Project files and folders

One folder per project, three files that hold its memory, and nothing ever deleted.

The three project files (decided), read at the start of every working session and updated at the end:

• The project file: approved decisions only. Each entry says what was decided, who approved it and when, with a link to the approved file and a source tag ("from the brief", "inferred", "missing", "from the meeting, {date}", "approved by {who}, {date}"). Its sections are basics, locked by the brief, research, approved by stage, and open questions. Methods never go here.

• The decisions log: every ruling, with its date, reason and exact scope, every client note and every note of yours included. A replaced ruling is kept and marked "replaced on {date}".

• The status page: where the project stands and what waits on whom, the next three steps, spend against the approved budget per stage, open problems, and the send log last.

Methods (models, modes, references, prompt versions, attempts) live in the plan and your take log, your record of every attempt, kept or not. A method problem never changes the project file; if it tempts you to change a decision, treat it as a decision.

The folder (decided): documents at the top level, production in round folders, and each round's stage folders flat.

<Project>/
  project file, decisions log, status page
  Client material/   everything the client sent, as received
  References/  Brief/  Concept/  Treatment/
  Plan/        the plan and your take log
  Delivery/    finished exports, no subfolders
  Round 1/
    Character Sheets/  Location Sheets/  Prop Sheets/  Style Sheets/ (only if needed)
    Frames/  Videos/  Audio/  Edit/  Archive/  Presentation/ (only if needed)
  Round 2/  …  opened only when you approve a new production pass

Rules (decided):

• No nesting inside a stage folder: no batch folders, no "Final", no "Failed". The only subfolders sit in the document folders (frame masters, storyboard, casting).

• Stage folders hold only work that passed your quality review (The quality bar → The reference bar and The quality bar → The hard stops). Rejected stills and sheets are not kept; their take-log entries stay.

• Video takes are never deleted. The strongest takes, earlier and new, stay in Videos under their names; clearly unusable takes, and drafts never finished, go to that round's Archive. The edit timeline stacks earlier takes from both beneath the approved one (see Editing → The editable timeline).

• Earlier rounds are never edited or copied. An approved anchor is never overwritten: a change after approval is a new version in the current round, and the old one moves to Archive.

• Edit ongoing files in place. A new file only for a client send (a new link) or when an image's pixels change (a new version suffix, _v2).

• Never delete a file; move or rename it. In a folder handed to you, only two kinds of file may go, and only after the folder's owner agrees to the list:

  • exact duplicates: same size and same checksum (keep the copy in the right place);

  • files of no use at all: system files (.DS_Store, Thumbs.db), zero-byte temporary or lock files, and empty folders left by your own moves. Empty folders the owner made stay.

• Finding duplicates: compare checksums. Two files with the same size and the same checksum are exact duplicates; listed in checksum order, they sit next to each other (see Do it yourself below).

• In a project already in production, a file that the edit timeline uses moves only if you decide to move it. If it moves, relink it and rebuild the timeline (see Editing → The editable timeline).

• File names: media in plain ASCII (unaccented English letters, digits, hyphens and underscores), with no spaces. Shot numbers come from the plan, run S01, S02… across the film, take a letter only when a shot is inserted (S04a), and are never reused. A take file is named by its generation and take number: S04_t2.mp4 when the generation is one shot, G05_t1.mp4 when it supplies several shots. In a project with more than one native ratio, the ratio follows the ID (S04_9x16_t2.mp4).

Coming back after a pause: read the three files, the newest take-log entries, and the send log before any client note. Then list the folder by modified date: changes others made while you were away stand. Check that the working links in the send log still open and are still unsent.

Do it yourself

Get one file's checksum (Terminal on a Mac or Linux, Command Prompt on Windows)

1. On a Mac:

md5 <file>

1. On Linux:

md5sum <file>

1. On Windows:

certutil -hashfile <file> MD5

Find exact duplicates in a folder by checksum (Terminal)

1. Open the terminal inside the folder.

2. On a Mac, run:

find . -type f -exec md5 -r {} + | sort

1. On Linux, run:

find . -type f -exec md5sum {} + | sort | uniq -w32 -D

1. Files with the same checksum sit next to each other. Check that their sizes match too, then keep the copy in the right place.

Sources

• This Guide's own rules.