The Right Way to Share Low-Res Proxies With Clients While Keeping Original Media Secure

Sharing low res proxies with clients is one of those habits that separates professional post houses from people who are still emailing QuickTime files and praying. The moment you hand over a full-res deliverable for review, you have lost control of your master. A proxy-first workflow fixes that, and it is not complicated to set up.

Here is the core idea: you transcode a lightweight version of the cut, upload that for client review, and the original camera files or master renders never leave your facility. The client sees everything they need to give useful feedback. You keep the actual assets locked down.

Why Original Media Is Worth Protecting

If you have ever had a client forward a screener to someone who was not supposed to see it, you know the anxiety. Unreleased spots leak. Documentary rough cuts surface on social. Music video scenes hit Reddit before the single drops. That is not just embarrassing; it can blow up a distribution deal or an NDA clause.

Beyond leaks, full-res files are large. Sending a 4K ProRes master to a client over email or a shared drive creates download friction, version confusion, and a copy outside your control that you can never revoke. A proxy solves all three problems at once.

What Makes a Good Proxy for Client Review

The goal is a file that loads fast, plays smoothly on a laptop, and reveals everything the client needs to evaluate. For most narrative or branded content, a 720p or 1080p H.264 at a moderate bitrate works fine. For color-critical reviews, step up to 1080p ProRes Proxy or DNxHR LB, which handles more tonal range without being massive.

A few things to keep in mind when transcoding proxies for client delivery:

• Burn in a watermark with the client name and a timestamp. This both discourages forwarding and helps you trace a leak if one happens.
• Burn in a visible timecode if the client will be giving frame-level notes. This removes any ambiguity about what they mean by "the shot at the beginning of the second sequence."
• Use a consistent naming convention that matches your internal version numbering. Proxy_v03_CLIENT is cleaner than Final_FINAL_revised_2.
• Do not send the file directly. Upload it to a review platform where you can revoke access, see who watched what, and capture comments in context.

• Transcode to 720p or 1080p H.264
• Burn in client watermark and timecode
• Use version-matched naming
• Upload to a controlled review link
• Revoke access after sign-off

How to Control Access After You Share

This is where a lot of post houses fall down. They do the proxy transcode correctly, then send the link over email where it gets forwarded, screenshot, and eventually screen-recorded by someone on their phone. The transcode was the right call; the delivery was not.

A proper review platform lets you set an expiry date on the link, password-protect it, and restrict downloads. PlayPause gives you all three by default. You share a link, the client clicks it and watches in the browser, and they can leave frame-accurate comments directly on the timeline. They never download a file. They cannot share the link to someone who logs in later if you have set an expiry. And when the project is signed off, you revoke access with one click.

This is also how you maintain a documented sign-off record. When a client leaves a comment at 01:23:15 saying "approved, ship it," that timestamp is attached to their name and email in your project history. No more "I never approved that" conversations six weeks after delivery.

Read about how to build an audit trail for every client approval decision if you want the full picture on documented sign-offs.

Setting Up the Proxy Workflow in Practice

Here is how I would structure this at a post house handling multiple client projects simultaneously.

For the transcode step, most NLEs can export proxies directly. DaVinci Resolve has a "deliver proxy" option in the delivery page. Premiere can export a proxy sequence via media encoder. After Effects renders can be wrapped in a Compressor or Handbrake pass. If you are running high-volume post work, a transcoding tool like Hedge or EditReady makes this faster.

The key discipline is never attaching the file to an email or dropping it into a shared folder without access controls. Both of those methods create permanent copies you cannot revoke.

When Clients Push Back on Proxy Quality

Some clients will ask for higher quality previews. The usual culprit is a colorist or a brand manager who genuinely cannot evaluate grade quality on a compressed proxy. Here is my approach: keep two tracks.

For creative and editorial feedback, the 720p proxy is fine and that is what you share broadly. For grade approval, you create a higher quality reference, maybe 1080p ProRes or even a Resolve remote grade session, and you share that with the specific stakeholder who needs it, under the same access controls. You do not need to send a 4K master just because one person on the team wants to see color.

Setting up a colorist feedback workflow that keeps directors and DPs aligned is a related topic worth reading if color review is a recurring bottleneck on your projects.

Keeping Originals Secure at the Facility Level

The proxy workflow protects you externally. Internally, you still need to make sure original media is not wandering off on USB drives or being accessed by people who should not have it.

Basic internal hygiene: store camera originals on a RAID or SAN with access permissions tied to individual staff accounts. Keep deliverable masters in a separate folder structure from working proxies. Run checksums on ingested media so you know if files have been altered. Back up to at least two locations, one of which is off-site or in cloud storage you control.

None of this is exotic. It is just discipline. The proxy delivery workflow for clients sits on top of this, as the external layer of a two-layer security model.

For a related look at managing media across many concurrent projects, this post on media management strategy for post houses covers the internal side in more depth.

Why This Matters for Client Trust Too

Here is the angle most post houses miss: the proxy-first workflow is not just about protecting your assets. It also signals professionalism to the client. When a client gets a password-protected review link with their watermark burned in, they see a production company that takes their unreleased content seriously. That builds trust.

And when they leave a comment at a specific timecode and see it immediately appear in a thread that the editor can respond to, they understand that their notes are being taken seriously. Compare that to the client who sends a voice note over WhatsApp describing a scene change and then wonders why the edit came back wrong.

You can check out how clients who send feedback over WhatsApp can be moved to a structured review process if that situation sounds familiar.

The Delivery Side: Handing Over Originals After Sign-Off

Once the project is approved and billing is closed, there is a question of what you deliver to the client as the final asset. Standard practice is to deliver the master as a DCP, a ProRes 4444, or whatever format the brief specified. This file goes via a secure transfer method, ideally a time-limited download link or a physical drive sent directly to the client with a receipt.

Never hand over originals as part of the review loop. The review proxy does its job, the sign-off is captured, and then the master transfer happens as a separate, final handoff step.

If you are working at the Creator plan on PlayPause ($9/month per workspace), you can handle proxy review for individual client projects cleanly. If you are running multiple concurrent projects with several client contacts on each, the Agency plan at $19/month gives you the workspace capacity to keep everything separated by client. You can see the full breakdown at PlayPause pricing and start free without any setup cost.