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TroubleValli
Participant
March 31, 2018
Answered

Struggling with getting started ingesting, creating proxies, workflow

  • March 31, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 346 views

Here's my problem... I'm an experienced television editor, but never an AE... so after about two or three months of extensive studying and reading everything I can, I figure I'm about two steps above a complete moron when it comes to the technical side of getting what I've shot (also learning here) into the system efficiently and starting editing. My wife (also a television professional) and I are developing some show ideas/pitches, and working on a documentary on a topic we are both passionate about, so this should give you an idea of our goals when it comes to what we need/want to do. I'll also ultimately be doing some color correcting, some gfx, but nothing too heavy for a while...  

      I think I should use a proxy workflow and was considering ProRES 422 proxy. I know I have a powerful computer, but since I'm working with footage from different drones and cameras, some 4k, lots of full HD, some slo mo, shooting in Long GOP on the GH5 (harder to edit with), and I also understand that the H.264 codec is harder to edit with due to so much compression, I figured this would let my computer keep up with my editing skills instead of working too hard. And, as I'm so accustomed to an offline workflow at work, seeing the lower res footage is actually less jarring than seeing all this great footage right now (haha).

     So my first question is; does it seem like I'm on the right track? Or should I be considering using a different proxy? Do people ever edit with some proxies and some native files? Basically, should I just transcode everything to one of the smaller ProRES codecs and get to work?

     Secondly; I have yet to copy any footage from any of my SD cards to my G-Drive. I'm only ingesting lots of B Roll for future projects right now and some of them are big files with only a few viable shots in them. Should I just accept this and use the "Copy and Transcode" option in Ingest settings in Premiere, copying the entire source files from each SD card to the G-Drive, into designated source media folders, while assigning the transcoded files to go where?? also to the G-Drive in separate folders? Currently, I'm putting my project file on the internal 1TB SSD.

    It seems like I'm going to learn a valuable lesson about planning my shots more and not just letting it run, but I'd love to be able to mitigate the damage to my hard drive space on this ingest, and in the future. Is there a way to do that in either Premiere, Media Encoder or Prelude, with the source footage, or just with the transcoded footage. It's not the end of the world, but my creative head is swimming with technical information and I just want to start the right way.

Thanks in advance!!! (to anyone who takes the time to read this)

Anthony

GEAR LIST;;

DJI Phantom 4, DJI Spark

Panasonic GH5, Canon 70d

Imac PRO, 8 core, 64 gigs RAM, 1TB SSD, Radeon Pro Vega 56 8 GB

My primary external is a 6TB, Thunderbolt 3, G-drive

(plus some backup)

Adobe Premiere Pro, Media Encoder, Prelude, Bridge

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer excited_Genie16B8

My preference is for Cineform proxies.  (But then I'm a Windows user.)  I would recommend this for all Hl.264 media.  Many cameras shoot ProRes and DNx natively.  That footage probably won't need proxies.

My preferred work flow and what I recommend to all editors is first copy the entire card to a backup location using only a file manager.  (Windows Explorer or Finder)  Second, use that same file manager to copy the entire card to your working media drive.  Proxies and transcodes are a separate, third step.

1 reply

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excited_Genie16B8Correct answer
Legend
April 1, 2018

My preference is for Cineform proxies.  (But then I'm a Windows user.)  I would recommend this for all Hl.264 media.  Many cameras shoot ProRes and DNx natively.  That footage probably won't need proxies.

My preferred work flow and what I recommend to all editors is first copy the entire card to a backup location using only a file manager.  (Windows Explorer or Finder)  Second, use that same file manager to copy the entire card to your working media drive.  Proxies and transcodes are a separate, third step.

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TroubleValliAuthor
Participant
April 1, 2018

Thanks for your response Jim. The GH5 does shoot ProRes natively however, it's a much larger file... so the 4k 24p 150Mbs Long GOP file becomes a 400Mbs All Intra file... much easier to edit, but lots of extra storage requirement for no real increase in image quality for my current purposes. That's why I was thinking of staying with the smaller, Long GOP file, and then transcoding to a manageable ProRes intermediate. Maybe what I should be considering is; instead of winding up with two small (-ish) files, perhaps it would be smarter to just shoot the ProRes from the start and not use an intermediate codec at all... like you're suggesting.

     I've been hearing some other endorsements of the Cineform codec, so I'll have to research it some more. Thank you. I was initially concerned about the size of that file too.

     As for file transfer, it's sounds like you're clearly saying to not use Premiere or Media Encoder independently, and the "Copy and Transcode" setting on ingest to transfer the files to storage... instead, use Finder to manually drag them over. Will do that.

     Can you tell me where you would assign your proxies to be stored? Does it cause an issue to have them on the same drive as the source footage (not backups)? And do you endorse having the project file on the faster internal SSD with the Apps?

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excited_Genie16B8
Legend
April 2, 2018

The GH5 does shoot ProRes natively however

I don't think that's true.  The camera is listed as recording H.264 only.

Don't ever worry about file sizes.  Editing requires lots of hard drive space.  If you need more, get it.

I create the proxies next to the originals.  Very simple, organizationally.

I recommend five internal drives as a starting point.

C: System drive - OS and Programs only

D: Projects, audio files, still images

E: Cache and Scratch

F: Camera media

G: Exports

C, D and E can be SSD's.  F and G will typically be your largest drives, and can be quite expensive when using SSD's.  HDD's might make more sense for those.

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