In issue #153 of IF Magazine (June-July 2013), IF launched an exclusive workflow series written by one of Australia's leading post-production and digital media practitioners, John Fleming. To be released in four instalments, the series will explore the different approaches to workflow associated with digital content production. This first article looks at the main influences and identifies the building blocks for a future focussed digital workflow. Other articles will take a more detailed look at the workflows associated with specific genres. Find the second instalment of the series in IF #154 (August-September), on sale now.
Introduction
As we have migrated from film to digital, discussions around feature and television drama workflows have been prominent, however,much of what is happening in other areas of television and the rapidly fragmenting advertising market is not only highly innovative, it is potentially realising a very different platform for audience engagement.
Supporting the Creative Process
In 2009 the UK public broadcasters formed the Digital Production Partnership (DPP) to maximize the potential benefits of digital television. Its most recent report, The Creative Revolution, asserted that our industry is fundamentally about storytelling and the specific role of workflow is to support this.
The content creators who contributed to the document appear to be enjoying the ‘chaos’ that digital is creating and in many ways want it to stay that way. Whilst they recognised the benefits of creating a more efficient process they see little evidence to suggest that an end-to-end workflow would provide distinct creative benefits. So in many ways, they have now thrown out the challenge to technologists and Services companies to prove otherwise.
For many creatives, workflow Utopia is ‘being able to do what you want until you hit the send button’. This ‘immediacy’ is demanded as much by the advertising and broadcast markets as it is by $100 million feature films.
Whilst this expectation is already being delivered for user generated content – a digital camera, a Laptop and YouTube – it gets much more complicated as you bring teams of specialists together to collaborate on bigger budget projects. These specialists have strong preferences for the tools that have helped shape their success. Therefore workflows must allow for these tools to be ‘plugged in’. Whilst this creates a level of complexity and cost, it reinforces the need for workflow to support the creative process, not control it.
In this new and highly fluid environment it seems that every project has different needs. Alaric McAusland, Deluxe Australia’s MD finds that “Deluxe is creating what can be considered a bespoke solution for each different project that we undertake. Increasingly our role is the workflow architect, bringing together the required skill sets to achieve a successful outcome”.
From a workflow perspective, the challenge appears to be about finding common threads and making them more efficient, whilst remaining flexible and adaptable to meet the changing needs of any given project.
The New Bridge
To explore end-to-end digital workflows, it may help to treat the means by which we move images and sound as a ‘bridge’. The long established ‘film bridge’ saw the common film formats (8, 16 and 35) essentially as the construct. The metaphor proposes that film used the same bridge design, but scaled up to allow for additional lanes of traffic.
The evolving ‘digital bridge’ is highly flexible, in some ways organic. In metaphorical terms, it will simultaneously carry pedestrians, bicycles, cars, trucks and trains. In other words it will provide for the very different demands of factual, advertising, television and features, each with differing expectations on budget, standards, technology and how content is acquired, post produced and delivered. It will eventually permeate all aspects of content production, typically collecting data from all departments including scripts and storyboards as well as managing the ‘review and approval’ processes.
Idealistically, the digital bridge will elegantly connect each phase of content production and adapt to the many different formats and technologies dictated by continually evolving production and distribution requirements.
Digital Cameras
Driving this extraordinary period of change are high resolution digital cameras. From a feature film and television drama perspective, high end digital cameras like the ARRI ALEXA, RED Epic and Sony F65 provide a genuine alternative to film.
The Sony F65.
But on the other end of the spectrum, creative people get very excited about finding unique ways of engaging an audience. To do this they often gloss over the imperfections of a $300 camera and the difficulty of integrating it into a workflow. However the outcome is often extraordinary and unique perspectives of our world.
The real challenge from digital cameras is the enormous volume of rushes these cameras can generate. This adds complexity and cost in both editorial decision-making and managing the data through post-production. An extreme example is the Australian feature documentary, Storm Surfers 3D, that moved to another level of complexity with 32 cameras, a diverse range of camera types and a final shoot ratio of 400:1. Deluxe EFILM’s Sydney Onset Data Manager Simon Alberry reflects “whilst overwhelming at times it did provide a genuine insight into the issues of data management and bringing diverse camera file formats into a unified pipeline”. Most camera rental deals include at least 2 cameras. So if they’re there, why not use them? And of course the Director and DOP now have their personal DSLR cameras to pull out at a moment’s notice!
As the BBC’s Mark Harrison so eloquently puts it “the fact is that the genie called coverage is one that no creative is proposing shoving back into its bottle”.
If ‘creative freedom’ is to continue, producers need to work towards increasing budgets and Service providers need to find more efficient ways of managing the data. Whilst this is a lot easier when compressed video files are used, it gets increasingly harder with native RAW files.
Capturing and Managing Data
For digital cameras there is a basic need; to capture the image files, back them up for retrieval and convert them into a format for the rest of the workflow. When shooting RAW files there is also a need for the DOP to see what the ‘starting point’ will be in the grading suite. Another popular feature, especially with continuity, is being able to review onset rushes on an iPad immediately after the take is complete.
However the domestic markets adoption of other onset services has been slow compared to what’s happening in the international market. Deluxe EFILM’s Sydney Onset Data Manager Simon Alberry explains “Projects like The Wolverine open our eyes to the possibilities of what else can be done onset. These major projects push boundaries, introduce new technologies and streamline the processes. Our goal is to have these services flow down to lower budgetfeatures and, when it makes sense, television. To do this we need to settle in a place where affordability and quality are both achieved.”
The technology used can range from ‘basic needs’ to comprehensive carts that are capable of anything. Then there are the ‘customisations’ typified by Deluxe Digital Pictures’ DataCart installation on the ocean going vessel used by James Cameron’s Deep Sea Challenge expedition.
What happens on set is the start of the process and determines much of what can be achieved across the entire workflow. Many believe that a singular approach to managing data, metadata and colour information will be more efficient and remove complexity between Editorial and the Creative Finishing process. A number of companies are looking to provide this service essentially running parallel to Editorial operations; supplying information about the data collected on set and waiting for instructions on the Finishing process. Having all this information in one place can also enhance the overall process and realise the benefits that can come from a workflow management system.
Open Systems
For many years, VFX and Animation companies have operated with ‘open systems’ technology. In simple terms this means they use relatively low cost generic workstations connected to racks of powerful ‘back end’ central servers and hard drive storage systems. To support this approach, sophisticated ‘workflow management systems’ have evolved to track and manage all the elements produced across the studio.
Previously held back by the demand for guaranteed real time playback of high resolution images, improved technology is now allowing post production systems to move into the ‘open systems’ world. Along with post production systems becoming more ‘open’ – allowing easy exchange of project data and in some cases interoperability between applications – there is now considerable scope to customise end-to-end workflows. Of great significance, this progression to open systems has allowed for cloud based post production systems to emerge.
The Cloud
Australia is seeing significant increases in the availability of data centres, cloud computing infrastructure, international and national high speed connectivity along with ongoing increases in high speed wireless communications.
This will realise a highly mobilised content production industry.
In theory, the Cloud is a very attractive proposition for content producers; choosing your specialist team and renting technology only for the life of the project. Additionally the infrastructure can be dynamically scaled to meet data storage and processing power needs at any given moment. Wow! No overheads, no capital expenditure, no resources sitting idle waiting for the next project to start. The Producer’s Utopia!
While the cloud works well for services like Google Apps, when you add high resolution motion picture files, there are some considerable barriers. However key ‘enablers’ are starting to break these down.
Renting racks of equipment in a data centre to manage peak production loads is now a common practice although this currently needs very high speed connectivity.
We are also seeing global growth in cloud based rendering services for VFX and Animation. Whilst there are signs that security obsessed Studios are quietly softening their position in certain circumstances, ‘sovereignty’ concerns around data ownership and guarantees of access remain e.g. in the event of late payment for services or a change in foreign government policy where the data centre is located.
Adobe’s recently launched Creative Cloud allows the download of software applications to a desktop computer for a monthly licence fee. Autodesk also recently ran a successful 90-day rental pilot for 3ds Max and Maya in North America and Australia/New Zealand.
Avid, Adobe and Quantel recently launched very impressive cloud based editing products. Avid’s Interplay Sphere, Adobe Anywhere and Quantel’s QTube are optimised for relatively low bandwidth access however the original media files still have to be uploaded to the cloud server for this content to be available. This can take time if high speed broadband is not available. It is therefore expected these systems will be rolled out as ‘private cloud’ services in larger advertising agencies, broadcast environments or larger facilities managing project assets for their clients. As internet bandwidth speeds increase, we will no doubt see it applied to a broader range of applications.
The big issue remains accessing affordable bandwidth to allow for effective use of cloud style services. Larger businesses can justify high speed ‘dark fibre’ connections however for smaller businesses the current costs are a significant barrier to entry. Any suggestion of a group of smaller production or Services companies collaborating on projects from a private cloud would require faster connections. Unfortunately so much of what the industry needs to transition and grow is in the ‘unknown’ of what NBNCo indicate as 2015+.
Whilst here are markedly different views on the benefits and business models around cloud based services it is clear that something is going to happen. Emerging content producers will benefit from accessing production infrastructure based on the demands of specific projects. Larger content producers and Services providers will benefit from the mobility and scalability of their core offering which can be more attuned to market demand at any given time.
New Standards
The many recent industry transitions e.g. film to digital, videotape to file etc. have realised a period of ‘standards anarchy’ however, most would agree, this has allowed important and significant industry change. Standards bodies around the world are now attempting to bring some order to the chaos.
A less obvious example is the broadcasters move to measure sound by perceived ‘loudness’ instead of ‘level’. The new standard will finally allow television soundtracks to use the greater dynamic range made available by digital.
Creatives want to know that what they are seeing and hearing during the finishing process that the audience will experience. Whilst DCI cinema projection and reference grade video monitors are important for visual references, sound mixing facilities like Deluxe’s Stage One in Sydney are multi-million dollar investments to create a cinema ‘reference point'. Further enhancing the cinema sound experience, Soundfirm Melbourne has just launched Australia’s first Dolby Atmos mixing stage, which employs up to 64 speakers.
The proposed ACES (Academy Color Encoding System) file standard will go a long way to providing a ‘common language’ for colour management across the entire feature film workflow. Currently undergoing industry-wide production trials, ACES aims to preserve the ability for Cinematographers to "light by eye" rather than relying on video monitors. For VFX and Post companies it aims to enable unambiguous interchange of images and provide colorists with a better starting point.
The emerging Interoperable Mastering Format (IMF) seeks to emulate the Digital Cinema Package (DCP) concept. Video Deliverables have become increasingly complex and expensive with the ever expanding array of delivery platforms. In simple terms IMF is a file structure that will provide multiple distribution options from a single asset. It is planned that the ‘Basic Level’ will be ready for ‘standardisation’ by SMPTE towards the end of 2013. This will further accelerate the move to broadband delivery of digital master files.
Our new bridge can only be successful if the required new standards are put in place. Many of these are now in development and for the most part they seek to provide ‘boundaries’ more than rigid structures, presenting as more open and flexible than ever before.
Looking Ahead
For feature and television drama, the next few years the focus will be on streamlining current workflows and adapting to what comes next. Whilst much of this is in the hands of the larger technology companies, there are many other companies who continue to enable very effective and highly flexible solutions.
Television, in general, will see greater levels of audience participation, building on user generated content and highly sophisticated factual and live event programming. This form of content will see significant technology and workflow innovation for many years to come.
One can’t help but feel that we will soon be exploring something much broader than making a linear workflow more efficient. The perspectives of future focussed international broadcasters and the breadth of evolving products from companies like Adobe, provide an insight into the future of workflow. So maybe the Bridge of the future will be less a transfer from one place to another and more a meeting place for the idea and its audience. However, at the moment, that may be a Bridge too far!
This article first appeared in IF Magazine issue #153