Paramount Global (Nasdaq: PARA, PARAA), one of the world’s largest providers and producers of media and entertainment content, has entered into an agreement that offers Avid’s (Nasdaq: AVID) managed cloud solutions for video content production to creative teams around the globe.
The companies’ new cloud subscription services agreement supports Paramount Tech’s “Cloud First” mindset, transforming production operations with rapidly scalable, centralized resources that relieve creative teams from the burden of infrastructure management. Avid’s managed platform is delivered on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, supporting video editing tools, content management platforms and shared storage that are now available to teams consisting of hundreds of contributors, editors and producers around the world who collaborate daily on shows, promos and “tentpole” global events such as the MTV Europe Music Awards.
“The cloud brings a new paradigm for our industry to reshape operations, innovate creative workflows and drive toward a cloud production ecosystem that can accelerate content availability,” said Phil Wiser, EVP and chief technology officer, Paramount Global. “Avid’s managed cloud gives us the agility, speed and capabilities to collaborate from anywhere by bringing together our end-user tools, production platforms and workflow management into a scalable cloud subscription. We’ve become much nimbler and more efficient at meeting the elastic needs of the geographically distributed teams delivering Paramount content.”
Paramount began its cloud journey with Avid by creating an open environment to ensure collaboration between users of Avid and third-party editing tools, followed by the establishment of remote editing workflows for business continuity at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The companies’ new agreement empowers Paramount production teams in Europe, Asia Pacific and the U.S. to create TV shows and other content on the open Avid MediaCentral® production platform, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere video editing software and Avid NEXIS® media storage–all managed by Avid in the cloud.
“While we began our cloud work with Paramount with a proof of concept, our expanding collaboration showed us the speed at which this industry is learning to apply the cloud toward dramatically enhancing the many ways production teams want to do their best work,” said Jeff Rosica, CEO and president, Avid. “Avid is thrilled to bring the power of our cloud collaboration with Microsoft to help Paramount carry out their vision for content creation far beyond the limitations of on-premises operations into the cloud while driving adoption across the industry.”
Avid’s offerings for large-scale media production in the cloud benefit from its longstanding Strategic Cloud Alliance with Microsoft. These include a rapidly deployable Managed Cloud Platform; On Demand Services such as Avid | Edit On Demand™; Certified Cloud Workflows for the production communities; and consultative Cloud Incubation projects that assist Avid customers in fulfilling their unique vision for cloud operations.
Paramount’s portfolio of consumer brands includes CBS, Showtime Networks, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, Paramount+, Pluto TV and Simon & Schuster.
Eleanor Adds Director Candice Vernon To Its Roster For Spots and Branded Content
Director Candice Vernon has joined production house Eleanor for U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content. She has already wrapped several jobs at Eleanor, which waited to announce her until they had a body of work together.
Via Eleanor, Vernon made history as the first Black director on a Febreze commercial. The “Small Spaces” campaign marks a major departure from Febreze’s typical blue-and-white world. The home of the “Revolving Door” commercial is a beautiful array of bold sunset hues, African prints, and African art.
Vernon said, “I asked myself, what feels right to me? What feels new? I wanted to bring an essence of not just Black Americans but the full diaspora. I wanted to make a statement that we’re not a monolith.”
Following the success of the “Small Spaces” campaign, Febreze brought Vernon back for a comedy-infused trifecta exploring the hilarious situations that call for an air freshening hero.
Febreze Brand VP Angelica Matthews said, “About two years ago, we realized the consumers that were the most loyal to Febreze were the African American consumers. And the more we learned, the more we realized the richness that we were really missing. So we said we have to go beyond just Black casting, we need to get Black directors that truly understand the culture that truly understand how to bring authentic performances out on screen. We really looked around the industry and noticed there’s actually a shortage of African American directors who have experience doing commercials. When we all saw Candice’s reel, we could all tell the passion for the craft, passion for really trying to help us from where we are to where we’re trying to go.”
Vernon brings a unique lens to... Read More