The Why of this Guide
In my experience working in media post-production, a well-crafted naming convention has been a key element in the workflows of any efficient team. The difference between a project with a clear naming convention across all media assets/deliverables and one without has been staggering—the hours spent making sense of the latter are often substantial.
Whether you’re working solo on a decade-long verité project that later adds a large team after being greenlit for network, working collaboratively on periodic ad campaigns with an in-person agency team, or tag-teaming remotely with a freelance crew that spans different time zones to produce hundreds of deliverables, a good naming convention should be indispensable to your organization and workflow.
Such a naming convention is, in a sense, similar to a well-respected traffic intersection with four-way stop signs. There’s no natural force that stops the drivers arriving at the intersection, or any spoken communication between them. It is borne out of a predetermined agreement between engaged parties, with guidelines that define signaling and behavior expectations, and with each new entrant reading and training on those guidelines. Just like in that example, you will have moments of confusion—such as when two drivers arrive at the intersection at the same time. These can be remedied with minor communication—like the flashing of lights. There will also be moments of chaos—such as when a driver runs past the stop sign. But the overwhelming respect of the guidelines by a majority of participants will make sure that the system runs with few mishaps, and “traffic” continues to run smoothly.
The labor of building, learning, and training collaborators on such a naming convention might seem tedious at first, but it is a time investment that pays dividends in efficiency, both financial and creative.
Every team I’ve joined or colleague I’ve worked along with has had great ideas on what to make of a naming convention—but where experiences differ there can often be a conflict on what’s the best solution. I’ve found little literature that helps video post production teams negotiate their different ideas and make sense of what standards and practices to adopt, or what to abandon, in building naming guidelines. What can be found often intermingles principles and standards—categories which I believe need distinction.
In this text I aim to document and share my own learnings by first describing the principles that I have found to be helpful when creating naming conventions, peppered with minor examples from actual projects; then followed by the methods, tools, or standards I’ve implemented in past workflows. Lastly, real life examples of full-fledged naming conventions I’ve developed with different teams.
I hope this guide can help any other teams (or individuals) out there to find some guidance through examples that someone else has used, or that you find some of your own ideas echoed in this text—and perhaps some completely new ones worthy of sharing with your peers.