- Hey it's Justin Brown here from Primal Video.
One of the questions I get asked about all the time
is in regards to backups, how do I back up my videos?
How do I backup my videos for the YouTube channel,
how do I backup my corporate and documentary work?
So I thought, in this video, I'd run you through
three ways that you can create backups
or archive versions of your videos.
Okay, so you've just finished your video masterpiece,
whether it's a YouTube video or whether
it's a full on feature film.
What I recommend everyone do, and this is option one,
is to create a master version of that video.
This is typically the version that you will upload
to YouTube or to Vimeo, but it's something
that you should definitely keep,
as the highest quality version of the video
that you've created.
So, when you're exporting,
Pick the best quality settings that you can for your video.
So what you'll end up with there
is an archive-able master file in the best quality,
best resolution, for the video that you've created.
Beyond that, you'll have to ask yourself the question
or figure out the likelihood that you'll ever
have to open up that video editing project ever again.
If you never, ever will be opening up that
video editing project again,
then that one archive-able, full quality master
of your video may be enough.
In the case of these YouTube videos,
that is exactly the process.
For every video, we export a full quality master
and we save that, and we back that up.
Our backups go to Google Drive, and they go to Dropbox,
and we've also got a physical drive that
we copy everything off to,
and put it on the shelf in the cupboard.
So besides backing up our B roll footage
or our overlay footage, footage that could be used
in another video down the track,
the rest of the editing project, it is extremely unlikely
that we will ever need to reopen that
and make changes, and then save out
another version of these videos.
So then after about three weeks,
so we've given the video some time to settle,
to get some comments and feedback and everything,
we will then delete all of the projects and
all of the files associated with that video
that are no longer needed.
Because the chances of us ever needing to go back
and open and make any changes is probably next to nothing,
so we don't bother keeping them.
So that's the main question you'll have to ask yourself.
Now if you've answered yes to that question,
and there is a chance
that you'll need to go back and re-edit
or make any changes to that video at a later date,
or you just want to make sure that you're saving
everything with the video project that you've created,
then you should look at step two and step three.
Now step two is to do a total backup
or a full back up of your file and folder tree structure.
So when you're creating your editing project,
it's really good practice
to create a folder on your computer
where everything for that editing project goes into.
I'll link up on screen now a video we did a while back
talking about file and folder structures
for your video editing projects.
So in this folder should be everything that you've used
for your video editing project,
all your music, your graphics, your animations,
your project files for the actual edit,
everything in the one folder.
And then it's just a matter of backing up that folder to
something like an external drive or some cloud storage
depending on how big that is.
Now the biggest thing you'll notice with step two
versus step one is the file size difference.
Exporting only the finished product
is going to give you a much, much smaller file
or smaller backup than backing up
every file that you used in your entire edit.
Even if you've got a one hour video that you've ended up
using two seconds of in your finished product,
then method two will back up that entire
one hour file as well, even though
you only used a short portion of it.
So now onto option three, and this is actually
a tool that's built into most
professional video editing software, and it's called
media management, or project management.
So what this does is you can either pick
your entire video editing project
from within your video editing software
and choose to export, or consolidate is what it's called,
all of the files into a new folder.
So the beauty of this method is
it'll copy your footage, from
no matter where it's located,
and where it's linked to or brought into your
editing project, it'll copy everything that you've used
into a new folder, that you can then back up.
And that folder will contain everything
that is used in your video editing project.
Depending on your editing software,
you can also do this on a timeline,
or on a sequence basis.
So if you've got a huge overall video editing project
and might have 10 different videos inside it,
if you only want to export or backup
one of those timelines, or one of those videos.
In a lot of cases, now a lot of programs,
you can just pick that one timeline
and you can media manage or consolidate
just the files that were used in that timeline.
So not everything from the entire project,
just every little clip, every little sound effect,
every little bit of music, every graphic that was used
in that one timeline, you can pull out
and it will copy, and it leaves everything else intact,
to a new folder, that you can then backup.
Now this is a great way to move projects
between different editors as well,
because you're only transferring the data
that's actually used, not the whole heap of extra data
that just happened to be sitting in the project
that may or may not have been used.
Now this is something that you can do in Final Cut,
in Premiere, in Avid, you'll find it
in most professional video editing software.
But one step up from that, again,
is that, in some cases and with some programs
you'll actually have the option to specify handles.
Now what handles let you do, is if
you've only used a small portion of a much
larger clip in your end product,
you can create handles, whereas it'll only
take the piece that you've used,
and it would take a little bit, a handle,
on either side, so you can choose
five frames or 10 frames.
So you're taking slightly more than what was used
in your finished timeline, so in case you've
got to go back and edit again,
you've got a little bit more wiggle room,
in case you've got to apply and transitions
or any effects, or you want to make
any slight changes to that edit,
you've got a bit more footage without having to export
the entire clip when you've only used
a short portion of it.
So that was a pretty quick run through of
three ways to backup your editing projects.
I would highly recommend that everyone
at least does step one, and if you need to do it,
depending on the project, look at step two
or step three as well.
If you found this video helpful,
we'd really appreciate a thumbs up
and make sure you click that big subscribe
button if you haven't already.
If you're looking to streamline your editing process,
and you're looking for the most efficient editing process,
then check out the link on screen now
to our free PDF download.
I'll see you soon.