Do you rename?

J

J_E_R

Member
For you FCP users, do you rename your actual filenames to match your clip names?

I like to do this for two reasons: I will get duplicate file names from the hvx200 on larger projects, and although they reside in different folders, I would prefer never to have two of the same file names on the same project to avoid confusion down the line.

Secondly, it's just nice to be able to find a particular file, without opening FCP, in a human readable format (Scene104_TK1) -- for me and for others who may have to work with them.

Now say I rename my files, what if I or anyone else ever has to rebuild a my project from the original MXF files?? Hopefully I would have copied the original file name to the notes column so they could reconnect by hand...

What does everyone else do?
 
I suppose it all depends on the project - but in my case I do not rename the files.
BUT - I should say that in an ideal world I WOULD rename them.

I don't do it right now for two reasons:

1) Time - our turnaround time on the projects we're doing is pretty quick, and any time I can save is helpful

2) Length - each show we're doing right now is between 5 and 8 minutes in length. These are short projects, so we're not talking about alot of footage. Because of that there isn't much footage to deal with so things don't get too disorganized.

What I do is split my footage up into categories in my FCP project by creating different bins. So I have "EXTERIOR BROLL" in one bin, "INTERIOR BROLL" in another...etc etc.

If I were working on hour long projects...hell, even 30 minute long projects, I would probably be renaming all my files.
 
If you use the metadata to set your user clip name, that renaming is all done automatically for you -- the files show up in your editor using your selected name, not the "0001xq.mxf" filename.

For Mac users, you'd have to use Raylight, since User Clip Name is the one metadata field that FCP completely ignores.
 
I use FCP and just import each card into a different, named bin. if I need to be more specific then I'll create a bin for each scene and drag each clip to its appropriate bin and mark them as I use them.
 
I have Edius set up to use the User Clip Name as detailed by Barry -- his article on the subject is here.

I mostly shoot events and have a metadata file that sets the User Clip Name so that in Edius I get sequentially numbered clips named "Clip 0001" etc.
 
I don't usually rename anything, unless I have a lot of takes for multiple shots, or a sequence of shots in the same scene. Otherwise I don't change anything.

(Ps. mrWr0ng, I recognize you from somethingawful!)
 
The metadata features look nice, but totally impractical for films with a slate.

I think I'm going to refrain from changing file names, it's too risky if somewhere down the line we need to go back to the MXF files and reimport to QT's.

BTW, if anyone is using Raylight for Mac, I have some questions in the workflow forum.
 
Using "Clip nnnn" is still more useful than the native clip name -- at least you'll get sequentially numbered clips.

There is one caveat that's not mentioned in Barry's article IIRC. When a single recording spans across multiple clips, the clip numbering can skip. The camera will go from "Clip 0001" to "Clip 0003" if there is a second clip segment linked to "Clip 0001".
 
I wish you could plug in a portable keyboard into the usb jack and type in the scene and take as you shoot. Or just type the scene and the camera will mark the takes on rec.
 
If you pre-load the SD card with the scene names, and then swap out the metadata for each scene (which should take about 1/8th of a second) then you can have what you want, because the camera can automatically increment the counter in the user clip name.
 
J_E_R said:
I think I'm going to refrain from changing file names, it's too risky if somewhere down the line we need to go back to the MXF files and reimport to QT's.
Click to expand...

Even if you rename the clips, you'll retain the link to original media and can batch capture from your P2 source (be that cards, or hard drive).
 
I rename all my clips and put them into seperate bins with Scene 1, Scene 2, Scene 3, and so on. Then I put all my takes in a bin for each shot. Sometimes I think it's overkill, but being organized is just so much fun. Plus, I just can't stand looking at those randomly generated numbers. Drives me nuts.
 
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