13. FINAL CUT PRO: proxy workflow
[7:26 min]
🛠.
What You'll Need: Final Cut Pro
TRANSCRIPT
Hi I’m Kiarra with We Make Movies.
In today’s Ever changing world, we hear so much about remote workflow and collaboration. As digital creators and storytellers, you have probably done some type of remote collaboration on one of your video projects.
Because of their file size, it is time consuming and challenging transferring large batches of video files back and forth.
File Transfer sites have helped make it easier for collaborations. But we have to be aware of storage limitations and time constraints in uploading and downloading media.
Because of the recent shift in more content creators working from home and remote collaborating,
If you have experience with Remote Video Collaboration, or if you have yet to Remote Collaborate on a Video project, you’ll love the new features in Final Cut Pro X that make it easier to manage video file sizes for Collaborative workflows.
In this video we are going to go over making a video collaboration project using the Proxy media workflow. A new workflow feature that was introduced in Final Cut Pro 10.4.9
CREATING PROXY MEDIA FOR A PROJECT
For the purpose of this tutorial I created a Library named ORIGINAL LIBRARY. All of the media we will use has been copied into this library on import.
For more information on how to manage your media library, please watch our tutorial on media management.
Click on the Event that contains the Project you want to create proxy media for.
For the purposes of this tutorial I named my Event “EVENT 1” and my Project “We Make Movies.”
Select the Project.
Go to File > Transcode Media
Check the box for Create Proxy Media
In Codec you can choose Either ProRes Proxy or H.264
For this lesson leave the Codec Selected as ProRes Proxy as it is the most lightweight codec you can work with and takes up the least amount of hard drive space.
Select Frame Size for your Proxy media.
Use Scale and select 50% for this tutorial.
(YOU CAN SELECT A SMALLER PERCENTAGE, 25% or 12.5% WHICH WILL REDUCE FILE SIZE EVEN MORE WHILE ALSO REDUCING THE QUALITY OF IMAGE.
YOU CAN ALSO SELECT THE ‘UP TO’ AND SELECT A SMALLER RESOLUTION)
Click OK.
Wait until the media has finished transcoding, (You can tell by the filled up circle in the Background Tasks window. Which when it is filled, has a checkmark in the circle.)
Go To File > Copy Project to Library > New Library
Choose the name and location of where you want to save the new Library, For this tutorial name your library PROXY LIBRARY.
Click save.
IMPORTANT STEPS:
PROXY LIBRARY is created and a Copy Project to Library “PROXY LIBRARY” window appears.
In the Include: Make sure Media is selected, and underneath: Proxy Media is checked.
Any files that are in your Project timeline that doesn’t support transcoding will be copied in the library.
For more info on how to copy media into external locations, see our Media Management lesson.
If you have ANY media that is not able to be transcoded as proxy. Make Sure to Double check to make sure ‘In Library’ with your project name is selected in Media Destinations.
Select OK.
There will now be a new Event that defaults to today’s date n the “PROXY LIBRARY”
Double-Click on the “We Make Movies” Project icon to open the project in your timeline. You will notice that you will have a Red “Missing File” Alert icon appearing in your thumbnails, timeline and Viewer.
If you see this error, go up to View pop-up menu in the Viewer.
Underneath the Media Playback Option select either Proxy Preferred OR Proxy Only.
(For this workflow I selected Proxy Only)
In a moment your proxy media will have thumbnails and be displayed in the timeline and Viewer.
You now have a new Project that contains proxy media and a timeline you can upload to a collaborator.
To see the difference in file sizes, Click on the “ORIGINAL LIBRARY”.
In the Library Properties your library name will be in Gray, under your library name is the location. And to the right is the library size. Remember that number.
Now select the “PROXY LIBRARY” and note the file size. Quite a bit of difference.
For a best practices tip, make sure to put a number 2 or V2 on the “We Make Movies” project in your “PROXY LIBRARY” this will help you keep your versions labeled, especially if you make any changes.
I named the Project in the “Proxy Library” We Make Movies V2” You’ll see why in a moment.
You can now transfer the “PROXY LIBRARY” to the collaborator by hard drive or upload it directly to your iCloud or one of the many file sharing and transfer services.
You have successfully sent your Project off to be collaborated with. Whether it’s color correction, audio balance, or effects added, you can move onto other tasks while you await the “PROXY LIBRARY” to come back.
When your Collaborator has finished their part, they will transfer the project back to you.
You have one more step to complete what we call in the industry as “Round-Tripping” and that is to relink the Collaborator’s Proxies We Make Movies V2 Project to the Original Media in your ORIGINAL LIBRARY.
RECEIVING THE UPDATED PROJECT BACK IN YOUR ORIGINAL LIBRARY AND LINKING IT WITH THE ORIGINAL MEDIA
Fastest way to copy the updated project to the original library:
Have both “ORIGINAL” and “PROXY” libraries open.
Select the “We Make Movies V2” from the PROXY LIBRARY. Scroll the timeline and look for any changes to the video from what was originally sent.
Drag the “We Make Movies V2” project back into one of the “EVENT 1” Event in the ORIGINAL LIBRARY
(Make sure you see the green plus icon, that indicates it is copying
IF you don’t see the green plus icon, hold down control or command while dragging)
Select the Proxy Project
Copy Project to Library window comes back up.
In Include: Select Project without media
Click OK.
Now go to the Viewer and select OPTIMIZED/ORIGINAL MEDIA under MEDIA PLAYBACK.
Your updated project will now be re-linked to the Original Media.
Congratulations! You have successfully completed a round-trip trip workflow with proxy media. Even more importantly, you are now a Remote Video Collaborator!
CONCLUSION:
We have shown you how to create a proxy media project for a library that is used for remote collaboration. This is just one of the many workflows and ways to collaborate.
Have fun, build up your team and skills for your next project! Enjoy the New World of Remote Collaboration and creating video with Final Cut Pro 10.4.9.