[ This article was first published in the May, 2009, issue of
Larry’s Final Cut Pro Newsletter. Click here to subscribe. ]
Ryan Moos writes:
Quite some time ago I took your FCP class at Video Symphony. I don’t expect you to remember me, as you said you were bad with names, and it’s been some time.
I was hoping you could point me in the right direction. I need to export all of the column data from a bin filled with clips and import it into a database. FCP only exports an XML batch list of these clips. Is there another way to get the data in a tab delimited text file, or excel sheet? If not, do you know how to pull the info out of the XML.
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!
Larry replies: Ryan, this is easy (HOWEVER, my answer is wrong! See below!)
You can easily open this file in Excel or import into any database.
EXPORTING BROWSER COLUMNS
Richard Day writes:
Following your tip in May’s newsletter, I tried exporting clip data from the Browser by selecting the clips and choosing Export>Batch List but ALL my clips were exported, not just the selected ones. Or I should say, the entire bin of clips. I wonder if your tip only applies to individual selected clips if they are at the “root” level of the Browser item/bin hierarchy?
And if so, how do I move a clip “up” so that it moves out of its bin to that root level? I’ve never figured this one out. It seems, once in a bin, never out of it (except to another bin).
Supplementary question: I was labeling parts of clips with markers, and I was hoping to export the marker names (and their column info) as well as the clip column info. Can this be done? Export > Batch List only exported clips, not markers.
Thanks for your great work. After a time one gets more into working with FCP than learning things one didn’t know, and you are an antidote for that…
Larry replies: Yeah, I got it wrong.
File > Export > Batch List exports everything in the Browser. To only export a selected group, probably the easiest way to work around this is to create a new project then just drag the clips you want to export into the new project. Not ideal, but it works.
As for how to move a clip out of a Bin, grab the clip, or clips, you want to move and drag then on top of the NAME column header. When you let go, they will move to the top level of the Browser.
As for exporting marker info, versions of FCP prior to version 7 don’t handle this natively, but here’s an Automator script that can accomplish this:
Final Cut Pro 7 has a new option: File > Export > Marker List, that does just that.
