How to edit Blackmagic 4K footage in iMovie, FCP, Avid, and Premiere Pro?


Summary: This post displays how to makeBlackmagic Production Camera 4K footage editable in NLE systems like iMovie, Final Cut Pro X/7/6, Avid Media Composer, and Adobe Premiere Pro.

As world’s most portable 4K digital film camera, the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K easily creates 4K footage in ProRes 422 (HQ) and compressed CinemaDNG RAW files that are standard and perfect for editing with your NLEs. But for some reason, you may still need a Blackmagic 4K Video Converter and take time to convert before you can start post production in NLE applications like iMovie, FCP, Avid, and Premiere Pro.

blackmagic camera 4k

Download a free trial of Blackmagic 4K Video Converter
free download
More than Blackmagic Production Camera 4K, there are also some other video camcorders that can record videos in 4K, such as Sony NEX-FS700, Sony PMW-F55/F5, Panasonic GH 4K and HX-A100 4K, Canon C500, etc. This so-called Blackmagic 4K Video Converter is able to handle these 4K videos in different file formats as well.

Guide: how to transcode Blackmagic 4K footage for editing on a Mac?

Follow these steps:
Step 1: Download the free trial version of Blackmagic 4K Video Converter from the download link provided above. Install and start up it. From the main interface, click ‘Add File’ to import Blackmagic 4K footage.

Step 2: Choose output format for iMovie, FCP, Avid, and Premiere Pro
1) To be able to convert Blackmagic 4K video for iMovie, from the ‘Profile’ bar, choose ‘Apple InterMediate Codec (AIC) (*.mov)’ as output format from ‘iMovie and Final Cut Express’ catalogue.

2) To be able to transcode Blackmagic 4K footage for Final Cut Pro X/7/6, from the the ‘Format’ bar, select ‘Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)’ as output from ‘Final Cut Pro’ column.

3) To be able to rewrap Blackmagic 4K files for Avid, from the ‘Format’ bar, choose ‘Avid DNxHD (*.mov)’ as output format from ‘Avid Media Composer’ catalogue.

4) To be able to encode Blackmagic 4K recordings to Adobe Premiere Pro, from the ‘Format’ bar, choose ‘MOV (AVC) (*.mov)’ as output format from ‘Adobe Premiere/Sony Vegas’ column.

Step 3: Customize video and audio settings if necessary. You are allowed to do advanced settings on video bit rate, frame rate, resolution, audio sample rate, audio channels and more.

Step 4: Click ‘Convert’ button to start encoding Blackmagic 4K data for using smoothly within iMovie, Final Cut Pro 6, Final Cut Pro 7 or Final Cut Pr X, Avid MC and Adobe Premiere.

Step 5: Soon after the conversion completed, you can hit ‘Open Folder’ button to get the generated files for post production in NLEs.

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