Media Management... or, how do you keep your stuff sorted?

[Daniel Rutter]

Hey Guys;

Last year when I did a Screen Media course at the local college, the topic of Media Management came up. I've since realised just how important this is, as I've accumulated well over 2TB of footage and photos since I bought my HV30 about 3 years ago.

For those of you who don't know, Media Management is a term used when referring to how you store and archive files. In the film and photography world, it could mean the difference in knowing exactly where everything is when you need it... or spending hours searching keywords on your hard drives just to find that footage from the wedding you shot in 2009 that the couple wants a BluRay of.

The question I lay before you all, is this. How to do accoumplish Media Management personally?

For example, I personally have a folder on a hard drive (not C drive) with the folder "Daniels Video Stuff", and within that I create folders for every job, film shoot or test shoot I do. I do this by putting the date first, then the name of the shoot.
I.E: 2012-03-01_HV20Forum-Huey&BobSHaveAFistFight
Within that folder, I create folders for Footage, Project File and Renders. Within the Footage folder, I create a folder for each camera I use (in my case, GH1 and HV30) and then a folder for Audio (as I record externally with a Zoom H1).
All my files are then dropped into their corresponding folders.

I do the same for my photos, but without as many folders. I simply create a folder with the date and shoot name, create a folder called "RAW" (as I shoot all photos in RAW), then a folder for JPEGS (if I convert the RAW files to JPEG) and a folder for any edits I make within that.

If I do a more complex video shoot, within the date+shootname folder I create a folder called "Assets" for anything that may need to be included... such as stills, charts or music.


How do you guys handle it?

[Bif]

Basically the same way you do, Daniel. A named project folder for all original video shot on a given project, with subfolders for assets like audio and still images etc. Finished and rendered projects do go in a separate project named folder since Avid Pinnacle Studio 15 will archive a video project with all assets actually used and the finished edited video all in one folder.

I do this on a pair of 2TB external USB drives (mirrored) with a third drive held as a "standby" to replace either of the pair that may develop problems (none so far).

Still photography is handled the same way with a pair of 500GB drives.

I haven't felt the need to separate video and stills into separate subfolders by camera type yet as up to now I've only had two main types to contend with. HF100 AVCHD and Canon DSLR H.264 in MOV, but now I'm going to have Olympus and soon GH2 so I may start giving each type it's own subfolder for original media shot within the original project folder. I hadn't really thought of that until reading your post.

Bruce Foreman

[Krane]

Hey Guys;

Last year when I did a Screen Media course at the local college, the topic of Media Management came up. I've since realised just how important this is, as I've accumulated well over 2TB of footage and photos since I bought my HV30 about 3 years ago.

For those of you who don't know, Media Management is a term used when referring to how you store and archive files. In the film and photography world, it could mean the difference in knowing exactly where everything is when you need it... or spending hours searching keywords on your hard drives just to find that footage from the wedding you shot in 2009 that the couple wants a BluRay of.

The question I lay before you all, is this. How to do accoumplish Media Management personally?

For example, I personally have a folder on a hard drive (not C drive) with the folder "Daniels Video Stuff", and within that I create folders for every job, film shoot or test shoot I do. I do this by putting the date first, then the name of the shoot.
I.E: 2012-03-01_HV20Forum-Huey&BobSHaveAFistFight
Within that folder, I create folders for Footage, Project File and Renders. Within the Footage folder, I create a folder for each camera I use (in my case, GH1 and HV30) and then a folder for Audio (as I record externally with a Zoom H1).
All my files are then dropped into their corresponding folders.

I do the same for my photos, but without as many folders. I simply create a folder with the date and shoot name, create a folder called "RAW" (as I shoot all photos in RAW), then a folder for JPEGS (if I convert the RAW files to JPEG) and a folder for any edits I make within that.

If I do a more complex video shoot, within the date+shootname folder I create a folder called "Assets" for anything that may need to be included... such as stills, charts or music.


How do you guys handle it?

Your basic assessment seems like a sound one but I'd normally not label by camera type. Still, how you label depends on how you access. If I know all my pro work is on my RED Epic (I wish) then thats one way to keep it labeled. On the other hand, that method may not work so universally for multiple users as say labeling by project which virtually anyone could figure out.

If you have a good media management program (bundled with most editing software), all you need do is fill in the spaces--and the more spaces/categories the better. The time you take to do this is invaluable; and will be a godsend should you need to access material that my have been archived long ago.

[drapeama]

How do you guys handle it?

Like Bruce said, pretty much the same way you're doing. Seems the best way so far to me.

[BarteS]

Not the way I want it to be... Currently I use about the same method, including the addition of storing files of different cameras in different folders. However, I do not add the date to the files. With tape it's one big file which could span a couple of days. And with my other two cameras I get individual files, which allows me to make use of the metadata. (Which I still consider to be rather minimal. I'd love to be able to extract information about the focal length I most commonly use and at what ISO/gain setting I'm shooting. Looks rather silly to constantly talk to your camera )
In the past I did investigate applications to manage my videos in a proper way, but most are OSX only and I'm not using OSX anymore. Hopefully Adobe will add a nice manager in CS6 (Bridge on steroids or something inside Premiere). (Btw, you're all familiar with the fact Adobe introduced the grace period, which allows you to buy the majority of applications and all suites CS5.5 now and with that get a free upgrade to CS6, as soon as its ships?)

[Almohada]

For my larger projects I'm just going to invest in external HDD's, one for each project.

[drapeama]

For my larger projects I'm just going to invest in external HDD's, one for each project.

That's not a bad idea. Depending on the project, a 500gb can do it, and it's not much expensive.

[Khaver]

Something you might consider doing is thumbnail contact sheets of a frame from each shot from each folder of assets. Keep a copy in the master project folder and print out the sheets and keep them in a folder for easy visual reference.

[Almohada]

That's not a bad idea. Depending on the project, a 500gb can do it, and it's not much expensive.

Yup. The project I'm working on now is on an 80 gig Maxtor. It's hovering around 15gigs left now. Bad idea going with an 80 gig but that's all we could afford.

[drapeama]

As long as the HDD is working well, there's no Bad Idea. A brand new 1.5TB could die in less time than an old HDD...you simply can't predict it.

[BarteS]

For my larger projects I'm just going to invest in external HDD's, one for each project.

Why not sacrifice an old computer, add some harddrives and setup a raid5 or raid6 array. It's not a a backup, but at least its a bit peace of mind to spin-up a harddrive which has been active more often and which is not critical. And...an external harddrive to store larger projects? What's the size of such a large project? Prior to moving the data to the archive I get rid of all intermediate material. Just the source, project and the important export files are stored.

[Almohada]

This one is probably 50-60 gigs... that's all.

[Krane]

This one is probably 50-60 gigs... that's all.

LOL, my thumb drive (65GB) is bigger than that.

Good news, with the exception of flash media, storage is cheap; and you can never have too much. Just make sure you have an array, that can keep up.

[Daniel Rutter]

Sony Vegas 11 apparently comes with media management, but I prefer to do all mine in Windows explorer just for convenience. The sorting into seperate folders for cameras just helps me keep each camera feeds files seperate.
When importing HDV, I actually correctly name the files (For instance 2012-04-1_HV20ForumPost-HV30cam1-001 (I scene split my files, so the "001" is where file count starts). I own two HV30s which I use on multicam shoots, so "cam1" and "cam2" are used to label those correctly. I really need to step up my game with the AVCHD footage from my GH1 though. Usually I leave those file names as they are, as I want to get straight into editing... and they're sorted enough with all the folder names.
Once my GH2 arrives, I'll start changing things up a little.

I had an argument a few days ago with a techie from my radio station about properly managing our production and music files. It all comes down to preference I guess, but I find that sorting by date first helps me find what I want faster. The way he wants to label things is "projectnameYearMonthDay.mp3"... which I think is messy... but as I said, it's a matter of preference. In the end, how you name them isn't important... its that you edit, produce and present them correctly.

Feel free to share any other media management tips, as I'm sure newbies to the video world could use a little in the way of tips on how to do this.

[cgbier]

FCP X and Aperture do that for me automatically.

[Dr. Benway]

It is a matter of preference. My mnemonics would confuse others.

[drapeama]

I still have separate folders (within the Project folder) for the HDV and AVCHD (HV40 & T2i) and I also have another forler for intermediate videos (from the T2i), then projects, audio (from the recorder), music and even stills or .psd templates (like Ratio or vignetting/frame). It makes things easier when comes the time to put some order in it.
Then when comes the time to backup, I use 7zip to create archives, split at 4.37gb so I can burn them onto DVDs. Still not the best method, but at least, it's a backup.

[kenkyusha]

I really need to step up my game with the AVCHD footage from my GH1 though. Usually I leave those file names as they are, as I want to get straight into editing... and they're sorted enough with all the folder names.
Once my GH2 arrives, I'll start changing things up a little.

+1- the 'off the card' GH naming structure is workable if you are only shooting with one. Once you start covering with two cams, it turns into a right mess pretty quickly.

[Playing]

I do the same as Daniel. Dates in front of everything. One folder for each cam that will go on a different track for a multi cam edit.
I also keep (and backup) original recordings and renders on different HDDs, so even in a catastrophic failure I will not lose both the original and the final product.

[Steve_Karl]

I have a long history of keeping audio projects organized and I began using a similar method for video when I got a camera.
(It's only been about a year and I don't shoot very much.)
Folders inside of folders, inside of folders, with names that make sense to me.
I suspect that my actual project folders, there are only 2 in the works now, will all begin with an "_" to keep them on top of the tape#_name_date
folders, even though some of those contain clips relative to the _projects.
I'm sure it will evolve as the needs arise for more organization.

Backup is done using a .bat file that uses xcopy to push everything by date or changed ( xcopy /s /d /y ) to an other PC
so I always have a redundant copy on an other hard drive and I don't have to worry or think to get the backup done ... just click on the icon.
Example:
----------
xcopy /e /s /d /y \\p8p\f\sk_cap~1\*.* \\b64\L\sk_cap~1
xcopy /e /s /d /y \\p8p\s\skcap2\*.* \\b64\L\skcap2

pause
----------
Copy between the lines into notepad and save as a .bat ( not .txt ) modify your paths
\\machinename\driveLetter\folder\*.* ( *.* is wildcard.wildcard meaning "everything in there")

... and you have it.

Double check your DOS names with a CMD box like so:

dir /p /x

The /x will show the DOS names for names that are longer than 8 characters and give you the ~1, or ~2 when needed, etc.
to make it work.

[BarteS]

In a couple of weeks I hopefully have a great solution, Adobe Prelude! It's part of the Production Suite CS6 and the Master Suite CS6. It offers tagging, transcoding, sending footage to Premiere Pro. The metadata is stored in the files and as a result, you can read it in Premiere Pro too. I'd love to know a bit more about the markers and whether you can use multiple of the same type to the same clip, even if some are overlapping. This would be of use to tape based footage. But at least, finally, .. it seems like on Windows a video management tool will become available which is more intelligent than just adding tags to entire files or color markers. Bridge for example didn't cut it for me...

[Krane]

It is a matter of preference. My mnemonics would confuse others.

Ah yes, you're one of "them".

In any event, you are correct. Your organization depends on you and how you use your system and how it fits into your duty/job etc. Still, regardless of how you set it up, it should still be logical in the event that others need to access your data.

If you own or are a part of a business, time is money; and the sooner you can access your data the more money you will make/save.