To prepare on-set data assets for post-production, Netflix productions must create a folder structure that meets the minimum requirements outlined in the publicly available Netflix article Production Assets: Folder and File Naming.
This blog post illustrates how you can use Silverstack to create the structure that matches the example provided in the Netflix Prodicle article. You learn how to set up a custom folder structure for destination-drives and utilize metadata from the offloaded clips and Silverstack’s library for the path naming process.
We also use the sample project “Chef’s Table” from Netflix’s documentation, displaying an exemplary folder structure. By walking you through each required step, we show you how to set up a Silverstack project accordingly.
We added a settings file with the described example of Silverstack’s path configuration for the offload process for download to round things up. You can use it as a starting point for your configuration.
How Silverstack Allows You to Configure Your Custom Destination Folder Structure
When configuring copy destinations in Silverstack’s offload wizard, you can use path wildcards to let Silverstack create the folder path automatically.
The path wildcards panel allows you to specify the destination path for the clips you are about to copy. You can use the metadata information from both the library and the ingested clips to let Silverstack build the full destination path.
All settings in the offload wizard, including the destination path with its wildcards, can be saved to so-called “offload templates”. From there, you can then restore those settings anytime.
Set Silverstack up for Netflix’s Project Example “Chef’s Table“
As promised before, we now look at the project example in Netflix’s documentation (see below “Sample Folder and File Structure”).
We will recreate the sample project’s folder structure in Silverstack.
Here is an outline of all steps that need to be performed in Silverstack to create the desired project setup:
1. Set the project name and manually create the library folders
- Name the Silverstack project via the toolbar’s project chooser, in this example, “CHEFS_TABLE”.
- Create the shoot date folder in the Silverstack library outline (for Example 1 only)
- Create a “Camera_Media” and “Sound_Media” folder inside the shoot date folder in the Silverstack library outline (for Example 1 only)
2. Open the offload wizard and add a copy destination
- Open the offload wizard via the button in the toolbar top left.
- Add a copy destination by clicking “New Destination Path…” or the “+” button.
3. Configure the path wildcards for this destination using drag and drop of the wildcard tokens
- Open the wildcard panel by clicking the “Path wildcards” button in the bottom bar below the copy destinations.
We want to stress that there are multiple ways to attain the desired folder structure. Hence, we compiled two examples for you to choose from depending on which one better fits your needs:
Example 1:
- Here are some details on the used wildcards in:
- “Project Name”: Uses the name of the current Silverstack project shown in the project chooser of the toolbar. Make sure the project name in Silverstack conforms to the requirements for whitespace and special characters (e.g. “Chef’s Table“ -> “CHEFS_TABLE“).
- “Bin Path”: Uses the complete folder path of the Silverstack library outline, including the bin that is about to be ingested. In this example, the required folder structure is generated in the library.
- “Folder Structure”: Uses and refers to the folder structure from the source media. It is also used in the default folder path to preserve the copy sources folder structure.
In the example above (Example 1), the day folders in the destination path depend on the day folders inside the Silverstack library. This requires the proper folder structure that is created in step one.
Example 2:
In case you want to maintain a folder structure in your Silverstack library that differs from the required folder structure on the destination volume, you can also use different wildcards to let Silverstack automatically create some parts for you:
- ”Submission Date” (or ”Shooting Date”): Automatically adds a date to the path. You can choose which date format to use, in this case, ”yyyymmdd” to create a date string like the ”20161016” in the example. With the date being created automatically, you can name your bin for the shooting day just ”Day001” and let Silverstack append the underscore ”_” and the date.
- ”Shooting Day”: Adds the value of the Shooting Day fields from the library. It has to be manually maintained for each shooting day.
- Fixed strings (e.g. ”Camera_Media”): You can add fixed strings to the folder path, such as ”Camera_Media”. Such strings can be used as folder names in the file system when used with slashes ”/” before and after. That way, you can let Silverstack automatically create folders for you.
- “Bin Name” and ”Folder Structure”: These are the names of the bin and the folders that are about to be ingested. Basically, those wildcards are used to maintain the source folder structure.
For more information about path wildcards see the Use of Path Wildcards article in our Knowledge Base.
4. Save the configuration in the offload wizard to a new offload template
- Save the configuration via the gear menu at the top right.
How to Export Silverstack Settings to a Reusable Settings File
It is possible to export the offload templates with the path wildcards as a settings file. With this settings file, you can share the wildcard configuration with other machines or use it as a starting point for future projects.
Export of a .psconfig file by choosing “File > Project Settings > Export…”. For this purpose, only select “Folder Structure” and “Offload Templates” as export items.
You can also choose a .psconfig file in the preferences for applying default settings to every new project.
”CHEFS_TABLE” Silverstack Settings File
You can download an example .psconfig Silverstack settings file with the above examples 1 and 2 here:
You can import it into Silverstack via the main menu.
After the import, you should see the example folder outline in Silverstack’s project outline.
To activate the path wildcards and configure them to point to your destination drive, perform the following steps:
- open the offload wizard,
- switch the offload template (in the top-right corner of the offload wizard) to one of the imported templates (e.g., “Netflix Compatible File Structure (Example 1)“),
- open the “Copy and Verify“ section by clicking “Edit“ in the “Copy and Verify“ area of the offload wizard,
- double click the example destination, or select it and click on the “Path wildcards“ button below the destination list so that the wildcard editor opens, and finally
- click on the button with the folder icon beside the “Path“ field and select your destination folder.
Note: Via the .psconfig settings files, you can also prepare additional elements like library folder structure, transcoding presets, table view templates, and more. For further reading, check out the Transfer Project Settings article in our Knowledge Base.
What About Silverstack Offload Manager ?
In the Silverstack Offload Manager, it is not possible to follow the above folder structure instructions of “Example 2“ due to the following reason: The “Shooting Day“ metadata field that must be maintained manually in the Silverstack project overview is not available in the Silverstack Offload Manager.
However there’s a possibility to work around this:
You can use the “Group Name” similarly to “Shooting Day”, maintain a shooting day number as in Silverstack, and then work with the “Group Name” path wildcard instead of the “Shooting Day” path wildcard for your destination path.
