Thanks again for the help, fetchthestickboy.

Ok, first let me warn you, I am a total newb when it comes to almost everything in your wall of text but I'm down for doing it right the first time if you are down for helping me out. I'm unemployed right now but if I pull this off then I might score a spot as a freelance assistant editor with my step-brother's little production company.

Ok, so the camera man told me that he is using a "Sony PMW-350 and the footage will end up Pro Res 422, 16x9, 1920x1080"

So, I created a comp with a preset of HDTV 1080 29.97, 1920x1080, and square pixels. Should the pixels be square?

Then I created a 1920x1080 solid with square pixels and then went to File>Create Proxy>Still and then the render queue opened so I looked over everything and then clicked "render". That finished rendering and now I have my plain black solid comp with a red bar at the bottom of the comp window that says "Proxy Enabled!"

Everything sound legit so far?

Now I know I am supposed to create a null layer and then parent it to the proxy, but do I do this by creating a null object? When I create a new null object it just gives me a little red wireframe square in the center of my comp. Is this box where my footage will be visible?

Do I need to create nine proxy stills with nine null objects parented to each one?

I clearly do not know what I am doing. This may require some ELI5.