Productions - Disable project-locking for media imports?
I am very excited to implement Productions into my collaborative Premiere workflow. This Adobe article describes perfectly the Media Project > Timeline Projects hierarchy I wish to implement: https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/how-clips-work-inside-production.html
^ This article does NOT address how editors working simultaneously can import media into the production, in the likely event that another editor currently has that Media Project open. In order to keep ALL MEDIA in one dedicated project, I feel project-locking would need to be disabled for that project. Otherwise, editors would be constantly opening and closing the MEDIA PROJECT to import assets along the way.
MY DREAM is to keep each "timeline project" completely devoid of media, while having one project deemed the MEDIA PROJECT - a centralized hub of media - footage, audio, music, AE Renders, Resolve Renders, script notes, etc - that all editors are sharing and importing to.
Currently this approach should work great at the beginning of a job - you've got your camera footage in your MEDIA PROJECT and all editor's pluck from that pile into their unique TIMELINE PROJECTS. Great. But what happens when one editor imports a music track into their TIMELINE PROJECT? Now your media is scattered.
So...can we disable Project-locking on a per-project basis. Perhaps create special MEDIA PROJECTS (call it whatever you want, Adobe!) that have read/write privileges distinct from the projects containing timelines?

1 comment
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Matt Christensen commented
We’re glad to hear you’re excited to try Productions! The workflow you describe can be had using productions, but with just a slightly different paradigm.
It’s not possible (for any application) to have multiple people modifying a file at the same time without having conflicts or lost data. Project locking is the mechanism Premiere Pro uses to prevent that.
In the example you gave, the recommendation when using Productions would be not to have one single Media Project but rather a folder of projects organizing all your media. You could have a project per scene, or per shoot day, or however you’d like to break it up. This way if one editor needs to import new material into one, they just open that project, import it, then save it and everyone will be able to use that media.
If an editor were to just import an audio file into their Timeline Project you’re right – that does scatter the media. Instead they should first open the Music or Sound Effects project (for example), import the media there, and then edit it into their timeline in the timeline project. This way other editors would be able to find that media where they expect to see it.