How to Create & Use Proxies in Premiere Pro

In the dynamic world of video editing, the balance between quality and efficiency is a perennial challenge. High-resolution footage ensures superb final products but can often slow down the editing process due to the hardware resources required. This is where proxy media comes into play, a feature that can dramatically improve your editing workflow in Adobe Premiere Pro.

This guide will provide a comprehensive step-by-step walkthrough to help you understand the essence of proxy media and how to use it to your advantage. By creating lower-resolution stand-in files for your high-resolution footage, proxy media allows you to edit with ease, even on less powerful systems, and then switch back to the original high-quality files for final output.

Whether you’re a seasoned videographer or a newbie just dipping your toes in the vast ocean of video editing, understanding the use of proxy media can be a game-changer. It can enhance your workflow by making it smoother, faster, and more efficient.

Throughout this guide, we will cover key topics such as understanding the concept of proxy files, setting up your Adobe Premiere Pro for proxy editing, creating proxies, and seamlessly switching between proxy and full-resolution media during your editing process.

So, without further ado, let’s dive into the world of proxy editing and explore how it can revolutionize your Adobe Premiere Pro experience.

Why use proxy media when editing?

Proxies are a method to allow you to speed up the editing process. If your computer struggles to run the high quality footage when cutting it together, then it’s best to use proxies. The software will convert the videos to a lower quality version that the computer can handle, and then when it comes to the final render, the software automatically relinks the originals to render using the high qaulity files.

Learn more about proxies.

Setting up proxy media in Premiere Pro: Step-by-step guide

Enabling proxy media in Adobe Premiere Pro comes with a number of benefits, especially for video editors working with high-resolution footage on hardware-limited systems.

Step 1: Setting up Adobe Premiere Pro for proxy workflow

Before we begin with the actual proxy creation, we need to set up Adobe Premiere Pro for a proxy workflow.

1. Open Adobe Premiere Pro and navigate to “Edit” > “Preferences” > “Media” (On Mac “Premiere Pro” > “Preferences” > “Media“.
2. In the Media preferences panel, under the “Default Media Scaling” section, select “Set to Frame Size“. This will allow Premiere Pro to automatically adjust the frame size of your proxy files to match your project settings.
3. Click “OK” to close the Preferences dialog box.

Step 2: Creating proxies

With your high-resolution video files imported:

1. Select the clips in the Project panel for which you want to create proxy files.
2. Right-click on the selected clips, then navigate to “Proxy” > “Create proxies“.

3. In the “Create Proxies” window, choose the format and preset for your proxy files. H.264 or Quicktime.
4. Select where you want to store your proxy files. You can either choose “Next to original media in proxy folder” or specify a location.
5. Click “OK“. Adobe Media Encoder will open and start creating the proxy files. This process may take some time, depending on the size and number of your original video files.

Step 3: Setting up the proxy button in the program monitor

To easily switch between proxy and full-resolution media:

1. In the Program Monitor, click the “Button Editor” (+ symbol) at the bottom right.
2. Drag the “Toggle Proxies” button to the toolbar.
3. Click “OK“.

Step 4: Editing with proxy media

With your proxy files created and the “Toggle Proxies” button in place:

1. Click the “Toggle Proxies” button to enable proxy editing. The button will turn blue, indicating that you’re viewing and editing using proxy media.
2. Start editing your video as you normally would. You’ll find the process smoother and more responsive, especially on less powerful systems.

Pros & cons of using proxy media

Pros

• Improved Performance: Proxy media, being lower-resolution versions of your high-resolution files, require fewer system resources to process. This means your editing can be smoother and faster, reducing lag, even on less powerful systems.
• Efficient Workflow: With proxies, you can edit your footage as normal, then switch back to the original high-resolution files for final output. This allows for a more efficient workflow, particularly for larger projects.
• Allows Remote Work: Since proxy files are much smaller in size compared to the original high-resolution files, they can be easily transferred over the internet. This makes proxy editing particularly useful for remote work or collaboration.
• Preserves Original Quality: When you’re done editing and ready to export, Premiere Pro uses the original, high-resolution files. This means the quality of your final output is not compromised.

Cons

• Increased Storage Requirements: Proxy files, while smaller than the original files, still require additional storage space. If you’re working with many large files, this can quickly add up.
• Additional Time for Proxy Creation: Creating proxy files takes time. If you’re working with a large amount of high-resolution footage, the process can be time-consuming.
• Limited Effects Preview: Some effects might not display as expected on lower-resolution proxy files. You may need to switch back to the original high-resolution files to accurately preview these effects.

Alternatives to using proxy media in Premiere Pro

Using proxy media is a popular method for improving your video editing workflow, especially with high-resolution files. However, if for some reason proxies aren’t your preferred choice, there are a few alternatives you could consider:

• Using Lower Resolution Footage: If you’re shooting the footage yourself, you could consider filming in a lower resolution, to begin with, if you know your computer may struggle with higher-resolution files. This is not always ideal, as it limits your ability to use the footage in higher-resolution projects in the future.
• Render and Replace: This is a feature in Premiere Pro that allows you to render a clip and replace the original with the rendered output. This can speed up performance in sequences that use effects-heavy clips. Note, however, that this does permanently replace the clip in your project, although you can always undo or revert to the original clip.
• Pre-rendering Sequences: If you’re working on a complex sequence with lots of effects, you can render a preview of the sequence. This creates temporary rendered files that play back more smoothly. This doesn’t affect the original media files and can be a useful way to improve performance without creating proxies.
• Alter the playback resolution: You can change your playback resolution in the program monitor panel. It’s located at the bottom-right of the playback preview and you can change your resolution from the original resolution down to 1/16th.

Video tutorial for creating proxies

Conclusion

The use of proxy media in Adobe Premiere Pro can be a significant advantage in terms of performance and efficiency, especially for those with limited hardware capabilities. But, it is essential to manage your workflow effectively to prevent any potential drawbacks.

Remember, regardless of whether you’re in proxy mode or full-resolution mode when you export, Adobe Premiere Pro will use the high-resolution media for the final exported video.

And that’s it! You’ve successfully set up and used a proxy workflow in Adobe Premiere Pro. This process should help streamline your editing, particularly for larger, more resource-intensive projects. Happy editing!