Video codecs and their challenges in post-production | Editshare
One of the first things any post professional needs to get a handle on is the concept of a “codec.” Short for “code/decode,” a codec is the method that is used to write your video and usually audio into a file.
The analogy I find most helpful when talking about codecs is that of a language. You have an idea, and you can write that idea down in Hindu or Swahili or Cantonese. With video, you have an image, and you need to record it; you can also record it in any of a variety of codecs, depending on what you are hoping to do with that image and who you need to communicate with.
Codecs Vs. Wrappers
One of the first questions that come up is often, “oh, is a codec the difference between .mp4 and .mov and .mxf?” Actually, those aren’t codecs. Those are wrappers. If we want to continue our language analogy, you can think of those like the format of a written document. You can have a German language magazine or a Ukrainian magazine, but both are magazines. Or you can have a Ukrainian magazine and a Ukrainian book; both are Ukrainian but in different wrappers.
Codecs and Wrappers work the same way. You can have an H.264 (one of the common video release codecs) that you write into a .mp4 file, a .mov file or a .mxf file. It’s still written in the same language (in this case, H.264), but you put it in a different format depending on your use. In this case, MXF (media exchange format) is the most robust professional format, while MOV is an older QuickTime movie format, and MP4 is a popular consumer format. Something like YouTube accepts all three, but your phone is unlikely to be able to play an MXF file, while it’ll almost definitely play an MP4.
What Are You Using the Codec For?
We broadly divide up the uses of codecs into three categories: capture formats, intermediate (or editing) formats, and release formats. All of these tasks for a codec have different jobs, so we use different technology to achieve that job.
The job of a capture format is to capture as much of the on-set information as possible. You want the brightest brights and the darkest darks and the full range of colors in front of you captured as best you can. The job of an intermediate codec is to be easy to work with; you want your editing process to feel easy, with applications opening quickly, timelines whizzing by, and quick exports for client approval. For final release, the goal is different; the file will generally only be played linearly (forward from beginning to end), without skimming or image manipulation, so all you care about is making the best-looking image in the smallest file possible.
These are all different tasks, so we often use different codecs, or different flavors of codecs, to achieve them.
Download our free Guide to Codecs now.
At the capture stage, we frequently use either RAW formats, which aren’t even really codecs, or larger codecs with high bitrates to capture all the possible scene information. The bitrate of a codec refers to how many Mbs are allocated per second to create the image, with more Mbs offering higher quality images. There are capture formats that are close to 2000 Mb/s for 4k video capture, which can quickly fill up a hard drive and can be too onerous for even powerful computer systems to easily deal with.
This is a great time to remember the difference between Mb and MB: Mb is “megabits,” while MB is “megabytes.” Megabits are usually used for datarates of something happening in real-time (like uploading/downloading data or playing files), while Megabytes (and the larger gigabytes and terabytes) are used for data storage. Bits and Bytes aren’t equal: a byte is 8 bits. That means a 2000 Mb/s file capture format works out to around 250 MB/s.
To make matters worse, since we do multiple different things with files, you’ll often see their data rates written in different ways. For instance, intermediate codecs will often talk about quality in terms of MB/s, while a release codec like H.264 will often be discussed in terms of Mb/s. If you think about it, it makes sense since the intermediate codec will be taking up storage space on your hard drive, while that H.264 will be streaming over the internet, but it can take a second to get used to.
RAW
RAW isn’t a codec since it isn’t even video yet; it hasn’t gone through the “codec” step of “code/decode.” RAW formats take the RAW sensor data, unprocessed, and compress it. It still needs to go through all of the processing to even make it a usable video file.
Because of the unprocessed nature of RAW files and the massive file sizes of capture video codecs, as soon as we get into post, the first step is often doing a demosaic (sometimes called a debayer). This process takes a video file from one format (RAW) and translates it (there is our language analogy again) into a codec for use in editing. You don’t have to worry too much about this transcode process since we generally reconnect back to those original video files for our final color grade, so image quality loss in this transcode isn’t a major deal.
The Intermediate Codec
We then get to edit our smaller files wrapped up in a more manageable codec, usually with a data rate under 200 Mb/s (25MB/s), sometimes even down around 100 Mb/s or less (12MB/s). This makes life much, much easier while you are editing since the computer has to bring much smaller files “live” into memory while you are working, and your edit process can feel smooth and painless instead of slow and tortuous.
Another major feature of editing codecs is that they typically focus on intra-frame encoding instead of inter-frame encoding. This means that the compression they apply (and all the video we ever work with has some compression) is applied one frame at a time instead of looking at multiple frames and encoding them together. Intra means “inside,” and you can think of this as each frame is only compressed “inside” itself. With inter-frame encoding, the encoding is spread between frames.
Inter-frame encoding, sometimes called Long GOP encoding (for Group of Pictures), is wonderful for a final release format, like a file you put up on YouTube. But it’s very frustrating in post-production since you are going to be moving forwards and backward and scrubbing over clips quite a bit. To do that with a Long GOP codec, the computer has to constantly be looking at all the frames around an individual frame in order to “draw” that frame accurately.
With intra-frame encoding, the computer has to do a lot less work. Every time you land on a frame in your timeline, the computer only has to look at one individual set of data, one frame, to “draw” the frame on your screen. It’s much easier on the processor and makes for a faster edit process. Once you add a cut, with intra-frame encoding, you are A-OK. With inter-frame encoding, the computer still has to keep referencing those other frames outside the timeline to draw that frame.
The big codecs that are used in editing (Apple ProRes and Avid DNxHR) use intra-frame encoding and are available at a variety of bitrates, so you can choose a reliable codec for easy editing at a bitrate that fits the power of your editing workstations and the available space in your storage.
Online & Release
After you edit, you reconnect to your capture format, whether it was RAW or a larger capture codec, and do your online color grading session. Typically this requires a more powerful machine since you are working with the larger capture formats that were used on set. From there, you’ll transcode the movie into your release codecs.
This typically involves a larger file (something like a ProRes 4444 XQ file or similar) that will become your master file and will be delivered to your client and a smaller file for web delivery. That web delivery file is where a Long GOP codec like H.264 becomes a great fit. Since it’ll be watched linearly, the image benefits of Long GOP compression will outweigh the drawbacks.
Check out our handy guide on the most common codecs for a better understanding of how they work and how they fit into your post workflow.
MediaSilo allows for easy management of your media files, seamless collaboration for critical feedback and out of the box synchronization with your timeline for efficient changes. See how MediaSilo is powering modern post production workflows with a 14-day free trial.
Our Senior Director of Innovation, Michael Kammes, recently sat down with Richard Sanchez to talk about his work as a visual effect and assistant editor. Richard has assisted on the films “Robin Hood” and “Naked“, the television series “The Good Place” and “I’m Dying Up Here.” More recently, he was the visual effects editor on “Bill & Ted Face The Music” and “She-Hulk: Attorney At Law” for Marvel Studios. As co-creator of Master the Workflow, Richard provides in-depth training and information for aspiring film and television editors.
In this interview, they discuss why you need VFX turnovers, collaborative workflow between teams and demystify conflated VFX terms. Richard walks through his process and gives aspiring VFX editors a preview of what they will learn in his Master the Workflow course.
MediaSilo allows for easy management of your media files, seamless collaboration for critical feedback and out of the box synchronization with your timeline for efficient changes. See how MediaSilo is powering modern post production workflows with a 14-day free trial.
Leading long-form post facility relies on EFS for speedy workflows and resilience
Boston, MA, January 5, 2023 – EditShare®, the technology leader that enables storytellers to create and manage collaborative media workflows, today announced it is maintaining a strong relationship with leading post group Clear Cut Pictures. The post house relies on EditShare’s EFS-450post-production storage across its central London facilities.
Clear Cut Pictures specializes in end-to-end post for factual television. It is the first choice for major production companies and broadcasters, because of its skilled workforce and its ability to manage a huge variety of projects. At any time, the company will be supporting a wide range of programmes, from those being shot over a period of years to those that are turned around within a few hours of transmission.
“When we went out to replace our shared storage, we were looking for something that would service all of our needs — to consolidate in one solution where in the past we had different systems for different areas of the business,” said Jess Nottage, Group Operations and Technical Director at Clear Cut Group. “We looked at all the likely players, but EditShare gave us more than simple storage, it allowed us to make the business more unified.
“We started with 1.2 petabytes of storage, which was a vast uplift on what we used to have,” Nottage added. “We continue to expand, and we have identical installations in separate Clear Cut Pictures facilities in London linked to all London sites via our dark fiber network. Customized synchronization routines back projects up from one site to the other. If one site failed completely, the other would be instantly available with an up to date synced copy of project and media.” Group Managing Director Rowan Bray said, “Streamlining the operation has training advantages, workflow advantages, and direct and indirect financial benefits. It also gives us a consistency of approach, whatever the project.
“Today we see huge amounts of data coming in: shooting on multiple cameras and fixed rigs, in mixed formats, mixed frame rates and mixed resolutions,” she continued. “Clients have 10 or 15 edit suites hanging off the same media, accessing the same footage – this is clever stuff!”
Clear Cut also emphasized the importance of support and communication with EditShare. “In our initial discussions it was clear that EditShare was not just selling hardware and software: they were offering a relationship,” Nottage said. “That was key to our decision. We continue to work collaboratively with them to feed back on the product and functionality we would like to see. EditShare is very responsive to us: it is a real two-way relationship and we can see our input feeding into the product roadmap.”
Said Bacho, chief revenue officer at EditShare, said “Clear Cut’s requirements put a whole range of demands on the storage network, from incredibly fast turnarounds to very long-term security and access. We designed EFS to meet the expectations of the industry, and we are proud to continue our proven relationship with Clear Cut through the functionality and services we have developed.”
When Clear Cut Pictures expanded the storage capabilities of their twin High Availability EFS-450 installations — these included dual metadata controllers for resilience allowing the system to survive the loss of a metadata controller or a storage node without any operational impact.
The new system was designed and installed by EditShare channel partner, Jigsaw 24 Media.
Picture courtesy of Clear Cut Pictures from Kelsey Parker: Life After Tom (Flicker Productions for ITVBe)
EditShare is a technology leader that enables collaborative media workflows on-premise, in the cloud, or in a hybrid configuration. With customer and partner success at the heart of EditShare’s core values, our open software solutions and robust APIs improve workflow collaboration and third-party integrations across the entire production chain, ensuring a world-class experience that is second to none. The high-performance software lineup includes media optimized shared storage management, archiving and backup, and media management, all supported with open APIs for extensible integration.
EditShare’s cloud-enabled remote editing and project management technology was recently recognized by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) with a prestigious 2021 Emmy® Award for Technology and Engineering.
About Clear Cut Group Clear Cut Group comprises four companies: Clear Cut Pictures, The Edit Store (acquired by Clear Cut Pictures in January 2019), Clear Cut Nations & Regions (operating from Birmingham), and ClearMotion VFX. The group is renowned for providing highly creative post-production to a wide range of global producers and broadcasters. Offering full end-to-end post-production across three sites in London, plus location services as needed, with 4K, HDR and SDR capabilities utilizing bespoke workflows to deliver content to any screen creatively and effectively.
As anyone who’s ever shot any type of film or video project can tell you, filmmaking is a hard and complicated process.
It requires a great deal of planning to put together a script, cast and crew for a short film that you’re looking to shoot with friends over the weekend. It’s difficult for most to even imagine the amount of planning that goes into bigger projects like feature films — or even bigger projects like television shows.
Yet, for years, great showrunners have found ways to pull everyone together and execute on highly complicated programs that shoot several episodes simultaneously while coordinating many different skilled directors, actors and crew.
But how do these showrunners keep everyone on the same page for so many of a project’s style and nuance elements? Well, the answer is often tone meetings. Let’s explore this essential part of any television or streaming show’s success and see how you can facilitate and run tone meetings of your own.
What are tone meetings?
So, what are tone meetings and what are they all about? Well, in short, tone meetings are any production meetings held to help keep different key creative contributors in sync about various creative decisions and aspects.
And while tone meetings can be used for any variety of project types, they’re most often used to help with television or streaming shows as a way to get the myriad of different creative storytellers (like directors, editors and other creative managers) on the same page about certain elements of style, voice, and — well — tone.
For example, showrunners for television shows often hold tone meetings before each season with the different episode directors and editors to share info about the story beats and talk through overarching themes for the season as a way to keep everyone synced together.
Why tone meetings are important.
Generally, the bigger the scope of the project, the more important tone meetings become. And even if you’re working on a small project with a tight group of friends, chances are you’re going to sit down with everyone and explain some of the nuances behind the script and story.
For larger projects requiring many different managers and department heads, the need to keep everyone on the same page becomes even more necessary. After all, you don’t want one director shooting one episode a certain way, then having an editor edit it completely differently.
Tone meetings are a critical part of television production, which showrunners often make a regular part of their process. It helps them keep tabs on how the overarching themes are being treated or developing and allows them to rest assured that their overall creative vision is executed day in and day out.
It’s also worth noting that conflicts can arise on any set, and tone meetings are often the best venue for different parties and departments to come together and air out their disagreements in a safe and supportive space — rather than holding grudges through the rest of production. If you do find yourself in a situation where you’re running tone meetings for your project, don’t be afraid to let people talk freely. Having experience at every level of a production team, I can say that sometimes the most minor roles can give the most impactful feedback.
Tips for running excellent tone meetings.
So now the question becomes, how can you facilitate and run tone meetings for your own projects? In truth, that answer is really up to you and your needs for your show or program. However, while each project will always be different, some steadfast tips for running tone meetings can help you develop your own tone meeting agendas.
Start as early in the creative process as possible
Include only the key creative decision-makers
Take copious notes and track all creative changes for reference later
Check-in as often as necessary to keep everyone informed
Follow up at the end to see how you’ve done
Some showrunners use tone meetings simply as a way to keep their ironclad creative vision steadfastly followed. In contrast, others might use tone meetings as a way to encourage directors and editors to bring their own ideas and visions to the table.
Keeping your tone meetings on track.
We should also talk a bit about how to keep your tone meetings on track. When starting on a production, it can be helpful to outline a timeline for when tone meetings should happen (and be sure to stick to this schedule). For those without tone meeting experience, it’s a good general rule to include tone meetings early and often, after each major stage of production, including scripting, pre-production, production and post-production.
To keep things moving, try to keep the conversations rooted in a shared cadence and language. Like any meeting, tone meetings work best with a clear agenda that outlines who will speak and present information and in what order. Any topics you want to cover can be shared beforehand, letting all parties know what they should bring to discuss.
Ultimately, at the end of the day, tone meetings will only be as successful as the amount of focus and weight you put on them. So make a plan, include your key creative filmmaking allies, and have fun exploring how you can develop and run tone meetings for your own projects, big or small.
MediaSilo allows for easy management of your media files, seamless collaboration for critical feedback and out of the box synchronization with your timeline for efficient changes. See how MediaSilo is powering modern post production workflows with a 14-day free trial.
Every creative team is a bit like “The A-Team.” We’re all specialists who try to be great at what we do. And in a perfect world, our whole team comes together to win the day. While Hannibal may be the team’s leader and signal-caller, everyone has something to add to the equation, and ultimate success wouldn’t be possible without everyone’s contribution. So how can we pitch in and take our shows to the next level? Here are some ways to use your skills to put your mark on a great show while still keeping a cohesive vision.
Understand the strengths and weaknesses of your show’s production pipeline.
The shooting patterns and ways personnel are assigned vary a bit from show to show. And each organizational structure has its strengths and weaknesses. Some shows shoot their episodes individually in the order they will air. Others may produce episodes in blocks, with the same team assigned to all of the episodes in that block.
Each method has its strengths and weaknesses. Producing one episode at a time means that the director can focus completely on that episode, and all of the footage and elements needed will be finished within a fairly narrow window. This can help streamline production and keep things on schedule. It can also allow a director to really put a significant imprint on a particular episode, making it possible to choose a director with the perfect skill set for that episode’s themes and style.
On the other hand, shooting in blocks can give the production team more continuity, with a single director influencing and being exposed to more of the season’s ongoing story. Shooting in blocks also offers some obvious production efficiencies since those episodes can basically be shot like one feature over a period of several weeks. This means that locations that repeatedly appear throughout the block can be scheduled together, and shooting itself can be much more efficient. Editors can also start to assemble the entire story arc that is set to unfold over multiple episodes and make sure that it’s working.
However, shooting in blocks also has its drawbacks. In some cases, an editor may have to wait for critical elements of the episode that airs first because they haven’t yet shot critical scenes that will be done at a later location. Members of the creative team may also be unavailable for specific sessions because the various episodes they’re working on may be at different stages of completion at the same time.
Having a plan that takes advantage of the benefits of your production pipeline while minimizing the potential logistical challenges is really important in keeping things running smoothly and creating the best show you can. A smart production plan can help you avoid potential issues of availability while also maximizing creative continuity.
Use your resources.
With so many people working together to create one final creative product, there are a host of resources to take advantage of. Whether the show is brand new or has been on air for years, there are tools at your disposal that can be used as references. Some of those things are objects or files, show bibles, visual references, notes from tone meetings, and even past episodes.
But there are also human resources that can add a whole layer to the creative process. One important one is the script supervisor. If your first involvement with a project is during post-production, you probably won’t know everything that was discussed on set or everything that happened during the shoot. But you can gain a lot of that knowledge by talking to the script supervisor and reviewing the script notes. There is often a knowledge gap between those who were present at the shoot and those who are using the footage that was captured. The script supervisor and notes are one of the ways to create greater overlap, as mentioned earlier, between two phases of production that may not be well connected.
Script notes contain valuable information about each take, as well as call attention to differences between setups and takes that might not be immediately apparent. They also can provide insights into what each setup is trying to achieve. And those insights can be useful to essentially every department in the process, from edit to sound to visual effects and color correction. They can make the difference between capturing necessary subtleties in the finished episode and missing out on some of the layers of the show (or creating inconsistencies that you’re unaware of).
Another important resource can be the editors of the show. Not only are editors potentially useful to producers, writers, or directors because of their familiarity with footage and past episodes of the show, but they also can be a great resource for each other. Multiple editors will often be working on separate blocks of a larger show, and the sharing of insights about footage, existing assets and show themes can often help each of them do their jobs better.
Always think of the big story.
When creating an episode of a show, it is normal to get very focused on the specific moments and details of that particular episode, or even a particular scene or moment. And because episodic television has isolated creative aspects in each installment, it’s sometimes helpful to take a step back and look at the big picture. This is obviously most important in serialized shows where there is a bigger story arc going on, but can also be helpful in procedural or installment-based shows. Keeping in mind how the details fit in with the overall direction of the series and what the show might look like in upcoming episodes and seasons can be a helpful approach. It also provides opportunities to create anticipation or hide fun clues between the lines. Always remember that you’re telling a big story as well as the small one.
Be consistent, but also don’t be afraid to take chances.
Every show has its stylistic signatures and patterns. But for a show to have longevity with an audience, it also has to evolve and even surprise once in a while, or it can lose its excitement. While it’s important not to depart from important aspects that give the show its identity, it’s also helpful to take some chances now and then that help keep things fresh and surprise the viewer. You create rules to set expectations. But you can break them to make a point and create a powerful moment. However, when you break rules, always do it for a reason that serves the bigger purpose of the character, story, or plot development. That bigger-picture view is what gives the show internal consistency even when you change things up a bit.
Be yourself. Let other people be themselves.
In any process that has layers of approval, it’s always tempting to try to guess what the next people in the pipeline are going to think about what you’ve created or helped create. But it’s important to resist the temptation to incorporate those guesses into your work. Each layer of approval is there for a different reason and serves an important purpose, including yours. Trying to anticipate and “correct” things that you find valuable but worry others might find problematic can become an unfortunate trap for a number of reasons.
The first problem with trying to anticipate feedback is that you’re simply guessing what other people might think. But people are subjective and surprise each other all the time. If you’ve guessed wrong, you may have compromised or changed the episode to compensate for a problem that never existed. The only person whose view you can represent accurately is your own. By replacing that with what you think someone else might think, you misrepresent their interests and potentially deprive the project of your own.
You were chosen for your job because of what you can add to the process. So make sure you’re giving the team that. Otherwise, you may end up with a double emphasis on the input of whomever you’re trying to anticipate and no real input from you. Others will happily provide their own suggestions and critiques when it’s their turn. In the meantime, be yourself, and recognize the value people are counting on you to add.
How much time do you have, and what matters most?
Television is usually created with a faster workflow than other forms of filmed entertainment. As a creator and artisan, you’ll be faced with seemingly impossible deadlines at times, and the need to make important choices on the fly. It can be very helpful to take a step back and assess what you can accomplish in the time you have, and then take stock of what matters most. Television episodes are riddled with flaws, but a strong production team usually manages to avoid the really problematic ones. A large part of that is being able to prioritize what really matters to the finished product and what only annoys the makers.
To make production and post-production run smoothly, it’s often useful to divide input or revisions into three categories: “must have,” “nice to have,” and “if there’s time.” Even if something is a major task, it would be an error to ignore the “must have” changes that are critical to the story and characters. Once those are complete, it’s time to move on to the “nice to have” list. Each of those will make the finished product better, so if you can get through them, you’ll end up feeling pretty darn good about the finished product. But don’t fall into the trap of making a number of easy-to-address “nice to have” fixes before the “must haves” are all sorted. Last, you can start to pick off the “if there’s time” items, comfortable in the knowledge that if you don’t get to all of them, it won’t be a disaster. That kind of process will help keep important things from slipping through the cracks during the hectic episodic television creation process.
How can you make the piece the best it can be?
Most importantly, keep in mind that the final goal is to create something that’s as exciting and entertaining as possible. Your ultimate goal is to make each episode the best piece it can be. Before you sign off on your work or give your approval, it’s always worth asking whether the elements you’re charged with are as good as they can reasonably be, and think about whether there are any obvious ways to make them better (within reason, of course).
In the end, you’re creating entertainment. And the ultimate goal is to capture your viewers’ minds and attention. Have you done everything you can to do that?
Make sure nothing slips through the cracks.
When the episode is finally finished and ready to go, it’s always useful to have extra sets of eyes look at everything. Each person in the process tends to look at things in a different way and with differing priorities. While the showrunner is most likely to catch problems with overall storyline and consistency, they may be less attuned to details on the audio track. And the editor is more likely than the colorist to notice oddities in scene transitions. So giving everyone the chance for a final once-over is always good practice.
Another good practice is to have people watch the final product on a variety of different setups. Something might sound great on a theatrical mix stage in Dolby Atmos but not work the same way when played on a laptop or older television. Or a critical plot element might be visually obvious on a giant theatrical screen but not read properly on a phone. Yet there will be audience members watching on all of those platforms. It’s always good practice to not only view your finished piece on the best possible equipment but also on the most common lesser equipment that your viewers are likely to use. See your show as they will see it, and you’ll be sure you know what their experience is like.
Part 3 Recap:
Understand and take advantage of the distinct strengths of block shooting or individual episode production.
Use all available references and resources to keep things cohesive, including show bibles, story meeting notes, visual and stylistic references, and even past episodes to keep the whole team on the same page.
Script notes and editor insights on the footage can solve a lot of unforeseen problems.
Always take a step back and consider the largest arc of the show. Consider whether your choices fit with the big picture.
Be consistent with the show’s voice, but don’t be afraid to take chances. This is the only way to keep a show fresh and engaging.
Make the creative choices you think work best for the show. Don’t try to preemptively overcorrect for what you think other stakeholders might say about a cut. Other team members can be their own advocates. Your job is to be you.
TV moves fast. Be realistic about what you can accomplish. Prioritize your battles and do the things that will have the greatest importance and impact for the viewer first.
Don’t forget final checks. Yours may be the last eyes that catch a slip-up.
Always watch the finished piece on a variety of formats and equipment. The home audience won’t always have the perfect studio you do, and you need to make sure the show works on mobile or a laptop. Critical picture elements need to work on a small screen, and the mix should be intelligible on any speakers.
Read the entire 3-part guide to Making Memorable Television now.
MediaSilo allows for easy management of your media files, seamless collaboration for critical feedback and out of the box synchronization with your timeline for efficient changes. See how MediaSilo is powering modern post production workflows with a 14-day free trial.
The return of conferences and exhibitions in 2022 has finally given us all the opportunity to sit down and talk to industry professionals from around the world to discuss what’s working and where the current challenges lie.
Many of the conversations I’ve had at these events relate to the industry hot topic at the moment: remote production. This topic takes on many forms depending on the needs of the production and so to tackle them in a single blog would be ambitious (for me to write and for you to read). So instead, I thought I would cover a more specific scenario to show the sort of challenges I’ve heard and illustrate some of the techniques that can be applied to other scenarios.
Take for example a production company responsible for a popular reality TV show. Let’s say it’s set, and shot, in the south of France, although the production company itself is based in Paris, 500km to the north.
Like all reality shows, it generates a huge amount of content from many cameras running non-stop. It also has an extremely fast turnaround, with audiences expecting high production values in programs reflecting the action that took place on site within the previous few hours.
To meet these two requirements, the production company could have set up a large server network on site. Let’s explore some of the implications of this and what alternatives could be used to improve the workflow.
On-Site Production Challenges
In a single storage network scenario the program would have to base a team of editors at the location. This would add substantially to the production budget: these editors, edit assistants and edit producers would need accommodation and food over the months that the program was in production. Space would have to be rented to house the edit suites. Travel costs would be high because editors may not want to be away from home for extended periods of time, therefore they would be constantly rotated in and out.
What the production company needs is the ability to edit story packages, and packages into programs, within the facilities they already have in Paris (close to the homes and favorite restaurants of the editors and producers). However, the content is hundreds of kilometers away.
Bring On The Proxy
I’ve written before about how you should embrace the proxy. When content is ingested into EditShare storage nodes it can automatically generate a proxy, at a bitrate determined by you, but small enough to be regarded as portable.
This means that users anywhere with the right privileges can log in, view the proxies, add comments if necessary, and manage the content. In this application, producers responsible for each story strand could log in, from Paris for example, whether from a computer or tablet, and review all the footage available. They could very quickly identify what material to use and drag it into an appropriate bin. This can all happen in a web browser using the FLOW media asset management system. We are nowhere near an edit workstation yet.
An edit assistant could then go through the selected sequences for the story and set up the bin structure for the editor. Again, this is still in a web browser, at any location, using the proxy.
When everything is ready, the relevant clips are loaded into the edit software. We are completely agnostic: we can preload bins and projects into Adobe® Premiere® Pro, Avid Media Composer and Da Vinci Resolve. The editor can start cutting straight away.
Stay In Sync
With EditShare EFS we recently introduced a new feature called Swift Sync. This is designed to synchronize content between multiple locations. It incorporates file acceleration which can move media files, over a leased line or a VPN tunnel, as much as ten times faster than Rsync.
It also is extremely flexible in what it synchronizes. In an application like the reality show example, there may still be too much raw content to reliably move, even after the selections have been made. We have smart segmentation in mind during this process as it’s not necessary to synchronize absolutely everything. The key is to synchronize what’s required, automate and optimize. So the editor can cut on the proxies, and only when the story is complete, will Swift Sync move the required clips with handles. It can even conform the edit in the server node at the location and just move the finished story as one file.
Savings Abound
This is the architecture that can deliver huge operational savings for the reality show, while maintaining quality and boosting productivity. The same ideas are applicable for other situations too.
You do not need to have physical storage nodes in both the remote location and back at base. One or both of them could be in the cloud, using EditShare FLEX software and the AWS Backbone to move material as needed.
If you are shooting a drama in 4K Ultra HD, or even higher resolutions using RED cameras, it might even be most efficient and cost-effective to edit using proxies and deliver the selected raw clips back to base on disk drives using FedEx.
At EditShare we see our mission as supporting producers to create amazing everywhere. Proxy workflows are a practical and very flexible way of achieving that.
Want to find out more? click here to book a demo, or a chat with your local EditShare team member.
“Point and shoot” has become commonplace in today’s world. Pull the phone out of your pocket and start recording. Many NLEs have embraced this trend by allowing creatives to begin editing their camera media instantly, as opposed to older workflows that involve transcoding (converting) the original media into a more edit-friendly codec (format).
This instant gratification factor is very attractive to creatives but also has the unfortunate potential downside of technical problems later in post-production. This is where we encounter a well-known truth in post-production.
Pay now or pay later
In short, pay now means taking the time to shoot content in a format that is friendly to post-production tools, or at the very least, prepare non-edit friendly formats into friendly ones.
Pay later, on the other hand, affords you the ability to edit the camera originals instantly while pushing technical hiccups to later in the post-production process, where format problems can snowball quickly.
In virtually every post-production scenario, planning to pay now is infinitely better than pay later. Why? Another post-production truth: you have more stress and time constraints approaching your deadline than you do when post-production starts.
“There is never enough money to do it right, but there is always enough money to do it again.”
So, what can you do to ensure that we pay now and prepare our production and post-production for success? Shoot in edit-friendly codecs.
These formats are easier to edit because each frame recorded by the camera contains the complete set of data to display that frame. Often, you can begin editing immediately after recording.
Other formats, such as:
H.264 (AVC)
H.265 (HEVC)
…are easy for cameras to shoot but are often very difficult to play back in video editors. Why? These formats are known as Long GOP (long group of pictures), which do not contain enough data in each frame to display that frame on its own. The NLE needs to look at many adjacent frames to determine what the single frame looks like. This puts strain on your computer and software and can make playback – let alone real-time visual effects – difficult, if not impossible.
However, if we transcode (convert) these Long GOP formats into the aforementioned edit-friendly codecs such as ProRes, DNxHR or CineForm, your NLE will play back, scrub faster and handle more real-time plugins and filters. To be clear, this won’t improve the quality of your footage, but it will make that footage easier to manipulate in post-production.
Now, if you have the option to shoot in a (true) RAW format, do it. RAW formats were designed to capture even more information in a single frame than the edit-friendly codecs listed above. You might have guessed – this forces you to pay now; as these RAW formats expect that you will transcode those camera original files into new files to work with in post-production – and then potentially relink to the RAW originals later in the post process.
Now what?
An often neglected step is to test your workflow before you shoot. You’d think this would be a no-brainer, but often the assumption is that whatever is shot on location will just be handled by post-production. This fatal flaw can often cause chaos in post-production, which then reduces the time post-production creatives can work on your project. Make your project memorable by letting creatives create for as long as they can and spending less time fire-fighting issues with camera formats from on set.
Save yourself the stress. Ensure post-production has media in formats that are easier to edit, and test your workflow in its entirety to reduce the chance of technical problems.
MediaSilo allows for easy management of your media files, seamless collaboration for critical feedback and out of the box synchronization with your timeline for efficient changes. See how MediaSilo is powering modern post production workflows with a 14-day free trial.
EditShare supports new storage and workflow design for popular reality show
Boston, MA – December 7, 2022 – EditShare®, the technology leader that enables storytellers to create and manage collaborative media workflows, has supplied a very large post production storage platform to market-leading Chinese television production company BKW. The EditShare environment, developed and implemented by local dealer and system integrator ThinkTone, supports multiple concurrent editors working on a popular reality television project.
Love Actually is the most popular reality show on the Tencent Video streaming platform in China, and is available globally on Tencent’s WeTV service. 12 Young people live in the same large house for a month, and the show tracks their relationships as they develop. As well as activity in and around the house, the show tracks its participants as they go out and about daily activities such as food shopping.
The nature of the production means there are more than 100 cameras shooting simultaneously, generating enormous amounts of content and demanding powerful post production facilities. BKW looked at the state of the art in reality television production workflows worldwide. EditShare was able to bring considerable experience to these discussions, and the system design was tailored to the specific needs of Love Actually.
The system, developed by ThinkTone and EditShare, is built on the EFS450 shared storage solution, with 13 nodes and around 2 petabytes of storage, all available online. To enable the fast turnaround show to follow multiple simultaneous stories, there are 56 edit workstations across three production rooms. The show’s producers opted for a stylish, glossy look to the show, with the addition of highly stylized graphics.
“Reality television is growing exponentially in China, so to really win and keep an audience, you have to keep delivering the best insights, action and storylines,” said Xu Bing, CEO of BKW. “EditShare and their Chinese partner ThinkTone were willing to work with us to optimize not just their technology but our workflows to ensure we can deliver exciting and engaging programmes, quickly and efficiently. The result is that Love Actually is extremely successful.”
Said Bacho, Chief Revenue Officer of EditShare commented, “The challenge for reality television programmes the world over is that they generate massive amounts of content, which has to be turned into compelling television virtually instantly. To do that cost-effectively while supporting the creative look and feel of the show demands a very special production environment: not just secure and stable storage and effective asset management to track the content, but the huge bandwidth required to deliver it to large numbers of editors working together. Built on EditShare’s storage and workflows, BKW’s Love Actually is the model for reality television the world over.”
EditShare is a technology leader that enables collaborative media workflows on-premise, in the cloud, or in a hybrid configuration. With customer and partner success at the heart of EditShare’s core values, our open software solutions and robust APIs improve workflow collaboration and third-party integrations across the entire production chain, ensuring a world-class experience that is second to none. The high-performance software lineup includes media optimized shared storage management, archiving and backup, and media management, all supported with open APIs for extensible integration.
EditShare’s cloud-enabled remote editing and project management technology was recently recognized by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) with a prestigious 2021 Emmy® Award for Technology and Engineering.
Chello is an agency that believes the role of brand has never been more important. They also bridge the gap between brand and content and promote the ethos that when you know who you are as a brand and what you represent, what you say and what you create all becomes a lot more meaningful. Chello also adopt a similar forward-thinking approach to their technology and post-production storage solutions, which recently they upgraded with Digistor and EditShare.
Chello co-founder and creative director, Tristan Velasco
Chello co-founder and creative director, Tristan Velasco, explained, “We had just moved to new offices and figured it was the right time to upgrade our storage solutions. Previously, we were using Synology NAS’ but we knew we needed something that was more reliable at much higher speeds – particularly to be able to edit 4K+ footage. We had been speaking to a number of agencies that we knew in video production and EditShare had been mentioned a few times. When we got in touch with Digistor, it was the one they recommended as well, so we felt confident enough that it would be the right system for us.”
They also required automated backup and archive solutions, via archiware, in order to be able to easily back up and archive projects. Then the storage solution had to be easily scalable and everyone in the agency needed to have remote access to the server through the company’s network.
Velasco added, “Put simply, the EditShare solution easily met all of our requirements and we are yet to even maximise how we use EditShare FLOW.”
In total Chello purchased EditShare’s EFS software defined ecosystem and EditShare FLOW media management for their data storage solution and daily workflow.
Typically, they use EFS to store all recent and live projects across video, animation and design and manage all project files via a templated folder structure. This contains all raw footage and source files including photography, 3D assets, illustrations, all project files and their various versions, delivery files across video, animation and design and production related files.
Velasco continued, “When we were researching the benefits of EditShare I remember other solutions being in the mix but, based on the recommendations from Digistor and our own subsequent research, we felt EditShare was by far the best solution that met our needs at the time and into the future. The main thing for us was how smart EditShare products are and how the entire EditShare solution was put together for us by Digistor. We had a really clear idea on what it needed to do based on our requirements above and it met all of those requirements.”
According to Velasco their EditShare solution and relationship with Digistor give Chello a clear edge as he concluded, “From a technology and workflow perspective, the edge EditShare gives us is primarily around the speed at which we are able to work on projects requiring really large file sizes, the security of our backup systems and archive systems. It’s second to none. We’ve been working with Digistor for many years now and without having an IT department, the team that we work with there really feel like they’re an extension of our team. They are incredibly responsive to any request – especially emergencies, are patient with managing our requests and are just really nice people. Especially for me, who had managed all IT issues prior to the engagement, it has saved me a lot of time being able to rely on Digistor to support myself and the team. In other words, Digistor are an absolute 10 out of 10 for me.”
EditShare is a technology leader that enables collaborative media workflows on-premise, in the cloud, or in a hybrid configuration. With customer and partner success at the heart of EditShare’s core values, our open software solutions and robust APIs improve workflow collaboration and third-party integrations across the entire production chain, ensuring a world-class experience that is second to none. The high-performance software lineup includes media optimized shared storage management, archiving and backup, and media management, all supported with open APIs for extensible integration.
EditShare’s cloud-enabled remote editing and project management technology was recently recognized by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) with a prestigious 2021 Emmy® Award for Technology and Engineering.
About Digistor
Managing Director Andrew Mooney founded Digistor in 1990. His experience designing, installing, and maintaining services for broadcasters and post-production houses had made it clear to him that the industry needed a group of experts who could look at things objectively. The result is a company that for over 30 years has been providing elegant solutions to leading organisations in the most technically demanding application areas. Digistor provides solutions for the creation, management, storage, and distribution of digital assets. From post-facilities to broadcast operations, from single studios to collaborative, networked environments operating across a room or across the world, Digistor empowers its customers through smarter technology and service solutions.
For more information on Digistor, please visit the website at www.digistor.com.au
Shared storage environments are critical to the successful operation of all modern-day education institutions. At the top of that tree are some of Australia’s oldest and most prestigious universities, including the University of Sydney and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), both of whom use EditShare storage solutions supplied by Digistor.
EditShare shared storage solutions in use at the University of Sydney
The University of Sydney’s Manager, Media Production, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Strategy and Services, Tom Cavdarovski, explained, “Our media team has grown over the last few years and our postproduction workflow has changed to meet the growing demands. We use EditShare systems and find them particularly suitable for a growing production slate.”
The University of Sydney’s Manager, Media Production, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Strategy and Services, Tom Cavdarovski
UTS’ Client Computing Manager Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Simon Prowse, agreed saying, “The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) runs courses in communications including journalism and production. These courses include sound production, film and animation. In the past FASS used a different shared storage solution but decided to move to a more open environment for production workflows. UTS has now been using an EditShare solution for around 9 years has recently acquired new EFS storage and FLOW licences for student off site usage for editing.”
EditShare shared storage solutions in use at the University of Technology Sydney
For the University of Sydney, the requirements were centred around a secured, robust, 4K editing storage solution with Cavdarovski adding, “We have huge amounts of 4K data that needs to be accessed across multiple editors. Our content is captured on country with drones, C300 and DSLR cameras. We also produce multicamera live stream events, so having a post-production system workflow that integrates with creating pre-packaged content, is an important part of our workflow.”
In UTS’ case the university required a sizeable amount of storage capacity and bandwidth to handle up to 60 concurrent connections for editing from personal and group project spaces on the server.
Prowse said, “This time around we chose 10GB Ethernet with 20GB link aggregation to a 10GB switch. Since COVID there is more need for flexibility and a need for more students to work remotely. We also have students studying remotely overseas so the need for working from the server remotely was important. As most of the editing is done with Adobe, the Premier plugin was desirable.”
UTS’ Client Computing Manager Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Simon Prowse
It’s clear for both universities that the EditShare solutions for education shared storage environments are a vital part of their courses and day-to-day operations as Cavdarovski explained, “The EditShare system Digistor installed has RAID redundancy, integrates with existing university infrastructure and allows our editors to work in various 4K resolutions seamlessly.”
Prowse echoed this sentiment saying, “It’s a flexible arrangement for constantly changing circumstances. Openness and flexibility of the solution is important and EditShare meets this perfectly. Courses and requirements change and we can easily add capacity, bandwidth or capabilities with plugins.”
The University of Sydney uses a 98TB EFS 300 system with 8 clients PC connections. These are both Mac and Windows computers, all connected via 10Gb network ethernet connections and all editors are able to open Adobe Creative Cloud projects at any time.
EditShare’s cloud platform EditShare FLEX has evolved to a suite of turnkey, ready-to-go solutions for remote collaborative workflows and video editing in the cloud. Users of EditShare FLEX choose the modules they need – including edit in the cloud and multi-premises synchronisation – and implement them in their own cloud account. This gives users an easy opportunity to implement cloud solutions which education institutions often consider the best way to utilise a combination of on-premise and cloud storage and editing.
There are many on premises and cloud solutions at UTS. They run an animation render farm for the faculty that is on server blades in the data centre and processing of jobs is distributed to around 300 lab computers. UTS also has an HPC environment as well an Isilon which is widely used across the university. The faculty EditShare EFS can backup to Isilon which represents a cost saving to leverage other products in the EditShare solution.
Workflows are obviously at the core of these solutions as Cavdarovski explained, “We have a mix of projects throughout the year, some are quick turnaround with a single producer and editor, while others are 12 months in post and up 50 individual videos with shared resources across multiple editors.”
Prowse added, “We keep our workflows reasonably basic. EditShare is the file server for students’ media work. The workflows involve group spaces for group projects and these have a set folder structure. Students also have personal scratch space with quotas. Class materials are in spaces accessible to students from either the lab and suite facilities or on their BYO devices accessible from home via the client and VPN or on campus.”
A UTS shared storage workflow may also involve students borrowing faculty sound, lighting and video equipment and doing a shoot. They will then upload content to EditShare via a lab or studio computer.
It’s clear that both Cavdarovski and Prowse are big fans of the EditShare solutions for education shared storage environments they purchase from Digistor as Cavdarovski highlighted, “We have used smaller storage solutions in the past, but found they are very limited and lacked performance beyond one or two concurrent users compared to the EditShare solution we now have. We really like the FLOW application that we purchased as part of the EditShare package. It allows the team of editors to log content easily, accurately and create proxies for working offline and working flexibly. FLOW helps to ensure that we can always store, retrieve and broadcast the appropriate content.”
Whilst Prowse said, “We feel that EditShare has a flexible and futureproofed product that is not proprietary or rigid. It’s modular so we are not paying for capabilities that we do not need now but have the option to add capability, licences or services going forward. Lots of storage capacity in the EditShare solution is important and being on premise, we can leverage the fast network for connections, transfers and backup.”
When asked to explain what edge using the EditShare solutions Digistor provided gives their university Tom Cavdarovski concluded, “The EditShare system enables our team to work more efficiently, reducing menial tasks and streamlining complex workflows. This frees the team up to work in more creative and innovative space, which in this industry, is a what customers and partners want from content producers. Our experience with Digistor has always been very professional, I have been purchasing postproduction systems for over 20 years and they understand how to work with clients who work in large complex organisations, like a university.”
Whilst Simon Prowse concluded, “We have had excellent experiences with both EditShare and Digistor. This is our third renewal of hardware over 9 years and the sales and project process has been smooth each time. Any support issues are dealt with promptly and professionally too. My IT team has to be across a huge amount of knowledge to effectively manage all of the moving parts in this complex university environment. Hence, we need to rely on good support for specialised solutions, applications and facilities. Thus, the great confidence we have in Digistor and EditShare is a very important factor for us.”
EditShare is a technology leader that enables collaborative media workflows on-premise, in the cloud, or in a hybrid configuration. With customer and partner success at the heart of EditShare’s core values, our open software solutions and robust APIs improve workflow collaboration and third-party integrations across the entire production chain, ensuring a world-class experience that is second to none. The high-performance software lineup includes media optimized shared storage management, archiving and backup, and media management, all supported with open APIs for extensible integration.
EditShare’s cloud-enabled remote editing and project management technology was recently recognized by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) with a prestigious 2021 Emmy® Award for Technology and Engineering.
About Digistor
Managing Director Andrew Mooney founded Digistor in 1990. His experience designing, installing, and maintaining services for broadcasters and post-production houses had made it clear to him that the industry needed a group of experts who could look at things objectively. The result is a company that for over 30 years has been providing elegant solutions to leading organisations in the most technically demanding application areas. Digistor provides solutions for the creation, management, storage, and distribution of digital assets. From post-facilities to broadcast operations, from single studios to collaborative, networked environments operating across a room or across the world, Digistor empowers its customers through smarter technology and service solutions.
For more information on Digistor, please visit the website at www.digistor.com.au
