In last week’s installment (3/4), SHOOT presented the basics to understanding data, and offered reasons as to why it may become the next way of working. This week, SHOOT delves into the challenges of building a viable facility workflow and successful business model.
There may be compelling reasons to seriously contemplate a move to a datacentric workflow, as outlined last week in SHOOT. But any shift in this direction is likely to happen extremely slowly. One prime reason is that industry trends of the past few years have prompted many commercial post houses to retool with investments in high definition tape formats and related capabilities–and these workflows are not broken.
“With post houses having made substantial investments in standard and high definition video workflows, it is almost understandable for a facility to defend its current model,” admitted Larry Chernoff, who is principal of Chernoff Touber Associates, a Beverly Hills-based consulting firm, and who also retains his title as chairman of Ascent Media Creative Services, Santa Monica.
He also pointed out that data brings with it a much steeper learning curve than shifts to new tape formats. “A lot of people just aren’t interest in learning this stuff because it’s actually quite painful to learn,” he said. “A lot of people will be left behind. I think that this is quite daunting to most artists and most business people.
“But this is what’s happening in the world, and to ignore it or not embrace it in some way is to really turn a blind eye to the inevitability of this sea change called data,” he warned.
WORKFLOW
With this new workflow, production would remain the same, and film would still be transferred–but to data rather than video. The transfer can continue to be accomplished with today’s popular telecine systems such as the Spirit Datacine, but be prepared to hear the word “telecine” disappear and be replaced with “scanning.” Scanning speed will depend on the technological setup and resolution of the transfer.
Once the images are stored as data, the entire post process can be truly random access. At its best, a carefully designed facility could have nonlinear capabilities for compositing, editing, color correction and the like, with all suites accessing footage that is managed from a central storage system. This could offer a client a new level of flexibility and time savings, and speed would become a key issue. One of the most noticeable changes that a client is likely to see is the nonlinear capabilities in a color correction environment, partly driven by developing software-based color correction systems.
A data environment will increase the need for a carefully designed digital asset management (DAM) system, which would manage the material, track changes, save “metadata” (information about a clip including project name, director, and shoot day), and store material. As a result, archiving is an area that will no doubt require much re-thinking. In fact, many aspects of data production need new thinking before an industry transition will be possible.
“Data’s a great way to work, and we all want to work that way, but it’s just not practical yet,” said colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld, who is president of Company 3, Santa Monica and New York. “Now will that be practical in another year or two? Yes, it most probably will be. But right now it’s not.”
DOLLARS AND SENSE
When examining costs to a post house, Chernoff reasoned that in the end, “I don’t think the cost is going to be any higher. “Production is the same; the price of certain types of machines continues to plummet. And, the most expensive part of working in data is the same as the most expensive part of working in video–the scanner.
“Every piece after that starts to get cheaper,” he added. “The cost of the new software-based color correction systems will be fractional compared to today’s systems [i.e. da Vinci 2k or Pandora’s MegaDef], in same cases one tenth the price or one half the price.”
The other cost is data storage, which is dropping, but is currently an issue. “SAN [storage area network] technology is changing every six months,” explained Joe Bottazzi, partner and director of engineering at New York-based Nice Shoes. “If your timing is wrong, you could invest a lot of money in the wrong system. There’s a whole new generation of hard drives coming out.”
Company 3 in Santa Monica has a central storage system, networked so that stored content can reach Quantel iQ conforming systems, and da Vinci 2k-based color correction theaters. This environment is used for 2k resolution work on feature films, trailers, and commercials.
Another facility that is using data is Nice Shoes, which last year began to offer a nonlinear color correction process enabled by a data transfer using Thomson’s Grass Valley Specter virtual datacine. The transfer is done the day before the clients arrive for the color correction session.
Nice Shoes colorist Chris Ryan reported, “We digitize all the material used in the different versions with a decent amount of handles on each side. That usually gives us enough range. We suggest to clients that we digitize [material] from all versions if they’re not sure about a final cut.” In this manner, the need to go back and retransfer any film at the last minute has been an infrequent occurrence, he said.
But Sonnenfeld offered another perspective. “[Right now, data] is not as useful in crunch situations, which are most of the time,” he said, emphasizing that production schedules are getting tighter and late changes in cuts are common.
“Now you end up doing last minute transfer and you don’t have the time to scan the day before, and conform the next day and color correct the next day,” he contended. “Working in data is time consuming [in tasks such as] scanning to rendering–When the workflow [changes], that’s when this [data] process will be completely attainable.”
Sonnenfeld opined that today there are many options for working, and no one way that is best for all projects and budgets. For instance, he suggested that 2k would be overkill for a commercial that is only for air in NTSC. “I constantly ask my clients ‘what do you want to do with this?’ It’s all about the requirements of the job,” he said.
In the end, he concludes that it is still ultimately about creativity. “The resolutions are different, but the artistry really dictates what the stuff is going to look like,” Sonnenfeld said. “Creatively I don’t think we are limited by standard definition.”
Editor’s note: As the industry proceeds forward, one of the challenges that it faces is education, as there is currently no course or book that can explain the evolving data process. Post houses that have already started to enter the data realm are helping to educate clients and make a change as seamless as possible.
SHOOT is also committed to the education process, and we appreciate your input in this matter. Please send any suggestions, comments or questions to Carolyn Giardina, SHOOT’s senior editor, technology and postproduction, at cgiardina@shootonline.com.