GH2 Managing, organizing and sorting LOTS of footage - Suggestions please!

[mr bill]

IMHO, your biggest problem is duplicate file numbers over a big project. I use a freeware file re-naming utility and re-name my clips before I import them into my NLE - you can't rely on just organising clips into different folders by location/date, especially if you're going to move to another system for a grade/fx work. Unique file numbers is what you want. Otherwise, all previous points made on project organisation and viewing clips are well made.

my 02

 

[Justyn]

Good points Mr Bill, but this is really a mute point if you are on FCP and you rename each cards contents in sequence, or even better, for specific shots. I tend to just make sure it's different enough and then let it chronologically number out and I'll add other comments to the clip if it's something I want to remember..

 

[Dvader]

Do you guys convert the original footage to pro res 422? And if so do you keep the original MTS files or just a backup of the pro res?

 

[Phil1076]

The AVCHD file structure does not lend itself to multi-cam/card shooting due to the duplicate filenames -- it sucks but you can't do anything about it. So....I would use Media Encoder transcode all the footage, one card at a time, to a single-file/container format such as Avid DNxHD or Prores and name the files based on date shot...for example: "YYYY-MM-DD-mm-ss--filedescription". This will also keep the files in order based on time/date shot and they will be single .mov files instead of directory structures.

Prores is available on the mac but i'm not sure if you can transcode TO Prores without FCP installed.

The DNxHD codecs are available as a free download for Windows and Mac here:

http://avid.custkb.com/avid/app/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=423319

Both prores and DNxHD are excellent and industry standard, and they edit much easier than native AVCHD.

 

[stoneinapond]

The AVCHD file structure does not lend itself to multi-cam/card shooting due to the duplicate filenames -- it sucks but you can't do anything about it....

Not completely accurate. It depends on how your NLE implements the function.

 

[Gary Huff]

Gary, you assume wrong my friend and I've been nonlinear since 2004, probably a lot sooner than most people here.

I didn't assume you weren't editing nonlinear, I assume you were shooting on some flavor of tape, either DV or HDV. I thought I made that pretty clear.

 

[Lez]

250GB is a little over a normal day's shoot for us... not a huge amount of footage to sort...

GoPro's can be long takes but Mpeg stream clip does a good job of getting the better takes lifted out...

Consolidating sequences can help in collecting good takes... but then you'll end up duplicating allot of Material...

cheers

 

[matpag]

This is the method we use:

Create a project folder
Create folders for each day the footage was taken, you can use subfolders if there is several distinct events on that day
Copy the MTS files to the respective folders
Use Adobe bridge to rename the MTS files using the Batch Rename feature (under the Tools menu option)
You select all the files you want to rename and then click on the Batch Rename function - now you can rename each file to something that will allow you identify the footage. I would suggest keeping the orginal file name (00001) and keep the date created to help identify the footage.
Once the footage has been renamed with Bridge you can add this footage to your Premiere Pro project
You end up with long file names but at least they become unique and helpful. This approach is working for several multi-day projects we are working on.

Richard Harrington has a video where he briefly talks about this feature and demonstates how they use Bridge with DSLR footage, it is here: http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adobe-at-nab-2011/dslr-workflows-with-adobe-cs55-production-premium/

Hopes this helps.

 

[peripatew]

This is the method we use:

Create a project folder
Create folders for each day the footage was taken, you can use subfolders if there is several distinct events on that day
Copy the MTS files to the respective folders
Use Adobe bridge to rename the MTS files using the Batch Rename feature (under the Tools menu option)
You select all the files you want to rename and then click on the Batch Rename function - now you can rename each file to something that will allow you identify the footage. I would suggest keeping the orginal file name (00001) and keep the date created to help identify the footage.
Once the footage has been renamed with Bridge you can add this footage to your Premiere Pro project
You end up with long file names but at least they become unique and helpful. This approach is working for several multi-day projects we are working on.

Richard Harrington has a video where he briefly talks about this feature and demonstates how they use Bridge with DSLR footage, it is here: http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adobe-at-nab-2011/dslr-workflows-with-adobe-cs55-production-premium/

Hopes this helps.

Does bridge play your MTS files? PC or Mac?

 

[mr bill]

Good points Mr Bill, but this is really a mute point if you are on FCP and you rename each cards contents in sequence, or even better, for specific shots. I tend to just make sure it's different enough and then let it chronologically number out and I'll add other comments to the clip if it's something I want to remember..

Yep, good point. My workflow and yours diverges with our NLE platform (I'm on avid) and I have to account for the possibility of the final project being finished on two or three different grading systems. So in my position, logically organised folders sometimes aren't enough, hence my preference for unique file names. Other than that, I think we're singing off the same page.