Editing between NLE's

[DanielVranic]

Hey team, hope everyone’s day is going good. 

I am working on a project with a band right now, and i want to integrate my friend who is a much better editor than me. However he does not use Davinci, but using PrPro right now. 

What is the best way for an easy hand off? I have a drive full of BRAW. Do i make a database? Do i grade the whole raw files and then just give him the ProRes? 

I’d like to finish in Davinci, and he does have the free version. How can I send him the project and then he sends it back edited?

Sorry for seemly dumb question, I am just new to collaboration with other editors.

[KnightsFan]

I've done many projects that were edited in Premiere and finished in Resolve. What I do is use an XML to move the edit back and forth. If you've already started editing, then you need to export an XML from Resolve, and hand that over with all the footage to your friend, who will import that XML into Premiere. He'll probably need to do some relinking, but usually once you find one missing file it'll automatically find the rest if you keep the folder structure intact. I find that keeping the same folder structure is the most important thing for a smooth collaboration.

If you haven't started the edit, then your friend can just start the edit in Premiere. Once your friend finishes the edit, he will export an XML, which you will import into Resolve. You'll likely have to fiddle with export and import settings on both ends, so I recommend trying the workflow before committing to it. Keep in mind that most effects will not transfer over. Simple fades usually work, but things like warp stabilizer or color correction won't.

I have read that Blackmagic has made a free plugin so that Braw can be read in Premiere. If this is true, then you won't need to do any transcoding. That would make things easier.

I would color grade after the edit is done. Let him edit the SOOC footage, and then color it once it gets back to you. If you want to start coloring straight away, one trick is to use Remote Grades in Resolve. If you haven't used them before, basically it makes a color grade go for a file instead of a timeline clip. You can start coloring clips right away, and then those grades will link up with the files automatically once the XML is ready and imported.

 

Since you mention a band, keep in mind that most music is 44.1 khz, while Resolve operates strictly at 48 khz and tends to produce unpleasant artifacts when resampling. When I edit music videos in Resolve, I do the sound separately and then mux audio and video using ffmpeg so that I can keep the native sample rate for the music track.