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Filed under: Post Production •

Reality TV Post with Final Cut

Q: So with no Capture Scratch, there’s just a folder for the show, and inside that are folders for days or episodes? 

MR: Yes.  On the Xsan you’ll have maybe six or eight root level folders. One will be “Real World” one will be “Runway” one will be “Kardashian” another one will be “Bad Girls.” These are all show names. And then once you navigate into that, you’ll have additional folders. One will say Media, one will say Editor Project backups. XSan uses Apple’s basic Finder level folder structure. Final Cut relies on basically the Mac OS to organize everything. So we set up a series of folder hierarchies that makes sense for that particular show. One of our goals is to be no more than four clicks from the edge. Meaning you don’t want to keep going from a folder inside of a folder, inside of a folder. There’s a point at which hyper-organization is counter productive. You want to be able to have an easy way to click three times and get to a piece of media.

Q: For someone who is just trying to manage their own media on their own gear, what are some of the tips that you would give them to make FCP work at its best.

MR: I would ignore the Capture Scratch function of Final Cut and before you start editing, move everything to a logical folder. So right now, Final Cut creates something called Capture Scratch. I would make the workflow rule that whenever I’m digitizing, I’m going to digitize to a “digitize only” project and use that to gather the material and then move that immediately to whatever I’m working on: Project x, y or z. So I would say that’s the number one trick: to not let Final Cut organize the media for you and do it yourself in a more controlled folder hierarchy that makes sense. It’s even easier if you’re a one-man because I would assume if you’re doing it yourself as a one-man band, you’re going to have a lot of different projects in play simultaneously and it’s hard to tell on a media basis alone where something belongs, so move it to a project folder that makes sense and adopt a logical naming scheme and stick to it. DO NOT RENAME YOUR CLIPS. Do not succumb to the temptation of renaming your clips. It’s not an Avid. You can’t rename your clip “CU Guy walks in door.” That will totally hose any efforts to organize your media. That Media Management 101. 

Q: And what is your naming scheme that you hand down to your digitizers for your clips?

MR: It’s nothing fancy. It’s a show name and an abbreviation “Real World”: RW, “Project Runway”: PR, “Bad Girls”: BG. A couple letter designator for the show. The date, October 20th: 1020. A camera designator: A camera, B camera, C camera, D camera. And then a load number. So if we were shooting this as an interview and there were two cameras, since this is Provideo: PV1_1020A01, meaning the first load of the A camera. And then your side would be PV1_1020B02. 

Sometimes,  an editor will complain “I’m not organized. I’m creative.” And what I say to that is “bunk!!!”. If you can’t find what you’re looking for,  you can’t be creative. So organization is the key to creativity. And even if you’re rushed for time there’s no excuse for not doing it right.

Q: And what do you do about elements that are used across episodes.

MR: There will be a folder in each episode that will have common elements and usually those are graphics or main title sequence or end credits, partner logos, things like that, network logos, bugs. Those things are in a folder labeled “graphics” and everyone has access to that. And that’s a prime example of why you want to organize things so well. 

Q: Any other advice?

MR: Final Cut, unlike Avid has the ability to have multiple projects open simultaneously. Many editors coming from an Avid background don’t seem to grasp this concept and use it to their advantage. We’ve found that if you have very large projects, especially with multi-cam,  performance will suffer. So one of the things to think about when organizing a lot of media is how can you break all that media into separate designated projects: for example b-roll, or music, or interviews. 

While editing, an editor may have five or six different projects open simultaneously. By organizing your media this way, you’re really leveraging the “entire SAN” as your project.  FCP helps you do this with their “reveal in finder” key. 

Q: Is that dangerous when you get in to on-line? How does that scheme translate?

MR: It’s not dangerous, if you follow one basic rule:  Don’t rename your filenames (clip name).  The notion that “the SAN is the project” opens up the whole concept of media management to a much larger, company wide level.  You can easily have access to anything on the entire SAN.  We now use the “Coverflow” feature found in Mac’s OS to browse media.  (Coverflow was created for the iPod & iTunes to shuffle through “cover art” while choosing a song) 

Media management doesn’t have to be painful,  or frustrating.  A logical folder structure can make even the largest projects easy to navigate, and therefore, easy to work with.

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