Final Cut Bro: Tape over.

Right now one of our big projects at work is a digitizing job.  Our client has been in the news many times over the years, and they taped the appearances.  Now, they want the footage digitally stored in a hard drive.

They put almost each appearance on a single tape with a capacity of 120 minutes.  Most of the clips last no longer than a couple of minutes, with just brief mentions of the company's name.  So we have two big boxes of VHS tapes for clips that probably won't total more than a couple of hours altogether.

You're probably thinking that seems very inefficient.  You would be wrong.  It was the right thing for them to do.  They recorded each clip on a tape and left it alone.  They didn't mess around by trying to squeeze as much as they can onto one tape.  Especially since the news appearances are weeks or even months apart.  You never want to risk taping over your valuable data.

It's better to be safe than sorry, as they say.  Yes, tapes cost money.  But tapes are replaceable.  The video they contain are not.  Once they're lost, they may be gone forever.  Is it worth risking for a couple of bucks?

I have a certain client who keeps bringing me home videos of his kids to transfer to DVD.  And everytime he sends them over, it's the same tape.  He tapes over the old stuff.  Sometimes he'll record the new stuff in the middle of the tape because he still wants the stuff at the end or beginning.  It only takes one distraction for this guy to not realize where he left off and record over the valuable footage of his son scoring the winning touchdown or his daughter starring in the school play.

Also, if you're a professional, or if you fancy yourself as one, please don't show up to the shoot with one tape.  One.  Really?  Please stock up before you get to the set.  And please, please, please don't call your client on the day of, and ask if they have extra tapes with them.  And don't tape over what you shoot.  You might think the footage isn't worth shit, but sometimes the client wants it anyway.  Yes, she may not have said anything coherent and she happened to be drunk, but she happened to be the president of the company!  So we still want her on the video.  And you deleted it because you were running out of tape.  See my point?

It is simply not not worth it.  The medium costs less than the message.  Just buy some more tapes please.