Keeping AVCHD Files for Back-up?

Staven

Staven

Well-known member
Hi all.

I have successfully transferred my AVCHD footage to Pro Res and made back-ups of the Pro Res, but now as I'm about to delete all 12 of my cards full of footage I'm having cold feet and wish to keep the original files for just in case.

My problem is I'm not sure what I should be saving or how to save it? My google searches have come back incomplete. Do I just drag and drop the folders from the card onto my hard drive? Any guidance is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
 
I'd keep them- that's your 'digital negative' Unless it's really really unimportant footage, you should save it. Not all NLEs support ProRes for example....

Noah
 
NoahK said:
I'd keep them- that's your 'digital negative' Unless it's really really unimportant footage, you should save it. Not all NLEs support ProRes for example....

Noah
Click to expand...

Yes, I intend to keep them, I'm wondering what exactly I keep or how to keep them. On the cards I have 2 folders right away - AVF_INFO and PRIVATE. Then Private has a bunch of sub folders. I'm wanting to know what I should keep and how people usually store them.

I was thinking of making a folder named after what is on the card, then copying both AVF_INFO and PRIVATE folders into that folder, then repeating the process for each card.

Is that a way to store them properly and have access to them in the future?
 
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As far as WHAT to keep - if you're keeping card files then you want to copy the ENTIRE card - every folder, every file, in the same exact directory structure.
Some NLEs will not recognize the footage if the directory structure is not the same.
You should be able to simply drag and drop the entire card contents into whatever folder you created in your Finder.
Just do it all at once, don't pick and choose folders and subfolders to copy. Highlight the entire card content, copy it over, and when it's done compare the size of the card with the new folder you copied it to to confirm they are the same.

How you store them exactly is up to you - just make sure you pick a system and a folder naming convention that you know you can stick to.
Organization and consistency is the key when backing things up.

I'll echo Noah's comments also - I would actually delete ProRes imports before getting rid of my original card data.
Like he said, some NLE's don't support ProRes, and you never know where or when you might need to reimport that footage again.

Personally, I import my footage, finish the project, and in most cases I media manage the sequences and back that up.
At that point I kill all my prores footage (if the project is no longer relevant) and keep only my original card data.

I keep everything on a pair of drives (RAID 1), and then a 3rd drive as backup of the raid.

What exactly you keep on which drive and how you organize them will all depend on what kind of work you're doing, your clients, etc.
For example, I have some clients I've worked for for years - and I have separate Raid pairs and backup drives for their footage, their media managed projects, and their assets.
In other cases I might keep the media managed projects together with the footage.
It all depends.


Here is a great write up (and video) on one particular backup strategy.
This helped me a lot when working out my own data workflow.
http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2010/06/workflow-and-backup-for-photo-video/

 
I should also add - when Media Managing projects I not only save the FCP project file, but I've always exported XML files for the project also.
I had more than one friend tell me I was paranoid in doing that over the last few years.... but I think given the latest FCP developments this year, you can see how that might be handy to have in the future.

:)
 
That Chase Jarvis video is great. Wish I could have such a structured system in place. That's a lot of hard drives.

I'm naming folders of what are on each card then copying over everything on the cards into those folders. So i'll have the originals, plus Pro Res files on 2 seperate harddrives. This is a webseries I'm doing, so I doubt I'll have to worry about using it in different editing systems or futureproofing it. Plan is to go through FCP then upload online then it's done. But that is good info to think about for future projects for sure. Thanks for the advice.
 
No problem.
I would say do whatever you can to make it easy for you to reopen those timelines in the future - even with a webseries.
You never know what might happen.

If anyone ever wants to do something with your series and you need to rebrand it, change the music, change graphics, etc - having media managed versions of each episode (and XML files to go with them) could be a real life saver.

Honestly, once you're done with each episode and it's online, I would feel okay media managing the episode, and then deleting all the imported ProRes footage (while keeping your original card data, obviously). That would save you quite a bit of hard drive space, and make it easier to back up everything (so you don't need as many drives).

Good luck with it.
 
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