OK, so not always the most thrilling subject, but after arguing with a post super about this, I wanted to give my 2 cents on file and sequence naming conventions, and for some of the reasons behind why I think the way I do.

So first off is spaces, and I am a firm believer that there should be no spaces in your file/sequence names. I know that modern computers mostly deal fine with spaces, but to be on the safe size I think you should use underscores instead of spaces.

Now file names should start with the job identification and name that your company specifies that you should figure out, and as much identifying info as you need.

So lets say you are doing a short Star Wars commercial that is 2 minutes long and is job 040477, and it is titled Millennium Falcon Kessel Run in so I would say it should be SW_040477_120_MFKR_ to start. And a quick note, 120 for 120 seconds, and you would do 060 for a 60 second.

And then as shown in my earlier posts about using PostHaste to set up sequences, I use STRINGOUTS, ROUGHCUT, OFFLINE and ONLINE as the nomenclature for the sequence.

Now I have been told by a post super from television that they only use the job name, info and title and a version number, nothing else, but at least for commercial work, bts works and short films I have worked on, I totally don’t agree.

Personally I think if you can do it, ROUGHCUTS are for internal distribution mostly and the OFFLINE is when it starts going to the client, and should be much more finished, and have a decent audio mix, color correct, graphics, as much as you can get so you don’t end up with the I don’t know how to watch a rough cut lady.

And I think you need ONLINE to designate the final exports, so you can keep track of them, as sometimes you go back to Ofllines and keep working then make new ones, and just version numbers can be confusing. Honestly I have had 3 or 4 Onlines at times, because you can’t guarantee the client won’t come back.

Now this is something else that I think should be in your filenames, especially with remote work, and that is Initials of the editor/graphics artist. And even more so because with the job I am on, we have a graphics guy, who has been doing the graphics, but not only is too busy, but the ProRES 4444 takes a long time to upload and download, so he has been handing off his After Effects Projects, and After Effects projects are big and unwieldy, and hard to break down into individual comps. This means different people are rendering out graphics, and to make changes, it would be easiest to have initials in the file name of the graphics. And our Online editor also prefers initials in the file name, so she can easily see who gave her the file in case there needs to be a change. So I think you should have the initials in the file name of all your files.

Then of course I think you should have the date in your file name, and you need the date to be automatically sort able by any computer. Problems will arise if you you go month day year and work from December to January, so you should do the date year month day. So for February first 2022 you would use 220201 instead of 020122 as the sorting works better between years (and believe me I know as I often work on jobs from December through January.

And of course a version number. Most people do V1, but I think you should have at least 1 proceeding 0 for many version numbers (I have had over 50 rough cuts before). Now at the company I am on the version number is after the job name, and identifying info, so it would be SW_040477_120_MFKR_V01_ROUGCUT_JLW_220201, though personally I always put the version number at the end. So SW_040477_120MFKR_ROUGHCUT_JLW_220201_V01, and the reason I do this is because of After Effects. When you duplicate a sequence in Premiere Pro it adds Copy at the end, but in after effects it duplicates and if there is a number at the end adds a digit to the number, so if it ends with V01 the copy will automatically be V02, now if it doesn’t have a digit at the end it adds a space and a number. This is why I have always had version number at the end, but obviously you should put it wherever your company wants it.

Honestly it is all about organization, and the more organized your file names, and the more info they can convey quickly the better. And it comes down to when the job is done and you go back to it.

If you need to make changes on a graphic that was in an old project, it is obviously going to be easier if you can tell which person did the original right from the filename and which version it is. With remote editing, sometimes only they will have the files, but if multiple people worked on graphics, the most efficient way to find something if to have the names right in the file.

And if you are on an easier job, with only one editor/graphics artist it may not matter as much, but still going back to that project after months and years, it will be easier to find things if the files have as much info as them as possible.