Productions: Working with external editors (importing sequence + file renaming)

Hi,

Our production company uses Premiere Productions as a default workflow. One of the questions I get asked most, is if we can offer a workflow where editors can work from home, outside of our project which is set-up on a local server.

My answer is usually no, unless the media hasn't been imported into the project yet.

Because Productions has been a pain in the last year, I'm trying to treat it very carefully. Meaning:
- trying to maintain every single internal link

- stick to a workflow where we rename our files first
- divide the entire production in many smaller projects due to freaky progress loading times

To keep a long story short, I have a few specific questions I was hoping anyone can shine a light on:

1. Renaming file names after editing

Let's say, I receive a hard drive with all the footage of a shooting day, including a rough cut in a normal Premiere project. The first thing I would like to fix is renaming the clip names to our file naming structure.

Is the only correct way to rename the files physically, to rename them, open Premiere, let it 'Relink Media' and have it search on (for example) file length, after which the clips on the timeline will be reconnected to the renamed files? From what I understand, the names won't be changed within Premiere itself. So the files in the project bin and on the timline will still contain the old names.

Is the only way to fix that to rename all the files within Premiere manually?

2. Importing externally edited sequence into the Production, maintining two-way linking structure

I don't know if there's an official name for it, but a clip within Premiere Productions is using 2 ways of being linked.

On one end, the clip on a sequence within Premiere Productions is always linked to the phyical position on a storage device. Let's say a clip can be stored on the Desktop, and Premiere Productions will always know that it will have to connect the clip to the physical media on the Desktop.

On the other hand, for stability purposes, media should always be imported in Premiere Productions into a project, and not be dragged straight onto a sequence from the storage device. From the project where the media is dragged into, it can be dragged into a sequence. Hence linking number 2: the internal Project path structure. The clip on a sequence always being linked to a project.

Now let's say, we have all sorts of footage prepared inside Premiere Productions (rough example):
- Project: media clips interviews
- Project: sequence with the interview clips
- Project: media shooting day 1
- Project: media shooting day 2
- Project: two synchronized sequences with the clips from shooting days 1 and 2

- Project: edit sequences

One of the editors would like to make a rough cut of shooting day 1 and is about to film a shooting day 3 and would like to make a rough cut from home as well to be later imported (back) into the Productions.

The simple answer is: Yes, this is possible. You can copy the sequences onto the server, open them within Regular Premiere and have all the clips in the projects be relinked to the media on the local server. From there on you can import them back into Productions.

Now for Productions, this isn't the right way if you would like to maintain all links.

Once you import the new sequences, only the first linking option remains intact where Premiere will know where to find the physical media on the storage device. It doesn't maintain the 'reveal in Project' link. In other words: the clips on the sequences aren't connected to projects within Premiere Productions anymore.

Or so it seems...

So in short, my question is: how to maintain an optimal and stable Premiere Productions project where all files on sequences will always be linked to media stored in projects? So far this is the only thing that is witholding me from letting editors work from home.

One workaround I'm using for 'small' external edits, is to create a new project within the Premiere Productions project and drag in everything the editor needs. So basically from within Premiere Productions, I'm extracting everything, maintaining all ID numbers (from what I understand). So I'm giving the editor a single project, containg all footage and several sequences and have him work within those files. After I get everything back, the extracted project is imported back into Prememiere Productions, and all media is being dragged back into their original projects.

That is a bit hard to do once an editor wants to edit from home and he basically needs more than 50% of all footage, while a second editor is working locally on the server at our office at the same time.

I hope these questions make sense 😉

Thanks!