Which Disk, and Whose Desk
Fourteen hundred raw files came off three cameras and went onto a disk with a sticker on it. Twice a year one of those disks gets formatted by somebody who assumed it was free.
The handover is a moment worth catching
The crew lead is still at the venue with the cards in his hand. That is when the count and the destination are accurate. Two days later he is on another shoot and the number becomes roughly fourteen hundred.
What goes on the record
Count per card
How many files came off each camera. A missing card is obvious the same evening, not in the edit three weeks later.
Who handed them over
The crew lead, by name. Cards pass through several hands at a wedding, and only one person actually gave them in.
Where they sit now
Disk label, drive or studio storage. WD-07 is a location, as long as somebody writes it down.
The backup, as a second place
One copy is not a backup. The second location is recorded next to the first, so you know which jobs have one and which do not.
What this is not
Be clear about the limit here.
- The photographs are not stored inside the software
- Wedding shoots run into hundreds of gigabytes, and disks do that cheaply
- What is kept is the count, the label, the backup and the handover
- Delivery links from the drive you already use are recorded with their expiry
- Your storage does not change, and it should not
Frequently asked questions
Why not keep the files in the system?
Because it would be expensive and worse. Your disks and drives handle hundreds of gigabytes far more cheaply than any subscription. What you actually lose track of is not the files, it is which disk they are on.
Can the crew lead record the handover from the venue?
Yes, in the phone browser before he leaves. That is the moment the record is accurate, and it takes less time than the drive back.
What happens when a disk is retired?
You change where that job sits and the record follows. A job whose only copy is on a five-year-old disk is worth knowing about before a client asks for a reprint.
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