The guy who writes about backing up – can’t find his backups

Here’s a great example of backing up files that could have gone horribly wrong.  A client emailed me the other day and asked if I could get him a copy of his show, in this case it was an infomercial that I did about three years ago.  Three years!  I don’t like to disappoint anyone, let alone clients, so I don’t mind doing a favor and making a copy.  Should be easy right? Hook up the drive, load in the project and make the Beta.  Uh oh!  Media offline?  Where’s that missing section??  Ok, now it’s all coming back to me.  This was a cross-platform project – I started it in Avid then moved to Final Cut later when he wanted changes last year.   I have the original files in Avid for the show, but I don’t have the CTA (or the Call To Action) for last year’s version.  When I made the After Effects changes I created a new CTA file then assembled the whole thing in Final Cut. (Then I . . . ahem . . . forgot to back up that particular version.)  I cleaned out my FCP system a month ago and I remember trashing all of the files for that show.  I *thought* I made the backup but it looks like I never made the “submaster” that I told all of you to make in my article “Backing Up.” Let me go back to my notes.

The greatest thing about being organized

So I had one slip up . . . and there isn’t a Beta to be found because I didn’t make a backup there either.  I guess that makes two slip ups.  If I wanted to take the time I could track it down at the station, but chances are they tossed it months ago. Looking back at my notes, I noticed that I exported the show segments from Avid and brought them into Final Cut.  I created the new CTA in After Effects and then assembled the whole thing in Final Cut as a new show. Don’t panic.  All that’s really missing is the CTA.  Let me think.  Ok . . . did I happen to save the After Effects project file?  You bet I did! (This is where I stress the importance of keeping things organized and backing up ALL of your files again.)  Let’s load that in to AFX and see what happens.  Perfect!  Everything is there.  Now a quick render . . . and we’re back in business.  No rebuilding.  No time wasted hunting for tapes or rogue files.  Just a simple render and we’re done. Now I can make the Beta and keep yet another client happy without killing my day!

Final thoughts

Ok, so I made a mistake.  You’ll make them too.  Everyone does.  Just remember that there is something to this getting organized stuff.   If I would have made a backup tape or even a same as source file, it would have been a simple request.  I didn’t do those things but luckily I saved all of the original files making it easy to rebuild the CTA and finish the project.  Organize.  Backup.  It’s that simple.  If you edit, I would highly recommend that you start to really think about getting into this habit.  For me it was the difference between spending 20 minutes on this “favor” for an old client versus taking up my entire day.  To me that’s time well spent.