Selects hands off to Final Cut Pro as an .fcpxml file, which Final Cut reads natively. Your cuts, track layout, and labels come across, and your original media is never modified.
Hand off to Final Cut Pro
Open the timeline you want to work from.
Open the handoff menu in the top right and choose [Final Cut Pro] under [Handoff to].
Choose your settings in the Handoff to Final Cut Pro dialog, then click [Handoff].
When Handoff is ready appears, click [Open folder] to find the .fcpxml file.
Note: Every draft in your project is included in the handoff, not just the one you are looking at. See Hand off to your NLE.
Handoff settings
The Final Cut dialog is a short one, with two settings:
Include captions: adds your transcript to the exported timeline as captions.
Mark used clips on full timeline: adds a second timeline containing your full original footage, with the clips you actually used marked, so you can see what made the cut in the context of everything you shot.
Selects remembers these settings, so your next handoff starts from whatever you chose last time.
If Selects warns about audio sync
Some file formats cause Final Cut Pro to play audio slightly ahead of the video. When Selects spots those files in your project, it shows a dialog listing them before the export runs, with two choices:
[Fix and export]: Selects exports using automatically corrected copies. Your original files and your edits are left untouched, and the fix takes a few seconds.
[Export anyway]: exports with the files as they are.
[Fix and export] is the safer choice unless you have a reason to keep the original encoding.
Import into Final Cut Pro
Open Final Cut Pro.
Go to [File > Import > XML].
Select the .fcpxml file Selects created.
Final Cut imports the timeline with your media linked to the original files.
FAQs
Can I choose which drafts to hand off?
No. Every draft in the project is included automatically. If you only want one, hand off as normal and delete the timelines you do not need in Final Cut.
Can I bring my topic titles across?
Topic title options are available when you hand off to Adobe Premiere or DaVinci Resolve. The Final Cut dialog offers captions and the full timeline marking only.
Can I use proxy files with Final Cut Pro?
Yes. Create proxy media in Final Cut, import only the proxy folder into Selects, then relink to your original camera files after you import the .fcpxml. See Using proxy files in Selects.