Edit workflow: proxies, conform, delivery

By James Jones, founder of Granary Digital · Updated 5 November 2026

An edit workflow comes down to what you cut with, how you get back to the camera originals, and what you hand over at the end. Most post-production trouble comes from deciding one of those late. This page walks the path from card to master in order, with the checks that catch problems while they are still cheap.

Start with the delivery, not the edit

Ask for the delivery spec before the shoot. It tells you the frame rate and resolution you finish in, the audio layout, the loudness target, whether captions are needed and what file type the commissioner wants. If someone else is grading or mixing, ask them what they need from you now, not in the week the edit locks. Conform problems usually come from the edit team and the finishing team each guessing what the other wanted.

The delivery specs cheat sheet lists what to ask for, and broadcast delivery and DPP AS-11 explained covers the heavier end of the range.

Ingest: copy, verify, name

Copy every card to two separate drives, verify the copies, and only then clear the card. Keep the camera's original file names. The names are how a finishing system finds the right clip later, so if you rename clips in the edit, copy the original names into another column first.

Organise by shoot day, then camera, then card. A tidy folder tree costs ten minutes on day one and saves hours when somebody else has to relink the project.

Proxies: when they pay for themselves

A proxy is a low-resolution, temporary copy of a clip. You cut with the proxies for smooth playback and scrubbing, then switch back to the originals for finishing. The cost is the time to make them and the disk space they take.

The Frame.io guide recommends ProRes proxies for most work. It suggests H.264 only when you are travelling with limited storage or sharing with someone who cannot download the originals, and it points out that H.264 proxies in MP4 carry only two audio channels, so use a MOV wrapper for multichannel audio. Make them after ingest, once you know which clips you need, rather than automatically at ingest. Mixed cameras, codecs and frame rates need different handling.

Proxies must match the original in frame rate, duration and audio channel count. Give them a clear suffix, keep them in a different folder from the originals, and never let them share a file name. Similar names cause the wrong file to attach.

Know what falls back to the originals. Exports use the originals unless you tell the software to use proxies, and analysis effects such as stabilisation switch back to full resolution. Interchange routes such as AAF, XML and EDL drop the proxy attachments altogether, which is exactly what you want when the project goes to a finishing room.

Cut with the conform in mind

The edit is where you decide how painful the conform will be. A clean timeline conforms in minutes. A messy one produces a day of detective work.

• One final sequence. Hand over a single locked sequence per bin or folder. Archive the old versions elsewhere.
• Commit multicam. Flatten multicam edits to the angles you actually used before exporting an AAF. Otherwise exports slow down, unused angles come along and other systems can choose the wrong angle.
• Titles and graphics on their own tracks. Do not bake them into the picture. The colourist needs the clean image underneath.
• Remove temporary colour. A quick grade that looked fine in the edit becomes a problem if it travels into the finishing system.
• Keep effects simple. Speed changes, resizes and nested sequences all conform differently between applications. Note each one and test it.
• Mark picture lock. After lock, changes go on a change list. Nobody adds a frame to the timeline without telling the people downstream.

Conform: back to the originals

To conform is to rebuild the edit from the camera files at full quality. There are two routes.

Same application. Switch proxies off, relink to the originals if needed, and check that every clip is online at full resolution. This is the simple route when the person finishing is the person who edited.

Finishing application. Export an EDL, XML or AAF, send the project file as well, and send the originals or a fully organised copy of them. The project file matters because it lets the online team go back to the timeline if the exchange file is missing something.

Some points from the conform guide are worth repeating. Default EDL templates can truncate clip names, and the CMX3600 template cuts them to eight characters, so use the 32-character name option. Verify that colour decisions survive an AAF export by importing it into a fresh project and checking the values. Do not assume subtitles carry across, because they often need recreating. If you are sending a reference video, make it an intraframe codec such as ProRes or DNxHD, not H.264, which can cause trouble in conform and grading systems.

Then check the work. Lay the reference over the conform and flick between them at every cut, every speed change, every resize and every title. Play the audio against the picture at the start, the middle and the end.

Grade and mix

Send dialogue on separate tracks, keep music and effects apart from it, and name tracks so a mixer does not have to guess. Ask the mixer for the format they prefer before you export. If a stem or a track is a mix of two sources, say so.

Delivery: the master, the spec and the last watch

Deliver to the written spec. The commissioner's document overrides everything on this page, including the loudness number below.

For broadcast audio in Europe, EBU R 128 recommends an average programme loudness of -23 LUFS. Online platforms set their own targets, so find the one for each place you publish. If you also make a podcast cut, the loudness targets for podcasts and platforms page covers that side. Captions follow their own rules, set out in subtitles and captions: styles and file formats.

Before you send anything, do a quality control pass:

1. Watch the whole master from first frame to last, not just the cuts you changed.
2. Listen on speakers and on headphones.
3. Check head and tail: slate, bars if asked for, black, and the final frame.
4. Check the file properties against the spec: frame rate, resolution, codec, audio layout, duration and file name.
5. Open the delivered file, not the export in your project, and watch the first and last minute.

Keep the project, the originals and the master together until the commissioner has accepted the delivery. Proxies can go once it is accepted.

A worked example: a three-camera interview day

Day one is the shoot. That evening, copy to two drives, verify, and log the clips. Day two, make proxies for the three angles while you assemble the selects, since proxy encoding can run while you carry on working. Edit for the length the commissioner asked for, then lock picture and commit the multicam. Export the sequence for the colourist with the project file. They conform, check against your reference and grade. The mixer gets the dialogue tracks. You receive both back, lay the final audio under the graded picture, and run the quality control pass above. The master goes out to the written spec.

Common mistakes

• Renaming clips before the original names are saved.
• Making proxies at ingest for footage that does not need them.
• Sending an H.264 reference to a finishing room.
• Changing the edit after picture lock without a change list.
• Delivering the export you checked in the edit instead of the file the commissioner will open.

If you would rather hand the edit to someone else, sound and post-production covers what we offer, and Granary books editors from £395 a day +VAT.

Sources

• Frame.io Workflow Guide, The complete guide to Premiere Pro proxies and proxy workflows, read 5 November 2026
• Frame.io Workflow Guide, Common conform issues, read 5 November 2026
• EBU, R 128: Loudness normalisation and permitted maximum level of audio signals, read 5 November 2026

Related guides

• Delivery specs cheat sheet for broadcast and online
• Colour test patterns and bars
• Lower thirds and title-safe templates
• Credits order worksheet (UK)
• Subtitles and captions: styles and file formats
• All guides and tools

The picture at the top of this page is an illustration, not a photograph of a client or a real job.