KeyFlow Pro: How it might work with Final Cut Pro X in future

New on the Mac App Store: KeyflowPro from Malgn Technology. fcp.co has the story:

Quit KeyFlow Pro 1.x and Update it to version 1.8.5 from the Mac App Store. Launch KeyFlow Pro 1.8.5, open the library you want to open in.

The problem with MAMs or Media Asset Management systems was that they were expensive and required a lot of hardware to service them. Not anymore. The newly launched KeyFlow Pro is $299 and can run on a MacBook Pro. A very interesting new app.

Up until now, the use of MAMs in video editing has been only for large installations who can afford the installation and support of such a project.

KeyFlow Pro has jut been released and is set to change all of that. For just $299, any user who needs their video files cataloging and organising can run a MAM that has been designed to work on a Mac and of course integrate with Final Cut Pro X.

Some will recognise elements of other media asset managers, but its integration with Final Cut Pro X metadata opens up other opportunities.

The ‘Key’ in KeyFlow Pro is short for ‘Keyword’

Keywords flow in and out of KeyFlow Pro. Keywords added to footage and stills in KeyflowPro are applied as keywords to clips in Final Cut. You can also share directly from a Final Cut timeline into a KeyflowPro library. As well as the movie file, you have the option to include the X XML version of the timeline as well. The metadata added in Final Cut also appears associated with the shared movie in KeyFlow Pro.

As well as being a very interesting product today, version 1 points the way to future possibilities:

• If KeyFlow Pro can point to media inside Final Cut Pro libraries, it could use X-generated proxies to display footage and stills in KFPro libraries (it generates H.264 proxies at the moment)
• If a future version Final Cut Pro X could export a reference movie Quicktime of a timeline (a movie that refers to other movies to play back), when that movie is imported into KeyFlow Pro, the clips used (and their metadata) could be added to the KFPro library
• KeyFlow Pro library to Final Cut Pro X library round-tripping and vice-versa (including titles, title renders and title proxy renders from and to Final Cut)
• KeyFlow Pro Proxy libraries that would be linked to a parent library on a main server that could remain on portable Macs – only the proxies would need to update as the parent changes due to other user updates. The Final Cut library on the local machine would use the local KFPro to show proxy media. When reconnected with the main server, the Final Cut library would be able to use media managed by the parent KFPro library

As well as inpsiring Apple to create their X version of Final Cut Server, I hope KeyFlow Pro also inspires other developers such as Arctic Whiteness – makers of Final Cut Library Manager…