Organizing project folders

[weskennison]

Hi all, I work at a commercial video production company and wanted to get some community feedback on something I've been working on.

We have several editors working on any number of projects at once, for any number of different clientele. I've decided that as we grow it will be absolutely vital to have a uniform system for labelling edits, assets, and other project pertinent info within client folders located on our central fileshare, which will also translate into a protocol for storing similar info on our FTP server (used for sharing project info with clients).

So what I'm soliciting here is advice and input on what you all have found to be the best practices and even [your] business specific practices when it comes to keeping things organized and congruent from editor to editor, project to project.

Thanks in advance!!


Wes

[MilesAhead]

I haven't worked in the video industry. But your description makes me think you may want to investigate some type of version control software. In software development teams a version control system forces those who can modify source code and ancillary files such as make files to "check out" the file before altering it, then "check it back in." This avoids conflicts when the same file is modified by more than one person.

If there are multiple modifications then the version branches and version numbers are automatically generated. Folding changes into some version number is then accomplished after some consultation why which changes must go where etc..

Sounds more complicated than it is. Also in support bug reports may be entered into a VCS for similar reasons. Avoids more than one person modifying the bug status at one time.

There are free VCS programs out there. Also the ones that charge often provide training classes to get users up and running with checking files in and out, resolving version issues etc..