Production · interview production cards and drives
interview production: card appears empty after the shoot
What should I do when a card from the interview production appears empty?
Short answer
First make sure it is the right card: interviews often run two cameras and a separate audio recorder, so cards get mixed up. Then keep the camera from recording, label the card with its slot and never confirm a format prompt. If it stays empty but reads stably in a known reader, scan it read-only.
The situation
At least one card from the interview production no longer shows the expected recordings.
An interview setup runs two cameras and a separate audio recorder, so a card showing nothing is frequently the spare that was never loaded. The second possibility is a directory the camera no longer reads, with the answers themselves still on the card.
01 / Diagnose
Work out what actually disappeared
Interview kits carry identical cards for the wide, the close and the recorder, usually in one wallet. Mixing them up is the everyday explanation. The technical one is an interrupted write: the camera was switched off or the card pulled while it was still closing the last answer, which can leave the directory unreadable while the clip data stays in place.
Card rotation, accidental formatting, a damaged directory or the wrong physical card can produce the same symptom. For interview production, this matters because the interview production combines several sources, takes and handoff steps that must be reconciled as a set
Check the last known path, trash and backups without writing to the original device.
02 / Protect the source
Preserve the best recovery chance
- 1
Stop both cameras and the recorder, remove all three cards and label each with its device and slot before anything else.
- 2
Check the suspect card in a computer: used capacity, the DCIM or private folder, and the timestamps of whatever is on it.
- 3
If the answers are missing, keep the card in a reader only and scan it read-only, declining every repair prompt the system shows.
- 4
Export the recovered clips to the edit drive and line them up against the second camera and the recorder audio.
Do not put the card back in the camera to record a quick test, and never confirm the prompt that offers to initialise or repair it. The interviewee is gone, the lighting is struck, and one written frame can land exactly where the missing answers still sit.
03 / Choose the method
Match the tool to the source
For stable, readable exFAT, NTFS and FAT16/FAT32 or uncompressed IMG, DD, RAW and BIN images.
Unconfirmed exports are marked .UNVERIFIED.
This only applies while the card still mounts reliably and uses exFAT, NTFS or FAT16/FAT32. A card that the reader no longer recognises, that is encrypted, or that reports read errors needs a laboratory; scanning is free, exporting requires a licence at 50 € once.
04 / Verify
Check the recovered content, not just its name
Usable results run for the full length of the interview block and stay in sync with the separate audio from beginning to end. Compare the recovered clips against your question list: every answer should be there, and long answers should continue across the camera's chapter files.
Keep the source until two verified copies exist. One working preview is not enough.
Sources and technical references
FAQ
Questions about this recovery case
Can interview production cards and drives be recovered in this situation?+
An interview setup runs two cameras and a separate audio recorder, so a card showing nothing is frequently the spare that was never loaded. The second possibility is a directory the camera no longer reads, with the answers themselves still on the card. The result still depends on what remains readable on the source.
What should I avoid before scanning?+
Do not put the card back in the camera to record a quick test, and never confirm the prompt that offers to initialise or repair it.
Does scanning write to my memory card?+
Your memory card is only read. Nothing is saved to it.
How do I know whether the result is complete?+
Usable results run for the full length of the interview block and stay in sync with the separate audio from beginning to end.