Share Your Process. How Do You Log Video?

Posted on August 27, 2023 by Larry

Björn asked an interesting question:

“How do you off-load and log media clips? I am trying to help my friend Goran who uses a Canon XA-70 with UHD-files. Currently, using FCP, he creates a Camera Archive, imports the clips, then opens the Archive, views the clips, modifies the file name to reflect the content, then copies and pastes all the file names into a Numbers spreadsheet.”

“The benefit of the Numbers spreadsheet is that he now has a searchable database of all his clip file names. But, is there a better way?”

NOTE: Björn’s question was also the impetus to write this tutorial on camera archives in Final Cut Pro.

I told Björn that this system wasn’t bad, but it was really awkward. Then, I stopped to think. What system allows us to log clips, change file names and metadata, then search for them across multiple projects? Hmm… that list is pretty short.

I used to recommend Kyno, from LessPain Software, but they essentially disappeared once they were acquired by Signiant.
I personally like (and own) Axle, from Axle.ai. But it is expensive, cumbersome and complex for a single user.
Adobe Bridge and Adobe Lightroom are better with still images.
BackLogger, from Lumberjack System is a pure logger. You use it to review and log all clips, then send the logs, via Lumberyard to be aligned with XML from FCP or Premiere Pro. But BackLogger doesn’t support searches.

GOING FORWARD

Hmm… You can’t use what you can’t find. Logging and tracking clips in a single project is supported by all NLEs.

My question is what do you use to track media across multiple projects?

Share your thoughts in the comments. I’m stumped.

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29 Responses to Share Your Process. How Do You Log Video?

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David Vogt says:

August 28, 2023 at 4:47 am

I use Lightroom for videos as well. They don’ always play smoothly, but they can be keyworded, added to collections, etc.

Once I locate the videos in Lightroom, I do a “show in finder” I load them into my NLE as reference movies.

This is all done on a Mac Studio. I don’t know how well it will work on less powerful machines.
Larry says:

August 28, 2023 at 4:48 am

David:

Thanks for your comment. I haven’t tried Lightroom for video.

Larry
David Vogt says:

August 28, 2023 at 5:08 am

For me, there is an additional advantage to having both still and video assets in the same database. Frequently a project will use both video and stills, and having them cataloged in the same place means seeing all the selected assets at once.
Larry says:

August 28, 2023 at 5:35 am

Excellent point.

Larry
steve knattress says:

August 28, 2023 at 7:54 am

I use CatDV, expensive but works well, standalone, or on a network.
just point at (any) media, lots and lots of filtering options
Can use it to generate proxies, for off line or web browsing.
Can put together compilations/edits and send xml to premiere.
Larry says:

August 28, 2023 at 8:40 am

Thanks,

Larry
Joe Torina says:

August 28, 2023 at 9:49 am

Hi Larry,
My Excel system evolved from the tape days. Today, instead of spinning through tape, I create logging timelines by content and subject category. All of my footage for that subject/category goes into a timeline from which I review the material. As I go along, I copy the timecode for each select and paste this into an Excel sheet formatted with columns I will use for reference. Now, working from paper, I choose a shot in the Excel sheet, punch the timecode into the logging timeline, and go to that frame. Once there, I match-frame to pull the clip into the preview monitor for editing. Old fashion perhaps, but works great for me. Also, no need to change clip names which could eventually be problematic.
Larry says:

August 28, 2023 at 9:53 am

Joe:

Great comment. Thanks!

Larry
Jonathan Kirsch says:

August 28, 2023 at 1:09 pm

I used to use CatDV until it because unaffordable. I now use Iconik which is a great alternative. Same features (Metadata, tagging, filtering, proxy generating, generating timelines from clips) along with AI tagging and transcribing. I have it synced with a Backblaze account so anything I put into it automatically gets backed up into the cloud.
Jim B. says:

August 28, 2023 at 2:27 pm

I still use Kyno, and surprised no other company has created something similar. But they have gone silent, with no updates for over a year. I’d love a worthy replacement to Kyno.

Using a Stream Deck interface with Kyno, my ability to select, reject, favorite, keyword, transcode to ProRes and then send everything to FCP is/was amazingly fast.

But as OSX and FCP advance, the app is starting to break down. Unfortunately, they still offer it for sale, and use your endorsement, Larry, on their website. That’s poor business on their part, when they know they’ve left the product for dead.

If you have any industry connections to them, you might want to ask them to remove your endorsement from their page.

Thank you for everything you do!