DaVinci Resolve Native Proxy Workflow

This is a basic workflow or tips for generating ‘proxy’ media via DaVinci Resolve to be used for editing . The goal of these steps isn’t to be the perfect workflow for all productions as we customise a lot of this for specific cameras and workflows but hopefully this will help any productions looking to prep their own media to do it in a way that should make the conform process more simple when the time comes for final post. If you need to talk to us about a specific project so we can create a more refined template please get in-touch.

This assumes you are using a proper data transfer application like OffShoot from Hedge which will backup your data on to multiple drives but it will also create a logical folder name for each camera card you transfer which will be used through the process as the media reel or tape name. Take time to choose this naming system to make sure it will provide the most helpful data to your team while keeping media organised.

The Timeline frame rate must be set before you bring any media into your project

One note is that most project settings become irrelevant for the creation of the proxy media but it’s best if the project is in the frame rate you are going to be working and delivering in to avoid issues.

It’s also preferable to set your colour management at this point

In most situations setting DaVinci YRGB. Color Managed and then letting it work with Automatic SDR settings will do the job for editorial.

Conform options relate to the metadata embedded in the files at all times

So setting this at the start of the project will help with the conform, rather than being something you look at in the conform.

In the project settings under General Options you must set the conform options to automatically apply a reel name from the ‘source clip file name’ to start with but we will update that from inside the project.

Add media to project

When you are adding your media, navigate to it in media storage then right click the drive or folder and choose Add Folder and SubFolders into Media Pool (Create Bins).

If your camera cards have folders in folders in folders, at this point within the project (not on the drive or media storage) you may want to move the media to the root level of each card and clear out any empty folders.

Force the card/reel names to be embedded in media

At this point you can go through your cards, select all clips in each card, right click them and choose ‘Clip Attributes’

You then go to the Name tab and click user defined to add your card number in here. There are many different ways to do this but we are saying to do this way as it will make sure this name of the reel is stuck with the media and will follow it around. So if you export bins and share them with other projects the User Defined one will follow them around and not be overwritten by the project settings.

Once complete you can check through your media and make sure the reels are looking as you would expect them to. With that complete you can safely move on knowing that the files will have links to the source camera cards and should be easily trackable for editorial and final post.