Using Final Cut Pro X 10.1 in a shared environment

FCP.co contributor Alex Snelling has been busy of the last few months: He's been exploring collaborative workflows with the new Final Cut Pro 10.1 update. He's written a comprehensive free document that will help all editors who share their edits.

So ok, we have to admit to being slightly occupied with the new shiny toy in the office, so time to catch up with some more 10.1 news. Over to Alex:

Over the past few months, I have been lucky enough to have been working with Final Cut Pro X 10.1. The result of that is a comprehensive 60-page visually-led document about how to approach using Final Cut Pro X 10.1 in a shared environment, produced in close collaboration with 10dot1; London’s Xsan and shared storage supremos.

(Click for larger images)



It is a document of two halves; one half explains all the Final Cut Pro X functionality you will need for sharing both work and media and the second half puts that knowledge into practice with ten or so tested example workflows.

Once understood, these simple principles are easy to apply to your own set-up whether you are two users collaborating on a short film or an enterprise level organisation with ongoing shared workflow.





Our document outlines a number of suggested solutions to common scenarios, starting with standalone single-users through to large enterprise-level set-ups. The scenarios are based on experience from our own client set-ups, using workflows derived from real situations.

With so much chat out there, we thought we would seize the opportunity to try to create a definitive document detailing all the factors that should be taken into account before designing a workflow with Final Cut Pro X.

The good news is that shared workflow with Final Cut Pro X has now got a whole lot easier with some really slick implementations.

Anyone who still asks questions, writes posts or starts chats in bars relating to the "Pro" readiness of Final Cut Pro X is really very far behind the curve.

It is a long paper but hopefully one you can dip in and out of when necessary.

Use this paper:

As a primer for shared-workflow in Final Cut Pro X.

As a departure point for your own workflow.

To help evaluate your software/ hardware needs.

DO NOT expect to find an absolute solution here. There are simply too many variables for this.

ALWAYS run your own tests. Always.

Our document is available to download free here.

We hope it is of some use. (You're not kidding! -Editor)



I have been working with 10dot1 since early 2005, when we worked together for 6 months at the BBC on a project which saw the first broadcast combination of FCP and Xsan. With myself on the edit-side and 10dot1 on the system side, we have make a very good front-end/back-end partnership (if you'll excuse the expression) and look forward to a bright future with this new beast.

(By the way, the name 10dot1 is purely a coincidence.)

Alexander Snelling 10dot1