Preparing to shoot

I've been giving a lot of thought to how I'll name the video and html files that become the pieces of the online hyperdrama. I've learned the hard way over the years that a detail like this, which may seem unimportant to the uninitiated, actually can cause headaches later, or make the job easier.

Here's what I've come up with.

Both .html and .wmv files will follow the same naming strategy.

A file name V03-R.htm will indicate the web home for scene 3, Robert's narrative path.

Let's say scene 3 is a two character scene, Robert and Hollie. I shoot a two-shot and then angles on each of the characters. The video files would be: V03-R-aR.wmv, V03-R-aH.wmv etc. For different takes, V03-R-aRt1.wmv, V03-R-aRt2.wmv. A two-shot,
V03-R-2s.wmv.

I have to brood about this more to see if it needs refinement. The key is, the file name must reveal all the important information I need at a glance, so I'm not searching for a particular video file later. The .html pages, in contrast, will concentrate on the character paths through the hyperdrama. There will be one web page hosting one video file.

Note that the names of the video files above are for raw footage. After each scene gets edited, the file name will denote the character path: V03-R01.htm, V03-R08.htm, i.e. the first and eighth web pages (with video file embedded on each) in the sequence of Robert's narrative path. And the corresponding video files will be V03-R01.wmv, V03-R08.wmv, etc., these the files that get uploaded to YouTube.

Yes, this is complicated. But if you don't have a clear organization of file names, man, it is a major nightmare later!