Post-Production : Organizing footage/Databases by Bryson Brownell

Bryson Brownell

Organizing footage/Databases

I've been making hype videos for my high school football team, and the season just ended. I was compiling all my best footage to make a reel, and was having trouble just accessing it all effectively. I have each game organized into a folder, and when I make the video for that game I create a timeline for "Media Compilation" where I put down all my footage and delete anything not good or usable. In another timeline "Final", I then add music, sfx, and speeches to build my final product.

For my first few games I would archive footage using my Media Compilation timeline, but it was a very long and tedious process that I fell out of the habit of doing. I had an internship at a military base marketing department for a few years, and the videographer there would use a number system that used dates and other details I don't remember.

How would y'all recommend organizing large amounts of footage quickly? Or how do y'all organize and archive footage?

Stephen V. Stone

Bryson Brownell please check out the discussion here https://www.stage32.com/lounge/post_production/Ask-Me-Anything-AMA-11-29... but also I would recommend this article, it's aimed at feature films but the basic principles apply. https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/how-to-organize-a-feature-film-edit-lik... . I'm not sure what NLE you are using but in general folder/bin structure and file metadata as well as new AI tagging tools are what are most helpful for organizing. I'm personally not a fan of putting all the footage on one timelines and the editing on another. When you get a lot of footage it becomes very unwieldy and you have to rely on memory.

Xochi Blymyer

Stephen V. Stone - You have given us some great advice here and in your AMA, I'm going to have to save your posts! And learn some more about editing organization.

Stephen V. Stone

Xochi Blymyer you are welcome. I'm always looking to improve what I do myself.

Bryson Brownell

Stephen V. Stone - Wow that's awesome stuff! It certainly seems like it would be easier to have all the footage so detailed by the end of the project. I assume you would use power bins or something similar so you don't have to create all those folders everytime? And how much time do you usually spend "prepping" footage for editing so to speak, as in editing metadata, organizing, etc. and how does that work improve your workflow?

Stephen V. Stone

Bryson Brownell I cut in Resolve and use a template for initial Bin setup but customize for each project type. I do follow the Walter Murphy school of editing. Watch everything at least once, organize, tag. slower up front but better edit overall.

Sam Sokolow

Such great advice - you're an awesome resource, Stephen V. Stone! Thank you!

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