Updated: September 10, 2026
When the footage outgrows the computer
A day of multi-camera 4K produces files that a perfectly good editing machine will struggle to play back smoothly. The timeline stutters, playback drops frames, and every trim takes a second longer than it should. Multiply that by a week of editing and it is a meaningful amount of a project.
The answer is not always a faster computer. It is usually a proxy workflow: edit with smaller stand-in files, then swap back to the originals for the finish.
What a proxy actually is
A proxy is a lower resolution, lightly compressed copy of each clip, generated once and linked to the original. The editing software knows the two are the same shot and can switch between them at any point.
You cut with the proxies, which play back instantly even on a laptop. When the edit is locked, you relink to the originals and export from the full quality media. Nothing about the finished file comes from the proxy.
Because the edit decisions are stored as timings rather than as pixels, this swap is lossless. The proxy is a convenience for the editing stage and disappears entirely from the result.
When it is worth doing
- Any multi-camera project, where the machine is decoding several streams at once
- High resolution or high frame rate source footage
- Heavily compressed camera formats, which are demanding to decode despite small file sizes
- Editing on a laptop, in the field, or anywhere away from the main workstation
- Projects with an assistant or a second editor working on a less powerful machine
- Any situation where footage lives on a slow drive or is accessed over a network
Where it is not worth it: short single-camera pieces on a capable machine, and very tight turnarounds where the time spent generating proxies exceeds the time it saves. Generating proxies for a hundred hours of footage takes hours, and that has to fit in the schedule.
Choosing the proxy settings
The aim is files that play effortlessly and still show enough to make editing decisions. Too small and you cannot judge focus, read a name badge or spot a blink. Too large and you have not solved the problem.
In practice, a quarter of the source resolution is a common starting point for 4K material, in an edit-friendly codec designed for playback rather than for storage efficiency. Keep the frame rate identical to the source, always. A proxy at a different frame rate will not line up.
Burn in useful information if the workflow allows: timecode, clip name and camera. This makes review copies far more useful, since a client can point at a timecode instead of describing a moment.
Keep proxies on fast local storage even if the originals live on a slower archive drive. That is much of the benefit, and it is the part people forget when they generate proxies onto the same shared drive that was the bottleneck.
Getting the relink right
The single failure mode of a proxy workflow is a relink that does not work, and it is almost always caused by something done at the start.
Keep the folder structure intact. Most software matches proxies to originals by file name and location, and reorganising folders mid-project breaks that link. Decide on a structure before ingest and leave it alone.
Do not rename files after proxies are generated. If clip names need changing, do it during ingest, before anything is created from them.
Test the relink early rather than at the end. Switch to full resolution on day two, confirm it works, and switch back. Discovering a broken relink the night before delivery is the version of this problem that ruins a weekend.
Watch for mixed sources. Footage from a phone, a drone and a screen recording will all need proxies too, and it is easy to generate them for the main cameras and forget the rest. The whole timeline should be on proxies or none of it.
Where proxies fit in the wider workflow
Generate them at ingest, alongside the backup. That is the moment when every card is being copied anyway, and it costs machine time rather than editor time. Doing it later means going back through material a second time.
It fits naturally with a proper media management routine: copy from cards to two locations, verify, generate proxies, then start work. Skipping the verification step to save time is the one shortcut that is never worth taking, since a card wiped before a copy was checked is footage that no longer exists. The same discipline carries through to the end of the project, where what gets kept and where is set out in archiving a finished project.
Proxies also make review copies straightforward. A client review cut can be exported quickly from proxy media, since nobody is judging image quality at that stage. What they are judging is structure and content, and the feedback process works better when turnaround between versions is fast, which is discussed in running client review rounds.
Storage, which is the other half of the problem
Proxies solve playback. They do not solve the fact that a multi-camera shoot fills drives quickly, and running out of space mid-project is a worse interruption than a stuttering timeline.
Plan the storage before the shoot rather than during the edit. A rough estimate from the camera's data rate, the number of cameras and the hours of recording gets you close enough, and then double it to allow for proxies, exports and a backup copy.
Keep the working media on fast storage and the backup somewhere else entirely, ideally not in the same building. A single drive holding the only copy of a shoot is a risk that costs nothing to remove and everything to discover.
Proxies themselves are disposable. They can be regenerated from the originals at any time, so they do not need backing up and can be deleted once the project is finished. The originals, the project file and the exports are what has to survive.
One practical habit: keep proxies on a separate volume from the originals where possible. It spreads the read load and it makes clearing them at the end of a project a single operation rather than a hunt through folders.
Before you export
Switch the timeline back to full resolution and watch it through. Not skim it, watch it. Proxies hide things: soft focus, a small blemish on the lens, compression artefacts, a subtle exposure mismatch between angles.
Check that every clip has genuinely relinked and none are quietly still on proxy media. Most software will show this, and the check takes a minute.
Then grade and finish on the full resolution media, because colour decisions made on a compressed proxy do not hold. Once that is done, export against the delivery specification rather than the timeline settings, which is where the difference between a file that plays everywhere and one that does not is decided.
We run proxy workflows as standard on multi-camera and event projects, which is why review cuts arrive quickly and the finish still comes off the original media. More on how we handle post is on the blog and the about page. If you have a large amount of footage and no clear plan for handling it, tell us what you have and we will suggest a workflow that fits the deadline.