Looking to revamp company file structure and file naming conventions in the coming year - any tips?

isaacdantzler · January 1

I was watching WAN show recently and Dan & Luke said they were about to do their file structure "properly", and it got me thinking what exactly is "properly"? For some background I work for a video production studio where everything is cut live, with multiple angles recorded for if any edits need to be made. Currently our post workflow only consists of editing out mistakes and maybe adding graphics, so everything is recorded in H.265/HEVC rather than a less lossy codec like prores. This means we aren't really doing any transcoding other than when it's time to export a client's final piece.

My work in progress new file structure now separates exports into their own folder for easier cloud synced client deliverables. We currently use truenas scale as our file server, and Dropbox for client deliverables. ProjectName can be a variety of things depending on the client. For instance the media folder may not even have a ProjectName folder but rather contain elements that are going to be displayed during a live event. Some clients come in and have a variety of people record for their service, in which case we often have the project name listed as the talent's name. Then, Program# has been a variety of things, I personally believe it could be as simple as Program1, but also understand how that hurts search-ability. I think including talent name could also be good, i.e. TalentName Program 1. Inside these folders are up to 8 angles recorded on our hyper decks, with camera names automatically inserted via ATEM names and bitfocus companion. Including talent or project name feels like something good to do here, but it can sometimes be unclear what exactly these things will be when a last minute idea comes up. I.E. A client who has had talent recording for a project wants to do a short video that they can send to the C-Suite showing off their experience at the studio.

/webster/
├── Clients
│   ├── 2023
│   │   ├── ClientName
│   │   │   ├── 01_MEDIA
│   │   │   │   ├── ProjectName
│   │   │   │   │   ├── Program#
│   │   │   │   │   │   ├── ME1 - Program#.mp4
│   │   │   │   │   │   ├── WIDE - Program#.mp4
│   │   │   │   │   │   ├── SIDE - Program#.mp4
│   │   │   │   │   │   └── SIDE GREEN - Program#.mp4
├── Exports
│   ├── ClientName
│   │   ├── 2023
│   │   │   ├── Month (i.e. January)
│   │   │   │   ├── Project Name
│   │   │   │   │   ├── Program1.mp4
│   │   │   │   │   ├── Program2.mp4

Some issues we've run across are:
- Long-standing clients rebranding. Renaming their folders would then break any links that our editing software has to their content, but not renaming it makes it harder to find in the future.
- Clients who spin off side projects. We had a client come in who recorded a series of videos, later an internal decision was made to put these under an entirely separate branding. This then led to a bunch of files existing under a folder created for a specific month that we had to go back to. This is why I have suggested this move to ProjectNames rather than Months which contain ProjectNames - makes it a bit easier to move and re-associate files.

- Automated Dropbox sync. Synology had an amazing system which we loved, but now that we moved to TrueNas Scale we are think we will move to a repeating Push from this exports folder. The ideal would be to have a push trigger when the final file in an export has finished.

Sorry if this post is a bit long winded, but I just wanted to get all the various experiences and issues out there. What would be your tips for keeping file structure clean and understandable?

Dutch_Master · January 1

I'd suggest a slightly different order:

Year -> Client |-> RAW_FILES -> Project_name -> Program_name -> Angle
               |-> EXPORT -> Project_name -> Program-name -> Format

Further subdivisions possible, of course.

HTH!

manikyath · January 1

the exact structure highly depends on your company's specific needs, but i do have some bits of advice from experience:

first, dont use client names in folder structure. make a standardized abbreviation for every customer, and use that. at a place i used to work we abbreviated every customer to a 6-letter abbreviation.

beyond that, for spinoffs, use a variation on the main project's denomniation that differs at the end, so that when sorted alphabetically they are together.

as for the month\project project\month issue - the thing you have to weigh is this: how many projects do you have that will span across multiple months, vs how fast do you get new clients being added?

if you largely get the same clients returning for more, i'd stick clients at the top, and then seperate out by year or month, but if you largely get new clients doing a one-off and moving on, i'd stick year at the top.

something else to consider is that perfection doesnt happen, and if the current folder structure is "workable but occasionally annoying" it's probably not worth the hassle of changing everything.

isaacdantzler · January 1

1 hour ago, manikyath said:

the exact structure highly depends on your company's specific needs, but i do have some bits of advice from experience:

first, dont use client names in folder structure. make a standardized abbreviation for every customer, and use that. at a place i used to work we abbreviated every customer to a 6-letter abbreviation.

beyond that, for spinoffs, use a variation on the main project's denomniation that differs at the end, so that when sorted alphabetically they are together.

as for the month\project project\month issue - the thing you have to weigh is this: how many projects do you have that will span across multiple months, vs how fast do you get new clients being added?

if you largely get the same clients returning for more, i'd stick clients at the top, and then seperate out by year or month, but if you largely get new clients doing a one-off and moving on, i'd stick year at the top.

something else to consider is that perfection doesnt happen, and if the current folder structure is "workable but occasionally annoying" it's probably not worth the hassle of changing everything.

Agreed on that last point, and we are not planning on going back and changing was has been there for the most part. Abbreviating customers is a good idea, especially for the "clients" folder which only faces internally. I'll bring that up for sure. I have a feeling the month thing will be something we will debate internally. The problem with the spinoffs thing was that it happened after the first round of projects, but realistically I think the answer is to make a new folder and re-link the media. It kinda sucks but also we aren't going back to older projects too often.

isaacdantzler · January 1

1 hour ago, Dutch_Master said:
I'd suggest a slightly different order:
Year -> Client |-> RAW_FILES -> Project_name -> Program_name -> Angle
               |-> EXPORT -> Project_name -> Program-name -> Format
Further subdivisions possible, of course.

HTH!

The issue with this is automating cloud syncs becomes much more difficult, as now a cloud sync has to be setup per client as opposed to something that could be automated. Also we don't plan on archiving finals often, as in the end that whole folder totals to about 5TB so it's pretty manageable, that's why the year comes after client in that folder. Our structure was pretty similar to that when cloud sync easier to manage on synology. Thank you for the advice!