relink and/or replace media

[Indie767]

Is there a script or third party app to relink or replace media? 

[R Neil Haugen]

Check the Autokroma website, they might have something.

Also check on aescripts.com, search for Premiere plugins. They've got a ton of things that can do this sort of thing I think.

Neil

[Indie767]

Thanks, I'll look into these resources. You would think Adobe would have figured out how to relink media by now, which is why it is not well suited for long form, feature work. 

[R Neil Haugen]

Well ... some people apparently can do so. As in, the last couple years, over 50% of the films at Sundance were cut in Premiere.

And what is the problem with relinking?

Neil

[Indie767]

Relinking is ok but automation is iffy. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't.  As for feature films, I am a veteran of the Los Angeles post industry. Avid is the profession tool used there. Don't know any editors doing long form on Premiere Pro. The Sundance films you are referring to are probably short films. 

[R Neil Haugen]

Nope, those are the numbers for the whole enchilada. Premiere has been the NLE for more than 50% the last two Sundances. Which kinda surprises me but it is what it is. And there's been several 'majors' from Hollywood studios totally worked in Premiere. So it's been done, not that most Hollywood films are gonna use Premiere. Avid being, well ... Avid.

When you already know something built for a job, why try something else, right? You use what you know how to use, and know that it works from experience.

For working with long-form on major projects, Adobe has a whole separate section of Premiere staff for special support. Check with David Helmly and Karl Soule, they're the ones that work directly with that sort of thing.

I do hope for any larger project that you do use Premiere for, that you're working in the Production mode of Premiere? Stand-alone or 'standard' projects are simply unwieldy with that many assets involved.

And the organizational model can be totally built around how you want it organized.

Neil

[Indie767]

I just updated and haven't looked into Production. My workflow is creating a new sequence for each reel but I will look into Production mode. 

Thanks

[R Neil Haugen]

It's a completely different working model. You use a folder structure to organize your total project, and within subfolders, use projects to house different parts.

So ... project files are almost like a bin in stand-alone projects.

The overall Production has its own folder that it creates. From the Production panel, you right-click and create either folders or projects.

So ... make the Production.

In the Production, folders for say Media, and in the Media folders, maybe you break the project up by days or by segments or scenes. In subfolders for those, you create projects and actually import media into the projects by your organization structure. Again, projects are bins ... so your folder for Day 1 has projects in it that are maybe Arri, Red, b-roll ... whatever.

In those projects you import that media.

In the Episodes or Scenes folders, you create subfolders as needed, and projects for each item. So you might have Ep 1 folder, with subfolders for four different parts of the ep. Each one has project files in it with the sequences for that section.

This makes getting to particular parts of the project very easy, and working it across mulitple editors a seamless operation.

You can have the folders with project files open in the same panel as your Production (as I do) so you can quickly go between them.

When you create a sequence, you go to the folder/project file for that ep or scene, and make it the 'active' project, so the timeline panel and program monitor will be set to it. Then go to the folder/project with the media for that ep, select it, drag/drop to the timeline ... and your new sequence has media. Edit as normal.

But the cool thing ... is there are no duplicated assets in the entire thing. All the projects using assets of other projects simply 'reference' to the asset in the other project.

And best of all, as you only have a few smaller projects actually 'loaded' at any one time, Premiere doesn't need to open and store the ENTIRE meta for every asset into RAM/cache files. Just the ones it's using at the moment.

So for large projects, it's both more organized and runs much faster on the machine.

Neil

[Indie767 · Accepted solution]

Hi Neil. 

Production mode looks cool. I will look into this on my next project. 

Thanks

[Bruce Bullis]

Any PPro panel can relink media; what's the specific problem you're trying to solve? 

[Also, Neil's right; it's not just short films. :)]

[Indie767]

Hi Bruce, 

Yes, PPro can relink media but many times it is a manual procces - hunt and peck - which obviosly is a pain if you have a lot of media files. 

[R Neil Haugen]

I can normally relink by folder ... select the first clip of a folder with several missing clips, it relinks to everything. As long as the names are the same of course. But that isn't working on yours?

Neil

[Henrique - TMMW]

Hi @Indie767 

Henrique here from The Machine Must Work.

We make Premiere Pro extensions.

I'd be happy to know more about what you are looking for in your use case.

Feel free to reach out directly.

Henrique \\ TMMW

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