Is this card done?
Two cameras shoot a day of interviews and B-roll. The camera assistant hands cards to the runner, who is also acting as data wrangler because the budget did not stretch to a DIT. The runner copies cards onto two drives with drag and drop, puts a strip of red tape on each card that has been copied, and hands them back.
In the afternoon, one card with tape on it goes back into a camera and is formatted. That evening, the editor finds the copy of that card is incomplete. The copy was interrupted when the laptop went to sleep, and nobody checked. The interview with the client's managing director is partly missing.
Why offloads fail quietly
- Drag and drop copies do not verify that the copy matches the card.
- Tape and labels show a card was handled, not that the copy is complete.
- Offloads are often done by the most junior person on set, while doing other jobs.
- Second copies are skipped when time is short.
- The edit receives footage with no record of which cards were shot, so a missing card is not noticed until it is needed.
Dedicated offload tools, such as Hedge, ShotPut Pro and Silverstack, verify copies properly, and if your crew uses one, much of this is already covered. The gap we deal with is the record around it: which cards exist, which are safe to format, and what the edit should expect.
What a lost card costs
A lost card can mean a reshoot, which may be impossible if it was an interview with a busy executive or an event that will not happen again. Even when footage is recovered, recovery takes time and money. The trust cost with a client is heavy, and the anxiety on set of not knowing which cards are safe slows everyone down.
How we build the offload log
- Each shoot day has a card log. Cards are listed as they come off camera, with camera, roll name and time.
- Offloads are run with a verifying copy tool, either one you already use or a small offload app we set up, copying to two destinations with checksums compared against the card.
- The log reads each tool's report and marks each card with its status: copying, verified on one drive, verified on two, or failed.
- A card is only shown as safe to format when two verified copies exist. The status is shown on a laptop or tablet the camera team can see.
- Failures are shown in red, with the reason, and the card is held until someone clears it.
- At wrap, the log produces a report for the edit and the producer: cards shot, clips per card, total size, and where each copy lives.
- When footage arrives at base, a check confirms the files match the on-set report before drives are reused.
| Card status | Meaning | Can it be formatted? |
|---|---|---|
| On camera | Still recording | No |
| Copying | Offload in progress | No |
| One verified copy | Checksums match on one drive | No |
| Two verified copies | Checksums match on both drives | Yes |
| Failed | Copy incomplete or checksums differ | No, held for review |
A shoot day with a clear answer
The runner inserts each card, starts the offload, and moves on. The tablet by the camera cart shows each card's status. When the camera assistant needs a card, she checks the tablet: A004 is green on two drives, safe to format. A005 is still copying. A laptop sleeping mid-copy shows as failed, in red, and the card stays with the runner until it is copied again.
At wrap, the producer emails the edit the offload report. The editor checks the files against it on arrival and confirms every card is there.
The report also stays with the project. If a question comes up months later about whether a particular take exists, the answer is in the card log for that day, not in someone's memory of the shoot.
Is this a risk on your shoots?
- Card status is tracked with tape and memory.
- Offloads are drag and drop.
- Second copies are skipped when time is short.
- The edit receives footage with no list of cards shot.
- You have lost footage, or come close.