How to Organize Your Video Assets | Folder Structure for Video Editors

Learn how to organize your video files so that you never again have to go insane tracking down that one last piece of footage.
Although I edit in Adobe Premiere Pro and the examples here specifically deal with projects created in that software, the same basic principles will work regardless of which NLE you're using.
"Optimizing Storage for Premiere Pro" - Puget Systems: • Optimizing Storage for...
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Music from KZbin Audio Library (kzbin.info...)
"At the Game" by Max McFerren
"Gangsta Choir Descends" by Doug Maxwell/Media Right Productions
"Inescapable" by Ugonna Onyekwe
"Experience Nature Experience You" by South London HiFi
"Beneath the Surface" by South London HiFi
"I Am Running Down the Long Hallway of Viewmount Elementary" by Chris Zabriskie
"Milos" by Eveningland
Additional Music:
"Thinking Music" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...

[@timeSlidrGaming]

A tip for KZbinrs, make a template of file structure where it's just the skeleton, no data and every time you start a new video, copy the template. That way you don't have to set up file structure over and over again.

[@welovef1]

use post haste

[@saurabhkushwaha8330]

how to do it

[@esscuber]

WHAT THE FUCK??? You have only a few hundred of subscribers? I was thinking that you were a huuuuge youtuber (although you really are, but... you guys got it). I can't belive... THAK'S SOOO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR VIDEOS! A BIG HUGE FROM BRASIL! P.s.: If you create a member area or something like that, i will be pleasure to contribute with that work so well produced!

[@lifelonglearner1863]

its better to watch a professional guy than some productivity guy. Thank you Mr Behne.

[@chrisgenovese8188]

The quality of this video is on par with someone with hundreds of thousands of subscribers. I assume this gentleman must be very busy, because he would be killin it on this platform if he released more videos. Very good, and thanks for sharing your system. Seems clear you know what you're doing.

[@Nathan_Fang]

Yes I thought the exact same thing! I was so surprised when I saw he only had >2k subs. He could have so many more

[@MYoung-yr9yi]

That's one of the best videos on managing video assets on KZbin! Love it! So clearly explained and very helpful. Totally answered my problems. Please keep up the amazing work. Thanks!

[@charliebrown555]

OMG, Alexander!! Thank you for this video!! I think this is the BEST video on organizing assets I've ever seen! Super concise, entertaining and what a great editor you are. If you ever have time, please make more. Much thanks!! 😘😘😘

[@katieandjoeonthego]

We just came back from a 4-month trip and shot 5-TB of video files and have been searching for the best way to organize all of our assets, this is exactly what we needed. THANK YOU.

[@thePhoenixxx1983]

Now that I have posted several comments hopefully others don't feel that I'm being a hog in the comments section but my attention span is crap and I truly appreciate the quality of content the quality alone had me come back several times to finish the video since I struggle to watch things like this all at once because of the length of the content. Thank you so very much Alexander for doing such a stellar job at putting this together and even though 19 + minutes seems long it really isn't for everything that you covered so quickly to be assisted to anyone doing hours-long projects, and I very much appreciate that you use your life experience and advice making suggestions which is a added bonus so I hope someone sees this and it continues to encourage them to watch the video or to keep watching your content because the quality alone is totally worth it. Thank you so much for bringing your expertise life experience creativity and intelligence to the world through your KZbin content. Cheers! From your latest subscriber💖

[@birdspeaklabs]

Covered all the bases, man. What a great resource.

[@ZpzpPiwpiw]

Great video !! Please share more tips and comments on how you organize your stuff ! I love the advanced tips and the little text specifications on whether different file formats can be deleted/rejigged/etc.

[@dahliahamdan9589]

Super helpful, clear, and easy to understand! Thanks for making this video.

[@davethepak]

Great video. Excellent content, great production quality and well spoken. thank you for sharing.

[@lukemoloney8415]

Great video man! Subscribed. Very high quality video and information, you're for sure heading towards a solid subscriber count. Thanks for the help!

[@alexanderbehne606]

Hey man, thanks for saying that! Glad to hear you got something useful out of the video. Stay tuned for lots more!

[@kylesgamesquest]

Omg thank you so much you are a life saver! Sat down to finally start editing today and realized my files are everywhere. Was getting stressed organizing it and this has helped a lot.

[@Rosamariatvofficial]

Thanks, Alexander. Loved this tutorial. Clear, simple, and to the point. I've been losing my mind will all my assets. I'm going to organize my four KZbin video assets before continuing forward. If you are looking for another video idea topic, I could use guidance on how to organize videos on our phones (iPhone). We all have many takes of video clips and photos for social media, and I don't know what to do with footage I don't use and footage I do use. It's taking up space in my phone. Transferring video data is also challenging when your phone is taken up by so much data.

[@blacowl9457]

Awesome video! I'm going to implement this immediately. Thanks!

[@ajiterapia]

Superb job, entertaining and to the point. Thanks.

[@thePhoenixxx1983]

Okay indeed, Alexander, the way your video opened is the most effective advertising ever and is going to keep me likely tuning in out of sheer curiosity to see what type of information you've included. Making this funny has already helped me feel less alone, and less like I'm losing my freaking mind when I'm looking for files and trying to organize them! - Quite likely with your tips which I am highly looking forward to using after you teach me. Thanks for intelligent and effective marketing that has made me laugh and feel more sane all the same time! Thanks Alexander!😄

[@weiqitang920]

This is so helpful for someone who's just starting a KZbin channel! Thanks so much!

[@RUBEAR1984]

Thank you for the wonderful tutorial It helps me a lot with my edit work flow thank you so much.

[@rychei5393]

This is amazing, and something I have been scouring around for, so thank you.

[@everythingismid]

Great energy; Clean, concise presentation!

[@TabletopUpgrades]

what a well put together vid, amazing. well done

[@mypixelheartsl3625]

Such GREAT info! Thanks from a beginner who wants to start off on the right foot!!!

[@AmeerCorro]

This is such a well-made video! Thank you so much :)

[@glendaavery5695]

Thanks for the insightful information!

[@dropkick88]

My god, I have been editing for years like a scrublord apparently. After watching this video I went back through and consolidated all of my videos, assets, and completely changed how I perform my editing. Editing is just a hobby, but looking at the pile of wires (forgive the analogy) I was using was giving me stress. Which is not something you want out of a hobby lol. Thank you for making this video!

[@SilverWagonStudio]

I can't believe you don't have 1,000 subscribers yet. This is great info, well made...and you have a nice on-screen personality.

[@arwenbaltazar1070]

You’re Underrated! Tysm for This Video It definitely Helped me In many ways. Ty for this well-made Video:)

[@arasantoonstest]

Really fantastic presentation. Thanks for this!

[@xiiguardian]

I came to your video after spending 30 minutes unsuccessfully looking for a stupid clip for a video.... I am now much more organized. Thank you!

[@kelsiebrandon9959]

THANK YOU SO MUCH! I've been searching for this answer for 5+ Years. I was constantly using multiple hard drives with assets all over the place and over organizing each section made it so frustrating every time I would need to find something.

[@ValMB818]

Thank you this was so helpful!!

[@DanaceLee]

Fantastic Video!! Thank you so much!! ❤

[@johndoremi3872]

I wached that video , its pretty awesome!!! keep the greate job, you gonna get big in youtube!!!!!! this is the first time im gonna hit the notification bell!!

[@georgie4808]

Really useful. I’m getting my new Mac set up for learning Final Cut Pro, so getting everything configured to start out super organised.

[@damdremusic]

THANKS. the graphic at the end was really helpful

[@Quintopia1]

dude... thank you so much, thoroughly enjoyed this and learned

[@itsallaboutyou7907]

Great video. Thank you it was very helpfull to know.

[@authenticarkansas]

Ok, 39 seconds in, and I just have to hit pause because I'm laughing my rear end off and it's so true. Hope the rest of this video is as good as the open!

[@anush26]

This was a really great video! And I really enjoyed the video editing humour :D

[@kpmtwo]

This is helpful. Thank you!

[@EarlyDawnTravels]

I subbed once I realized how much effort you put into the sub folder joke about Mercury grade and socks 😂😂😂

[@garyquintrell4878]

Great advice Alexander

[@DaBadNewz]

I've spent waaaay too much time trying to find specific advice on recurring assets, THANK YOU for including that part in the video. The funny thing is that your suggestion is what I've been doing, which reminded me to not over-complicate things and that if it ain't broke don't fix it. Thanks again, very solid explanation!

[@DavidUebergang]

Yes keep it simple is great, especially for solo creators. But piggybacking off this comment, I think there's a helpful distinction to make between the type of recurring assets you would include in basically EVERY project (which you would include in the template folder like video suggestion), and the type of not-so-often-but-still-recurring asset you include FREQUENTLY e.g. an editing resources folder, which becomes more like a library over time and might be too big to duplicate for every single project. This second scenario would be more common for small teams with a shared library of assets, or someone who uses a LOT of space-expensive extra assets repeatedly e.g. large b-roll clips or visual effects. However, as storage gets cheaper, this scenario will probably become rarer for smaller creators, as the simplicity of reducing/collecting all files for a project to archive outweighs any space saving benefits.

[@DaBadNewz]

@@DavidUebergang solid info, thanks for the follow up!

[@HowToCookVegetables]

Fantastic video man, hope you get all the subs.

[@mosheovadya]

Excellent. Thank you.

[@nehathukral4982]

Why you've stopped making videos regularly? loved the way you explained entire process so smoothly keeping us fully engaged. It was entertaining too specially the end. Please start again, want to see more videos from you! 😇

[@Poelycker]

Great Video, very usefull and I hope you continue in the future!

[@fitzsmotoadventures]

Super helpful. Thanks.

[@dansherman4182]

Thanks Alexander. Using some of these ideas to REorganize 20 years of project files. Sigh,...

[@dylanmurphy8628]

Great info man, keep it up!

[@jpmgreen]

Great video man, thanks!

[@middleofnowhereradio]

Fantastic! Great advice!

[@felipepavan5360]

This is going to help me a lot, much appreciated man! Greeting from Brazil haha

[@safaecreates3361]

I LOVE THIS!!!

[@ufamartialartsacademy376]

Sensational, thank you 👍

[@FutileGrief]

How in the hell do you not have a million subscribers. Excellent work, Sir.

[@cameronpoole1576]

Thanks, very helpful - from London, UK.

[@funkysanta870]

Great Stuff - Thank you SO MUCH!

[@ZwischendenWortenADWiLK]

Just became subscriber no 1000 😊 Thanks for your work!

[@brandonscott6329]

Hay thanks for this was useful as I begin setting up a new machine. However - maybe you can help dive a little deeper, you covered the 'General Assets' however in the style of video I am editing (outdoor adventures) I have alot of B-Roll type stuff that can be used periodically in just about any final project. So my question lies in how to organize this style of footage so it is more easily retrievable. Let me give an example - ' hay that shot of me paddling that canoe in whitecaps' would look good here.' now, what project had that in it again? Thanks in advance.

[@itsmehanis]

I have a lot of footages from years ago because I love to take videos. What stops me from editing these videos are it's such an absolute horror for me to find out and start categorising everything into one big folder. Might as well find a day to organise my videos :D Thanks Alex!

[@WatermanSurin]

Editing is always so dreadful for me because of this bottleneck that it has become due to poor file organization. Thanks for sharing your system! I want to experiment with having a library of footage that I have gone through and renamed with accurate descriptive keywords so that when I'm looking for a type of shot I can just search for it in the file explorer.

[@thelakeeriekayakanglerspod8514]

Great Video!!

[@mrxinu]

Just getting into the video/image editing and this was a serious mental unblocker. Thanks!

[@alinaseri7951]

useful and very attractive. thanx a lot.

[@kwalletje99]

Good video Alexander! I've learned at school another folder structure, which is quite similar to yours. Mine is like: the first folder is the name of the project. In that folder are 6 other folders, named: Audio, Def. Exports, Footage, Music, Premiere(folder where your project file goes in) and Scratch. That's all. I saw people doing the exports in one big folder and adding a date like "projectname_8032022" because the video was released at march 8th 2022 for example.

[@VEDAVOX]

good work, thx

[@yayingzhang1506]

Useful! Thanks.

[@Berghiker]

Awesome video! You should have tons more subscribers.

[@GhostAnimatorTO]

great tutorial 😁

[@Move2USA2022]

Love it！👍Thanks for sharing～

[@aamsergie]

Great video.

[@candie5150]

Oh my goodness, this is exactly what I need help with. I've been recording videos on my phone(s) and have such a hard time keeping them all accessable when needed.

[@FlashGun_574]

This is great and such an overlooked skill set. I do the same thing with even fewer folders. I label mine as such date client project. (V). (P) (A). Within those folders I have duplicated the names and inserted an E, and an R, into the parenthese this allows me to distinguish between a RAW and edited. Usually my a folder just stands for audio and assets, as I don’t usually fill up too many things in those. Lastly, I create a folder in parentheses (PJT. ) that’s where any of my project files live all within one folder ecosystem. I do a lot of multimedia stuff, so I always have about photography and video music audio and sound.

[@joey-jonlester.8762]

: Fantastic-video, super-helpful. For the gratitude.

[@Josetochannel]

you are a big one bro, strong laughs in the first seconds!

[@yuryruban]

Thank you!

[@digikaininja5]

cool office space cool lighting cool editing I use filmora X..Just bought their lifetime version. Thanx for the video Alex. Keep em coming. Ra5.

[@lifelonglearner1863]

thank you again!

[@SlackerStuff]

I have a project template that I duplicate for every video. Super helpful to organize the edit from that point.

[@abhyudayatiwari7743]

Amazing

[@youngmaryworld]

First 30 seconds and I am captured my friend.

[@damusic2010]

Thanks a lot, great video! Where do you store the copyright data of assets, music, and raw footage that was recorded by different people?

[@torchbone1]

Great video, thanks. I actually found it while trying to learn how to manage the resulting archive. I have my files organized much as you describe, but now I am trying to go through my entire archive of videos to find highlights, and I am not sure how best to do that. I come from the still photography world, and am used to going into Lightroom, giving star ratings, assigning keywords, and gathering images in a Collection, for example. I can't figure out a video equivalent. I want to quickly (key word: quickly) scrub through a clip, then give it a star rating, for example, and / or add it to a meta-collection. Repeat for every directory from the past two years. Seems like it should be easy, but I can't figure out how. Adobe Bridge would still work for this, but it doesn't seem to be able to handle large video files without terrible lag. Any suggestions?

[@koolhand12]

Great video...thanks. Can you provide a document of the flow-chart of the folders.

[@jbrenes]

Using AHK with Deckboard app...is perfection for my OCD.

[@d.rrel_]

this surprisingly answered all of my questions. it was kind of hard to push through tho

[@paulamongelos5117]

Thanks!

[@dustinpoisson]

Awesome video and super helpful. I don't know if I missed it or not, but where would you typically store the rendered files from the project? Also, do you ever clean out raw footage that wasn't used or delete old rendered revisions to save on storage space? Thanks in advance!

[@rychei5393]

The rendered file was with the folder group at the bottom.

[@rahima5003]

Thank you

[@hunna5473]

nice work ⚡️

[@alexanderbehne606]

Thanks!

[@Tognasca]

Nice Video! Thx a lot, would be nice seen an update video about how to organize files with Premiere Production, even how to make it work if you use AE files with Premiere.... Im digging for this kinda of content and is not easy to find... Thx a lot!

[@Chobed]

Hey! man! Thank you for the great video! One question... how would approach the folder structures if you work with Da Vinci Resolve (Or capcut) that doesn't let you save each project file on a different location? (They work with their own folder where it holds the project files, proxies, etc)

[@bbbb-ii9kn]

thank you

[@MusicalBasics]

lol after the first 45 seconds I'm like THIS IS ME

[@philipcaldwell3187]

DAM good overview!

[@AA-zq1sx]

Wondering how the "edit data" folder would work if using Resolve for projects. Resolve has a project database, not traditional project files like Premiere. Good tutorial, thanks for sharing your process!

[@ss4717]

Ty