Organizing project folders

[weskennison]

Hi all, I work at a commercial video production company and wanted to get some community feedback on something I've been working on.

We have several editors working on any number of projects at once, for any number of different clientele. I've decided that as we grow it will be absolutely vital to have a uniform system for labelling edits, assets, and other project pertinent info within client folders located on our central fileshare, which will also translate into a protocol for storing similar info on our FTP server (used for sharing project info with clients).

So what I'm soliciting here is advice and input on what you all have found to be the best practices and even [your] business specific practices when it comes to keeping things organized and congruent from editor to editor, project to project.

Thanks in advance!!


Wes

[redwudz]

This isn't a user guide. Moving you.

And welcome to our forums.

[edDV]

Interesting subject.

Seems to me the post world splits into those editing on a individual workstations (with attached disks) and those editing from central video servers with centralized backup.

For those editing on individual workstations, user and project separation are major issues. I like to keep project assets on separate removable drives so that workstations can be reconfigured for different projects in progress or different users.

[Cornucopia]

This is wide open to user, admin, agency, and industry preference...

The way I would do it in a Shared SAN/NAS environment would be:
1. Decide on common nomenclature and filename element positioning (aka: \ClientID\ProjectID\ClientID_ProjectID_ElementID_n nn_yyyy-mm-dd.ext) and keep it consistent - rigorously enforce these "rules" for all users.
2. Make those decisions based on consistent reproducibility and easy newbie understanding and quick search-ability .
3. Include those items that are necessary for tracking: ClientID (NOT name), ProjectID, StaffID, Element/AssetID, etc.
4. Integrate with a Project Management/Billing/Quoting/Media database, using common nomenclature, or go one step further and include scripts in the Project Management side that auto-creates or auto-transfers the necessary folders for you.
5. Make exhaustive use of Metadata in your Media database(s).
6. Since you're using a File System(s) parallel to a Database System(s), make the naming go from Global->Local (aka Most Significant->Least)
7. Use an offline/backup catalog system that follows the same layouts.
8. Use Industry-Standard abbreviations when applicable, and keep all naming segments AS SHORT AS POSSIBLE/NECESSARY, yet still be recognizable.

I've created this (though NOT those good scripts) before myself at my last production company (mainly because nobody else knew HOW to do it), but it wasn't easy. Had to develop a custom database that took at least 6 months of my time (not all at once). It works though, I created it in 1995 and it's still in use today even though I'm no longer there.

I recommend this even for individual workstation use also, although under those circumstances, you run the risk of duplicating ID#s, etc. unless you are very careful to reference a Master/Common Database.

PM me later if you have more Q's...

Scott