When I work on a project with others, we put the project files in a shared Dropbox folder, save the automatic backups to the same master folder, and ensure that the assets (footage) all exist on the file path if we have to share external drives. If they don't have a system setup, I share mine. A published and shared standardized organizational plan is just as crucial to filmmakers as the Brand Standards book is to a corporation. Nobody on the team has to dig for assets when you have that kind of system in place. Unfortunately, most independent producers and contractors I work with do not have any standard system established, so it takes a few days and emails to get things organized. Project management does not seem to be taught anymore because it is so easy to search for things on a computer.
If you don't have Dropbox, there are other network-accessible file-sharing systems out there that will work. File structure, naming, and resource management are common and standardized in every data-sharing industry. My naming and organizing system was taught to me five decades ago when I worked on my first documentary film with a very experienced editor. Every feature film and documentary I have worked on has a similar, published, and shared system, and the organizational structure on the easiest projects to manage goes all the way from the subject lines in emails to the notes you scribble on receipts for lunch for the crew to the Folders where the original footage is stored.
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