For added security, administrators can now require workspace users to log in using Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).
To set up MFA, users link their Shift account to their phone or tablet by installing an authentication app, such as Authy or Google Authenticator. When they log into Shift, they will be prompted to enter a six-digit code provided by the authentication app.
As an administrator, you can enable MFA on your workspace by visiting the Security Settings tab in the Administration section.
Note: Shift uses the same MFA code as Screeners.com. If you already use MFA to access Screeners.com, Shift will use the same MFA code to log you in.
You now have more ways to log into your Shift account. Enter your email address to receive a login link in your inbox, or click any of the icons below the email field to log in with your Google, Slack, Apple or Microsoft account.
Additional login options are also available when you access a Review Link. To comment on a public review link, simply click “Add Comment” on the review page and log in to start leaving feedback.
After you create a new Review Link or Spotlight Presentation link, the URL will automatically copy to your clipboard for instant sharing.
See the feature in action by right-clicking on a file in one of your projects, selecting “Share,” and picking either of the two options. Once you choose your link settings and click “Create Link,” the URL will be ready to paste elsewhere without any extra clicks.
You can now share files directly from the SHIFT GO mobile app for iOS and Android devices.
- When you open a project or folder, tap the blue airplane icon in the bottom right corner.
- Select the assets you want to share. A blue checkmark appears on the assets you’ve selected.
- Once you’ve made your selection, tap the Share button again to view your review link settings. Enter your title and description, add your recipients, set an expiration date, and choose additional link settings.
- Tap Share when you are ready to send your review link.
To simply create a review link without entering recipients, leave the “People” section blank, and tap Share. Then, tap the Share Link button to send the review link using email, text, or other apps on your device.
To download SHIFT GO, navigate to get.shift.io/mobile on your mobile device.
You can now access Spotlight video tutorials to learn more about creating playlists, customizing your template, and building your own microsite.
When you’re in the Spotlight editor, click the Help icon in your left-side navigation. Here, you’ll find links to three new videos on key Spotlight workflows.
Underneath, you can click “Roadmap and Feedback” to see what the Spotlight team is working on or to submit product feedback. Select “Knowledge Base” to access support articles and “Support” to chat with the Support team.
When you upload a video to SHIFT, the asset tile now features a progress bar and processing information, so you can keep track of your file’s progress as it is being processed. If you upload a video to a SafeStream-protected project, you can also see when the watermark is being prepared.
Producing, distributing, and sharing media assets and works-in-progress is complex during the best of times. As we collectively find our footing in the “new normal,” intuitive, flexible, and secure media management tools have become a business imperative.
Many teams struggle to manage content across disparate tool sets with different solutions for asset management, approvals, presentations, and distribution. This disconnected approach to managing media assets is not only cumbersome and inefficient, but it’s also incredibly insecure.
MediaSilo understands these challenges well, so we developed a solution that enables your team to create a branded, seamless, and secure production process all in one place.
Spotlight is a digital experience builder that is connected to all of your projects and assets in MediaSilo, whether you’re pitching your latest reel to a client, seeking buy-in for a new advertising campaign, or updating stakeholders on a project, Spotlight makes it easy to integrate, share, collaborate, and customize the experience all while staying on brand.
Here are four key ways MediaSilo is using Spotlight to reimagine media management for the new era:
1. Code-Free Customized Templates
Your MediaSilo account comes enabled with a collection of professionally designed templates ready for use. Customizing these templates to support branding is simple in Spotlight. Add your logo, brand colors, and fonts into your chosen templates, and your team has instant access to a library of templates where they can plug in company assets and publish or present custom branded reels, dailies, or microsites in minutes.
If off-the-rack templates aren’t for you, Spotlight supports a design-your-own template option for fully customized assets that are easy to deploy—no coding required.
2. Static and Dynamic Playlists
In today’s fast-paced production environments, there is no room for downtime. So, Spotlight’s powerful editor lets you build a client reel, design a brand-new microsite, or create an attention-grabbing presentation in minutes.
Using shareable playlists, you can group assets together into a reusable collection that can be inserted into any Spotlight presentation.
Playlists come in two varieties, and the type you use depends on where you are in the production process:
- Dynamic playlists: Creating a playlist from a project or folder allows the playlist to be automatically updated in real time when files are added or removed in a project or folder. This means you won’t have to resend links to clients to ensure they have the most current assets.
- Static playlists: These playlists house collections of assets that won’t be changed. Spotlight doesn’t update static playlists in real time, so they are primarily used for sharing finished work with clients.
3. Seamless Connection Between MediaSilo and Spotlight
You can easily pull media straight from your projects in MediaSilointo your Spotlight designs without having to download files or upload images between systems. Simply drag and drop media into the Spotlight editor, reorder as needed, and you are ready to hit play.
4. Secure Sharing with SafeStream
Whether you’re concerned about cyberattacks, intellectual property theft, or both, securing your workspace and assets is crucial. MediaSilo enabled Spotlight with high levels of security using proprietary technology and access management policies.
For example, if you need to share protected content with only a select group of team members, Spotlight provides multiple security options, such as restricting the audience that can view the asset, adding password protection, and making the content available only in the Spotlight workspace.
When you’re ready to share your finished work with the world, SafeStream watermarking will instantly secure your videos. SafeStream prevents content theft and misuse through personalized visible and forensic watermarks containing user data that can easily be traced.
Spotlight provides a secure, intuitive, all-in-one space to present, organize, and secure digital assets in MediaSilo making it easy for producers to transform their content into stunning visual experiences.
To learn more or get started with Spotlight today, dive into our Spotlight knowledge center and sign up for a free trial of MediaSilo.
The collection bin lets you gather files from different projects, so you can easily share, download, or save them as a new playlist. You can add files to your collection bin in three ways:
- In the left-side navigation, click the empty box icon above your workspace logo to open the collection bin panel. Drag and drop your assets directly into the panel. The collection bin icon will update to display the number of assets currently in your bin, which can hold up to 250 assets.
- You can also drag and drop assets directly onto the collection bin icon in the left-side navigation.
- Right click on a file and select “Add to Bin.”
When you’re finished adding items to your bin, click the Share, Download, or Create Playlist button along the bottom of the collection bin panel. To bulk download assets, make sure you are using the SHIFT desktop app.
You can reorder items in your collection by clicking and dragging them. Hover over an asset and click the “X” button to remove an item from the bin. To clear your entire bin, click the “X” in the bottom right corner of the panel. Your bin is also cleared when you log out of SHIFT.
The actions you can perform in the collection bin are determined by your project-level permissions. If you do not have sharing permission on certain items in your collection bin, you’ll see an alert message in the panel and a red dot will indicate which assets you do not have permission to share.
Spotlight now supports Mailto links that activate your default email client and open a new email window. To create a Mailto link, select a text element, and go to the Link section of the properties panel. Choose External Link as your link type. In the URL field, enter “mailto:” followed by the email address of your email recipient.
When you create and customize a new Spotlight, you may want to reuse the same template in future presentations. Now, you can save the template to your template library, so you can edit, clone, or reuse the template at any time. Just click Save along the top of the page, and select the Save as Template option.
In 2020 we launched our video podcast series Production in Conversation, in which we talked to professionals from across the video and content production industry about their work. Here, we’ve compiled for you some of the most impactful things we learned from all of our podcast guests about how they tackle their projects, advice for fellow creatives, and the visions they have for the future of the industry!
1. Representation matters
Amanda Sayeg — Independent Producer
The ability to see yourself in the media that is created is an invaluable aspect of film and video production, and that kind of representation goes beyond just what we see in front of the camera.
“Our job is to tell stories that represent our society. In order to tell the stories and in order to portray an accurate picture, we need to have diverse people behind the scenes. We’re slowly seeing diversity on camera, but it’s very important in order for the stories to be told right that we have representation behind the cameras too. Those are the people writing, those are the people crewing up, those are the people making decisions. There is so much more authenticity and truth when you not only see diverse actors on screen, but you have a whole crew of diverse people supporting that actor.”
2. Bring emotion to your editing
Gary Dollner — Editor
From “Fleabag” and “Killing Eve” to Disney’s new “Godmothered”, Gary knows his way around an edit. So is it harder to bring emotion to a comedy or a drama? He gives us the answer.
“For my money, I think it’s more difficult to cut comedy. With comedy you’ve got all of the story beats and the character traits and the narrative arcs that you’ve got to nail just like in any drama. But on top of that you have to get some laughs as well. Ultimately what we’re trying to do is manipulate the emotional reactions of the audience. So if you can make people laugh, the principles are quite similar in terms of making them cry.”
3. Collaboration and diplomacy
Gary also encourages editors to think about the relationships you have with your fellow collaborators, and the importance of open communication and humility.
“I would also say you have to hone certain diplomatic skills, because half the trick is being able to work a room. If you’ve got to sit quite close to someone for three, four, six, eight months you’ve got to be able to get on with them. It’s about how you deal with people as much as anything else. And the willingness to throw things up in the air and change things. Before I might have done my cut and thought that’s it, that’s the best I can do. If anyone came in and gave notes I would get quite frosty about it. But notes are either good or they’re bad, and you often have to go through the process to find out.“
4. Documentary editing
Wyatt Rogowski — Orwell Films
Editing for documentaries is an entirely different beast than what a narrative editor encounters. With so much footage to go through, it’s all about subtracting until you find exactly what you need.
“I like to say documentary editing is almost like having a sculpture. You start off with a big mound of clay and the first rough cut is just figuring out what the shape is. Then slowly as you keep going, you keep refining. You get to the point where you have your fine cut, and it’s like you can see the lines of the face. Then you get to the lock cut and it’s a beautiful sculpture, but it’s still plain. And then you get to the finishing process with color and sounds, and that’s where you do the paint and it looks beautiful.“
5. Working as part of a team
Avner Shiloah — Orwell Films
You aren’t always working by yourself, and sharing the job amongst a team of collaborators is all about serving a common goal, and leaving your ego at the door.
“The goal is always to make the best movie we can, it’s not about any one of us shining through – it’s about just serving the narrative. It’s also useful to have that sounding board of the other three editors, and be very honest with each other. It’s so helpful to the creative process to have people that you trust and who know what the process is. When you are the single editor working in a vacuum, sometimes it gets really difficult to know if you are on the right track.”
6. Stay adaptable
Jeff Beckerman — Rain the Growth Agency
Following such a tumultuous year, people working in production had to continue to find ways to bounce back. The good news is, they are really good at it.
“The one thing you can say about production in film and television is they’ve always figured out a way to adapt, sometimes better, sometimes worse. We’re all trying to adapt, work, and grow. Get production companies back working again, and agencies back on their feet and clients advertising. We’re all in this together, so the more we can all succeed the better.”
7. Hire the right people
Dustin Schultz — Union
Your project is only as good as the team that you build, and Dustin shared a few key attributes to look for when hiring your crew to give you the best chance of success in your creative projects.
“There’s a great author, Patrick Lencioni, who said — when hiring people, look for people who are humble, who are hungry, and who are smart. So what does that mean? Humble people are going to be putting others before themselves. They’re not doormats, but at base level they are courteous. A hungry person is not desperate, but they are very action-minded. They are going to jump in there. A smart person on a production is someone who studies their role, and is a constant student of their role. We’ve had great success applying these filters. If you’re seeing those qualities come through a person consistently, I think you end up with some winners.”
8. The proof is in the pudding
How do you know when you’ve hired the right people for your team? You’ll feel it in the work that you create, and have confidence in each person to be there exactly when you need them.
“It’s magical when that happens. You have those people who are anticipating needs, and getting them done. They feel empowered to go ahead and make decisions, you can hand off the micro-managing. To be a good leader, you have to be willing to pass off your anxieties to other people and say, I trust you with this worry of mine, and I know you will make it happen.”
9. Create the right environment
Charles Frank — Voyager
As the leader of a production team, it’s up to you to set the right tone and environment for your project. A great director should put everyone at ease, and enable the team to do the work they’ve set out to do.
“The biggest part of my job as a director is making the space comfortable for everyone — for the crew, the people that are there, and the subjects. They are having these strangers enter their homes, asking really personal questions that might be difficult. The majority of what I do is just to try to make people feel comfortable, and to be transparent about my intentions, who I am, and what I’m trying to do.”
10. Stay top-of-mind
Zach Avery — Actor
Production is a networking industry, and you never know when you’ll catch someone’s eye or be in the right place at the right time. Using an online presence to stay relevant is key to keeping the work coming!
“We’re living in a world where social media is king. So that makes it a little bit easier, for you to curate your social media pages to reflect the artist that you want to be. Everyone from directors, to producers, to other actors is constantly looking around and checking what everyone else is doing. As trailers or posters or any sort of creative piece comes out, I try to get that in front of everyone because it just keeps you relevant. It keeps people thinking about you and being curious about what you’re up to.”
Want to learn more from our production professionals? Check out these episodes and more on our Production in Conversation video podcast, and subscribe to be the first to hear about new episodes being released!
