File naming convention

A convention is a rule you apply every time, so the name tells you what the file is before you open it. Most working patterns start with a date in year-month-day form, because that sorts chronologically in any file browser: 2026-08-11_kitchen-build_a-cam_004.mp4. Add the project, then the camera or scene, then a take or version number. Underscores and hyphens instead of spaces keeps things portable across drives and operating systems. A version number also beats final, final2 and finalfinal. The value shows up on the day a collaborator or your future self needs one clip out of an archive of 11,000.