What to do with raw footage after completion of project

[Greg @ Caprice]

Hi guys,

Just curios what people are doing with their raw footage after they have finished with the project.

I have found as the file sizes increase due to 4k size, my project folders are getting bigger and filling drives faster.

I'm currently keeping all my old footage (like a true hoarder) and exporting it to storage drives but can't continue to do this. 

Culling the projects I feel I will never access again is looking like the option. Problem is I'll need to cull harder than I want to. 

Are you keeping all your footage or deleting it at a later date?

Cheers

[R Neil Haugen]

It ... depends, right?

Client jobs, in-house, promotional, it's all got different potential uses.

So i look at things like ... well  ... is there usable audio or b-roll stuff I could use later? If so, copy that to appropriate storage systems.

Is it totally and only ever set for one client? If so, maybe keep it around if it seems like they might need to revisit it.

Or ... if they won't, and are very unlikely to open that project again  ... after say 6 months it probably goes to the drive where every 6 months I delete files over x months old.

[Greg @ Caprice]

Yes, mine's a bit of everything; own footage for my YT channel through to client footage. 

I see it all as usable B-roll and, as you know, the one you delete is the one where you suddenly need it.

Same as all garage guys, we hang onto everything because you never know when you might need it. 😛 

I'll probably delete all proxie folders as they can be recreated.

I might put a one or two year caviate on projects and just hang onto the ones I feel are important to me or at clients request.

[Peru Bob]

Is this footage for client projects or for your own projects?

EDIT: Neil types faster.

[Melankaya]

Im probably gonna have to make a new thread as I doubt anyone will see this.... but I am at 20TB after 44 months of getting a NAS. I never culled at all and am trying to revisit old projects and kill all JPEGS, keep only few potential raws. The video work is the challenge in revisiting old footage. Premiere pro files for the final results arent linked proper sometimes. Theres alot of unnecessary footage.

Im trying to make a video of it and extract as clips {split a video in timline detecting new clip). Saving those in FHD from 4k though. Will I ever  use em? I doubt.

Recently I have started to crop mp4s in camera so way lesser unnecessary material goes on to the storage in the first place. 

The file- project manager- transcode doesnt export only the clipped part of a file but saves the whole file which isnt what I want. 

Remembering to delete renders and audio/ video previews/ auto saves helps as well.

Any recommendations on improving the process? 

[R Neil Haugen]

Video files generate huge storage needs. It just is ... so I know of people that have for personal use moved their original video files to a pair of giant spinners.  As I note above. Once filled, they move on. Each drive has a general list of date/name/cameras/subjects or whatever that is on it, and put on a shelf.

This isn't "totally" archival proof, but better than nothing. You can figure out some pattern acceptable to you.

And technically, RAW refers very specifically to files recorded as RAW in the camera ... not fully debayered yet. ONLY such media is called RAW. Original files in ProRes, or some log format, or some mp4/H.264, format, are not "RAW".