Naming

Naming Conventions

It is more important to be consistent in naming conventions that trying to reorganize and rename files or folders to match a file system. Do not rename the numerical raw footage files. Those unique numerical file names are created in the camera and keeping them intact establishes the provenance of the files.

The filing system of each filmmaker is unique, and keeping those files in their origianl order provides valuable information about the filmmakers artistic process that future film students or researchers will find valuable.

Organize folders in a manner that make sense to you and be consistent across projects. Cataloging software can be helpful, especially for searching within large archives.

New file names are commonly applied in post-production. When naming files, try to:

• Use only numbers, letters, underscores (_) and hyphens in the file name.

• Break the name into sections - each section will be more specific than the previous.

• Be descriptive.

• Use the standard computer date format YYYYMMDD.

• Add a sequential number, as needed.

Example:

Lawrence-of-Arabia_Alis-Well_Jordan_Jafr_OToole_Sharif_19610515_001.mjp2