Best Practice for Duplicating an Entire Production?

[Zachcfowler]

Does anyone know if Adobe has a best practice for duplicating a production for template purposes? We are editing long-form features and have a production setup that we like. We'd like to have that setup with empty projects in a production that we can duplicate for every film.

It seems if I just simply copy and paste a production in finder it could create duplicate IDs. This shouldn't be a problem since it will be completely separate from the old production but I want to be sure. What I have done so far is to duplicate the production folder in Finder, then go to "open production" in Premiere, open the folder and it asks me if I want to convert the folder system into a production. I assume this assigns new IDs and everything is set up right...but I'm a bit paranoid about these things lol

There aren't any obvious problems stemming from this method but we have been having odd production-related issues that are just too numerous and complicated to post here now lol. Just trying to cross this possibility off the list in case there's something I don't know.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Good question, Zach. I will ask the team about it.

Thanks,
Kevin

[MyerPj]

I'm following this thread...

@R Neil Haugen has been using productions for awhile now...

[R Neil Haugen]

@Bruce Bullis could probably help us or get the right answer out of someone.

Neil

[Bruce Bullis · Accepted solution]

Talked with the team (who wrote Productions), who say:

Duplicate the entire production folder (template) at the Finder level and as long as these productions are kept separate, there is no issue. If the template projects contain media, it is not ideal but still works. Completely empty projects are ideal.

Note: If every user logged out of PPro cleanly, then there should be no .prlock files left. Just in case, If some one crashed out from the (template) production, it would be better to clear all  .prlock files, and any .prodset files at the root of the template production. (Premiere Pro will ignore that file in the copied production, as their names will not match, but it'd still be better to have the template "cleaner" without it.)

[MichMcg]

I have tried to duplicate the entire production folder and open that duplicated production in premiere but I continually get the "This is not a production" message. Is there a better way to duplicate productions? Especially when you are forced to upgrade from one version of Premiere to another due to crash issues? thanks!

[Ben Insler · Accepted solution]

This likely has to do with the fact that the .prodset file inside the production does not match the name you are assiginig to the Production Folder, or has been removed.  The Production name and .prodset files have to match, and when they don't, Premiere Pro's "This is not a production" message is ultimately making a new .prodset file as needed if you choose to convert the folder to a production.  The recommendation by @Bruce Bullis above to remove the .prodset file was to help avoid this mismatch - deleting the .prodset file from the template would guarantee that a new matching one will be created correctly... at the cost of having to hit the "This is not a production" dialog. 

Our recommendation for duplicating a template Production would be:

1. Establish your template production.
2. Duplicate your entire production folder to a new location.  If its name gets appended with a "Copy" or "Copy 1", remove that from the duplicated root folder name so that it's name matches the original name of the Production.
3. Open the new Production in Premiere Pro.  Use the "Rename Production..." function in the Production Panel contextual menu.  This will rename the Production root folder and update the contained .prodset file to match.

[Ben Insler]

PS - opening any production in a newer version of Premiere Pro than it was created in will always trigger an update of all project files within the production.  If you are upgrading to a latter version of Premiere Pro, I'd recommend updating your Template Production to that version as well, as opposed to repeatedly duplicating the out-of-date Production and updating every duplicate.

[MichMcg]

Thank you for this insightful answer @Ben Insler . The key to the mystery for me was the renaming. I'll try your steps and report back if they don't work for me, but it seems like it should work out well. Thank you for your help!

[atejennifer]

Hi, I followed these instructions to duplicate a production, but when I open a project in the new production, the the Productions folder is empty. Individual projects will open but not the Production.

I'm running Ventura 13.1, Premiere Pro 23.3.0.

[Zachcfowler]

Wonderful, thanks for the quick answers, everyone! This gives me some peace of mind on the process. Will continue making the duplicate on the folder level. Planning to have all the projects empty aside from some black video, adjustment layers, academy leaders, etc. 

[Trevor_Asq]

I can see how it would be useful to have alias to common projects (eg a SFX project) that is then kept updated amongst all productions.

In Avid you add them as 'favourite bins' to a project (Avid bin/project =~ Adobe project/production).

[MB Filmmaker]

It seems like a few answers are already here but I was personally just having some issues so I thought I would throw my two cents in.  I tried copying the production folder in finder to a new location but when I opened one of the projects the other ones did not appear in the production.  What wound up working for me was opening premiere on its own, and selecting Film/New/Production from the  header at the opening dialog window. After making a new empty production I then right clicked in the production window and selected 'Add Project to Production'.  I then navigated to the old production I wanted to duplicate and selected all the projects I watned to bring over.  These all loaded and I was set to go.  This also worked for updating a production made in an older version of premire into the current version.