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Import + Organize Your Digital Files

How To Keep Your Video and Audio Files Organized

All editing softwares have their own intricacies for uploading and keeping your files organized, but this is a quick tutorial to show you how to pull your raw digital files off of your SD cards quickly.

Import the audio first.

These files are smaller and will be easier and faster to import.

Import the video footage second. You can either edit directly off the SD card, or import to your desktop instead (this will take a bit longer).

Regardless of whether you pull the video footage to your desktop or not, make sure when you import, you immediately make a backup of ALL files on your external hard drive.


Whether working with an editor or not, it’s incredibly important to organize your digital files so that you can locate them with ease and speed later if needed.
I highly recommend investing in a cloud sharing service like Dropbox.com if you have a team and/or will be sending content to brands, editors, or other people regularly.
I use the following hierarchy for file organization:

Business Name

  • File Type (i.e. video, photo)
  • Project Name with Date (i.e. brand, project or batch name plus month/year)
  • Type of Shot (i.e. intro/content/outro or headshot/wide shot, etc)