Utilize Google Drive to move an organized video project to work at home and school

One of the issues my video students have had is that they don’t have as much time to edit their videos in class as they would like. No matter how much time I give them, the hours always go to quickly. If they have a computer at home, many like the option of being able to work on their project in both places. However, with the license we have it’s not the smoothest back and forth.

The Creative Cloud license each student has includes limited space so putting all of their interviews, B-roll and other assets there is just not an option.

As a workaround, we’ve trained staffers on neatly organizing their project files on their school computer so they can seamlessly upload the files to Google Drive, download them at home and then just simply move back and forth their .prproj file. Here’s how it works:

STEP 1

Student move all of their assets onto a computer in the journalism room (this also could be done starting at home, but for the sake of this article, we will assume most kids are bringing footage to school and starting from there). For this step, they need to have an organized folder structure system. One options would be:

1. Create a main folder called projectfocus-lastname – if this was a project about new offerings in the cafeteria and the reporter was Lennon Ravensburger, the main folder would be called something like: newlunchfood-ravensburger
2. Inside that main folder, the reporter would create a folder for assets. There would be a folder for broll, a folder for soundbites, a folder for the Premiere file, a folder for YouTube assets like thumbails and descriptions, and then whatever other folders you and your staff need to keep things organized.
3. All video footage would then be moved into the corresponding folders.

STEP 2

Once all the folders have been made, you need to work to put your files into the appropriate folders. All your B-roll goes into the B-roll folder. All your interviews go into the soundbites folder, etc. This is also where you open up Adobe Premiere and create and save your .prproj file in the folder structure you’ve created for the project. While you can start this and move on to Step 3 without gathering all of your footage, it’s not recommended. I’ll tell why in a minute.

Step 3:

In Google Drive, make sure you create a folder for all your videos. This could be a “Videos” folder, or “Video Staff” or “My Dope Videos.” Whatever you do, just make sure to create a folder where all of your video projects will live so you can find them easily.

Step 4:

Move your projectfocus-lastname folder to the video folder you created in Step 3. This should move everything from your B-roll and soundbites to .prproj and any standups you have to Drive.

Step 5:

Go to your personal laptop or desktop computer at home and download the projectfocus-lastname folder from Drive. Now, you have a carbon copy of your project at school and at home. At home, you can go ahead and open up your .prproj file and work away.

Step 6:

When you are working on your Premiere project, make sure to save it. If you work on your project at home at night and then want to work on it at school the next day, all you need to do is move your .prproj file from your home computer into your Google Drive folder structure. I’d recommend renaming it slightly to something like projectfocus-lastnamev2.prproj so you know it’s the newer version.

You don’t need to move all your files back to Drive, all you need to move is the new .prproj file because that’s the only thing not on your computer at school. Move it to Drive. Go to school. Logon to your computer and download the v2 project file. Make sure It’s moved to where projectfocus-lastname folder and wherever the original .prproj lives. Open it up* and begin editing where you left off at home.

*If you open the project and all your video clips are red and missing, don’t panic, you just need to relink them and show Premiere where your clips exist. Often times, if you relink 1, it finds all the others automatically.

Step 7:

That’s really it. Each time you make edits, make sure to save your video and if you want to work on it at a different location, just keep saving it as a different version name: v3, v4, v5, v6, etc. Please don’t get in the habit of calling the file things like new-projectfocus-lastname.prproj then new-new-projectfocus-lastname.prproj. Inevitably, you will end up with 15 variations of final-realnew-new-newnew-projectfocus-lastname.prproj and have no idea what your most recent project is.

Moving the .prproj file back and forth is very easy and since the file is so small, you can move it back and forth on Drive or even email it to yourself if that’s easier of better for you to track.

Some additional advice:

• If you end up going out to film more b-roll or you want to add a voiceover that wasn’t part of the original folder set you will need to add that asset in the same location on both machines so the .prproj file can find it. If you don’t have it in the same spot in both locations, you’ll have an error in your .prproj file on one of the machines. That’s why it’s best, if you can, to gather all your assets, create the folder structure, then start editing.
• Try to avoid renaming or moving files to different folders after you start editing at they will become unlinked and you’ll have to search for them to relink
• Train beginning students on this so they know how to do it from the start. Make sure there are written and video tutorials of how to do this for your staff so they have lots of different ways to grasp and execute the concept successfully.