Putting a project together (ORDER)

[Mike Kujbida]

I create a master folder and then as many sub-folders as I need for the project.
For example, master folder is named “My Video”.
Sub-folders usually are:
Captured Video, Audio, Music, Graphics, Special FX (for example, Digital Juice files), Renders.
More folders are added if the need arises.
I also create sub-folders inside of sub-folders if the need arises.
For example, on a recent project, I was dealing with 6 different interviews.
Each person had a sub-folder with their name on it inside of the Captured Video sub-folder.

BTW, even if I have the music or graphics in another folder on my hard drive somewhere, I always copy them into a folder in this project as it makes project file management a LOT easier.

[Thomas Roberts]

Awesome, this is similar to what I currently do! Thanks for the confirmation 🙂

Thanks,

T

[Bill Mash]

I take a more granular, yet similar approach…

Storyboard and break my project into chapters.
Create a main folder named for the project.
Create Subfolders with content by chapter, including parsing by type (pics, video, voice-over, sound-effects).
Create a separate Veggie file associated with each chapter/sub-folder.

By design this approach categorizes content and makes it easier to find. It also eliminates the possibility of mistakenly reusing content. It’s also proved invaluable in flushing out and improving my story as I do the work of segregating the material.

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

[Danny Hays]

Once I have all the media I’m going to use in my project media tab, I back up with media to a different hard drive than any of the original media is on, then only save the .veg each time I make a change. This way I have a backup of everything in case of a hard drive failure.

[Stephen Mann]

Hard disks are so cheap these days, I just use a SATA Dock on my desktop and each project has its own hard-disk.

Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com

[Dave Haynie]

I always use project directories. For any project of non-trivial size, I give it its own SATA drive… I have carriers that take both 3.5″ and 2.5″ SATA drives, kind of as if they were cartridges.

I first move all my video, audio, and photo assets to a subdir called “orig”. Once in there, I make that read-only, so as not to accidently overwrite anything. At this time, I copy the project over to my RAID, and to a few blank BD-Rs as an inital backup.

If it’s a medium sized project, I probably keep .veg files at the top level; if a very large project, I’ll have separate subdirectories for each chapter/act, with Vegas projects for those. Sometimes I also have individual projects for individual scenes… depends on the kind of video.

I don’t explicitly go through and catalog every scene… that’s more of a thing for films… I shoot primarily events (maybe a second camera, but not a choice of a dozen takes of the same scene). The individual Vegas projects would include the media for those specific parts of the video.

I usually create an “artwork” subdirectory, for DVD/BD menu and case artwork, that kind of thing. When I’m done, the case artwork and DVD/BD files go onto the RAID, so I always have the completed project at my fingertips. The SATA drive then goes on a shelf — in case I need to re-edit at some point, it’s all but instantly available.

-Dave

[Thomas Roberts]

Hi Dave,

Thank you so much for your answer. Could you direct me regarding the following: (VERY helpful)

1. Your SATA drive setup
2. Your BD-R setup. What disc do you use? Drive?
3. Where do you purchase your Hardware from?
4. How do you make the MASTER “READ ONLY”

Thanks,

Thomas

[Dave Haynie]

1. Well, letsee… I have two 1.5TB SATA main drives in the PC, and then the SATA “racks” They’re like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Connectland-CL-HD-MROF-5-25-Inch-Mobile-3-5-Inch/dp/B0028Y4DAO/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1287981777&sr=8-4
https://www.amazon.com/Connectland-CL-HD-MRDU25S-Removable-Enclosure-3-5-Inch/dp/B0028Y4DAE/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1287981872&sr=8-18

Windows doesn’t recognize regular SATA drives as removable, so it’s a good idea to power down then add/remove from these racks, but they’re pretty handy. Some people like the desktop “docks” instead, same idea.

2. I have a Philips BD-R drive. It’s a couple years old, but works fine at the moment. I have used various BD-R blanks, have not run into any problems with compatibility.

3. I usually buy hardware online, a place such as Newegg, or maybe Amazon.. they’ve been pretty competitive on price lately. Of course, it helps to know what you’re doing… I used to design personal computer systems, so I’m not worried about getting into trouble when integrating my own systems.

4. To make the files read-only, I usually do “chmod -R a-r orig” from a cygwin shell. The shell’s also handy for catenating AVCHD files that run over 4GB. But you can do the same from the Windows explorer… I think you just select your directory, right click, select “properties”, and then check the “read-only” box, and I think check another box that causes this to take effect on all subfiles and directories.

-Dave