DaVinci Resolve Proxy Workflow

Tutorial

Does the perfect proxy workflow exist?
Honestly, I can not answer this question. So, let's skip this question and jump into the workflow we used for some high-end film productions.

In this tutorial, we will create proxies for film editing in Premiere Pro, Davinci Resolve, and Avid Media Composer. Now you might say "But there is a proxy function in Premiere Pro!". Forget about it.

1. Project Folder Structure

One of the most important things is to avoid a file mess. The folder and file structure should be self-explained. To avoid any conflicts in the later workflow, we should also avoid special characters and spaces if possible. For this project, we sort our sources into AUDIO, OCF, PROXIES, and LUT.

OCF stands for Original Camera Files, here we copy our original footage (unchanged) from all cameras. In PROXIES we will put our proxy files later. In case we have some special LUTs from our DIT (Digital Image Technician), we can collect them in the LUT folder. In AUDIO we will collect all audio files from the set. In case we got an ALE file from the camera, we can collect them as well in an ALE folder.

To keep a decent structure, we add a subfolder for each shooting day, also with a date. Let's say we shoot our first day on 24 March 2021, our folders name is: DAY001_20210324

Also, each camera card will get its folder. Our structure could look later like that:

2. Import in Resolve

Import the source clips via ALE file (if you got one) or select all clips in the source monitor. We create a directory for each shooting day. It's also recommended to create a subdirectory for each camera card. Next, we create a timeline with all clips from each day. Make sure to select the right frame rate and resolution in the timeline settings.

3. Add a LUT

The LUT should be applied to the proxy files directly in DaVinci Resolve. We can select all Clips, Right Click > LUT and choose our LUT. Instead of applying the LUT on the clip we could also apply it on the timeline only. For our project, we use the standard Arri LUT because the footage was shot in Arri LogC. Maybe you got already a Show-LUT from your DIT which you can use.

4. Add a Data Burn-In

We also want to create a custom Burn-In for our proxy files. In menu select Workspace > Data Burn-In.

For our project, we use Source Clip Name on the bottom left and Source Timecode on the bottom right. We can also save our Burn-In as Preset, let's call it "Proxies Burn In". So with an applied LUT and our small Burn-In in the corners, our proxy image could look like the right image:

5. Export Proxy Files

For this project, we want to create Full HD Proxies [1920x1080], even if we could work with 4K Proxies, editing in HD has still better performance if you work with a lot of different video layers and video effects. On the DaVinci Resolve Deliver Page we can apply our render settings for the timeline.

We apply the following settings for our proxy files:

Render: Individual clips

Video Tab

Let's also activate the Data Burn-In and select our Preset we created in the step before.

Audio Tab

Our camera has no audio, so we will turn that off. We can also turn it of if there is camera audio what we don't need in our editing process.

File Tab

Filename uses: Source name

The exported files should have the same folder structure as the OCF files. To keep this structure we can enable the function Preserve source directory levels.

Now we are ready to render our timeline. We click on "Add to Render Queue" and then on the right side in our Render Queue on "Render".

After the export, make sure all important data like Timecode, Filename, and Framerate is passed through in the correct way. To check that we can simply reimport the files and check the timecode and framerate labels.

The tutorial was created with DaVinci Resolve 17. If you have other ways or ideas to improve our workflow, share it with us & others. Thanks for reading & sharing.

Other useful Guides

Check also out some other guides if you want to learn more about DaVinci Resolve & Proxy Workflows

• Creating Proxies in Resolve
  postproduction.emerson.edu

• Proxies in Resolve
  workflow.frame.io