Production Service Network’s Australian partner reveals the challenges in creating IBM’s offshore film
What better way to demonstrate the capabilities of IBM’s artificial intelligence system, Watson, than to show it working its hardest, and when it really matters?
For the film IBM partnered with oil and gas company Woodside, and creative agency the Barbarian Group, to create ‘70 Miles from Shore with Watson: Woodside Energy and IBM’.
The result is a two-minute journey that shows IBM’s Watson working and learning, on one of the toughest work sites in the world – an oil rig.
To produce a film on such an especially challenging scale required an experienced set of hands, and PSN Australia was enlisted for the job through Production Service Network’s U.S. Liaison Carolyn Hill.
Choosing to shoot on the rig for real as opposed to a studio levied some strict safety regulations on the team that had not been previously encountered.
“We hadn’t shot on an oil rig before,” explains Producer Mark ‘Bish’ Bishop, “but we do have plenty of experience shooting at mining sites in remote areas, which was useful as there are definite logistical similarities when it comes to productions on large-scale worksites.”
A restriction of being able to only take five people onto the rig was a challenge the Australian team resolved locally. They proposed a multi-talented Director-DOP they’d often worked with before, Tristan Houghton, to which the Barbarian Group gave a resounding thumbs up.
Situated 100 kilometres offshore from Karratha, which is a 15-hour drive from the Perth and a further six-hour flight from Sydney, Mark says the team was unable to scout the location in advance and had to think ahead to prepare for the isolated nature of the rig. “The transportation of the equipment to and from the platform took a month, and with only two days on the rig itself, executing the commercial came down to having a very clear vision of the film we wanted to capture while also keeping a flexible outlook on exactly how we would go about achieving that.”
Woodside and the Barbarian Group ensured that the team were properly trained for the conditions, with the full PSN Australia crew undertaking some very particular and physically demanding safety certificates which included simulation drills: “We had to practice escaping from an underwater helicopter and crawling through a burning house – all simulations of course,” adds Mark. “But even with all the training, once we were on the rig there were very strict regulations on when and where we could move around, the location itself was in a constant state of movement and the employees on the rig were completely unused to having untrained crew around. With all of these elements factoring in it forced us to get quite creative once we started shooting.”
The resulting film is a moving look at the impact of AI in a realistically gritty and dangerous context, and for the PSN Australia team, it was an exceptional project.
“For me, just being on the rig was incredible – and creating this film under such restrictive conditions turned it into a real labour of love.” Adds Mark.
“And the thrill of being flown in on a helicopter over shark infested waters was pretty exhilarating!”
About Production Service Network (PSN)
Production Service Network is the one-stop shop for full local shoot support worldwide. Boots on the ground Partners are vetted production service companies in more than 40 countries.
PSN pools its resources to offer comprehensive assistance to producers shooting overseas. It puts this local expertise at producers’ fingertips for no added cost.
A successful shoot earns PSN the trust and friendship of producers who call the Network Partners time and again. That’s how they roll. productionservicenetwork.com
About Woodside
Woodside is an Australian oil and gas company with a global presence, recognized for its world-class capabilities – as an explorer, a developer, a producer and a supplier.
Woodside’s producing LNG assets in the north-west of Australia are among the world’s best facilities.
Woodside’s proven track record and distinctive capabilities are underpinned by 60 years of experience, including more than 30 years’ experience as operator of the landmark Australian project, the North West Shelf.
The company's exploration portfolio includes emerging and frontier provinces in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, the Atlantic margins and Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Woodside holds significant equity interests in high-quality development opportunities in Western Australia, Canada and Timor-Leste.
IBM Watson: Pioneering a New Era of Computing
Watson is the first commercially available cognitive computing capability representing a new era in computing. The system, delivered through the cloud, analyses high volumes of data, understands complex questions posed in natural language, and proposes evidence-based answers. Watson continuously learns, gaining in value and knowledge over time, from previous interactions. With the help of Watson, developers and partners are building apps and services that harness the power of cognitive computing to transform industries, help professionals do their jobs better, and solve important challenges.
IBM continues to build on its strengths in cognitive computing, analytics, security and cloud with IBM Watson Health and the Watson Health Cloud platform. This unit is helping improve the ability of doctors, researchers, health plans and individuals to innovate by surfacing new insights from the massive amounts of personal health data being created daily.
For more information on IBM Watson, visit: ibm.com/Watson and ibm.com/press/watson
Join the conversation at #ibmwatson. Follow Watson on Facebook and see Watson on YouTubeand Flickr.
Video Credits
Client: IBM & Woodside
Agency: The Barbarian Group
Production Company: PSN Australia - Taxi Film Production
Director/DOP: Tristan Houghton
Executive Producer: Andrew Wareham
Producer: Mark ‘Bish’ Bishop
Creative Director: Adam Lau
Senior Art Director: Andrew Peet
Executive Producer: Joe Guyt
Business Director: Lauren Hanin
Account Manager: Gage Heyburn
Strategy Director: James Friedman
Woodside Corporate Affairs Adviser: Felicity Kalani
IBM VP Marketing Cognitive Business: Nancy Pearson
For more information about the PSN-Production Service Network please contact:
Michael Moffett
Founder & EP
PSN - Production Service Network
Contact Michael via email
P: +34 699 926 249
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