For a long time, I didn’t think I had a timeline performance problem. I figured I was doing alright. I was getting the job done. Everyone seemed satisfied with the speed.

That was, until I saw someone else’s timeline. Scrubbing was smooth and responsive. They didn’t have the jerky motion that I was accustomed to dealing with. Playing was quick and easy. Suddenly I felt woefully inadequate.

I went searching for help. My first idea was to use Mezzanine video files. These are highly optimized videos that replace your original files. They improve performance, but at the cost of file size, doubling or tripling the amount of storage required.

Then I discovered Proxy files. These small, lightweight files gave you the performance of a mezzanine file, but without the storage overhead, allowing me to continue to save files using just the original files. After trying them out for a few projects, I was hooked.

The process is so simple that there really isn’t a reason someone shouldn’t use them for 10 minute video. I decided to put together a tutorial on what I’d learned as well as help explain the differences, pros, and cons of proxies vs mezzanine files and when to use each of them.

I also included some other useful information about Ingesting and Copying that I’d discovered while playing around with the settings.

If you want to download the templates I used in the video, you can get them here: http://gofile.me/4jKTV/AyKYSWaam

You can import both presets into your own Media Encoder and Premiere Pro if you don’t want to make your own. It is set up to only work with 29.97 fps videos though so you’ll have to make your own if you work in a different frame rate.

I’d recommend watching the video for the instructions, but if you want a checklist to help you keep your place as you go, here’s one listing all of the steps.

Steps to setup Proxies in Premiere Pro and Media Encoder

In Media Encoder

1. In Preset Browser Click + and select: New Encoding Preset

2. On Preset Settings window under Format select: Quicktime

3. Under Based on Preset select: Cineform YUT

4. Select Video Tab, make sure GoPro CineForm is selected for Video Codec

5. Set Quality to 1

6. Set Width and Height: 1280x720

7. You can leave Frame Rate, Field Order, and Aspect to “Based On Source” unless you are having problems with that, e.g. you are downsampling the frame rate of your video. If you need to manually change them, select the right settings. In my example I chose 29.97 FPS, Progressive, and Square Pixels (1.0) respectively.

8. Leave everything else alone (i.e. do not select Render at Maximum Depth)

9. Click on the Effects Tab and turn on: Image Overlay

10. Browse to the image included in my Template Download files (link above) or make your own image.

To make your own image
In Photoshop

1. Make a new project with the resolution of 1280x720 100dpi

2. Make sure there is no white background. If there is, delete it and start with an empty layer.

3. Pick a Gray color for your text and rectangle

4. For Text I used:

   1. Font: Aller

   2. Style:Bold

   3. Size:40

   4. and wrote the word ‘PROXY’

5. Make a Rectangle around the text in the same Gray color. Choose:

   1. Fill: None

   2. Storke: Gray

   3. Width: 18px

6. Merge the Rectangle and Text layers, but keep the empty background (i.e. do not select flatten image, select merge layers)

7. Crop the image down to the width of the rectangle

8. Set the Opacity to 40% (I did 20% in the video, but it was too hard to see)

9. Save As a PNG file to maintain the transparent background

Go back to Media Encoder in the Preset Settings window

1. Under Image Overlay, Applied: Browse to where you saved the image and select it

2. For Position: set it where ever you want the overlay to be. I chose Bottom Right

3. Name the Preset: Cineform 1280x720 29.97 fps Quality 1 Watermarked

4. Click Okay to close Preset Settings window

5. In Preset Browser Click + and select: New Ingest Preset

6. The only thing you need to turn on is: Transcode Files to Destination
   (watch the end of the video for information about ‘Copy files to Destination’)

7. You can pick the destination every time you make proxies so the Destination isn’t important unless you want to use the same location every time by default. Just pick a folder or make a generic Proxies folder

8. Format: Quicktime

9. Preset: Pick the preset you made above

10. Give it a name under Preset Name: Cineform 1280x720 29.97 fps Quality 1 Watermarked INGEST

11. Click OK

12. Find where this Ingest preset is located by right clicking it under Preset Browser and selecting ‘Reveal Preset File’

    1. Default locations are (the number might change based on version of Media Encoder installed:

       1. Mac: Documents>Adobe Media Encoder>14.0>Presets>Cineform…

       2. Windows: Documents>Adobe>Adobe Media Encoder>14.0>Presets>Cineform…

Go to Premiere Pro

1. In the Media Browser (Not the Sequence) Right click on media that you want a proxy for

2. Select: Proxy>Create Proxies

3. In Create Proxies window Click: Add Ingest Preset… button

4. Navigate to where your Proxy Ingest preset is located (see above) and select it

5. Pick a Destination

6. Click OK to close Create Proxies window and start making your proxy file

7. Media Encoder should now start rendering your Proxy File. When done, you should see a the Proxy located in the location you selected for Destination in step 5

8. In the Premiere Pro Preview Window, you should now be able to click the Toggle Proxies button and see that your Proxy is now being displayed with better timeline performance.

For more tips, including automatically making proxies, check out the video.

Leave a comment below if you have any questions or suggestions on other ways to use proxies.

Timestamps for the various sections of the video
00:00 - Introduction
01:52 - Proxy vs Mezzanine Explanation
08:29 - Proxy Creation Tutorial
29:43 - Media Encoder Watch Folders, Copying, & Proxies Tutorial
33:07 - Copying on Import in Premiere Pro Tutorial