Create a Unique Naming Structure

As you can see from the previous section, adding numerous bins within a given project is a great start for organizing your media. But the more clips you add and the more bins you create, finding just the right file can easily become a challenge. And the quickest way to waste time and mess up a project is to be lazy about naming your files within the project. Properly naming every media clip, bin, title, and so on is crucial for locating the right clip easily and accurately. Here are some suggestions that make organizing and editing a breeze:

• Do not name your clips Clip 1, Clip 2, or Clip 3. Instead, be more descriptive and choose something like Motorcycle driving into sunset, Overhead shot of horses running, or Pan shot across bridge.

• Use a shorthand method for labeling shots:

  Close-up = CU

  Extreme close-up = ECU

  Wide shot = WS

  This helps group similar shots and offers a better description of the shot without lengthy titles.

• Create bins for every type of file you'll be working with, such as Graphics, Titles, Audio, Video, Sequences, Animations, and so on, as shown in Figure 1.17.

  Figure 1.17. Organize your project with bins to store and sort your source material.

  

• Create a bin and name it for each tape that is used. For example, if you shot three tapes of original source footage, you would create three bins within the Video bin named for each source tape.

• Digitize and name each clip based on each unique take or scene. Try not to digitize multiple scenes as one clip. It might become hard to properly label and later find the appropriate clip.

author's note

Make sure that the name you give a source tape bin appears on the tape itself so that you can easily identify which tape has which clips, as shown in Figure 1.18. Use a grease pencil or permanent marker to identify each tape. This is important when you need to quickly identify a tape when redigitizing footage for your project or when you need additional footage from that same tape.

Figure 1.18. Name the bin so that it matches the name that appears on your tape.