Advice for CatDV Migration

[Robb Harriss]

Under no circumstances do it all at once, or even large parts. Test small pieces. Then test some more. Most of the things you’re going to want in the end, you don’t even know yet. Once you see it displayed you’ll start filling in those blanks.

I’m using Pegasus, by the way, and a workgroup server. I’m managing footage on a multi machine Avid network, but not on a specific shared media system, just plain old external drives.

-What metadata are you guys applying from your folder structure?
I don’t. CatDV determines the existing folder structure and records it. If I need something based on a folder I can find that directly in CatDV. It knows where the footage is, drive and folder, so I don’t bother to make any other notation.

-When you ingest something, does it go straight to a specific catalog or do you have a special place for incoming?
a little of both. Basically we use our footage as stock footage to populate new projects. So we’re always pulling from the large pool to create small cuts. I have it sorted by location Shoot: This particular office, or factory, or school. Some of this is captured from existing tapes, some coming in as files only. I import the clips into Pegasus based on their original location and folder, which in the case of Avid is usually a numbered folder in the MXF directory of a media drive. That catalog is for the media drive and folder. Once imported I add my metadata. That done I copy the clips to a catalog that’s based on the location. That way there is a copy of the clip in the drive’s catalog and one in the specific catalog. That way the metadata matches. Didn’t alway do it that way, but it works for me. Once my full resolution footage is in the Avid I also make low resolution copies to edit with. That allows me to carry around a small drive and work on location or at home. I also bring those into Pegasus, treated the same way. I’m never quite sure where I’ll be working, so it’s nice to always have a working copy of all clips. Not that big a deal. I use Pegasus to make much smaller proxies of everything. I have a writer and another producer occasionally looking at footage. I create small mov files that they can view on their machines, and using mov the files can have real timecode and reel names, which has proved helpful from time to time. I also burn in reel name and timecode so they know these are not finished files.

-How did you clean up your old files and folders prior to ingest?
Just made sure they’re what I want, at the resolution I want. I’ve had to recapture off of tape. Using Avid that’s significant because it creates new file names so the old files are superseded.

-What would you do differently, looking back on your MAM migration, that would make things better?
just determining what metadata is really important and having that ready to go in pick lists. Actually, the main thing we would have changed would have been to go with a workgroup server from the start. The server version allows global searches, which became critical once the number of catalogs started to mount. that and unified pick lists. Locking those pick lists means uniformity of information.

-How do you keep people from bringing s&*t in?
You can’t. But you can review everything before it’s dropped in and causes a problem.
create pick lists and locks them down.

-Any other wisdom or advice for a successful migration?
test first

Good luck

Non-linear: all the time and nothing but.