When I first started taking photography and filmmaking seriously, the last thing I ever thought about was organizing my assets. Like many people I learned the hard way. All creatives know what I mean; doubled over in agony, likely crying as you realize your work is gone. I have also been the person to export something with the suffix of FINAL_FINAL, which will never help you find anything. Let’s be honest we are all guilty of these gaffs if we work in a creative field.
I want you to take a pledge right here, right now. Put your right hand up or left hand if you’re a lefty and repeat
I solemnly swear to organize all of my digital creative assets in a way that will save my ass when the time comes. I will organize them in a way that upon my death anyone can find them and know what they are looking at, instead of a jumbled mess of garbage.
The death part might be a bit morbid but it’s a reality.
There are three reasons you want to be digitally organized.
Finding Old Work
* ping *
Hey,
My name is ____ I just took over for _____ at the client you did work for two years ago, do you still have the final images/video you completed for us. My predecessor misplaced them because they weren’t digitally organized and I need them for a retrospective project I am doing internally.
You might get an email like this and starting cursing your former client because you delivered this work TWO YEARS AGO. On top of that you think it’s on that one white hard drive, or maybe it was the rose gold one?
Crap.
You’re not sure where these finals images are. Now, you’re going to have to comb through all your old drive, which are just filled with random folders that have old project names, and assets in them labeled IMG_00249.jpg. Eventually, you find it but you’ve successfully wasted 4 hours and canceled lunch with your friend who is in town. By keeping yourself organized you will relieve yourself of the headache of searching through tons of drives, to hopefully find something from years ago.
You Won’t Lose Your Work
As creatives we have all had a drive die on us. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. If you have all your content organized, you can easily back up your work to the cloud and another drive.
Relinking Media Woes Are Things of the Past
When I have to edit videos, my least favorite thing is getting a drive and being asked to relink media, or when I open a Lightroom catalog and the images are “missing.” To be frank it is a massive waste of time for everyone. By being organized you can quickly identify the files you are “missing” and get back to making killer work that is going to wow your clients.
Now you’re saying, “ Ok, Miles I get it I should organize all my files….but where do I start?” Later this week I will be sharing the second half of this little series about how I organize my projects and why it works for me. You do not have to adopt my system directly, but I do hope you can learn something. Heck, maybe we can even start a best practices discussion!
