Video Editing : Make Room for Data (page 2)

Audio is another area where a cohesive backup strategy can be useful. For example, if I use whole audio clips from a buyout music CD, I generally toss those clips, because, like my video, I can re-capture the cut from the original disc if needed. But if I applied special processing to the clips, or otherwise altered them beyond simple cut and transition editing, I might find it difficult to re-create the clips exactly as they appeared in my original project. So they go into the "project backup" folder along with the other digital files.

Once my "project backup folder" is complete the first thing I do is make a digital copy of the whole thing. I keep one on my desktop in a "recent projects" folder -- and the other I back up to CD-ROM or DVD-ROM. If the project is important, I might even make two copies of this backup disc. Discs are cheap and having to re-build a trashed program from scratch is a major hassle, believe me. As my desktop copies of previous programs age, I can safely dump them knowing I have my disc backups safely stored.

The bottom line is that desktop organization and data backup - while always a good thing - becomes even more important when you're doing something as complicated as building a complex video project. Happily, both Windows based PC and Mac systems have plenty of sophisticated data organization tools built into their design. Virtual Folders are available so you can assign a project file for each program, and then nest similar projects into their own folders. Once you master the relationships between what is a unique digital asset that should be preserved and backed up - and what is simply a clip that can be easily re-captured -- you can free your hard drive from the tyranny of clutter and free your desktop -- and your mind - for your next big project.

Bill Davis writes, shoots, edits, and does voiceover work for a variety of corporate and industrial clients.

When it comes to organizing digital assets, you need to learn that computers see number sequences differently than people do. Lets say you want to name your project with a number consisting of 305 -- for March 2005 -- followed by a project number -- project 12 in this case.

So you go with 305-12 and label all your files
305-12 Audio Clip 1
305-12 Audio Clip 2,
305-12 Title Graphic 1
305-12 Title Graphic 2

Everything is fine until a few months later when you're working on, for example, your second project in November.

You happily label those files
1105-02 -- Audio Clip 1
1105-02 -- Audio clip 2
Etc.

The problem is that your computer sorts by each digit sequentially. So it's going to sort all your 1105 files AHEAD of your 305 files simply because 1 is smaller than 3. That's right, in the sort-by-numbers world of computers, November comes before March! The solution is that whenever you know you're going to have any numeric sequence greater than 10 -- you use a leading zero. File 305-12 becomes 0305-12 and your sort integrity is preserved.

If you start your file naming system with the year, like they do in the military and in Europe, your computer will order your files chronologically (e.g. YYMM_NNN = YY for year; MM for month; NNN for tape number, so 0504_639 would be the 639th tape of April, 2005).

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