Cataloging Media

Hi,

Long time no see!

I am working for a local government client that has done a fair amount of video work over the years. Some with me, some with others, and some in house. They have their raw and finished video spread over a couple of hard drives, and some of it centralized on a Drobo. Overall it's probably 10-15TB of video, mostly raw.

It is in varying states of disarray.

I have been commissioned to organize it such that they can look through and find what they're looking for easily.

I don't need a networked solution - one workstation is fine. But something where one could type in "2009 swearing in ceremony" or "central park ribbon cutting" and find shots of that event, or if you searched for "central park" you might find the ribbon cutting as well as the central park easter egg hunt and a landscaper orientation at central park.

There is money in the budget for this, probably into the thousands of dollars if need be.

They are currently running FCP X with... I dunno... 50-100 events in it? I am still a FCP7 dinosaur, and FCP X seems really sluggish with that many events.

Is there a better third party solution for this, or should I use FCP X and just get to tagging?

Have a look at CatDV.

- Andreas

Some workflow tools for FCP [www.spherico.com]
TitleExchange -- juggle titles within FCS, FCPX and many other apps.
[www.spherico.com]

I have footage going back 12 years. I have edited out the best footage into approximately 1 hour timelines which are stored on 3 RAIDs. Before storing it, I use Filemaker Pro to archive where each topic is stored, when & where it was shot, and any other useful pieces of info that will help me go quickly to the relevant stored clips. Filemaker allows me to search on multiple search items, dates, places, subject matter, etc. It is a very flexible and very powerful search application Currently I have 27,963 separate entries and can find what I want in less time than you can say hello. Some are very short and some very long clips or collections of clips. You can set up Filemaker Pro any way you want to meet your needs and you can add a still photo (from the timeline).

If you would like to contact me, write to natureflix@gmail.com

Ron Goor