How to Manage a Large Project – Beginning to End

[Olivier Prudhomme]

[Andrew Tucker] “Does this sound like a good approach or do you think it is something that would cause me trouble down the road?”

It is hard to give very specific answers without knowing things like the type of media/elements and the overall size of the date you have to manage and store.
What I know for sure is that even if it seems manageable now… eventually it won’t be. Media keeps accumulating and the external hard drive situation you’re using now will soon not be enough.
Keep in mind also that HD, as reliable as they can be, eventually fail, or at least have a chance to fail, which is not something you want to happen. So as mentioned in this thread, go the RAID route and don’t be cheap on the main system BU
I understand you’re cautious about moving things around because of the older projects linked to media that might be unliked. Maybe, and again it’s hard to know w/o the specific, maybe you could media manage these older projects which would allow you to eventually to get the workflow and organisation you’re after. Just don’t let those “old” project stand in the way of starting off with a new and improved media management system.

The good thing is that you are thinking ahead by reaching out and anticipating.

Los Angeles – TV Promo Editor – FCP – AVID

[Robert Withers]

Hi Mike, I’m trying to listen and learn from this thread.

When you say “Vol 1: Current Project backup — backs up relevant folders from my PC either continuously or on the click of a button”–what are the relevant folders? Project files or other items too?

Thanks,
Robert

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Andrew Tucker]

Mike,
Thank you so much for the reply. It sounds like we are in a pretty similar situation. We have on-site IT and I think it would be beneficial for me to touch-base with them on alternative options. Your solution sounds like it has been pretty solid for you.

[Mike Bosshard] “Vol 3: Archive — this is where I save most of my offsite footage as sort of a bank, due to it very likely being used repeatedly. Although I’m starting to outgrow it and have had to put some of this in Vol 2. I also zip up any really old projects from Vol 2 and save them here, ones that I am basically sure that I will not need to access any of the assets for under normal circumstances. “

I love this. It’s so simple in yet I never even thought of it. I always think “What if I need this.”

Thanks again!

[Mike Bosshard]

Hi Robert,
I have two internal HDDs on my PC, in each one I have a created a master “Projects” folder that is synced with the Synology backup.

For any given project I create a subfolder within one of those Projects folders with all of the assets – video/audio files, images, AE files, PPro project files, etc.

Regarding the PC, if I had to do it over again I would spend a little more and do 2 SSDs (1 for OS and 1 for media cache) and 2 HDDs (current project storage), but this machine was spec’d mostly by IT in a pinch about 3 years ago right after I started.