I'm editing a doc in FCP (Ver. 6.0.6) and because of the amount of footage I have to get an assistant editor to help out with the work load. I have a project file that has all the footage in folders and sub folders that is very organized to work with.

My question is, can the assistant editor buy Final Cut Express and be able to open my FCP project file and work with it with no problem? He has mirrored HDs with the exact footage I have.

Unfortunately, you may only go the other way from FCE to FCP. Your assistant will have to buy the whole studio. But then at that point they would be using FCP7 and you are on 6 so you would then need to upgrade to read their project file. Upgrading is in order for this to work.

I am not familiar with Final Cut Express, but I have read on other sites that the latest version does support XML import, so you might be able to export an XML back for them to import and continue on working, especially if it's a very simple edit, not 100% sure but it's probably worth a try.

Thanks for the info guys.