File Naming Conventions, my two cents

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.

Randi Altman’s Post Perspective Colorist Chat with Fotokem’s Dave Cole on working on Dune

OK I had to post this article on the Colorist of Dune because of the insane process for Color Grading that they did.

I watched the new Dune at home on HBO Max, being a huge fan of the original David Lynch version, and having read all of Frank Herbert’s original novels around the time the original film came out.

I still am trying to wrap my head around the fact that they Shot the film on ARRI Alexa LF for the most part, then color graded in DaVinci Resolve, then scanned back to 35 mm film and then scanned back for grading. Which is to say at the least an incredibly expensive process. And how did it integrate with FX, did they do the scan first or after effects were added?

Chadwick Shoults of Creative Video Tips on the M1 Max MacPro vs his Mac Pro for video editing in DaVinci Resolve

Another great video from Chadwick shoults and this one showing just how fast the new M1 Max MacBook Pro is at DaVinci Resolve, which not only says allot about what Apple did, but also what Black Magic Design has done about getting DaVinci to really shine on Apple Silicon.

Man I can’t wait for an Apple Silicon iMac Pro and Mac Pro to really see what these chips can do, and if rumors are right they will likely be M2 Max chips, as the MacBook Air next year is likely to be the first M2.

Blackmagic Design raised the price on the Speed Editor, but drops price on keyboard and some of it’s color panels

Blackmagic Design has announced reductions on the DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard and some panels, but a price raise on the Speed Editor.

  • DaVinci Resolve $Free.
  • DaVinci Resolve Studio $295.
  • DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor $395, an increase of $100.
  • DaVinci Resolve Editor Keyboard $595, a saving of $400.
  • DaVinci Resolve Micro Panel $795, a saving of $200.
  • DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel $1995, a saving of $1000.

Now the Speed Editor was $295 and included Resolve Studio, so that is going the wrong way, but $595 is getting better for the Editor Keyboard (down $400_ and $1000 off the mini panel is great, though I will stick with my Tangent.

The thing is I know that Blackmagic Panels are better built than Tangent, but they also only work with DaVinci, and even with the price drop are still so expensive. And I only work with ergonomic keyboards so the editing Keyboard is useless to me, so I was interested in the Speed Editor, but it’s focus on the Cut Panel turns me off. Honestly I know you aren’t reading this Blackmagic, but I would love a smaller panel with basically the dial and a few other buttons, but I know it wouldn’t have customizable buttons or work with other software, so…

And the customability is the weird thing, since DaVinci doesn’t let you customize the buttons nor let them work with anything else. And the buttons on the Speed Editor are too focused on the Cut Page, which I do not like and do not use, I would much rather have it based on the edit page, but would also want it to work with Premiere Pro, so…

Scott Simmons at Pro Video Coalition review the 16 inch Apple MacBook Pro M1 Max for Video Editors Part 1

Scott Simons has released the first part of a must read review of using the Apple MAcBook Pro M1 Max for Video Editors.

Things sounds great so far, and it really gives me hope for the Apple Silicon iMac Pro and Mac Pro.

Still hope that plug in makers start speeding up the process of re-writing their software for M1. It disturbs me that even companies like Maxon with Red Giant hasn’t upgraded everything to M1 yet, even though it is a subscription, which means they really should be upgrading their applications quickly, because I am paying for them constantly. At least Adobe has the Beta of After Effects working on M1, but it is going to be limited on plug ins for sure.

Blackmagic Design updated DaVinci Resolve to version 17.4, anyone else annoyed by forced full screen mode on mac, took me a minute to figure out how to turn it off!

Blackmagic Design has upgraded DaVinci Resolve to 17.4, with support for the M1 Pro and M1 Max and a ton of new features.

Unfortunately they have gone Full Screen as default and it took me a while to figure out how to turn it the hell off, but when I did it fixed a big complaint which was DaVinci hiding my damn dock.

I love DaVinci, and I love all the free updates at a rapid pace, but my biggest complaint about DaVinci is it’s lack of customization, and I find forcing full screen mode to be another customization annoyance.

My big complaint with Final Cut Pro (x) is that it feels designed by engineers who want to force you to use a program how they want to, and not how you want to. I have always felt AVID and Premiere allow you to set things up how they work best for you, and I always customize allot, with DaVinci you are forced to work how they want to, down to being forced to hide my dock, and now being forced into full screen mode. And honestly my biggest complaint of this is the menus. i want the menus there all the time, not dissapearing and coming back when I put my mouse there, that loses efficiency!

OK anyway, to turn it off, you have to bring up the menu, then when you see the stop sings, hit the green one.

Full Screen Mode in Davinci with Hidden menus
When you put your cursor in the menu, the dots come up under the menu and the green turns off full screen.
Exit Full Screen

And even better once I exited Full Screen mode, DaVinci added something new, for the main screen I can now resize the window and it even shows my dock! WOOHOOO.

I have never liked Full Screen nor having my dock go away, as I leave it up always on my main monitor, so actually I think this is great.

Now if only the second screen worked like this as well, this is how the second monitor works in Final Cut Pro and I hate it there as well.

And there is a ton more to like in the new update, look at all these features:

What’s new in DaVinci Resolve 17.4

Key Features
• Hardware accelerated Apple ProRes on Apple M1 Pro and M1 Max.
• Faster DaVinci Neural Engine performance on Mac OS Monterey.
• Native HDR viewers and 120 Hz playback on supported MacBook Pros.
• Native Dropbox and Dropbox Replay integration with render presets.
• Sync markers, comments, annotations with Dropbox and Dropbox Replay.
• Export timeline markers as YouTube video or QuickTime chapters.
• Steinberg VST3 support with access to even more audio effects.
• Simplified auto color management settings with SDR and HDR selection.
• Improved 3D keyer and matte finesse controls.
• New Resolve FX including film halation and custom mixers.
• Text+ support for combined glyphs, right to left text and vertical layouts.
• Subtitles can auto resize backgrounds and decompose to parent timeline.

Apple M1 Pro and M1 Max
• Hardware accelerated Apple ProRes on Apple M1 Pro and M1 Max.
• Faster DaVinci Neural Engine performance on Mac OS Monterey.
• Smoother 120 Hz UI and playback on M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBook Pros.
• Native HDR viewers on M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBook Pros.
• Native full screen mode on Mac OS.

Dropbox
• Dropbox login within DaVinci Resolve preferences.
• Render presets for Dropbox and Dropbox Replay with background uploads.
• Sync comments and annotations with Dropbox Replay in Studio.
• Sync markers and comments with Dropbox in Studio.

Edit
• Subtitle and caption backgrounds now auto-resize to fit text content.
• Subtitle tracks in nested timelines now decompose to the main timeline.
• Adding a new subtitle caption now auto-focuses on the text area.
• Simple titles and subtitles are faster on Apple Silicon systems.
• Improved ease in and out functionality for position curves in the timeline.
• Options to include effects and grades for render in place operations.
• Switch multicam angles in the edit page with the speed editor.
• Ability to mark selection for timeline gaps.
• Edit asymmetric audio transitions created in the Fairlight page.
• Trim video and audio transitions asymmetrically using cmd/ctrl.
• Fine audio clip gain adjustments using shift + mouse drag.
• Support for pasting retime attributes on audio clips.
• Option to limit audio sync to the first timecode match.
• Preview composite modes by hovering over each mode in the inspector.
• Ability to set per-clip deinterlace quality in the inspector.
• New square iris transition.
• Support for custom aspect ratio controls for shape transitions.
• Improved overlays for Fusion tools in the viewer.
• Improved undo support for Fusion effects and Text+ in the inspector.
• Support for folder based organization of effect templates.
• New customizable key actions to go to previous/next timeline tabs.
• Ability to close timeline tabs with middle click.
• Preview generators and titles from the effects panel in the cut viewer.

Color
• Support for an automatic mode for color managed projects.
• Support for ACES 1.3, gamut compression and new CSC transforms.
• New 3D Keyer with new modes, better selection/stroke logic, live feedback.
• Improved HSL and luma keyers with updated matte finesse controls.
• Track forward and back with a single action in trackers and magic masks.
• Node tooltips now indicate LUT and effect type present.
• Dragging new links to layer and key mixers auto-creates node inputs.
• Dragging color nodes over key links creates key-to-RGB connections.
• Added individual primary and secondary tool icons for faster switching.
• Clip filters for timeline clips with Dolby Vision analysis or trim.
• Disabled clips are now shown as gray in the timeline.
• Support for applying camera LUTs and CDLs to ARRI MXF ProRes clips.
• The printer light state is now persisted across application restart.
• Navigating to markers in the timeline now auto scrolls to center marker.

Resolve FX
• Film halation emulates film stock reflections and scatter with Studio.
• Custom mixer to combine effects and grades with finer control.
• Improved 3D, HSL and Luma keyers in edit and Fusion.
• Better noise handling and key refinement for existing keyers.
• Improved patch replacer with ability to align source and target.
• Film grain with interactive previews and grain freeze options.

Fairlight
• Support for Steinberg VST3 audio effects on Mac OS and Windows.
• Ability to reorder, move and duplicate effects in the mixer.
• Support for copying clip ranges with partial fades.
• Single sided audio transitions are now displayed as fades.
• Support for multi channel audio outputs on Linux.
• Waveform displays visible at smaller track heights and lower zoom levels.
• Ability to shift-click and cmd-click on keyframe selections in the timeline.
• Navigating to previous or next timeline marker now selects the marker.
• Improved default processing order in Fairlight mixers.
• Automation curves display current values when no automation is present.
• Flashing edit cursor in edit selection mode.
• Improved column order and search behavior in the clip index.
• Improved jog, scroll and shuttle with the editor keyboard and speed editor.
• Fairlight FX meters have resizable displays and improved channel labels.
• Improved audio performance when using Blackmagic monitoring devices.

Fusion
• Text+ support for combined glyphs and right to left language layouts.
• Improved vertical Text+ layout, vertical glyphs, rotation and line direction.
• Improved Text+ character grouping, spacing, underlining and borders.
• Text+ supports per-character stylistic sets for supported fonts.
• Support for OpenType features, including old-style numbers in Text+.
• Multiple Text+ improvements for character styling and animation.
• Hover to show tool descriptions in the effects panel and add tool window.
• Improved default tracker search and pattern size for grid warps.
• New search area scale slider in tracker options.

Codecs and File I/O
• Improved encode settings for YouTube render preset.
• Option to export a timeline marker color as YouTube video chapters.
• Option to export a timeline marker color as QuickTime chapter markers.
• Support for decoding opus audio in QuickTime and MP4 clips.
• Hardware accelerated Panasonic 8K AVC decodes on Apple Silicon.
• Improved decode speeds for ARRI ARX clips.
• Hardware accelerated H.265 encodes on free version on Windows.
• H.264 encode profile options on supported Nvidia systems with Studio.
• H.264/H.265 encode bit rate controls on supported Windows Intel systems.
• Faster hardware acceleration on Windows Intel systems with Studio.
• Support for rendering EXRs with ZIP1 compression.
• Ability to add custom languages in DCP/IMF composition naming options.
• Ability to use approved operator / rating / region lists for DCP naming.
• Marker support in the IO encode plugin SDK.
• Ability to bypass re-encodes for Sony XAVC Intra clips.
• Improved retention of comments metadata for third party XML workflows.
• Improved display of render job names with tooltips.

General
• Right click audio icon to adjust volume on media, color and deliver pages.
• Auto-identifying media storage sequential image formats as stills or clips.
• Prompt to overwrite existing projects when invoking save as.
• Locked project indicator for PostgreSQL databases with usage info tooltip.
• Ability to clone a PostgreSQL database from the project manager.
• Ability to export PostgreSQL access keys from the project manager.
• Option to import into current timeline when importing an AAF.
• Scripting API support to access inspector properties for video clips.
• Scripting API support to set playhead position on the timeline.
• Scripting API support to get color version for video clips.
• Scripting API support for reflecting upload status in render job APIs.
• Scripting API support for setting network optimization in render jobs.
• Scripting API support for H.264 multi-pass encode option in Mac OS.
• Improved scripting property set when querying MediaIn nodes.
• Addressed an issue with Vimeo login.
• General performance and stability improvements.

Minimum system requirements
• Mac 10.15 Catalina.
• 8 GB of system memory. 16 GB when using Fusion.
• Blackmagic Design Desktop Video 12.0 or later.
• Integrated GPU or discrete GPU with at least 2 GB of VRAM.
• GPU which supports Metal or OpenCL 1.2.