Footage Retention/logging

Superballs

Superballs

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Hi everyone,

Just curious, how long do you keep your footage for?

Do you keep it all? Do you log interesting things in your videos (somehow) and the times they occur?

Do you delete footage that seems useless? Or do you data hoard?

I'm just curious, as I'm working on a way to keep interesting things I can use as "stock footage" but also trying to managed limited storage unti I can expand that.

Also, what's a good way to log interesting parts of videos to keep track of things you can use in other videos, or as flashback type clips?
 
I have been saving everything I record on portable hard drives for several reasons:

I have been concerned with infringing on someone else's copyright so having the original footage backed up is good evidence that I was the creator

I plan on pulling some previously in published footage at some point for montages

I am saving all of it to whip out like folks did with slides back in the day and bore folks to tears.

Plus, if I get to where I cannot ride to make new memories, I can relive old ones.

The bad part is it can get expensive but I got that covered for now.
 
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I'm going to have to start investing in some hard drives.

Was actually looking into a NAS System, possibly with a JBOD backup (and some prayers that I don't have both fail at the same time).

I think I need to go back and start getting rid of some of my redundant files as well. I have this tendancy to store my footage and them move them into my project folders. This is mainly because I use a laptop right now and tend to edit at home, at work and in other places when I have time.
 
Yeah, I use a laptop too. I really don't edit in the field unless I use my smartphone and apps.
 
I definitely need to step up my hardware game. I really do enjoy the editing part but the laggy computer part makes it more of a chore than it needs to be.

I love learning new techniques and coming up with ways to do things on my own even.
 
EDcase said:
I keep a copy of the edits that I upload just in case but I don't keep any raw stuff unless its really interesting.

Storage options: (general)

- Lowest price would be naked drives that you connect to an external dock and store when full. (search 'HDD dock')

- USB portable drive. Easy option but not cheapest. Get USB 3.0 if your computer has a blue USB port

- If you want safety then consider two drives in RAID-1 configuration. That mirrors the two so if one fails the data can be reconstructed from the other. You need two identical and the downside is that the storage is halved.

- NAS (Network Access Storage) are drives on a network accessed by several machines. They can be used as media share for compatible TV's or media centres. Not cost effective for backup/storage.
Click to expand...


A NAS would be used as general storage for my home network in general, including accessing media from mobile devices and all that as well.

If I went RAID, I would want either RAID5 (though write performance can be slow) or 1+0

Likely a combination of RAID0 and a NAS in the end. For me it's all about the balance between cost, access speed and redundancy.
 
EDcase said:
Yep RAID is slower. Be aware, RAID 5 needs 3 HDDs and RAID 0 has no redundancy
If you're going to use the storage for various access points then NAS in RAID would be a good combo.
(I have a Maxtor NAS I use for work)
Click to expand...

Ive just gotten done with my little home NAS, with the main function to store all my raw footage.
I use software raid (stable bit drive pool on windows home server 2011) it basically creates one large drive and mirrors folders you select. it ticks all the boxes i need it to.
 
I'll be working on a NAS/RAID teamup, but have to work toward that.

In the event of catastrophic data loss...well, I guess I'd just have a lot of topics to vlog about again, and probably better than the first time.

Would be a shame though to lose projects and such.

The investment in storage alone is going to make this a very expensive hobby ha ha
 
We all start out thinking that we want to save all our footage to be used for later, maybe a compilation or sorts. Most of us (myself definitely), don't actually do anything with the footage. Those files are HUGE and take up way too much HDD space, regardless how many drives you have or how large they are.

This is what I do:

If the raw file has footage which I plan to use in a compilation, I will immediately label the file with a time-stamp and brief text about what was that footage related to, i.e. 0125-stupidwhitecar, 0532-policechase. Then I move that file into a folder dedicated for compilation purpose. When I eventually use that clip from that file in a compilation, I will delete the file. Once the compilation has been uploaded, I delete the compilation file.

As for the regular ones like rides and stuff, once rendered and uploaded, both raw and rendered are thrashed within a couple of weeks.

Trust me when I say, if you don't label your raw files exactly when and what you want out of it, 10/10 you are just going to forget what the hell was on that footage and 99.9% won't be using it for a montage or compilation, pretty much garbage at that point.

I know this because I've done that before, hence now why I do the labeling, and also I need mention, you should transfer your files from your camera to the computer immediately after you are done with the ride, and label the files immediately. Don't leave the files in the camera or leave the folder unlabeled, because you will forget what was on it, and you will probably need to re-watch the entire thing again to find out what exactly you wanted to use from that video. Any other videos which have nothing interesting, delete them immediately. It is less clutter for you to handle when it's time to edit.

So far this cycle system is working pretty good for me. It's not perfect but at least I am not holding onto files I know I will never use, and the ones I keep, I know why I am keeping them for.
 
I like this strategy.

Curious, if anyone knows of any editing sofware that can quickly trim videos into clips, without the need for re-encoding. I know in premiere, i would have to take RAW footage and send a bunch of clips to the bin and batch encode. This way I could have smaller RAW footage files, and then trash the otherwise boring ride.

I need to detach myself from a lot of my rides though I think...
 
I log all of my footage, writing notes under a time stamp heading.

Ex. 0:00 - 4:15

I describe anything interesting that happens visually, or what I'm talking about. I will underline descriptions that I want to do something with, or if I can ignore it.

Next, I have a specific folder named after what I want my vlog to be about. This then has sub-folders within it.

Video
Sound
Image
Final Renders

Within the sound folder are other folders for Music to identify where its from -- Youtube music library, Free Music Archive, etc. ...
The Video folder may be broken down into A-Roll and B-Roll footage.

I save all of my assets to a hard drive and pull and save my footage from that when I'm editing in Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop and Audition. I avoid saving and playing my assets and project files from my desktop, or on my laptop as it tends to slow things down because i'm asking my computer to manage files and run the program at the same time. Having a separate HD allows my laptop to just work on running the program.

I also save everything. One day I'd like to gather my vlogs together for ePublishing. This may mean a slight or major re-edit of things, but with my written logs and file management system I can find what's on each folder and the content. I also back things up, with something on a Cloud server when possible.

- Wuf
 
I usually just upload it and then delete it. I have plenty of space as i have a 5TB HDD. i can always re-download the video from YouTube anytime. So i find it unnecessary to hoard.
 
I've decided to stop storing my raw footage in folders named by date, but by topic. This way, anything where I can't store it somewhere will be removed, unless it has something very interesting happening.

This should reduce the amount of space i take up with my footage.
 
Superballs said:
Hi everyone,

Just curious, how long do you keep your footage for?

Do you keep it all? Do you log interesting things in your videos (somehow) and the times they occur?

Do you delete footage that seems useless? Or do you data hoard?

I'm just curious, as I'm working on a way to keep interesting things I can use as "stock footage" but also trying to managed limited storage unti I can expand that.

Also, what's a good way to log interesting parts of videos to keep track of things you can use in other videos, or as flashback type clips?
Click to expand...

I have waaay too much footage, about to pull the pin on deleting anything from my previous bike, but there are a couple entertaining clips making me want to start a Throwback Thursdays series perhaps. Ive gotten into the habit of naming the clips with highlight related words, deleting right away if there isnt anything I found might be entertaining. taggin footage on the go while recording saves alot of time later trying to find footage, havent gotten into doing this yet, but am starting to try to get into the habit
 
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