Exporting to your editor
StoryCut gets you to a rough cut, then hands it to the editor you finish in: Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Premiere or Avid Media Composer. An export is a small file that describes your edit and points at your footage. Your footage never leaves your computer: StoryCut doesn't upload it, and the export only names where each file is.
What you can export
- A recording. Its clips, by rating, with every camera angle on its own track and in sync. Use it when you filmed one session and want your best takes in your editor.
- A timeline. The rough cut: every take in its slot, on its tracks, in story beat order, as it plays in Edit's preview. A timeline also gives you captions and YouTube chapters.
Before you export
Every media file needs to be in place before its export:
- Add your footage. On the recording's page, select the media files from your computer, one for each camera. Do this on the computer that has your footage: on a phone, StoryCut offers a link to open on your computer instead.
- Align each camera angle to the sync clap: find the moment you clapped and confirm it. That's how StoryCut lines up every angle on the recording's clock.
A recording's Export button turns on once every media file is aligned. A timeline exports from Export in Edit, using the media files of the takes that play.
The export form
Editor
Choose the editor you'll open the export in. Each has a page on importing it:
| Editor | File | Page |
|---|---|---|
| Final Cut Pro | FCPXML (.fcpxml) | Final Cut Pro |
| DaVinci Resolve | FCPXML (.fcpxml), or OpenTimelineIO (.otio), which keeps markers | DaVinci Resolve |
| Premiere | FCP7 XML (.xml) | Premiere |
| Avid Media Composer | OpenTimelineIO (.otio) | Avid Media Composer |
Clips to export
A recording exports the clips with the ratings you tick: Save, Hero, Blooper and Trash. Hero, Save and Blooper are ticked to begin with. A timeline exports the takes in its slots, so it has no ratings to choose.
File path on your computer
Your editor finds each media file by its full path, so give each one, like /Users/you/Videos/Interview A-cam.mov. StoryCut remembers it on this device for the next export.
- Mac: in Finder, select the file, hold Option and choose Copy as Pathname from the right-click menu.
- Windows: in File Explorer, select the file and choose Copy as path from the right-click menu (or hold Shift and right-click), then remove the quotes.
A wrong path still imports: your editor shows the clip as offline, and you relink it there.
Frame rate
StoryCut reads each media file's frame rate where it can, marked auto-detected. Otherwise it assumes 29.97 fps, marked default. If your camera filmed at another rate, choose it: 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94 or 60 fps. A wrong rate makes clips drift out of sync in your editor.
Timecode start
The timecode of the media file's first frame, in milliseconds. StoryCut reads it from the file where it can. Leave it at 0 unless your camera writes timecode and you want your editor's timecode to match it.
Download
Download saves the file once every media file has a path. Open it in your editor as its page describes.
Multicam
A recording filmed with several cameras keeps every camera angle in sync:
- Final Cut Pro and DaVinci Resolve (FCPXML) get a real multicam clip.
- Premiere and Avid, and Resolve's OpenTimelineIO, get the angles stacked on their own tracks, in sync, since those formats have no multicam. Make a multicam from them in your editor.
A timeline plays the camera angle each take uses, so its export has the angle already chosen.
When something's wrong
- Clips are offline or red. The file path didn't match where the file is. Relink in your editor, or export again with the right path.
- Clips drift out of sync. Check each media file's frame rate in the form, then check that each camera angle is aligned to the sync clap.
- Markers are missing in Resolve. Export OpenTimelineIO instead of FCPXML (see DaVinci Resolve).
Still stuck? Ask in StoryCut's Discord, linked from the community page.