Video footage is visual gold. 

Access to well-maintained archive footage can benefit you and has actually resulted in major real world success stories. In fact, an organization that once captured human rights abuses on camera and archived the footage was able to it as proof in a court case. 

While your life (and the lives of others) may not depend on backing up your videos but it does come in handy to put out fires and save you time. 

Basic Benefits of Backing Up Your Videos

• Access to valuable information – Every video you shoot is valuable in one way or another. It may be the topic discussed, the locations, or a combination of all. You created a video with one goal in mind, but usually well-produced videos serve multiple purposes in the long run. Having permanent access to this footage is extremely useful.

• Video Tags for Easier Access – By adding tags to your video files, you can gain access to the right footage when you need it most. If you are regularly producing videos, your shoots go on for hours, days and weeks. All of this content, if categorized at the time of storage, yields ease of access later on. The better your tagging system, the easier it becomes later on.

• New Content – Documentary video and films are usually a series of interviews backed up with rich visual data. Archiving your footage means you can create brand new content by piecing together all your old videos. 

• Savior in Times of Emergencies – If you edit your raw videos with a constant backup system, you’ll have no issue recovering lost data. If you are saving files onto the cloud or locally, either can help you in the case of a crash. Even a short video consists of several well thought out post-production edits. Each one takes time to execute and render. Software crash, power failure and any number of emergencies can delete hours and days of work if not backed up properly.   

There are two types of storage available today, cloud or local. Examine the pros and cons of each and decide how you will back up your video files. You will thank yourself in the long run for your carefully backed up footage.