FCP to Avid Express HD 5.0 Workflow

I am about to start on the edit of a new project.
My editor uses Avid Express HD 5.0 and I use FCP Pro latest version.
The source is HDV. It is a five camera synchronised shoot of a rock concert.
I would normally use multiclip in FCP to line everything up and take it from there.
Is it best to let an assistant do the line up in Avid rather than FCP ?
Once the project is edited in Avid I want to do sub edits/captions/titles and prep for DVD in Final Cut Studio so what's the best way of taking the project back ?
Can the tapes be captured once and then files reused etc. etc.
Any tips or advice welcome.

Hi there,
as an avid & fcp editor I would suggest the following workflow. I am assuming you are the director/producer possibly online editor since you said "my editor uses avid xpress pro hd".
If he is more comfortable using avid for this then let him. He will be far more productive on a system he knows and trusts, and lets face it Avid do know what they are doing, they have been in the broadcast market for years now so they can be trusted!
.digitise the project into avid in HDV native
.let him cut the project as he/you see fit and take it to picture lock.
.when it is locked play it out to tape (in HDV mode on the avid)
.digitise that tape into your FCP finishing suite, overlaying the edl export from avid onto a seperate video layer so you can see where the cuts are(or use automatic duck) and finsh the project there.
but please DO NOT go back and re digitise your tapes. HDV is appalling at giving any kind of sensible t/code output that you can replicate in a conform or re-digitise situation IMO (check the forums) so stay inside your NLE and squirt it out native!
best of luck!
andy
quad 2.5ghz g5, 4.5 gig ram   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   G4 powerbook 1.67gHz, 2gig ram

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