Chapter 37 — Exercises
Workflow is a doing skill exactly like shooting is — except the "doing" happens at your desk, on your drives, and in your habits. Reading this chapter told you what a professional does; these exercises turn it into the muscle memory that actually protects your work. Most of them use footage and projects you already have, and several of them will make you genuinely safer tonight — which is the rare exercise set where a wrong answer can cost you a real project and a right one can save it.
Exercises are graded by effort and depth:
- ⭐ Warm-up — a few minutes; locks in a concept.
- ⭐⭐ Core — the real practice; do as many of these as you can.
- ⭐⭐⭐ Stretch — deeper or more ambitious; where the biggest safety gains are.
Model solutions and critiques for the starred (⭐⭐⭐) and odd-numbered exercises are collected in Answers to Selected Exercises at the back of the book. Try each one before you read its answer — and where an exercise asks you to actually set something up (a backup, an archive), do the setup, not just the thinking. The safety only exists once it exists on your drives.
A. Auditing your own chaos (Eye & Ear Training, at the desk)
These need no new footage — just an honest look at how you work right now. Do them first; they turn the chapter from advice into a to-do list built from your own real gaps.
1. ⭐ The one-copy census. List every project you currently care about and, for each, count how many separate places it exists (working drive, backup, cloud, another machine). Circle every project that exists in only one place — those are the ones you are one failure away from losing. Self-review: how many did you circle, and which one would hurt most to lose? Start there. (Answer provided.)
2. ⭐ The find-it timer. Pick a project from more than three months ago. Time, with a stopwatch, how long it takes to locate three things: the master export, a signed release (if any), and the raw camera originals. Write the three times down. Anything over a minute is a structure or naming problem this chapter fixes — note which of the three was slowest, because that's the habit you most need.
3. ⭐⭐ Name the failure mode. For each, name which part of 3-2-1 (or which chapter concept) would have prevented it: (a) a stolen backpack with a laptop and its backup drive; (b) a synced cloud folder where a deleted file vanished everywhere; (c) a RAID that survived a dead disk but was then hit by ransomware; (d) a drive that "had the backup" but was never verified. Self-review: which of these four has almost happened to you? (Answer provided.)
4. ⭐⭐ The reopen test, on your worst project. Open your least-organized old project. Make a written list of everything that is missing or broken — media offline, wrong fonts, a lost grade, no idea which export you delivered. This list is your personal syllabus for the rest of the chapter; keep it and check items off as you fix them.
B. Building the structure (Organize This)
5. ⭐ Build the template. Create the _TEMPLATE_PROJECT folder from FIGURE 37.1 — all the numbered subfolders, empty, with a blank 00_README.txt. From now on you start every project by duplicating it. Self-review: could a stranger drop any file from a shoot into the right folder without asking you where it goes? If not, refine the folders until they can. (Answer shows a complete template tree.)
6. ⭐⭐ Retrofit a real project. Take one messy existing project and move its files into the standard structure without breaking the edit. Constraint: move media inside the project, then relink in the editor rather than renaming on disk. Self-review: open the project afterward and confirm nothing is "media offline" — if it is, you renamed or moved something the project was pointing at, and you've just felt why §37.2 warns against it.
7. ⭐⭐ Scale it down. Write out the folder structure for the smallest possible job — a single 30-second phone talking-head with one music track and one export. Which folders stay, which collapse, which sit empty? Prove the same skeleton still works without being redesigned. (Answer provided.)
8. ⭐⭐ Scale it up. Now write the 01_FOOTAGE sub-structure for a three-camera, two-day event with a separate audio recorder. Show how you'd divide by day and camera so "day 2, cam B, the speeches" is findable in seconds without scrolling. Self-review: count the clicks from the project root to that clip — three or fewer is good.
9. ⭐⭐⭐ The library level. Design your top-level /VIDEO/ library: how you'll group projects (by year? by client? by type?), where the template lives, where the archive lives, and how a project folder is named so it sorts and self-describes. Justify each choice in one line, and stress-test it: could two different projects both plausibly belong in the same folder? If so, your scheme has an overlap to fix. (Model answer provided.)
C. Names that survive (Name This / Fix the Name)
10. ⭐ Fix these names. Rewrite each into the chapter's scheme, and say what was wrong: (a) Final video FINAL (2).mp4; (b) clip 7.mov; (c) Interview 4-3-26.wav; (d) logo copy copy.png. Self-review: does each of your fixes obey all the FIGURE 37.2 rules at once (ISO date, zero-pad, no spaces, no "final")? (Answer provided.)
11. ⭐ Sort test. Write the filenames take1, take2, take10, take11, take3 as a computer would sort them, then fix the naming so they sort correctly. Explain the bug in one sentence. (Answer provided.)
12. ⭐⭐ Design your convention. Using the Settings Box in §37.2, write your personal patterns for a camera clip, an audio file, a project file, a deliverable, and a master — using a real project's name. Freeze these; they are yours now. Self-review: are your patterns consistent enough that you could hand them to someone else as rules? (Answer shows a worked set.)
13. ⭐⭐ The version discipline drill. You cut v1, revise it twice, get client notes, revise again, and lock it. Write the exact filename at each of the five stages using _vNN — then show what the wrong ("final") version of the same history would have looked like. Self-review: in your correct version, can anyone tell at a glance which file is newest? In the wrong version, can they? (Answer provided.)
14. ⭐⭐⭐ Name a whole shoot. Take 15–20 real clips from any shoot and rename them (inside your editor, or before importing) into your convention so that, sorted by name, they group by setup and read in order. Constraint: do it without breaking a single link (rename in the project or before import — never on disk under a live project). Self-review: time how long it took, then estimate how much faster your next edit of this footage will be because you'll never hunt for "the good take" again.
D. Never losing it (3-2-1 Diagnose & Build)
15. ⭐ Count your copies. For the project you care about most right now, write down its three copies, their two media types, and its one off-site location. If you can't fill all three lines, you have just found tonight's task — fill the missing line before you sleep. (Answer provided.)
16. ⭐ Storage or backup? Label each as storage, backup, or neither/fake backup, and justify in a phrase: (a) a second folder on the same SSD; (b) an external HDD kept at your parents' house; (c) a RAID 5 array; (d) a cloud sync folder; (e) a monthly manual copy to a drive in a drawer.
17. ⭐⭐ Build your 3-2-1. Design a concrete, affordable 3-2-1 system for your actual situation and budget — name the specific copies, media types, and off-site method you will really use, not an ideal you won't. Then set up at least the off-site copy today. Self-review: a plan you didn't execute protects nothing — did you actually make the copy? (Answer discusses budget tiers.)
18. ⭐⭐ The two-drives-in-a-bag autopsy. A friend says, "I'm safe — I have my footage on my laptop and on an external drive I keep in my camera bag." Explain, specifically, everything that is still wrong, and the one change that fixes most of it. Self-review: name the exact disaster their setup does not survive. (Answer provided.)
19. ⭐⭐ Sync trap. Explain to a beginner why their cloud sync folder did not save them when they deleted a project folder by accident — and what kind of backup would have. Constraint: use the words "sameness" and "history" in your explanation. (Answer provided.)
20. ⭐⭐⭐ Disaster tabletop. Pick three disasters — a dead SSD, a house fire, and ransomware — and, for your real current setup, trace exactly what you would lose and what would survive each. Where a disaster wins, change your setup until it doesn't, and write the before/after. Self-review: which disaster exposed the biggest hole? (For most people it's the fire, because it kills every local copy at once.) (Model answer provided.)
E. Drives and speed (Settings Drill)
21. ⭐ Match drive to job. Assign the right drive type (internal NVMe, external SSD, external HDD, cloud, LTO/tape) to each job: (a) the active edit; (b) the scratch/cache; (c) a local backup at rest; (d) the off-site copy; (e) a deep archive of finished jobs. Self-review: your fast/expensive drives should be on the things you work on, not the things that merely sit. (Answer provided.)
22. ⭐⭐ Diagnose the stutter. A 4K edit stutters and lags on a capable computer. Walk through the possible causes in order — drive speed, the port/cable, the codec, the cache location — and give the fix for each, connecting back to proxies from Chapter 27. Self-review: which fix is "drive-side" and which is "file-side"? (Answer provided.)
23. ⭐⭐ Place the scratch. Your system drive is nearly full and your edit has slowed to a crawl. Explain where the scratch/cache should live, why it must not be on your only media copy, and why it's safe to simply delete it to reclaim space. Self-review: after moving/clearing the cache, did the edit speed up? (Answer discusses the reasoning.)
24. ⭐⭐⭐ Spec a rig. For a busy solo creator on a real-world budget, spec the drives: what's the working drive, the backup, the off-site, and the archive — by type and rough capacity — and where does the scratch go? Justify every choice by speed or cost or safety, and name the one thing you'd upgrade first if you had more money. (Model answer provided.)
F. Archiving (Archive This)
25. ⭐ Keep or drop? For each, say whether it goes in the archive or gets left out, and why: (a) camera originals; (b) proxies; (c) the render cache; (d) the master export; (e) the seven draft exports; (f) the fonts used in titles; (g) the music license file. Self-review: what's the single test behind every one of your calls? (Answer provided.)
26. ⭐⭐ Write the manifest. Write a real 00_README.txt for one of your finished projects: software + version, frame rate, resolution, where the master is, fonts/LUTs used, delivery specs, and any account/password dependency. Keep it — it goes in the archive. Self-review: could a stranger reopen and finish the project using only this page? (Answer shows a model manifest.)
27. ⭐⭐ Archive vs backup, in your own words. In about 120 words, explain the difference between a backup and an archive to a beginner, using one concrete example of each from your own work. Name what each protects and when you make it. (Answer provided.)
28. ⭐⭐⭐ Archive one project for real. Do the §37.5 🎬 On Set assignment end to end on a finished project: consolidate, strip the disposable files, write the README, 3-2-1 the package — then test the reopen by renaming the working copy and opening from the archive alone. Report what (if anything) came up offline and how you fixed it. Self-review: an archive you haven't tested is a hope, not an archive — did you actually open it cold? (Model walkthrough provided.)
G. Handoff and portability (Fix the Handoff)
29. ⭐ Why offline? A project file emailed to a collaborator opens to a wall of "media offline." In two sentences, explain why — using the word pointers — and give the general fix. (Answer provided.)
30. ⭐⭐ Spot the missing dependencies. A handed-off project opens with the video present but: the title font looks wrong, the grade loads flat, and one effect says "offline." Name the missing dependency behind each symptom and what should have been included in the package. Self-review: which of these three would you most likely forget when packaging your own project? (Answer provided.)
31. ⭐⭐ Package it. Use your editor's project-archive / consolidate function to make one real self-contained package of a small project, copy it to a different location (or a friend's machine), and open it. Confirm media, fonts, and grade all survive; note anything that didn't and why. Self-review: did the consolidate catch every asset, or did something live outside the project folder? (Answer discusses common gaps.)
32. ⭐⭐⭐ Relative vs absolute. Explain, to someone who has never thought about it, why media kept inside the project folder and referenced relatively survives a move while an absolute path breaks it. Use a plain analogy (the "neighbor" idea from §37.6 or your own). Then state the one folder-structure habit that makes portability automatic. (Model answer provided.)
H. Interleaved & synthesis
These mix this chapter with earlier ones — the real test that it all connects.
33. ⭐⭐ From card to archive (interleave Ch.27). Trace one project's media through its entire life in the right order, naming each step from offload to archive. For each step, name the chapter concept and the one failure it prevents. Self-review: can you do it from memory, or did you have to look at FIGURE 27.6 and §37.5? (Answer provided.)
34. ⭐⭐ The master's journey (interleave Ch.36). Explain why the master export you kept in Chapter 36 is the thing you archive here, and why archiving only the delivered YouTube file would be a mistake. Connect it to the reel you'll cut in Chapter 39. Self-review: what specifically could you not do a year later if you'd kept only the compressed deliverable? (Answer discusses the chain.)
35. ⭐⭐ The paperwork (interleave Ch.38 preview). List every legal/business document that belongs in 08_DOCS and 03_MUSIC-SFX of an archive, and explain why a technically perfect archive without the releases and licenses is still a project you can't safely re-use. (Answer provided.)
36. ⭐⭐⭐ Teach it back. In about 200 words, explain to an absolute beginner why "the professional never loses work" is a habit, not a talent. Use three of the chapter's concepts (structure, naming, 3-2-1, drives, archive, handoff) and one concrete disaster. Teaching it is the strongest proof you own it. (Model answer provided.)
37. ⭐⭐⭐ The Production Checkpoint, committed. Complete the chapter's Production Checkpoint on all three of your projects: structure, name, archive, 3-2-1, and reopen-test each one. Then write one sentence per project answering: if my main drive died tonight, what exactly would I do to recover it tomorrow? If you can answer confidently for all three, you have crossed the line this chapter is about — and your entire portfolio is now safer than most professionals' work.
When you've done these — especially the backup and archive ones — you have built the single habit that will protect every hour of work you ever do. Everything you make from here is safe in a way most people's work never is. Move on to Chapter 38, where we turn these protected projects into a protected business — contracts, licensing, releases, and getting paid.