Name Sequences Appropriately Now To Save Time Later

I was watching the "head" of a group of editors a few days ago and while I waited for some photos to come in ("Can you do that moving pictures things like in documentaries?") I watched this person export a sequence, rename it, then compress it to the various formats the client needed then rename it again.

Then I watched him do it again.

And again.

And I realized what bugged me about it. I tend to name my sequences the final output file name right from the get go.

For example in my Bin, I'd have a sequence named along these lines:

An example would be

tyrellcorp-nexus07promo-newVO_V03

So when it's exported from the timeline it becomes:

tyrellcorp-nexus07promo-newVO_V03.mov

That way when I transcode it to something like H.264 or whatever (NO...NO WMVs! Not anymore!) it ends up in a handy name, with notations with version number and no spaces or weird characters that occasionally screw up FTP servers and email links and other various and sundry tend-to-go-wrong-unexpectedly-thingys.

I'll even mention what file type it is on the flashdrive/DVD/HD I hand them right in the file name sometimes:

tyrellcorp-nexus07promo-newVO-V03.h264.mov
tyrellcorp-nexus07promo-newVO-V03.animation.mov

Like that.

What the guy I was watching was doing was changing:

Tyrell Corp Nexus 07promotion with New VO

into something like

tyrellcorp-nexus07promo-newVO-V03.mov

by renaming it in the Finder each time.

My advice: name your sequences something that you won't have to edit later to send to the client or their FTP/cloud/server whatever.