Really great to be organized - I used to use the analogy of folder and file organization to "imagine how hard it would be to find utensils to eat or cook with, if you took the forks, knives, spoons out of the dishwasher and just dropped them into random drawers in your kitchen cabinets?" Sometimes a good memory, is not as good, if you are not organized. You want to quickly find your keys to your car? - put them in the same place when you come home. So I am a big fan of this video as far as organization is concerned. The only thing that I think people in media production should be aware of is using certain things in the name structures like periods, or forward or back slashes. If it just for you, there may never be a problem with doing that - but other people mau run harmless apps or codes for back-ups, or different reasons that the coder of the apps, don't have code in place to deal with. And it may even throw errors when the period is being treated as the spot that proceeds the file type. Or the forward slash is being treated as a folder level. Coming from older tech ( me being older ) I have always gotten into the habit of using Underscores or hyphens to add clarity to a folder or file name. I even avoid spaces in the naming ( although spaces are usually dealt with in almost all coding these days ). But the structure and the whole idea of media organization is a real timesaver that a lot of people overlook and this video is extremely helpful in that regard. And to add one of my pet peeves - In Resolve - Label your nodes. If you use a fixed node tree - then you only need to do it once. You might think it's a waste of time, but every colorist that I have ever met has at one time or another opened up and old powergrade or an old project and looked at a big mess of nodes, and thing to themselves -"What the hell was I trying to do here" . Which then you start tracing back each property in each node until the lightbulb goes off and you remember. Best to be organized from the start. Thanks for this video Joshua - this will help many people - even some that will get handed a project and has never seen this video - nice job
Thanks for the comment Jim! I love the idea of a self explanatory workflow - If someone random was to come across your projects or files, they would be able to figure it out with little inside knowledge. Good tip on file naming as well. One of our assistant editors told me a story from film school when they named their camera files on set with and exclamation mark such as (camerafilename!) and when they were ingested into the Avid NAS server it glitched out until they realised. I haven't had any issues with our workflow but good to keep in mind.
the terms "basic" and "unimportant" are mutually exclusive. If it's basic, it is extremely important, and that's why I am constantly looking for opinions on "basics" from professionals, such as you. Thanks for this!
These are the best instructional I have found on TH-cam. So generous with the information. My only disappointment is that the "free download" ends up costing $11.99. I didn't expect a bait and switch from this channel. I would gladly pay that amount because of the value it represents however there is a principle here.
This is extremely helpful insight into professional video organization. Most of us were forced to find a structure and tweak it so this is awesome information for beginner to intermediatre. Would have loved this video when I started. lol. You're answering questions most content creators either don't share or don't want to share. Golden content. Keep em' coming. Much love.
Thank you so much for this!! As we started to grow our business managing files has become a serious task for clients that requires constant massive filming! With a bit of tweaking, this really helped us organize a system that actually matches the needs of our specific projects! It would be so awesome if you made a video on corrupted files and how to manage them. Because we just lost one complete hard drive and really invaluable footage for corrupted files.
Maybe a previows workflow on how to steup and export projects correctly and manage all the videos and file structure to what been teach on this lesson, would be awesome. Now that we learned file structure management, maybe how to apply this on the daily editing, projects settings creation and files exporting.
Amazing! Could you do this with an davinci project, exporting and showing the process before all the folders and how to correctly export for those places?? Thanks!!!
Great tutorial focused on DaVinci Resolve where the project files are in the database, not a separate Project File. Do you ever use Resolve's Media Management function or does creating the final DaVinci Resolve Archive effectively meet all your needs by archiving the Project/Timeline(s) with source media?
Yes the Resolve Archive works for us. If I was fully handing a project off to another party (such as a colorist) I would use Resolves Media Management. This is a great way or archiving the final timeline as well that includes all associated media for that timeline. I just hate deleting content, so we have gone down the path of billing clients for data storage.
Very helpful description of the logic of your structure, thanks! I'm wondering if you have any tools you'd recommend for managing a whole database of raw footage, something that you can use to tag and organize by theme, location, etc. Most of my work is for my church, so I have a huge backlog of footage from very diverse shoots, but all of it is potentially useful for event promos, etc. Something like Bridge for photos, but for raw videos instead (Bridge didn't work for me because it doesn't preview .braw.) If you have any thoughts, I'd super appreciate it, thanks!
This is something i've never seen done well and elegantly outside of an editing project at a consumer level. There are larger enterprise solutions to set up big databases of video data but for me the solution is a well organised Davinci database with all the individual projects.
@@JoshuaKirkNZ Thanks for taking the time to respond- I was coming to this conclusion myself, nothing I've tried can handle raw footage like Resolve. Guess I just need to invest some time into some clearly labeled projects in my database with selects timelines inside those perhaps. Anyhow, thanks for continuing to give us these quality explanations!
Question if I use a same background video loop in all of my projects which is about a 1GB. Copying that file into every project will eat up so much of my hard disk space. So what do you do about that scenario that may be common across all your project. For example your TH-cam opener?
I personally find it really hard to delete anything client related. Even after years I still find a way to store the original data. We have a server that keeps expanding, but there will probably come a time I need to delete, place it all in cold storage.
this is way too advanced for where im at with my editing stuff but I saved the vid link in a document(since its not option to put it in a playlist) and I paid a few bucks for the download. I am going to share the link to this video to my editing classmates and teacher. my teach has a decent set up for us to be organized but its super basic and probably that way because the course is meant to be a speed run to get to freelancing.
Thanks for the watch and download! Appreciate it. I still use this folder structure for the smallest jobs because consistency is important with your workflow. Adapt it to your needs though!
this content is more valuable than a masterclass that i already taken last month with another tutor. this folder structure is more advance.
That's great! Thanks for watching.
Really great to be organized - I used to use the analogy of folder and file organization to "imagine how hard it would be to find utensils to eat or cook with, if you took the forks, knives, spoons out of the dishwasher and just dropped them into random drawers in your kitchen cabinets?" Sometimes a good memory, is not as good, if you are not organized.
You want to quickly find your keys to your car? - put them in the same place when you come home.
So I am a big fan of this video as far as organization is concerned.
The only thing that I think people in media production should be aware of is using certain things in the name structures like periods, or forward or back slashes. If it just for you, there may never be a problem with doing that - but other people mau run harmless apps or codes for back-ups, or different reasons that the coder of the apps, don't have code in place to deal with. And it may even throw errors when the period is being treated as the spot that proceeds the file type. Or the forward slash is being treated as a folder level.
Coming from older tech ( me being older ) I have always gotten into the habit of using Underscores or hyphens to add clarity to a folder or file name. I even avoid spaces in the naming ( although spaces are usually dealt with in almost all coding these days ).
But the structure and the whole idea of media organization is a real timesaver that a lot of people overlook and this video is extremely helpful in that regard.
And to add one of my pet peeves - In Resolve - Label your nodes. If you use a fixed node tree - then you only need to do it once. You might think it's a waste of time, but every colorist that I have ever met has at one time or another opened up and old powergrade or an old project and looked at a big mess of nodes, and thing to themselves -"What the hell was I trying to do here" . Which then you start tracing back each property in each node until the lightbulb goes off and you remember. Best to be organized from the start.
Thanks for this video Joshua - this will help many people - even some that will get handed a project and has never seen this video - nice job
Thanks for the comment Jim! I love the idea of a self explanatory workflow - If someone random was to come across your projects or files, they would be able to figure it out with little inside knowledge. Good tip on file naming as well. One of our assistant editors told me a story from film school when they named their camera files on set with and exclamation mark such as (camerafilename!) and when they were ingested into the Avid NAS server it glitched out until they realised. I haven't had any issues with our workflow but good to keep in mind.
if these guys that make this type of video emphasized if it was for mac or Pc it would raise the views im sure. this is incredible
Thanks for the watch!
the terms "basic" and "unimportant" are mutually exclusive. If it's basic, it is extremely important, and that's why I am constantly looking for opinions on "basics" from professionals, such as you. Thanks for this!
Sometimes you find the right thing immediately. Exactly what I was looking for. Super easy and well explained. Thank you!😃
This is SO helpful. I'm no professional, but this is exactly what I needed even as a beginner. Thank you!
You're welcome, thanks for the watch!
These are the best instructional I have found on TH-cam. So generous with the information. My only disappointment is that the "free download" ends up costing $11.99. I didn't expect a bait and switch from this channel. I would gladly pay that amount because of the value it represents however there is a principle here.
Seems like a you problem, mate. I got it for free.
Yep that is super helpful and really good to see this part
Cheers for the watch.
I like before I See the video because I know there is value.
Very kind thanks!
This is extremely helpful insight into professional video organization. Most of us were forced to find a structure and tweak it so this is awesome information for beginner to intermediatre. Would have loved this video when I started. lol. You're answering questions most content creators either don't share or don't want to share. Golden content. Keep em' coming. Much love.
Means a lot, thanks for this!
Thanks. Really well thought out and very useful!
Thank you, super helpful. Subscribed!!
Thanks for the sub @actnowlabs
Thanks looks great to keep the project tracking with some organization.
That's it!
Thank you so much for this!! As we started to grow our business managing files has become a serious task for clients that requires constant massive filming! With a bit of tweaking, this really helped us organize a system that actually matches the needs of our specific projects! It would be so awesome if you made a video on corrupted files and how to manage them. Because we just lost one complete hard drive and really invaluable footage for corrupted files.
Loved this video! SUBSCRIBED!
Thanks for subbing!
thank you so much, great practical video
Cheers!
Thank you, Joshua
Helpful /Good value
Thanks a lot.
Came across your channel and its very helpful. Got my Sub. :)
Thanks so much.
good vieo. you deserve more subscriber
Thank you!
what a brilliant channel!!!!!
Thanks!
Thank you for this video it is extremely helpful! Can you please explain about what are proxys and how we can get them to manage before editing?
Maybe a previows workflow on how to steup and export projects correctly and manage all the videos and file structure to what been teach on this lesson, would be awesome. Now that we learned file structure management, maybe how to apply this on the daily editing, projects settings creation and files exporting.
Amazing! Could you do this with an davinci project, exporting and showing the process before all the folders and how to correctly export for those places?? Thanks!!!
👍
Great tutorial focused on DaVinci Resolve where the project files are in the database, not a separate Project File. Do you ever use Resolve's Media Management function or does creating the final DaVinci Resolve Archive effectively meet all your needs by archiving the Project/Timeline(s) with source media?
Yes the Resolve Archive works for us. If I was fully handing a project off to another party (such as a colorist) I would use Resolves Media Management. This is a great way or archiving the final timeline as well that includes all associated media for that timeline. I just hate deleting content, so we have gone down the path of billing clients for data storage.
Very helpful description of the logic of your structure, thanks! I'm wondering if you have any tools you'd recommend for managing a whole database of raw footage, something that you can use to tag and organize by theme, location, etc. Most of my work is for my church, so I have a huge backlog of footage from very diverse shoots, but all of it is potentially useful for event promos, etc. Something like Bridge for photos, but for raw videos instead (Bridge didn't work for me because it doesn't preview .braw.) If you have any thoughts, I'd super appreciate it, thanks!
This is something i've never seen done well and elegantly outside of an editing project at a consumer level. There are larger enterprise solutions to set up big databases of video data but for me the solution is a well organised Davinci database with all the individual projects.
@@JoshuaKirkNZ Thanks for taking the time to respond- I was coming to this conclusion myself, nothing I've tried can handle raw footage like Resolve. Guess I just need to invest some time into some clearly labeled projects in my database with selects timelines inside those perhaps. Anyhow, thanks for continuing to give us these quality explanations!
Question: do you need to replicate this folder structure also in your editing software ?(for ex. Davinci's Media Pool). Thx, great vid!
You don't need to have the same structure in Resolve, but it could be helpful for consistency.
Question if I use a same background video loop in all of my projects which is about a 1GB. Copying that file into every project will eat up so much of my hard disk space. So what do you do about that scenario that may be common across all your project. For example your TH-cam opener?
what do you use as the date for the name of the project? is it the date they hired you, the deadline for the project, or something else?
When you have finished the project and saved a .dra do you still keep your original audio and footage? Just in case a re-edit is asked for?
I personally find it really hard to delete anything client related. Even after years I still find a way to store the original data. We have a server that keeps expanding, but there will probably come a time I need to delete, place it all in cold storage.
this is way too advanced for where im at with my editing stuff but I saved the vid link in a document(since its not option to put it in a playlist) and I paid a few bucks for the download. I am going to share the link to this video to my editing classmates and teacher. my teach has a decent set up for us to be organized but its super basic and probably that way because the course is meant to be a speed run to get to freelancing.
Thanks for the watch and download! Appreciate it. I still use this folder structure for the smallest jobs because consistency is important with your workflow. Adapt it to your needs though!
The GumRoad zip file says "invalid" when trying to extract and empty if opening via Win Explorer...
Where do you keep the working folders like cache files, gallery stills, etc
Hey Chris they are all currently on another dedicated scratch disk. Basically a different partition on our server.
I ordered the file and paid, but the zip file was empty?
Just emailed you I think. Let me know if that came through.
Soooo… no chapters in video about structure things… ok…
Thank you so much for this very insightful video! 🙏🏼
Subscribed!