Post Production – Workflow & File Organization

These tutorials are most effective when used in conjunction with the editing software. Ideally, you should watch a tutorial then use the editing software to practice the techniques. Watch and practice again and again, as much as you need. Do not use these tutorials as an excuse to miss class. They are not a substitute for actual classroom learning, but simply an extra tool to help you refresh your skills and explore new techniques.

Preparing to Edit

For our video journalism projects, these are the first steps in the post-production process. This is what you do before you ever start editing:

Set up a folder system on your laptop or external hard drive. You’ll use this to organize your files.
Copy camera files from SDHC cards to the folder system on your laptop or external hard drive.
Copy additional files such as graphics, photos, and audio clips to the folder system.
Launch editing program and create a new project file. OR use a project template that has standard bins already set up.
Import video, audio and other media files from your folder system into the bins in the project.
Now you have an organized editing project. You can start reviewing raw material and make editorial decisions.

Organizing files with the Master Folder System

The steps above keep referring to a folder system, which is simply a method for organizing your files. If you’re editing on a tight deadline, you can’t afford to lose files. You MUST keep your files organized! You need an intuitive system that follows your editing workflow. That’s exactly what the Master Folder system is.

You can use the Master Folder system on your laptop or an external hard drive. An external drive is highly recommended because it gives you much more flexibility. You can connect the hard drive to a lab computer on campus and edit. Or you can connect the drive to your laptop and edit. You can move back and forth between workstations without losing any of your work — all the important files stay on the hard drive.

Here’s how the Master Folder system works. Pay close attention and use this system to keep your files organized. You’ll be glad you did!