How to organize and control your footage?

Marco Wagner · May 19th, 2006, 02:54 PM

No problem. Yeah those red boxes are especially fun if you can't figure out where all the items are located, lol...

Dale Guthormsen · May 20th, 2006, 11:42 PM

brendan,

I shoot birds almost everyday. I have a huge amount of footage.
I keep it simple: hard drives are dead cheap these days.

I use premiere pro 1.5. I scan every tape and log what is on the tape and record the footage of it. Particularly good footage is asterisked up front.
I have a simple folder for species: ducks, swans, falcons etc. I capture ideal footage into these folders.
I use several hard drives. I always set all scratch disks into one folder, that way I can simple copy the entire folder and move it all in one easy fashion.
When building a project I keep a current copy on two different drives for security.

I seldom have to go back to my log to find what I need.

Oh yea, use a simple naming convention of abreviations to identify clips, it can be almost anything but stay consistant. Last winter we were shooting gyrfalcons and simply named them gyr 1 1-06, gyr2 1-06.

I to have been considering building a data base to work from, just do not seem to have the time!!!

It would be great to get a copy of someone elses!!

Lauri Kettunen · May 21st, 2006, 01:34 AM

My database is built with iView MediaPro 3. Recently discovered also that Adobe Bridge is very handy. For instance, Adobe Bridge enables one to append meta data and to move files from one adobe application to another.

Guess, if one shoots to tapes, then the tapes themselves are a kind of database and archive assuming the tapes are somwhow labelled. Nowadays, I've given up of tapes and store nowadays everything directly on files. Then a database is more or less a necessity. A lot of work is easily lost unless one is able to search what is there.

Brendan Marnell · May 21st, 2006, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dale Guthormsen

brendan,

I shoot birds almost everyday. I have a huge amount of footage.
I keep it simple: hard drives are dead cheap these days.

Does this mean you (a) hang on to your old footage on hard drive(s) OR (b) keep your old tapes OR (c) both ?

I use premiere pro 1.5. I scan every tape and log what is on the tape and record the footage of it.

Does this mean that using ppro 1.5 you capture each tape and scan it on the program monitor as it's being captured and rename the clips as they appear?
Does "log" mean "rename" or "add on asterisk" or add on gyr1?

I have a simple folder for species: ducks, swans, falcons etc. I capture ideal footage into these folders.

Do you mean that after you've decided to delete/extract/scrap some bits of footage/clips you save "ideal footage" [after a "rename"?] to the appropriate species folder?

I use several hard drives.
Are all your programs/applications including premiere pro 1.5 on one drive?
Do you capture all footage/clips to separate drive(s)? Do you keep finished projects/videos on separate drive(s) or just leave them accumulate in ppro?

Oh yea, use a simple naming convention of abreviations to identify clips, it can be almost anything but stay consistant. Last winter we were shooting gyrfalcons and simply named them gyr 1 1-06, gyr2 1-06.

At want point in the capture or editing process did you add the name gyr1 to clip 1-06?

After all that torture it's only fair that I invite you to answer my last question ... Amn't I a (great) pain in the arse?

But I do value your experience and appreciate your advice very much Dale.

Brendan Marnell · May 22nd, 2006, 01:42 PM

I am sorry to waste any time you spent trying to unravel my last post, Dale.

I've only now realised that I've been doing the lazy thing and leaving Scene Detect turned on in the Logging tab of the Capture window. So I've ended up with all my scenes listed and numbered in the project window but I've missed out on the basic info I could have added into the list by simply putting an I.D. tag in front of the first clip ... your example was "gyr1 - 01 .. so that's what you meant by logging clips (even at the simplest level) and after getting the habit of that I begin to see the other possibilities you were suggesting to help me organize my footage ... now I'm going to read this thread over again ...

... but please don't run away ... your advice is a great help to me.

Dale Guthormsen · May 22nd, 2006, 06:23 PM

Brenden,

First I never use automatic sceene detection. Sence I do not have a player/editor like a sony dsr 11 or 25, I just log them as I capture them.
If I am not editing until sometime later I actually spend a little time ledgering clips by time and frame from The tape into a spirel notebook. All tapes are named and dated and safely placed away. When it is time to build the project I whip out my book and can collect prime clips from 20 hours of tapes readily, and then I log them by theme and number as I capture.
With hard drives so cheap one could easily use a seperate hard drive for say, birds, Bugs, mamals, or whatever. Then too, if you have a hard drive failure you do not lose everything!!!
I am personally thinking of going to firestore 4 and then I will be asking Lauri for assistance. It is a scarey thought of using just the fs4 alone!! I think for anything serious using a tape to is a necessity just for backup.

Hope I answered the questions.

Mack Fisher · May 22nd, 2006, 06:44 PM

I organize entirely in FCP studio. Sorting by State>City>Area> and That visit which I call cache 1. So far it has work seemlesly because besides each folder I give a breif description of the location and contents, also weather etc.. so I know whats in a folder before I open it. This hasnt failed me once.

Brendan Marnell · May 23rd, 2006, 03:21 AM

If you had not sent that last post Dale, I would not know for sure that my self-inflicted scourge was "scene detect" which is so handy, but can lend itself to confusion later on. Your method looks a winner to me. I don't have a clue what a firestore 4 is but it's probably a set-up for pros and I've yet to reach amateur status.

It's a real support to know that there's a premiere pro 1.5 practitioner out there. Any further insights on premiere pro 1.5 workflow would be very welcome.

Meryem Ersoz · May 23rd, 2006, 08:07 AM

i archive everything on tape. i have an assistant who reviews tapes periodically and logs the shots on to an excel spread sheet, according to time code. he also grades the shots so i can go straight to the best shot. hard drives are very inexpensive, as someone said, but i imagine over time, having to organize and retrieve data from hard drives can get as confusing as a tape library. especially as, over time, you can forget what you even shot.

my archive is a hard copy, printed into a binder that i can flip through and figure out what stock material may be suitable for a new project. plus, those dang HDV files are so space-consuming. the hard drive fills fast.....

i'm intrigued by the idea of using adobe bridge to append data to media. i'll have to look into this further....especially as the move to tapeless storage becomes the norm....

Brendan Marnell · May 23rd, 2006, 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meryem Ersoz

i archive everything on tape. i have an assistant who reviews tapes periodically and logs the shots on to an excel spread sheet, according to time code.

my archive is a hard copy, printed into a binder that i can flip through and figure out what stock material may be suitable for a new project. ....

I understand the second paragraph, Meryem, but I can't reconcile it with your first sentence, unless you mean that everything you tape is archived into your binder via excel? What do you mean by "according to timecode"? Do you store them in chronological order? Or does your assistant add or cut/paste the timecode of each clip into the spreadsheet? Or do you edit/apply in&out points when capturing and add revised info to spreadsheet?
Please spell it out in some more detail when you have time to spare or ask your assistant to describe his workflow to me?

The idea of hard copy appeals to me. Perhaps there's nothing for it but a bit of "work experience". Do you take on students in summer? When does your assistant go on vacation? On second thoughts you're better off not letting me near your files ... my middle name is 'chaos' ..

Meryem Ersoz · May 23rd, 2006, 11:06 AM

i have a binder full of spreadsheets. on each spreadsheet, he logs:

1) name of tape (only needs to do this once, as a header)
2) short description of shot--if he can't figure it out, he does his best, and we put our heads together after he's done a bunch of work, to sort the proper names of things
3) timecode (including designations of, argh, timecode breaks), usually only a beginning point is needed because in general the endpoint is right before the next inpoint, unless i've done something stupid.
4) a grade for the shot (1-5 scale)
5) notes on anything significant about the shot (is there camera movement? pan, tilt, etc?) and/or justification for the grade (too much camera shake, it looks like a bee stung meryem while she was shooting, etc. weird audio. that sort of thing.)

i live near a university, so there's a ready pool of youth in search of pizza and beer money. however, my guy is in a bit of a different situation, and i'm grooming him for bigger things besides tracking the tape library, but it's usually not hard to find an extra hand in these parts. even for non-steady, PT work.

hope this clarifies, brendan.

i'm always amazed by what some of you guys are able to talk your wives into doing, in support of your video habit. someone get me a wife, quick! think of the dollars i could save!

Brendan Marnell · May 23rd, 2006, 11:23 AM

That's done it again, Meryem, you do inspire me to rhyme ..

A nasty young fellow called Dave
Locked up his babe in a cave, he said
It's true I admit
I'm a bit of a shit
But think of the money I save

... but thank you for the detail of your archiving system; it sounds/looks highly organised, backed presumably by stacks/boxes of tapes.

Jim Harring · June 27th, 2006, 06:42 PM

I can't answer everything, but you may find this useful:
I use standard IDE (ATAo or SATA) hard drives in removeable bays.
I buy hard drives on rebate thru: ableshoppers.com and deals2buy.com
I stick with Seagate (for 5 year warranty) 7200 RPM, 8meg cache min. As big as I can get.
I backup to another hard drive, usually an older. smaller one. Robocopy or synctoy helps here (both free on Microsoft.com, or thru MS-resource kit).
I don't use drive letters for the "main" volumes, just mount points. Drive letters for the backup drives only.
Vegas to index/catalogue.
VEG files all on the local drive, again, synctoy schedules a backup of key files (database, veg files etc) to a second hard drive.

Bay:
Genica IDE Mobile Rack Removable Rack w/Fan $7.15 for ATA $20 for SATA
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=GN210&cpc=SCH

Mack Fisher · June 27th, 2006, 11:16 PM

I just recently purchased moviegallery for Mac and I love it, its like Itunes for my HD stock video.

Ruben Contreras · June 29th, 2006, 05:41 PM

Some of you stated that you use excel to log your video clips. I know that programs like catDV can do similar things. Unfortunately i wont be able to get catDV. are there any other programs that can log video clips?

May 19th, 2006, 02:54 PM	#16
Marco Wagner Trustee Join Date: May 2005 Location: Saint Cloud, Florida Posts: 1,043	No problem. Yeah those red boxes are especially fun if you can't figure out where all the items are located, lol... __________________ www.facebook.com/projectspecto

May 20th, 2006, 11:42 PM	#17
Dale Guthormsen Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Saskatchewan Posts: 3,048	files brendan, I shoot birds almost everyday. I have a huge amount of footage. I keep it simple: hard drives are dead cheap these days. I use premiere pro 1.5. I scan every tape and log what is on the tape and record the footage of it. Particularly good footage is asterisked up front. I have a simple folder for species: ducks, swans, falcons etc. I capture ideal footage into these folders. I use several hard drives. I always set all scratch disks into one folder, that way I can simple copy the entire folder and move it all in one easy fashion. When building a project I keep a current copy on two different drives for security. I seldom have to go back to my log to find what I need. Oh yea, use a simple naming convention of abreviations to identify clips, it can be almost anything but stay consistant. Last winter we were shooting gyrfalcons and simply named them gyr 1 1-06, gyr2 1-06. I to have been considering building a data base to work from, just do not seem to have the time!!! It would be great to get a copy of someone elses!! __________________ DATS ALL FOLKS Dale W. Guthormsen

May 22nd, 2006, 06:23 PM	#21
Dale Guthormsen Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Saskatchewan Posts: 3,048	logging Brenden, First I never use automatic sceene detection. Sence I do not have a player/editor like a sony dsr 11 or 25, I just log them as I capture them. If I am not editing until sometime later I actually spend a little time ledgering clips by time and frame from The tape into a spirel notebook. All tapes are named and dated and safely placed away. When it is time to build the project I whip out my book and can collect prime clips from 20 hours of tapes readily, and then I log them by theme and number as I capture. With hard drives so cheap one could easily use a seperate hard drive for say, birds, Bugs, mamals, or whatever. Then too, if you have a hard drive failure you do not lose everything!!! I am personally thinking of going to firestore 4 and then I will be asking Lauri for assistance. It is a scarey thought of using just the fs4 alone!! I think for anything serious using a tape to is a necessity just for backup. Hope I answered the questions. __________________ DATS ALL FOLKS Dale W. Guthormsen

June 27th, 2006, 06:42 PM	#28
Jim Harring New Boot Join Date: May 2006 Location: Tampa, FL Posts: 12	What to do with all that video? I can't answer everything, but you may find this useful: I use standard IDE (ATAo or SATA) hard drives in removeable bays. I buy hard drives on rebate thru: ableshoppers.com and deals2buy.com I stick with Seagate (for 5 year warranty) 7200 RPM, 8meg cache min. As big as I can get. I backup to another hard drive, usually an older. smaller one. Robocopy or synctoy helps here (both free on Microsoft.com, or thru MS-resource kit). I don't use drive letters for the "main" volumes, just mount points. Drive letters for the backup drives only. Vegas to index/catalogue. VEG files all on the local drive, again, synctoy schedules a backup of key files (database, veg files etc) to a second hard drive. Bay: Genica IDE Mobile Rack Removable Rack w/Fan $7.15 for ATA $20 for SATA http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=GN210&cpc=SCH

May 21st, 2006, 01:34 AM	#18
Lauri Kettunen Major Player Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Kangasala, Finland Posts: 445	My database is built with iView MediaPro 3. Recently discovered also that Adobe Bridge is very handy. For instance, Adobe Bridge enables one to append meta data and to move files from one adobe application to another. Guess, if one shoots to tapes, then the tapes themselves are a kind of database and archive assuming the tapes are somwhow labelled. Nowadays, I've given up of tapes and store nowadays everything directly on files. Then a database is more or less a necessity. A lot of work is easily lost unless one is able to search what is there.

May 22nd, 2006, 01:42 PM	#20
Brendan Marnell Major Player Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Dublin, Ireland Posts: 938	I am sorry to waste any time you spent trying to unravel my last post, Dale. I've only now realised that I've been doing the lazy thing and leaving Scene Detect turned on in the Logging tab of the Capture window. So I've ended up with all my scenes listed and numbered in the project window but I've missed out on the basic info I could have added into the list by simply putting an I.D. tag in front of the first clip ... your example was "gyr1 - 01 .. so that's what you meant by logging clips (even at the simplest level) and after getting the habit of that I begin to see the other possibilities you were suggesting to help me organize my footage ... now I'm going to read this thread over again ... ... but please don't run away ... your advice is a great help to me.

May 22nd, 2006, 06:44 PM	#22
Mack Fisher Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 158	I organize entirely in FCP studio. Sorting by State>City>Area> and That visit which I call cache 1. So far it has work seemlesly because besides each folder I give a breif description of the location and contents, also weather etc.. so I know whats in a folder before I open it. This hasnt failed me once.

May 23rd, 2006, 03:21 AM	#23
Brendan Marnell Major Player Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Dublin, Ireland Posts: 938	If you had not sent that last post Dale, I would not know for sure that my self-inflicted scourge was "scene detect" which is so handy, but can lend itself to confusion later on. Your method looks a winner to me. I don't have a clue what a firestore 4 is but it's probably a set-up for pros and I've yet to reach amateur status. It's a real support to know that there's a premiere pro 1.5 practitioner out there. Any further insights on premiere pro 1.5 workflow would be very welcome.

May 23rd, 2006, 08:07 AM	#24
Meryem Ersoz Wrangler Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Boulder, CO Posts: 3,015	i archive everything on tape. i have an assistant who reviews tapes periodically and logs the shots on to an excel spread sheet, according to time code. he also grades the shots so i can go straight to the best shot. hard drives are very inexpensive, as someone said, but i imagine over time, having to organize and retrieve data from hard drives can get as confusing as a tape library. especially as, over time, you can forget what you even shot. my archive is a hard copy, printed into a binder that i can flip through and figure out what stock material may be suitable for a new project. plus, those dang HDV files are so space-consuming. the hard drive fills fast..... i'm intrigued by the idea of using adobe bridge to append data to media. i'll have to look into this further....especially as the move to tapeless storage becomes the norm....

May 23rd, 2006, 11:06 AM	#26
Meryem Ersoz Wrangler Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Boulder, CO Posts: 3,015	i have a binder full of spreadsheets. on each spreadsheet, he logs: 1) name of tape (only needs to do this once, as a header) 2) short description of shot--if he can't figure it out, he does his best, and we put our heads together after he's done a bunch of work, to sort the proper names of things 3) timecode (including designations of, argh, timecode breaks), usually only a beginning point is needed because in general the endpoint is right before the next inpoint, unless i've done something stupid. 4) a grade for the shot (1-5 scale) 5) notes on anything significant about the shot (is there camera movement? pan, tilt, etc?) and/or justification for the grade (too much camera shake, it looks like a bee stung meryem while she was shooting, etc. weird audio. that sort of thing.) i live near a university, so there's a ready pool of youth in search of pizza and beer money. however, my guy is in a bit of a different situation, and i'm grooming him for bigger things besides tracking the tape library, but it's usually not hard to find an extra hand in these parts. even for non-steady, PT work. hope this clarifies, brendan. i'm always amazed by what some of you guys are able to talk your wives into doing, in support of your video habit. someone get me a wife, quick! think of the dollars i could save!

May 23rd, 2006, 11:23 AM	#27
Brendan Marnell Major Player Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Dublin, Ireland Posts: 938	That's done it again, Meryem, you do inspire me to rhyme .. A nasty young fellow called Dave Locked up his babe in a cave, he said It's true I admit I'm a bit of a shit But think of the money I save ... but thank you for the detail of your archiving system; it sounds/looks highly organised, backed presumably by stacks/boxes of tapes.

June 27th, 2006, 11:16 PM	#29
Mack Fisher Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 158	I just recently purchased moviegallery for Mac and I love it, its like Itunes for my HD stock video.

June 29th, 2006, 05:41 PM	#30
Ruben Contreras New Boot Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 12	Some of you stated that you use excel to log your video clips. I know that programs like catDV can do similar things. Unfortunately i wont be able to get catDV. are there any other programs that can log video clips?