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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Larry says:

August 28, 2023 at 3:16 pm

Jonathan:

Thanks for your comment. Here’s the link to Iconik.io: https://www.iconik.io

Larry
Larry says:

August 28, 2023 at 3:17 pm

Jim:

Like you, I’m very sad that Kyno is essentially dead. I have reached out to them several times over the last few years – but no response. Use the software as long as you can – but start planning to move somewhere else.

Larry
Norris Tidwell says:

August 28, 2023 at 3:25 pm

I first download my GoPro video onto my Raid folder titled GoPro and then logged by date captured. For my stills I download to MacBook Pro harddrive and to Apple Photos in separate 2 year Photos libraries. I also put my video from iPhone in the proper 2 year Photos library. These are my backups for FCP whose libraries are named for the subject matter and then by event year. If I need a clip from another event year I move the clip to the event I need it in. At 85 I know where to find the FCP clips in the browsers by year and Library name. I always can find a backups where I stored them by year. I am a single user and I know the years where I want to find the clip either in Photos, Mac Pictures folder or the GoPro folder. Using years to find. Sometimes I change the clip name to year,month & day along with the orginal file name given by the camera. So my storage of clips are simple and would not work too well for business type productions.
Larry says:

August 28, 2023 at 4:13 pm

Norris:

Thanks for sharing your system.

Larry
Charlie says:

August 30, 2023 at 7:18 am

I use FileMaker Pro to create a logging database to keep track of documentary style footage. Since most of what I do is talking heads I use it to find topics and subjects using text descriptors and subclip names in Premiere. This in addition to meta data in the project columns.
Larry says:

August 30, 2023 at 7:32 am

Charlie:

Duh! I totally forgot about Filemaker. Great idea. I used to use FileMaker a lot.

Another simpler-to-use database is Tap Forms 5. While I’ve only dabbled with it, this, too, could be easily used for logging.

Larry
Robert says:

August 30, 2023 at 2:42 pm

Oh boy, this is a tough one as I’m sure everyone has a different process. Here’s ours at Studio Eight.

First off, we use the MovieSlate app on an iPad and iPhone and everything gets slated. Ninety percent of the stuff we shoot is MOS, but we still slate. Having a visual reference of the scene number and take on a clip is a serious win for us. We went for a few years without slating and had a few bad bumps trying to figure out which clips belonged to which projects. We also use Atomos Ultrasync One and Ultrasync Blue to sync the MovieSlate app to the camera (and the audio recorder when we capture on-set audio).

We use Final Cut Pro in-house for all the editing. We have two in-house editors that mostly work off-site in tandem. I capture, ingest, log, then set up and prepare the Final Cut Libraries for editing. We have a strict folder structure that everyone must use. We use the app Post Haste by Digital Rebellion to quickly create the folders for us. What started six or seven years ago as eight folders is now at thirteen folders.

I start out by creating a new FCP Library with Postlab. I ingest the media using Hedge. Once the media is ingested into its proper folder, I have FCP import it into a new event (keeping the files in place). I create events based on the date of the shoot, very similar to “dailies”. Every new day of shooting brings a new Event. I then export an XML file of the Event into its proper folder.

Logging then follows; I use an app called KeyClips (made by the MovieSlate team) to match up the FCP XML to the timecode recorded on the MovieSlate app. The MovieSlate app records all the various notes, keywords, important information, and lots of other data for each clip captured. KeyClips exports a new XML file that we open in FCP as a new Event. This new Event has everything we need to make logging very fast and painless; what used to take me half a day now takes less than an hour.

FYI, MovieSlate can export various types of files that can be used for logging, including .csv files that can be opened by Excel or Numbers.
Larry Jordan says:

August 30, 2023 at 3:01 pm

Robert:

This is SUCH!! a useful description. Thanks for taking the time to write it up.

Larry
Euan Williamson says:

September 4, 2023 at 2:25 am

Hi Larry,
Here’s a little known app which fits the bill.
https://www.cdfinder.de/index.html – which is now called “NeoFinder” –
keeps a catlog of all files, both online and on offline disks.
Can search keywords in FCPX libraries.
On off purchase $40 – no subscription
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJVchz8icJk

Cheers, Euan
Richard Wright says:

September 5, 2023 at 4:34 pm

Thanks for this Larry. Very useful as my clips have now reached 32T, and as I am now following your advise and keeping a initial download file, outside FCP, my storage is becoming an issue. Basically I download by date and then a tag. As I too am a single user I can usually find what I need by date, However, in FCP I file my subject or project. For instance: Wildlife library and then Events for species, or species and behavior. BUT, it is getting cumbersome, so I thank you and your contributors for the ideas. I am checking out cdfinder soon as I close off here. You da man!!! Cheers, Richard