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Anonymous
April 25, 2024
Answered

Premiere Productions project and folder organization for documentaries

  • April 25, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 3692 views

As my last documentary project took ages to load on startup, I would like to try premiere productions. On short form films it works fine so I read the "best practices" guide, but didnt find what I was looking for. 

Whats the best way to organize your project inside the production so it starts quickly and everything is availabe?

In the traditional project I have a folder with footage for each day and corresponding sequences with all the footage so its easy to preview and log footag.

Should I put the footage from every day with those sequences into a seperate project per day in the production and then add another project for the final edit? 

Correct answer PaulMurphy

To make the most of the ability to close individual projects within a Production—which can significantly reduce the load on your system—I recommend keeping media and sequences in separate projects. This structure helps manage performance and keeps project sizes manageable.

 

For documentary workflows, here's a general project structure I use:

  • Dailies: Contains all original media and multicam sequences.
  • Stringouts: Timelines built from Dailies to easily scrub through footage by day or scene. I usually spread these across multiple projects to keep file sizes down.
  • Reels: Edited scenes for the film, organized into separate projects by reel.


This setup keeps things modular and efficient, especially in large-scale documentary projects.

2 replies

John Hepworth
John Hepworth
Inspiring
January 30, 2026

I got my first taste of production projects working on a doc series.  I’m now wondering if I should use it for my current project - 400 separate shooting days, and a lot of old edits by a previous editor.

 

For years I’ve kept standalone SFX and VFX projects.  I’ve always been annoyed how dragging from those projects into my current editing project duplicated clips.

 

One of my questions though is: if I use my SFX and VFX projects within a production, can I down the road move those, now updated, projects into another production?  i.e as I organize and expand the sfx and vfx projects, I’d like to know that work will be available down the road.  I’m pretty sure that should be possible, but some hand holding would be reassuring.

R Neil Haugen
R Neil Haugen
Legend
January 30, 2026

Yes, as you can easily dupe a project from within a Production and add it to a different Production. That’s a main design feature, in reality.

Everyone's mileage always varies ...
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Community Expert
PaulMurphyCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
July 7, 2025

To make the most of the ability to close individual projects within a Production—which can significantly reduce the load on your system—I recommend keeping media and sequences in separate projects. This structure helps manage performance and keeps project sizes manageable.

 

For documentary workflows, here's a general project structure I use:

  • Dailies: Contains all original media and multicam sequences.
  • Stringouts: Timelines built from Dailies to easily scrub through footage by day or scene. I usually spread these across multiple projects to keep file sizes down.
  • Reels: Edited scenes for the film, organized into separate projects by reel.


This setup keeps things modular and efficient, especially in large-scale documentary projects.

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