another editor
 

I'm using CS4 and cineform - I'd like to import my tapes through HDlink and set up a project then hand it over to another editor (on a USB drive) to do some preliminary work before he hands it back to me for completion.
can he use CS4 to edit files without cineform?
does he need the free decoder?

is anyone doing anything like this?

If you expect that editor to give you Cineform files back, he'll need to buy the program. If they just need to read the files, the free decoder is all they need.

Surely not if he doesn't need to export? - he will simply be handing back the partially completed project on a USB drive. All I really want him to do is place clips in various bins & create some basic sequences so I can finish off

The free decoder install (Neo Player) will be all that is needed.

Right, if he doesn't need to export, then all he needs is the reader.

great to know that would work, pity the editor fell through :-(

I've got someone else interested but he uses FCP - is there any way he can edit the bulk of a project and then had it back to me for exporting and DVD production?

Absolutely. Did exactly this for our film last fall. Editor on FCP, me on Vegas.

You'll need one thing or possibly two.

1. Purchase a copy of MacDrive by SourceFour. This will ease your pain considerably in reading mac formatted drives. Just have him work as normal, finish the project, and export a final version to the mac formatted external. Then you plug it into your PC and it looks just like an NTFS drive to your system. Couldn't be easier.

2. IF you will be doing final color, then you can just ask him to give you ProRes output if you've got Quicktime 7.6 or later installed. If HE will be doing final color, then do yourself a favor and have both of you install the Avid DNxHD codec. So far, it's the ONLY way I've found to preserve the color without gamma shift for material coming from Mac over to PC. Works perfectly, and it's free and very high quality. My editor loved this workflow. Other than that installation, he didn't have to change his normal workflow. For him it was like working with another Mac.