Footage Transfer in China is always a painful experience. The internet speed in China has been improved in the recent years, however, the 4K-8K footage is still too large to handle.
Here is the solution for your large footage transfer out of China.
Note: You will find Dropbox, Google Drive, Massive are all blocked in China, so upload to these services has a chance of getting disconnected, as VPN is quite likely to be disconnected during the transfer.
Transfer Proxies First, Raw Footage Later
When you shoot anything involves RAW footage, use proxies setting in your camera, so you can have a proxy back up directly after the shoot. Having these files will make sure the editing department abroad can work on the edit directly. Giving the small sizes of proxies, they should be finished uploading within 1 hour depends on your footage length.
Now for the heavy lifting part, Raw Footage upload. They are massive, so you should consider to use the services that can allow auto-resume, most services in the market is not supported, so you should consider using FTP, the old way of transfer files, yet still the most practical way of uploading.
Before Your Start FTP Transfer
You should make sure your FTP storage server is connectable in China, due to the constant blocking of the IP addresses, you might find you can’t even connect the FTP server. The best thing to do is to test the upload, and ping the server from your uploading PC/Mac.
A well functioned PC/Mac is essential for uploading large footage, as you need them to stay alive as long as the uploading. Turn off the auto update on PC, and switch the sleep mode off for PC & Mac so it won’t fall into sleep.
Once the server & Computer all tested, start your upload and wait for at least 30 mins – 1 hour to check if upload is stable enough.
If You Find it Hard to Transfer Your Footage
Let us know.
Our Team upload footage for our clients shoot in China, it’s not a easy task sometimes as it’s not just about the fast connections.