How do you organize your files?

[roxics]

On my home machine I have an external 2TB hard drive where I keep all of my photos and videos. My folder structure goes like this:

Photography > Camera Name > Date/Title

So for example:

Photography > 60D > 2014-09-28 Apple Orchard

Since I have used many cameras over the years I have many folders such as: GH1, GH2, D7000, D40, iPhone4S, 60D, etc. Each with various dated event folders inside them.

My iPhones on the other hand are a little more choatic. I tend to just shoot one image or one video here and there, sometimes on the same day and somtimes days apart. So it makes little sense and way to much work either organizing or viewing, to split them up into dated events.
Instead I tend to wait a while (sometimes a couple of months) before offloading images and video from my iphone. When I do, I just date the folder as the day I do the offload. That way I know that if I have two folders for example 2014-07-19 and 2014-09-30, that everything in the latter folder was shot between July 19th and September 30h. I can then go into EXIF per file if I need more details.

That is my home structure. I don't really trust any of these apps like iPhoto, Lightroom or Aperture to do all my organizing for me. I've had way too many HDD failures over the years and had to transfer things too many times that I want to keep it simple and folder based so it's easy to copy and paste. I've been lucky in that I've never lost anything.

Above is my home structure. My work struture is "stranger" beause in some ways it's more organized and in other ways it's way too complex.

Projects > Client Name > Various folders

Various folders includes:
Assets
Audio
Production Docs
Stills
Video

There are various folders inside each of those as well, such as in the Video folder we have Raw, Intermediate and Final subfolders. Inside Raw are further dated subfolders for mutliple shoot days per project and camera. Example: Raw > 2014-09-28-Canon60D

I'm always curious how people organize their files, maybe there is something I can learn. A better way of doing things. So please share if you're willing.

 

[ninjaboss]

I use this folder structure for every project I receive. It's been working pretty well for me. For subfolders under footage, I then get a little detailed using another structure I got from Larry Jordan which is ClientName+ProjectNumber-Date-Camera+Card Number

My guess is that the level of detailed hierarchy is dependent on how big the project is. In my case, this has been working fine for me and I haven't wasted time searching for things using this method.

 

[adamrahn]

I've got a pretty similar method. My project files all get put in one of three folders (Import, Export, Cache). Cache is where I direct all media cache files from any of the programs I'm working in, and I periodically clear it out, but there are several folders in there at any given time. Least interesting folder ever. Export is where I will export literally every video - from Premiere, AE, etc. Pretty self explanatory, and I label videos by name and version (So the rough cut video I did for a local golf course would be "Export>LocalGolfCourseName V1") and then I've got a subset folder within here for all the master video files, so once things are finalized I will export a high rez master or whatever the client needs (some places around here still need SD masters for broadcast) to that folder. Occasionally that will lead to things like "Export>Masters>LocalGolfCourseName Master SD" or "LocalGolfCourseName Master StationCallLetters" etc etc. Nothing too groundbreaking here, just things easily named for me to find. i archive this folder once a year as well to keep all videos from 2013, 2014, etc together in the same folder. In Import I have the most structure, since it's the most accessed folder out of the three. Within here I have folders for each project, so the "LocalGolfCourseName" video would be in the "GolfCourseSpots" folder. Within each project folder I have the following breakdown (if needed): Video, Audio, Graphics, Misc.. Video will usually include further breakdown into Interviews, B-Roll, OR if there are various cameras used broken down by that (7D, 5DMkII, C100, so on). Depending on the nature of the project B-Roll will get broken down further into Exteriors, Interiors, Timelapse, and so forth, really dependent on the project and what I've shot. Within Audio I'll break it down into whatever is needed, so Nat Sound, Interviews, Music, Sound FX, etc. Graphics will include all the images or graphics I'll be using, so lower thirds, introductory slides, pictures, that sort of thing. Misc. will be anything I don't have listed already, so if I have something like stabilized footage, or I've exported audio for compression, that sort of thing. I rarely include this folder but sometimes it makes an appearance.
Nothing too exciting, but keeps everything nice and tidy.

Adam

 

[ASchear]

I have been working on my organization system a lot this year. Currently I organize all of my media by project. Each project gets a number assigned to it, such as 1467 (year 2014, project 67). Right now we are up to about 60 projects for the year, so I don't need to expand past 2 digits yet!

The media is stored in 3 places: one on a HDD in a fireproof safe, one on a HDD in a Pelican case, and at least one working copy on one of my external working HDD's. Since I work with a few other people and collaborate on projects often, we also have a corresponding folder in Dropbox for each project, and a corresponding folder on each PC the project is being worked on with. In the future I hope to invest in an NAS system to combine the Dropbox folders with those on each PC into a central location that multiple computers can access.