How do you organize source videos before editing short-form content?

Question

I’ve been working with more short-form video content recently and I’m trying to improve the workflow before importing everything into Premiere Pro.

When videos come from different sources, I find it easy to end up with duplicate files, different resolutions, and several versions of the same clip. This becomes especially noticeable when working with Instagram Reels and other short-form content.

How do you normally organize your source videos before starting an editing project? Do you keep separate folders for original and downloaded media, use metadata, rename everything manually, or follow another workflow?

I’ve also come across browser-based tools such as Indown.mobi when working with publicly available Instagram media, but I’m mainly interested in how experienced editors organize the files before they enter Premiere Pro.

John T Smith · Answer

Organizing multiple files from multiple sources has nothing to do with the file sizes

To put everything in one folder you will need to manually edit the file names so there aren't any duplicate names... such as putting 'Joe-' or 'Sally-' in the front of the files as appropriate

Or put the files from different sources in different folders, so the editor 'sees' each duplicate file as being different due to the different folder path to read the file

The other thing you MAY want to do to make editing easier is use a tool (such as the free https://handbrake.fr/ open source transcoder/converter) to convert to a consistent format... Handbrake tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlvxgVREX-Y&t=34s

I usually only edit 1280x720 30fps .MOV video from my Canon SX510 camera... which creates files with sequential numbers... before editing I go through the files and rename each file so it makes sense to me when I am importing the files into my editor... all files are in one folder named for the subject

When I once added cell phone video to make a DVD for a relative I renamed but didn't alter the files I was sent... there were only a few and I didn't have any problems... if I had experienced any problems I would have used Handbrake

Resizing pictures may also be needed - Tool for bulk resizing photos on Windows is Microsoft PowerToys. Free, official, and integrates directly into your right-click menu, allowing you to resize multiple photos instantly without a separate app.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/ - very short sets of documentation

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.