Linking Proxies to Original R3D in PPro

[Gursimran Dhillon]

Hi All,

We edited our feature using _M proxies in FCP7 but now we are slowing trying to explore PPro as an alternate. Is there a workflow that has been successful in linking the proxy files to the original R3D in PPro so we can continue the edit in PPro instead of FCP. We have only done half of it so it might be worth switching it now itself. We were hoping that the new FCP release will be capable of handling the original R3D files and an easy way to link up the proxies to the original files but that didn't happen hence the migration to PPro.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Brad Allen]

Definitely can be done, though I don't know if there is an easy automated way for premiere to find all the files when they are named differently. Maybe someone else can chime in?

Import your FCP into PPro.
Select all of your proxies in your project bin
Right click and select "Make Offline..."
Then Right Click Again and Select "Link Media..."
PPro will then get you to select which file you want to use for each relevant clip you're re-linking

Depending on how big your project is, this could take a long time indeed. It will work, but it's pretty painful. Makes me think there should be a better way of achieving this?

 

[J Davis]

Just guessing here ... but I would try exporting and EDL then using find/replace edits within the EDL

 

[Todd Kopriva]

See the first item in the bulleted list here:
"Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 improvements in Final Cut Pro XML interchange"

Let us know if that doesn't work for you.

 

[Uli Plank]

The Text says: "When Premiere Pro finds a reference to a ProRes proxy for RED (R3D) footage in an FCP file, it uses the full-resolution RED footage in instead of the ProRes proxy. "

Does this mean ProRes Proxy literally or any ProRes format? What about re-wrapped native R3Ds?

 

[Subhadip Sen]

Definitely can be done, though I don't know if there is an easy automated way for premiere to find all the files when they are named differently. Maybe someone else can chime in?

Import your FCP into PPro.
Select all of your proxies in your project bin
Right click and select "Make Offline..."
Then Right Click Again and Select "Link Media..."
PPro will then get you to select which file you want to use for each relevant clip you're re-linking

Depending on how big your project is, this could take a long time indeed. It will work, but it's pretty painful. Makes me think there should be a better way of achieving this?

Yes, this is the best option. Just one suggestion, which has saved me countless hours - copy all the R3D files that include your final takes onto one folder. If all your clips are in one folder, the entire process is automated. If you are unsure, then just type *.r3d in the folder/drive with all your raw takes in the search bar and copy-paste or cut-paste all the results into one folder. The trick in CS5.5 is that it renames the .mov to .r3d upon XML import in the bin. However, the file names must be the same.

I love how Vegas Pro does the re-linking though - by finding matching file names automatically across several folders. Surely, this has to be a future feature in Premiere Pro.

 

[Brad Allen]

I love how Vegas Pro does the re-linking though - by finding matching file names automatically across several folders. Surely, this has to be a future feature in Premiere Pro.

I'm not sure on the r3d side of things, but for my EX1, PPro is able to bury through all of it's folder structures with no problems at all

 

[Subhadip Sen]

I'm not sure on the r3d side of things, but for my EX1, PPro is able to bury through all of it's folder structures with no problems at all

That's good to know! I mostly work with XDCAM footage too. But almost always, the folder structures are changed in some step of post-production. So I have never actually tried linking with the original folder structures in place, as off camera. If it works for XDCAM it might work for R3Ds. Maybe someone can comment?

Vegas Pro is able to search through random folder structures, however. Anyway, it's normally not too much work getting everything in one folder.

 

[Gursimran Dhillon]

Hi Todd,

We are not using ProRes proxy files. Instead we used the Quicktime proxies. Will PPro replace the files with original R3D for QT proxies too if I export the XML from FCP and import it into PPro?

I tried a few different ways to import the timeline in PPro via XML generated in Clipfinder because it replaces the _m with the R3D but it messes up the timeline in PPro specially if it has the audio in it. The video only XML also didn't import exactly as it was laid out in the FCP timeline. However, whatever was in the PPro timline after import was linked to the R3D file (if you right clicked and looked at properties) even though the clip name itself still showed as _m file.

 

[shashbugu]

Hi Todd,

We are not using ProRes proxy files. Instead we used the Quicktime proxies. Will PPro replace the files with original R3D for QT proxies too if I export the XML from FCP and import it into PPro?

I tried a few different ways to import the timeline in PPro via XML generated in Clipfinder because it replaces the _m with the R3D but it messes up the timeline in PPro specially if it has the audio in it. The video only XML also didn't import exactly as it was laid out in the FCP timeline. However, whatever was in the PPro timline after import was linked to the R3D file (if you right clicked and looked at properties) even though the clip name itself still showed as _m file.

Are you using CS5.5 ?

 

[Gursimran Dhillon]

Yup, we are using CS5.5.
We've sort of found a way. Not sure if it will work or not but we exported the XML file from FCP and import it into PPro and then manually replace each clip with the original R3D file using the 'Replace Footage' function. Very tedious and time consuming!
Hoping to find out an easier way.

 

[J Davis]

did you try opening the xml or edl with text edit? You can use find/replace to swap the filename extensions

 

[David McGavran]

Hi All,

We edited our feature using _M proxies in FCP7 but now we are slowing trying to explore PPro as an alternate. Is there a workflow that has been successful in linking the proxy files to the original R3D in PPro so we can continue the edit in PPro instead of FCP. We have only done half of it so it might be worth switching it now itself. We were hoping that the new FCP release will be capable of handling the original R3D files and an easy way to link up the proxies to the original files but that didn't happen hence the migration to PPro.

Thanks for the help.

I am pretty sure we got this working... Any chance you can mock up a very small FCP project with source so I can look?

Dave

 

[Art_Jaguar]

Any updates on this situation? With many editors migrating over to Premiere Pro, our FCP projects would love to play nice with PP.

I hope there is an easy way to replace all Proxy files with R3Ds in the timeline and in our bins that have had the sound sync'd up.

 

[Olivier Madar]

I did my fist try today.
OK, I can open directly R3D on the timeline but with my macbook Pro, it is a little bit slow. So, I export all the clips in 1K ProRes, worked with them, and tryed to replace them when edit is done. I think, at this time, the best way is to delink/relink and clicking on each clip when PPro ask it to you. I tried working with the EDL but even if you change the ".mov" in ".R3D", you still don't have the exact matching name because you have several R3D for each clip.
Maybe Clipfinder could help.

 

[Gursimran Dhillon]

We ended up importing the timeline in PPro and then doing the old find and replace clip. Time consuming but could not find any other way and Adobe tech support wasn't very helpful either. Their answer was "we don't support this"!!

 

[David McGavran]

We ended up importing the timeline in PPro and then doing the old find and replace clip. Time consuming but could not find any other way and Adobe tech support wasn't very helpful either. Their answer was "we don't support this"!!

So it is true we don't have a true proxy workflow. We know that lots of people want this. We applied one trick to get FCP XML into ppro with relinking but it isn't a general solution. I will add another voice to the feature request for a proxy workflow.

Cheers

Dave

 

[Olivier Madar]

So it is true we don't have a true proxy workflow. We know that lots of people want this. We applied one trick to get FCP XML into ppro with relinking but it isn't a general solution. I will add another voice to the feature request for a proxy workflow.

Cheers

Dave

Thank you Dave,

With the new MBP 2011, at 1/4 or 1/8 of the resolution, it seems very possible to edit directly the r3d. The proxyes capabilities would be a big help for the weight of the file (about 0,25 x the weight of the r3d for a 1K ProRes)