Project Management for Editors

Efficient editors are organized. There is no one correct method for keeping your media organized, but however you choose to do it, the faster you are able to access your material and find things, the more editing you'll be able to do. This begins with using folders and organizing your work in a consistent way from your hard drives to your editing projects.

•Poorly organized hard drives result in slower computer processing, as renders may take longer when referenced media is spread out all over the place.

•Project organization is essential for collaboration - which is inevitable in filmmaking. An additional editor or assistant editor should be able to quickly learn how to find things in your organizational system.

•Searching for media files is a HUGE drain on time and energy, and on a networked computer every trip out to the Finder also risks a trip out to the browser, and to Facebook, etc etc in the dangerous Ludic Loop...

Here is one example of a hard drive organizational system that many editors will recognize (this is set up for Adobe Premiere, thus the Adobe Cache folder, but the same scheme can be established for any NLE platform:

Depending on your project, you may require different folders categories. This is only an outline to get you started.

•LOADS - all your raw camera media

•ORIGINAL - camera native format cloned directly from memory cards

•TRANSCODES - media that has been transcoded into an intermediate format, such as Prores

•GRADED - media that has been transcoded and color-graded prior to editing (such as in the event you shot RAW and needed to LUT the footage and make it editable)

•ASSETS - anything supplemental to the edit that is useful to have quickly on hand for the editor's reference, such as scripts, informational references, visual references,

inspirations, etc

•IMAGES

•REFERENCES

•PROJECTS - a place where the project files themselves (Premiere, Avid, Final Cut) can be saved. Autosaves will also land here.

•GFX - graphics: still images, text, motion graphics, AfterEffects files, etc

•SFX - sound effects, audio, foley, ambiences, roomtones

•MUSIC - music references, cues, stems, rhythm tracks

•EXPORTS

•ADOBE CACHE (specific to a Premiere Pro edit, but maintaining cache and scratch folders on your external drives along with your project materials guarantees project portability and speed)