Inspiring

Answered

Proxy Workflow with Interpreted Footage // THE ANSWER

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
November 5, 2017
9 replies
18610 views

After scrubbing the web and the forums for a solution for using Premiere's relatively new-fangled Proxy workflow using interpreted footage, I found a great workaround/hack that definitely gets the job done. I would like to thank arodon7 for his/her post that includes this extremely useful YouTube tutorial.

For the sake of SEO, I am talking about taking high frame rate footage that you might want to play back at a slower frame rate to achieve a slowmo/slomo/slow motion effect. If you're shooting at 120fps and you want your footage to look like it's playing back in slow motion, you have to tell Premiere to treat the footage like it's playing back at the timebase of your sequence, say 23.976, by going to Clip/Modify/Interpret Footage, then entering in the timebase of your liking.

However, if you try to create proxies from these interpreted clips, Premiere sends the clips to Adobe Media Encoder flagged with their original frame rate. The resulting proxy is out of sync with the interpreted footage because it's playing back at its native speed rather than the interpreted speed, rendering it useless.

It seems to me that given the simplicity of the "hack" referenced in the YouTube tutorial that this would be a very easy thing for your developers to fix. So why has it not been addressed? Why is there a brand-spanking new version of Premiere and do you not advertise the bugs that have been fixed? Finally, WHEN CAN WE EXPECT TO SEE THIS PROXY FEATURE FIXED?

Thank you for reading this and taking it seriously.

Mod note: Edited for content.

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer R Neil Haugen

A better process is to approach it differently. Rather than using the interpret footage options to change playback speed, use the Duration options instead.

Then proxies follow the changes to playback.

Neil

S

Scott.C.

Inspiring

I thought they fixed this but I feel like I'm still running into this bug? Might be becasue I attached proxies after the fact? Again the proxy should mirror the interpet footage setting full stop not cause alignment issues.

Nethig

Participant

And here we are, 6 years later, dealing with the same issue...

R Neil Haugen

Legend

Yup, it's the same. So as explained above ....

Interpret Footage still doesn't work with proxies, do NOT use it.

Use Speed/Duration, and the proxies work.

Everyone's mileage always varies ...

A

Alberto Bedin

Known Participant

We don't want to use speed/duration because speed duration doesn't work in source monitor. Also, you can't apply speed/duration to multiple clip already in the timeline because the in/out will be changed. In addition you can't use speed/duration and warp stabilizer on the same clip without nesting. It's a mess.

We just need this workflow:

We need to create proxy always using the same fps of the original footage (not interpreted).
When we interpret footage in Premiere, it should change both in the original footage and the attached proxy.
Even if the proxy is created after the footage has been interpreted, it should be created with the original fps and then interpreted in the same way as the original footage.

S

Scott.C.

Inspiring

What is the status on this feature request? The last post on User Voice was from July saying it would be implemented the in the "next version" but I don't think I saw any movement on this at Adobe MAX. This has been THE show stopping bug for the proxy workflow for at lesat four years running and the old workaround to my knowledge doesn't work anymore. I get that the duration feature is one way to do it, which I consider a workaround, but its way more steps than selecting an entire bin and having the speed change stick for the duration of the project. Editing software is about speed, efficiency, and consistency and none of those things apply to this bug.

R Neil Haugen

Legend

They've just moved the UserVoice stuff ... bugs & features ... to this forum, and I've no clue how the 'updates' will work here. We'll just have to see.

I do know though that what you call a workaround is what the engineers who designed the process consider the proper one. It's the one built for 'heavy' use, the Interpret Footage was built for changing cadence, NOT actual speed.

It's like many people think 'merge clips' should be the correct tool for joining video & separate audio ... but it ain't. That's a quickie to stuff a video & non-related audio clip together for basic editing ... moving on a timeline together or something.

But it doesn't ever get put into XML/EDL exports because it's not designed to be the main 'joining' tool.

That's the multicam-process. Which then is somehow at least slightly mis-named, and I think that's what makes people think it's the wrong thing. But that is the proper process for joining video & audio, and as such, has no problem with proxy use.

And also goes into XML/EDL workflows just fine.

Use the tool designed for something, gee ... it works better.

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...

S

Scott.C.

Inspiring

This just honestly sounds like a bunch of broken tools, and one of the reasons Premiere still feels buggy at this late stage of development. I know I can be negative on these forums, but Adobe has basically burned away any of the goodwill I felt towards the company with their snails pace development cycle and lack of communication on four year old bug requests.

Many of us came over from FCP7 back in 2011 and merge clips was the way to merge two clips together with separate audio and video, which is still the way a good chunk of most professional shoots are done. They never bothered to beef up that feature and make it work as it should. They gave us audio sync which was nice but no batch function.

The multi-cam function, was designed for multi-camera clips, it's in the name! I was not designed for simple merging one audio and one video file. Now, it just so happens to be the best way to have a decent merge clip function, but it has always felt like a hacky workaround. There should be a real, proper, batch align video and audio by timecode tool. Resolve and AVID has no problems with this. I get what we have works but it feels like a broken workflow propped up by antoher workflow.

Back to the subject at hand! I don't really care too much about how interpret footage was designed to work, just that it works consistently. It also removes math out of the equation which never leaves me guessing if I did my number crunching correctly or if the speed function is going to pulldown a frame at the wrong spot or double up a frame somewhere. "It just works."

It's wild to have the interpret footage settings apply to the master clip and not the proxy clip. That is just a bug. Why would you design it to have two interpret footage settings. I honestly don't know why this bug is a 4 year fix. I think it currently renders out the clip to a file with whatever frame rate it interpreted to which is an improvment, but it should just render it out to the native frame rate and just respect the interpret dialog setting!

I've been around long enough to remeber when you unlinked a project and re-linked it Premiere would forget your interpret footage settings which caused a real nightmare scenario when you passed a project off to another editor with seprate media. They patched that bug within a year, pretty certain it wasn't a four year wait.

E

Ella Barva-Smith

Participant

Here's a QUICK FIX that no one has seemed to mention!

1. Create your proxies at their original frame rate (we will interpret them in Premiere)
2. Rather than 'Attach Proxies', import them separately into your project.

3. Interpret your proxies to the desired frame rate - whatever you've interpretted the original source to.
4. Create a sequence with both your original (perhaps 4k footage) AND your proxie files (now interpreted) on top. They should be identical.
5. Disable your original high-res footage.
6. Cut both the proxie files and 4k footage simultaneously (without lagging - woohoo!)
7. Once you've got your timeline pieced together, go ahead and delete the proxie files (or disable them), and enable your original footage!

This is the EASIEST workaround for me, because relinking each individual clip is an absolute nightmare and far too time consuming. But YES - it would be great if Adobe could fix this problem. It is LONG overdue.

J

justinneal00

Participant

Ella Barva-Smith, this is a fantastic idea.

R Neil Haugen

Legend

And totally unnecessary if you use the intended process of Speed/Duration to change your original footage to the timeline fps.

Then create your proxies directly from the original footage.

And yea, you need to figure out the percentage difference in speed, which is a bit of a pita. Do it once, write it down.

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...

Kevin-Monahan

Community Manager

Hi Community,

Please upvote here: Mod note: Specific Feature Request for this Issue. Upvote here: https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911233-premiere-pro/suggestions/33858397-proxy-workflow-interpret-footage

Thanks,

Kevin

Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community & Engagement Strategist – Pro Video and Audio

R Neil Haugen

Legend

Done. Why it always hasn't, that's the real question, right?

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...

Kevin-Monahan

Community Manager

Yep. Do you know of any otther big posts on this topic? Trying to herd all the cats in 2022. Let me know via PM.

Thanks,
Kevin

Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community & Engagement Strategist – Pro Video and Audio

L

lthlwpnfilms

Participant

So I read an article from Adobe a while ago, I've always been interpreting footage but apparently that should ordinarily just be used for 'hail mary' situations. Taking an example of 50fps footage on a 25fps timeline, what you should do instead is make the proxies from the original files, select all the files from the folder and change the speed at source to 50% and then make sure your sequence is 25fps. The proxies link properly and it plays back on the timeline as you'd expect.

B

basil1891

Inspiring

We can upvote this: https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911233-premiere-pro/suggestions/33858397-proxy-workflow-interpret-footage

... It's there from 2018 and still not fixed ... 'sigh'

riteshm85690147

Participant

Wow! Thank you so much! Worked seamlessly.

R Neil Haugen

Legend

Thanks ... and please go to that UserVoice link and upvote this. This needs attention ... sigh.

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...

riteshm85690147

Participant

Thank you once again.

Just submitted the wish form highlighting the issue.

Not sure what the User voice link is... sorry.

R Neil Haugen

Legend

A rather bizarre opening statement ... these forums are here for getting comments most that will be critical of the current state of the program, or why else would one post here? You're having trouble with the program, you post here and see if someone can offer a helpful suggestion.

A normal human part of the above is a rant now an then. The policies are simply to keep the language "clean", don't attack people in "flaming" behavior, and be respectful of contrary ideas. If you've looked through this forum much, there's been a TON of threads where people question the sanity and such of the folks of the development program. Past that, I don't know a single person who uses this app (including a few engineers I've talked with) that wouldn't want at least a few major changes to suit their own needs.

The issue with proxies and interpreted time-rate original media is a royal pain, I totally agree. The best way to move that up on the list is to file the feature report forms ... no, they never respond. But every bug or feature report gets filed on the collated lists that are constantly sent to all the managerial types.

Mod note: Specific Feature Request for this Issue. Upvote here: https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911233-premiere-pro/suggestions/33858397-proxy-workflow-interpret-footage

As to when this will be improved ... that we'll never know until they announce the release info for a release that 'drops' including this.

For all readers coming to this thread ... saving you some time. Say you've selected one or more clips on a sequence/project, and used Modify/Interpret time to change the playback speed. Now you can create proxies, but they will be at the ORIGINIAL speed ... NOT good.

So ...

In the project panel, select the clip/s that have been interpreted & need proxies to match.
Right-click, "Proxies/create proxies" which will cause AME to launch.
IMMEDIATELY switch to AME and stop the processing of that first proxy file.
Right-click the file, select "Reset".
Select that and any other files you may have sent along, right-click, "Modify/Interpret" and set to the same time-base as the original media's interpreted setting used on your timeline.
Start the processing.
When complete, all but that first file you stopped & reset will show as "attached", you'll need to attach that first file.
Select that file that isn't attached, right-click, and 'attach proxies'.
In the dialog box that pops up, navigate to the location for your proxies, select the proper file, and click "attach".

Now, you should have working proxies at the interpreted time setting.

And please, file the feature request for this!

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...

R

rikpix

Participant

ulikunkel_autobahn, thanks for posting about this problem, and R_Neil_Haugen, thanks very much for the clear and concise description of the steps for the solution. (and for the encouragement/explanation about the usefulness of submitting to the feature/bug report forms... knowing that we'll never get a response, but also knowing that it DOES make a difference is super useful to hear) Cheers all!

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