Saving terabytes of storage when editing DSLR footage

T

thenino

Member
Hi guys,

I've come across the brilliant idea of a guy I know from twitter to save gigabytes or even terabytes of storage on your hard disks when editing DSLR footage and so I've written a blog about it:
http://ninofilm.net/blog/2010/06/14/save_storage/

I also included my personal storage workflow and what I use for storing the massive amounts of video data we acquire every day.

Looking forward to your input and would love to hear what you guys use!

Nino
 
If a client rang you months down the line asking for some quick alterations to an edit, and you've already deleted the converted files, it could take days to convert everything back to ProRes. We've had this happen recently after a client lost all their data to a virus and requested some video files we made for them last year, except re-cut slightly differently. It was a 30min job because we never delete any captured or converted footage. Not so if you do things your way.

Harddrive space is ludicrously cheap now, there's no need to 'save space' on your drives. Back-up everything to externals and store securely somewhere.
 
Good point of course. But you certainly wouldn't have to do it for every project. And not for the whole project, maybe only the used files (this is easy to do with the Media Manager in FCP).

It is indeed very cheap today, but it's more a matter of managing the files for me. I'd rather have 10 projects on a drive than only 5 simply for that reason.

Do you keep all render files too? I doubt it. If you do real color correction with every clip, you will end up with additional temporary files that are only relevant for FCP and one edit. I try to keep them as long as I can, but having them on my actual work hard drive, I can't keep them forever as new projects need the space and speed.
 
Well all of my converted files to Pro Res HQ are kept and the originals H.264 are deleted. Each project is about 120+ gb after converted to Pro Res. Hopefully FCP can come out with something that will allow us to edit natively like some other current programs ( Cs5)
 
if i delete any files its usually the origiinal H.264 and ill keep the converted files (pro rez or xdcam) so i can easily edit again if needed. eventually i will throw away render files. if you consider that "time is money"...then for me this is the most future proof & efficient.
 
Cieloent said:
Well all of my converted files to Pro Res HQ are kept and the originals H.264 are deleted. Each project is about 120+ gb after converted to Pro Res. Hopefully FCP can come out with something that will allow us to edit natively like some other current programs ( Cs5)
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Pro Res HQ is not necessary. I think both Philip Bloom and Shane Hurlbut have mentioned this in the past. Save drive space and convert to Pro Res! :)
 
gabrielflorit said:
Pro Res HQ is not necessary. I think both Philip Bloom and Shane Hurlbut have mentioned this in the past. Save drive space and convert to Pro Res! :)
Click to expand...


Don't know about that one, I truly feel that HQ holds up better when color grading and placed online (youtube/vimeo)


On a side not I recently did some HEAVY Color correction to some P2 Footage and I must say that it holds A LOT better than any Dslr footage I worked with. I was able to push the Mids and still have the material look great, If I tried doing that with my Dslr footage it simply falls apart.

So slightly off topic here but has anyone worked with footage from cameras like the Hpx-500? Not saying that I like the image quality better than my Canon DSLR, but when I was color grading I noticed I was able to push my levels a lot more when compared to my dslr???

Thanks
 
Cieloent said:
So slightly off topic here but has anyone worked with footage from cameras like the Hpx-500? Not saying that I like the image quality better than my Canon DSLR, but when I was color grading I noticed I was able to push my levels a lot more when compared to my dslr???

Thanks
Click to expand...

I'm assuming it's the added color space. I'm guessing the HPX shoots at 4:2:2, whereas DSLRs are 4:2:0.
 
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