Tech Talk: File Management

For a Digital Technician one of the most important aspects of your job is file management. File management can be everything from naming and labeling files as they come in, to making sure that there are backups (upon backups, upon backups…) of everything. During a shoot there is not a lot of downtime to be rummaging through hard drives and folders making sure everything is backing up properly. Being able to automate that process is a huge help and is an excellent way to stay efficient on set. Finding a program that can do some of the behind the scenes work for you is a must. For me that program is Chronosync. It is a $50 program that is an absolute wizard. It allows me to get all of my hard drive and folder backups organized on the front end of a shoot, all the while, neatly backing up and synchronizing as we shoot without me having to lift a finger. Having all the backups taken care of not only frees up my time, but also frees up my brain because I have one less process to worry about. I can stay focused on the shoot; making sure color is correct, focus is crisp, and the sensor is clean without having to worry about getting to the end of the day and realizing the client’s hard drive is missing 40 photos.

There are a multitude of programs that can do this and it’s never fun to pay $50, so do some research and find a program that works best for you. It is a must have for any digital technician and once you have a program taking care of those behind the scenes details, you will see that you are able to focus more on the shoot itself without having to sweat the small stuff. If you’re interested, you can check out Chronosync here.

– John