ProRes Workflow: How to Share and Transfer ProRes Files

Why ProRes Files Are So Hard to Share

Apple ProRes is the preferred codec for post-production because it preserves full color information and edits smoothly on timeline. Unlike compressed formats such as H.264 or H.265, ProRes maintains image quality through multiple generations of editing, color grading, and export. This makes it essential for broadcast, film, and commercial work where visual quality cannot be compromised.

The trade-off is file size. A single hour of ProRes 4444 XQ at 4K resolution can reach 760GB. Even the lighter ProRes 422 HQ runs about 330GB per hour at 4K. These numbers are not edge cases. They represent the daily reality for editors working on documentaries, feature films, commercials, and episodic television.

Standard sharing tools fail at these scales. Email attachments cap at 25MB. Consumer cloud drives like Google Drive and Dropbox force you to sync files locally before you can access them, which fills up your hard drive and creates version conflicts. Physical hard drive shipping adds 24-48 hours to every handoff and introduces the risk of lost or damaged media.

Production teams need a different approach. When a colorist in New York needs to review dailies shot in Los Angeles, waiting for a FedEx package is not acceptable. When a director wants to approve a rough cut from a hotel room in London, downloading 50GB to a laptop is not practical. The solution is a workflow designed around streaming, not downloading.

Understanding ProRes Flavors and File Sizes

Not all ProRes files are created equal. Apple designed six ProRes variants, each optimized for different stages of production. Choosing the right "flavor" for each task helps you balance quality against storage costs and transfer times.

ProRes 4444 XQ is the highest quality option, running at approximately 1.7 Gbps for 4K UHD at 24fps. This works out to about 760GB per hour. Use it for high-end visual effects work, green screen compositing, and archival masters where every bit of color information matters.

ProRes 4444 drops slightly to 1.1 Gbps (500GB per hour) while still supporting alpha channels and 12-bit color. This is the standard choice for motion graphics work and projects with transparency layers.

ProRes 422 HQ at 737 Mbps (330GB per hour) is the workhorse format for broadcast delivery and commercial editing. It offers excellent quality for final delivery while being significantly smaller than the 4444 variants.

Standard ProRes 422 at 492 Mbps (220GB per hour) works well for general editing, interviews, and corporate video where you need good quality but not maximum fidelity.

ProRes 422 LT (Light) at 340 Mbps (150GB per hour) suits storage-constrained projects and news gathering where turnaround speed matters more than archival quality.

ProRes 422 Proxy at 151 Mbps (68GB per hour) is designed specifically for offline editing and remote collaboration. These lightweight files can be edited on laptops and then reconnected to original media for final output.

Understanding these numbers helps you plan realistically. A 30-minute corporate project at ProRes 422 HQ will generate about 165GB of source footage. A feature documentary shooting at ProRes 4444 for eight hours will produce over 4TB. Your workflow needs to handle these volumes efficiently.

Building a Scalable ProRes Workflow

Faster internet alone will not fix a slow production pipeline. You need structured systems at every stage, from camera card ingest to final delivery. The difference between a smooth operation and a chaotic one often comes down to how well you have standardized your processes.

Many production teams treat file management as an afterthought. They figure out storage and sharing on a project-by-project basis, which leads to inconsistent folder structures, lost files, and wasted hours searching for the right version of a sequence. This reactive approach might work for a solo editor, but it breaks down as soon as you add remote collaborators, external clients, or overlapping projects.

A proactive workflow design addresses these problems before they occur. It establishes clear rules for how files are organized, where they are stored, and how they move between team members. Here is a five-step framework that scales from solo editors to large post-production facilities.

How to Share ProRes Files Without Downloading

The biggest bottleneck in video collaboration is the download-edit-upload cycle. Traditional cloud storage forces every collaborator to download full source files to their local machine before they can view or work with them. For ProRes files, this means waiting hours for transfers to complete.

Fast.io takes a different approach. Files stay in cloud storage, and users access them through streaming. When your colorist opens a 100GB ProRes sequence, they see it playing instantly in their browser. When your client watches a rough cut, they are streaming from the cloud, not downloading to their laptop.

This architecture eliminates several pain points at once. Remote editors can start reviewing footage immediately rather than waiting overnight for downloads. Clients can approve cuts from any device with a web browser. Multiple team members can access the same files simultaneously without creating sync conflicts or duplicate versions.

An editor in London can upload dailies at end of day. A director in Los Angeles can watch them three hours later during their morning review session. The footage never left the cloud. There is no thumb drive in the mail, no overnight FedEx, no waiting for a massive sync to complete.

For teams spread across time zones, this changes the rhythm of production. Notes that used to take 48 hours to exchange now happen in the same day. Review cycles that required scheduling around shipping logistics can happen whenever participants have time.

Secure Delivery for Sensitive Projects

Pre-release films, confidential commercials, and legal video evidence all require tight security controls. Sending a hard drive via courier is risky. If the drive is lost in transit, your footage is exposed. Physical media also lacks audit trails. You cannot prove who accessed which files or when.

A secure client portal offers a safer alternative. With Fast.io, you can create branded, password-protected spaces that give clients access only to specific folders. Each portal can be customized with your company logo and colors, making it feel like a professional extension of your business.

Security features include link expiration (automatically revoke access after a deadline), view-only mode (clients can watch but not download), password protection (add a second authentication layer), and complete audit logging (see exactly who viewed or downloaded each file and when).

For due diligence processes and legal discovery, these audit logs provide documentation that physical media cannot. You can demonstrate chain of custody and prove that only authorized parties accessed sensitive materials.

When a project relationship changes or a deal falls through, you can revoke access instantly. There is no need to track down physical drives or worry about copies floating around on former clients' computers.

Physical Drives vs. Cloud Transfer: Which Is Actually Faster?

There is an old joke in IT: never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes. For truly massive data volumes (petabytes), physical shipping sometimes wins on raw throughput. But for the file sizes typical of active post-production work (500GB to 5TB), cloud-based transfer is both faster and more practical.

Consider a 1TB project that needs to move from an editor to a colorist in another city. Overnight FedEx takes 18-24 hours minimum, plus time for packing, pickup scheduling, and unpacking on the other end. If the drive arrives damaged, you start over.

With accelerated cloud transfer on a modern connection, that same 1TB moves in 2-4 hours. More importantly, the colorist can start working on early files while the transfer is still in progress. They do not need to wait for the complete package to arrive.

Cloud delivery also offers flexibility that physical media cannot match. Need to add one more file to the package? Upload it. Need to revoke access after the deadline? Click a button. Need to see when your client finally reviewed the cut? Check the activity log.

Physical drives still make sense for archival purposes and for transferring complete facility libraries. But for day-to-day production handoffs where time matters, cloud wins on speed, security, and convenience.

Setting Up Review Sessions with Frame-Accurate Feedback

Generic video hosting platforms let clients leave comments like "I don't like the transition around the middle." This vague feedback forces editors to guess what the client means and often leads to multiple rounds of revision.

Professional review tools support frame-accurate commenting. A client can pause at exactly the moment they want to discuss, leave a note, and the editor sees precisely which frame the comment refers to. This eliminates ambiguity and speeds up the approval process.

Fast.io's review features include timecode-linked comments (feedback attached to specific frames), drawing tools (mark up specific areas of the image), version comparison (view two cuts side by side), and approval workflows (clients can formally sign off on deliverables).

For video editors, this level of precision makes a real difference in daily work. Instead of scrubbing through a 30-minute sequence trying to find "that shot that needs to be shorter," you click the comment and jump directly to the relevant frame.

The review interface works in standard web browsers without requiring clients to install software. A marketing director reviewing a commercial can watch the video, leave notes, and approve the final cut all from their browser. No downloads, no special apps, no technical support calls about playback issues.