IT’S NOT SEXY BUT NECESSARY.
Organize your video footage! One of the most important yet least sexy things to talk about parts of film and video editing is organizing your media. There’s no single right way to do it; every editor has their own workflow and some probably could drive on chaos. But as someone who has made all sorts of mistakes in my media management, I’ve developed some methods that have made my editing life a lot easier, and hopefully they give you some ideas too.
If you’re working on a bigger project, it’s good practice to keep your original camera data on separate drives and work with proxy media, lower-quality copies of your footage that are easier to edit with. If possible, make a backup drive of your camera originals and store it somewhere else entirely. The best approach is to use a hard drive (HDD) for your camera originals and an SSD for your proxies, this type of setup gives you maximum performance.
Most professional studio workflows already look like this, but if you’re working with newcomers, remind them how important this level of security is. Hard drives don’t last forever, and some break more easily than others. Having duplicates lets you breathe a little easier when something inevitably goes wrong.
Fun fact: Toy Story 2 was almost lost forever, until one of the animators, who happened to be working from home, saved the entire film because she had a copy of the renders on her computer. (Look it up. It’s a wild story.)
NAME IT LIKE IT MAKES SENSE!
My current folder structure is loosely based on the PARA method by Tiago Forte. PARA stands for Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives, but in the world of film and video editing, it looks a little different. Here’s how I break how I break it down:
01_Projects
02_Footage
03_Assets
04_Exports
01_Projects
holds the database for every type of program I use on a project. Most editors might only have one or two folders here, but I’ve got a few more since I also handle effects and graphic design on more indie productions (oops).
In this example, I actually switched from Premiere Pro to DaVinci Resolve after we made the first sales trailer for the project (double oops.)
02_Footage
includes, well, the footage. Depending on the drive, this could be your camera originals or proxy files. Since I mostly work on movie projects, my folders are usually named by shooting day or by date and location. For example:
day_1
day_2
28_09_2025_Joensuu_Finland
All of these go under a master folder called 021_Dailies.
“Dailies” is an old film term from the days when movies were shot on actual film stock. At the end of each shooting day, the footage was developed, synced to sound, and printed in a batch for viewing the next day. The name stuck, and I still like using it despite never having worked on “film”.
I won’t go over every single folder inside Footage, you’ll get the idea from the image. You can easily take it further depending on the type of project you’re working on. The goal is to make it obvious where everything is.
For example, in a documentary you might have folders like: “Interviews” “Vérité” etc.
03_Assets
includes all the materials that aren’t part of your original footage, things like sound, VFX, images, LUTs, or even animation files if your project calls for them.
In this example project, I’ve got folders for Sound, VFX, Images, and LUTs. My numbering system isn’t random. I put Sound first because it’s the one I use most often.
As a note, I highly recommend all editors to build their own asset library drive, a place for every asset you’ve ever used or might use again: music, sound effects, room tones, ambiences, filters, overlays, effects, LUTs, all of it. Keep it on a separate drive and label it something simple like “Assets.” Having a personal library like that will save you hours and you won’t be sweating bullets trying to find the funny_goat_screaming.wav you used on a project five years ago.
04_Render
You’ve done the work, you’ve hit that render button, this is where the fruit of your labor outputs to. I used to name my renders something like Film_RC_HD_Version_1. (RC stands for Rough Cut and yes, Fine Cut would be FC, you guessed it.) But I quickly realized version numbering can get out of hand. Before you know it, you’re on version_15 and can’t remember what changed from version_14. These days, rendering a new version isn’t a big deal, sometimes the only difference is a small piece of text or even a spelling mistake (I’ve been there). So I made the switch to a naming convention that makes sense for me,
DATE_Film_RC_HD_PRORES422_SUBS
Example
4112025_Fight_Club_HD_PRORES422_SUBS
You can include useful metadata right in your file name. In this example, I’ve added that it’s an HD-resolution screener with subtitles. I like to also include the video codec, for example, PRORES422HQ, DNxHR, H264 or whatever your delivery requires.
Version numbering has a real danger of getting especially messy when you’re working with sound designers while you’re still in the picture edit, one small change on your end can throw everything out of sync. Usually, picture lock comes before the audio edit, but with the digital filmmaking and especially with indie productions, that isn’t always the case. And if you’re going by version numbers, please, never name what you think is the last one Version_Final. It’s never the final one, and nobody wants to see Version_Final_2.
YOUR TAKEAWAY IS READY!
Honestly, if you take away anything from this post, it’s this: just make it make sense.
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Keep different media types separate, footage and assets should never live in the same folder.
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Use proven, industry-standard terms. They exist for a reason.
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Don’t be abstract with your naming conventions.
I’ve worked on projects where footage folder handed to me had really abstract names like “Roots of Crisis.” Like… what the **** is “Roots of Crisis” supposed to mean? Keep it clear and simple, and your future self (and your collaborators) will thank you.
Inspired by the PARA method by Tiago Forte