit that since it is basically lossless and edits nicely in fcpx (as long as you are going to end up with this anyway).
You will have the option to transcode to Prores 422, 422 HQ, 444 or Uncompressed 10 bit 422.

dgwvideo wrote: Yes, this is possible. You can transcode your footage either upon import, or in your case, after your project is edited. You might try optimizing to prores 422 initially and edit that since it is basically lossless and edits nicely in fcpx (as long as you are going to end up with this anyway).
You will have the option to transcode to Prores 422, 422 HQ, 444 or Uncompressed 10 bit 422.

Thanks for the reply DGW. I am trying to avoid the initial conversion before importing because of the uneccessary conversion of clips I might not use in the edit as well as the time compared to converting just the necessary clips for edit. Is it possible to export to a proress 4:2:2 XMl file to say davinci resolve rather than exporting just a plain old .mov file in proress?

FCPX will allow you to export XML. I haven't imported any xml into DaVinci (I use the Lite version) so I can't be sure of that, but I would think that could be done.

DGW, would you be able to give me a step by step on how to optimize the project sequence to the proress file inside fcpx?

When you are inside of the project where all your clips are visible, you can choose the SHARE menu at the top of the menu bar and select EXPORT MEDIA. If you use CURRENT SETTINGS, the project will be exported using the size and codec you imported with. But you have the option to change the codec from CURRENT SETTINGS to any of the Prores flavors as well as other codecs. The project will automatically render upon export, so you do not need to do this beforehand. This will NOT export XML using this method.

If you want to export XML, then go to your project library (where just the projects are visible and not inside of the project). Check the inspector project properties at the upper right of the application. At the bottom of the inspector, click the tool wrench icon. Here is where you can change your render format to prores as well as modify the video format properties or the audio properties. If you change from your original format to prores then the project will transcode the footage. You can monitor this progress in the background task HUD which is visible by clicking on the timecode box in the center of the application (where the render wheel is).
Once that is completed, close your project and then from the project library, select the project (highlight it but do not open it). Then select from the FILE menu at the top EXPORT XML. You can choose the name and location of where to save your XML file.