Labelling and numbering your media

By Eric Huyton (Eyefish)

What information to include

High Definition work flow is a complex process and can include source media which has been shot using significantly different and potentially incompatible formats. It is therefore important to give as much information as possible when labelling your source tapes, discs or memory cards. Information should include:

Tape Number
Date
DOP
Camera model
Frame rate (720 25p, 1080 25p, 1080 50i, etc)
Frame size (720 x 1280, 1080 x 1440, 1080 x 1920)
Shooting speed (frames per second)
Recording format (HDV, DVCPRO 35/50/100, XDCAM ?/?/?, HDCAM, HDCAMSR

This information will save time and trouble during post production.

Establish a logical numbering system

During post production, media needs to be easily identified, found and moved between various post production processes so clear and logical numbering of your tapes, optical discs or memory cards is crucial. It is good practice to allocate tape numbers during pre production. For example

001 to 699 Camera rushes
701 to 799 Graphics
801 to 899 Archive
901 to 999 Music

If you're going to shoot more than 24 tapes (and most productions do), don't worry about trying to place a unique number in the user bits. This can be useful, but really, its the number physically written on the tape label and box that counts. This is the number that will identify the roll when it is digitised and held on a hard drive and from then on, this number will be used to access footage on that individual roll.

So for example, the reference for editing might be Roll 38:01 hrs:16mins:30secs:12 frames.