Why Transcode?
When you shoot in 2K or 4K, it's not advisable to use that footage for editing, as the high level of information contained in every frame will slow you down. Certain video codecs in any resolution are also not ideal for editing. Creating proxy media is a great way to speed up the editing process without impacting your final product.
Why DaVinci Resolve?
DaVinci Resolve is a good option to transcode your footage because it is well-equipped for handling 2K and 4K video and because the workflow allows for adding burned in LUTs. However, creating proxies in Premiere or Avid may be a more streamlined workflow. You can use DaVinci Resolve in the Post Production Labs or by downloading the free lite version of Davinci from Blackmagic.
Creating Proxies
- Open DaVinci Resolve and make sure you are on the "Media" tab on the bottom of the screen.
- Under the Media Storage window in the top right hand side of the screen, navigate to the footage on your hard drive. Select it, right mouse click, and choose "Add folder and subfolders to media pool". Change your project settings to match the imported clips if prompted.
- Now navigate to the "Edit" tab on the bottom of the screen.
- Right mouse click in the Timelines window and select "Create New Timeline".
- Select all of your clips and drag them into the new timeline. They should all line up back to back. Order is not important here.
- Now navigate to the "Deliver" tab on the bottom of the screen.
- In the Render Settings window, select "Individual Source Clips".
- Select your format and codec:
- For Avid, choose "MXF OP-Atom" under Video Format and "DNxHD 1080p 145/120/115 8-bit" under codec.
- For Premiere, choose "Quicktime" under Video Format and "Apple ProRes 422 HQ" under codec.
- Set your destination by clicking "Browse" and selecting a new folder on your hard drive for proxy media.
- You can also rename your files at this point, but we do not recommend doing so, as relinking media with different file names can occasionally be problematic.
- All other settings are optional - refer to a Lab Assistant if you are having trouble understanding any of them.
- Click "Add to Render Queue" and then click "Render" on the right side of the screen.
Adding a LUT
If you want to add a LUT before transcoding your media, you can do so in Resolve.
- Navigate to the "Color" tab after dragging all of your clips into the timeline in the above steps.
- Select all of your clips in the middle of the screen (select the first, scroll to the end, hold down Shift, and select the last).
- Right mouse click on the selected clips and choose "Add into New Group". A Green link should appear next to each clip.
- Select the first clip in your timeline.
- In the Nodes window in the top left of the screen, drop down the menu that says "Clip" and select "Group Pre-Clip" instead.
- Right mouse click on the thumbnail of the clip in the Nodes window and select your LUT of choice. This should apply the LUT to all clips.
- Continue with the above workflow as normal.