Long Term Archiving

Anyone got any thoughts on long term archiving of your digital video materials and editing projects. For example; does everyone keep all orginal (raw) footage, or once the project is completed do you just keep the final cut.

Either way what format do you use for archiving - DV Tape, DVD, Hard Disk or other?

In the past I have discarded all the raw material and editing project files once the final cut was complete. However, this was mainly because of the high cost of tape (hey - I only do this for fun 8) ). But recently I have been looking into submitting some footage to competitions and to try to make a little money - and (sigh :!: ) wish I had keep some of the orginal material.

Hi,

Well I guess your dilema is also your answer. Keep the raw footage. You never know where this "Hobby" will take you. I only got into underwater video through chance and the desire to help out a buddy with a dive school. He had the camera system and I had the time. That was 12 years ago now. I too made the same mistakes in the beginning. Many a time I could kick myself for not having kept the raw footage. Trying to edit ever shrinking clips, finding new in and out points between transitions - ahhhhh!! - became a real headache.

Before claiming that this hobby doesn't allow you to spend out on tape stocks pause for a minute and listen to the rule of tens. This was a formula explained to me by Jim Watt, one of the most prolific underwater photographers currently gracing magazine pages across the globe.

As an aspiring underwater photographer / videographer you should get ready for the long haul, or rule of tens.

The first 10 years are spent in misery. You find out your true friends as they are the ones who feed you, give you money for new gear and offer shoulders to cry on, sofas to sleep on and morale to carry on. No chance of a bank account, girlfriend or pet dog.

By the second 10 years you've managed to get some of your work published. You have an excuse of a dog who has gotten used to eating every other day, normally at the same frequency as you and the girlfriend has had to sell her white cane to supply you with a roll of film or video tape. The bank manager contemplates hari kari everyday for having beleived your story about becoming the next big name at Nat. Geo. Your friends have become resigned to the fact that you are a hopeless case of a diver. The rush of the deep is often quoted as a means to quieten inquisitive strangers.

By the third 10 years you are actually partially recognised. You're able to eat out at least once a month, the dog eats daily and the girlfriend now has a newly found trust in your abilities to cater, albeit frugally, to her requests of a normal life. The bank manager has finally tracked you down and has been sedated by a bank balance printed, for the first time, in black ink! Your camera gear has, having served you faithfully since the start of your quest, since been retired to the basement of memorabilia along with your aqualung and first ever divesuit, or did you use that already to patch those unexpected tire blowouts on your way to the Keys to get your annual quota of shots for your portfolio?

By the fourth 10 years, you're actually making a good living out of chasing unwitting subjects around underwater. Your prints are sold internationally your name conjurs up admiration amongst your peers and fans. The dog died of obesity a while back, fat and happy, what a way to go. The girlfriend has since become the wife and is now settled into a life of relative ease, except for the times when your ravings about free diving with Great Whites for the ultimate snap get her a bit nervous. The bank manager retired a while back and his son, having taken over the family business now boasts amongst his society friends that you are one of his best accounts, get him to tell that to his old man!!

If you go on for longer than that, well good luck!!!

If you live by this hobby you will have few chances to concentrate on another career. Therefore you should see that you, by way of being a hobbyist, actually are in a better financial position to buy tapes, film etc. Think about it.

I'm now in my second ten years, just bought a dog and have some great friends. My future wife, although I haven't found her yet, has a long road ahead.......a long one but a very happy one I hope.

Anyway I must dash now, I think I've just spotted the bank mangers car cruising, ready for another drive by attempt!!

Yikes,

Mark.

Well It really depends on the content. It you have an entire tape of nonsense, why keep it? On the other hand, keep the rarer or better shots on a master. I usually consolidate to a bigger tape with all the stuff I want to keep and throw out the garbage, like when the rec button is pushed accidently and you didn't realize it was on for 20 mins etc. There are some tapes out there like the PANA MQ tapes which are designed for better archival longevity. The good stuff I'd back it up with a 2nd copy.

Yep thats true. When 20 minutes of tape are wasted on what I call "Pause Record" that certainly seems wasted tape. BUT, tapes are the cheapest commodity in this game. You never know what or when you could need some scenes from such a 20 minute section of unco-ordinated 'reef hosing'! Now or in the future you may find a need for that for a short film, documentary or private project. I save everything. True, I do have a mountain of tapes but it's all here. I do also put the best chunks together on categorized tapes - Macro, Sharks, Mantas, Corals, Reef Fish, Cephalopods etc etc. That makes it easier to find and archive. However I still maintain a stock of all shot footage with a comprehensive timeline index and related scenes. I back the 'good stuff' up on DVD and make 2 copies. One never to be touched and stored and the other for general usage.

Best,

Mark.

Ok - so we should keep the masters (BTW CamDiver - good story), but ts my understanding that even the highest quality tapes have a limited shelf life. Something to do with the nature of magnetic storage. So when I get to my second or third decade are those first tapes going to be of any use?

Also, 15 years from now, will technology have moved on such that the camera and editing equipment at that time are no longer compatible with those old Mini DV tapes (who knows maybe we'll have support for MicroDV by then )

Others have suggested buring to DVD, but you get less than 1 hr of lossless footage on a 4.7GB DVD.

Also what about cataloging your 'mountains of tapes', I've only been at this for 4-5 years part time and on vacations, but I have enough footage that finding a particular scene would be problematic. For example - trip to Chuuk resulted in 15 x 1hr DV tapes, I label each tape with the date and keep a log of the dives done on that date. However, this only tells me Aug 8th Fujikawa and Shinkoku, not 'clownfish doing X, Y and Z in amemome xxx. It seems the digital photo boom has resulted in many reasonably priced photo album / catalogin programs - but I am not aware of any for digital video. Any thoughts on cataloging scences from the raw footage?

Modern tapes should last at least 15 years. Actually you get just over 21 minutes backed up on a DVD in DV format (approx 2GB per 10mins), conversion to MPEG2 is not lossless.

iDive is a very nice program for cataloging. Been using it for awhile. I am going to try Footrack soon.

Hi,

Yeah it's a bind. As time goes on we'll have to adopt newer, possibly better, solutions to archiving. When I archive I have a alpha numerical association to my tapes starting at 000A. From there I catalogue the action, not every scene, of the interesting aspects marked by their timeline appearance. This approach allows me, albeit sometimes a long winded process, to access directly the footage I need at any given time. I currently have some 3000 tapes archived between my current base in Palau and my library in Europe. I have reference to the stock in Europe so if I need something specific I have a friend with access to it who can send what I need. Until we have a more cost effective way of taking care of this aspect of our work we don't, seemingly, have a choice.

Of course the ideal would be to have a fully blown production company with someone in charge of that but I for one am pretty happy at being a one man show. Besides my pockets are standard issue and not that deep!!

What happens when we change formats? Try finding a buyer for the old archive, start from square one again or take out shares in media storage manufacturers? I don't know. I'm planning a move to the new HDV format when the pro version of the HDR-FX1 comes out in February, possibly March, of next year. I can't face ditching my stock at that point. I guess there will always be newly formed production companies, and broadcast concerns, looking for a cost effective way to get their products out there. In that case there will remain a market for your stored images.

At the end of the day, looking at this from a human point of view. We're all trying to get along on this roller coaster of a ride we call life. For some working in a bank is that solution, for others accounting or manual labor is their nirvanna. When all is said and done and I'm waiting at that drop off in the sky for entrance to my eternal dive I'll be able to say I accomplished what I set out to do. To help educate people in understanding the Ocean and its inhabitants. My job will have been done. OK maybe not on a National Geographic scale but thru the work I've done on my own projects as well as with the clients I've thus far worked for. Where will all the stored tapes and media end up in the long run?? That's anyones guess.

One possibility, looking at it from a depressing view, is that due to the way mankind is systematically destroying the planet its resources and wildlife is that maybe even in our lifetime, why say maybe?, images of such species like sharks, mantas, dolphin and whale could be sought after by the scientific world to serve as a reminder of what we once had, but have lost for ever!! Let's hope it never comes to that.

Hope this opens the mind a bit more on my standpoint.

Cheers,

Mark.