Edit offline with an FCP XML package

What is offline editing?

Offline editing lets you take a copy of the media in a production or collection away from Curator and edit it in Adobe Premiere Pro without a connection to the Curator system. This is useful when you're travelling, working from a location with poor connectivity, or handing media to an editor outside your network.

When you send media offline, Curator:

1. Copies the Hi-Res file for each asset into a new folder, restoring it from archive first if needed.
2. Writes an FCP XML file into the same folder. The FCP XML points at the copied media.
3. Zips the folder and uploads the zip to AWS S3.
4. Emails you a link to download the zip. The link expires after a set time, usually 24 hours.

Your system administrator must set up the offline edit plugin before you can use it (see Configuring the offline edit workflow (FCP XML)). Your administrator also chooses the plugin's name in Clip Link. This article calls it Send to Offline.

Before you start

If you want to check your edit back in to Curator when you're finished, send a production offline:

1. Create a Production in Clip Link.
2. Add the assets you want to work on to the production.

You can also run Send to Offline on individual assets or a collection. Curator packages them in the same way, but there's no production to check your work back in to afterwards.

Send media for offline editing

1. In Clip Link, select the production (or the assets or collection) you want to work on.
2. Right-click to open the context menu and select Send to Offline.
3. Curator builds the package in the background. Large productions, or assets that need restoring from archive, take longer.
4. When the package is ready, you receive an email with the download link. Download the zip before the link expires.

Work offline in Premiere Pro

1. Extract the zip. Keep the folder structure as it is: the FCP XML expects the media files to stay in the same place relative to it.
2. In Premiere Pro, create a new project.
3. Drag the FCP XML file into the project bin. The clips are imported and linked to the Hi-Res files in the extracted folder.
4. Edit as normal. You don't need a connection to Curator while you work.

Bring your edit back into Curator

1. When you're back online, open the Collections and Productions panel in Premiere Pro.
2. Find the production you sent offline and check it out using Link Local Project (see Link a local Adobe project with a production). This tells Curator to use the project open in Premiere Pro instead of the version stored in Curator.
3. If you need to, connect the assets to swap them to Proxy or Hi-Res.
4. Check in the production.

Tip: When checking in, consider using the Disconnect assets option (see How to disconnect assets). The next person to check out the production gets it faster and can choose which rendition to connect.