In this guide, we'll highlight how creative agencies and the production world can each optimize their reels to get the attention they deserve and win more business.
For creative professionals, showreels are a resume, portfolio and calling card all rolled into one. Whether you work at an agency, production company or any of the dozens of other businesses where creativity is at a premium, showing your work in the best possible light can mean the difference between getting the gig and being forgotten.
Creative and marketing agencies of all types use reels for pitching agency services, demonstrating category experience, illustrating case studies and differentiating their creative thinking processes from those of competitors. Meanwhile, companies that represent production, post-production and supporting talent use their reels to show off the past work of their talented creatives, highlight specific skills or technical capabilities, and draw attention to the specific voices of their artisans.
While those two categories of businesses often have very different goals when showing reels, they have even more in common. All of them ultimately are accessing the power of sight, sound and motion to present the best of their creative output.
In this guide, we’ll highlight how creative agencies and the production world can each optimize their reels to get the attention they deserve and win more business. Then we’ll review the most critical considerations in setting up an in-house system for building great reels.
Pain-Free Pitching For Ad Agencies
The traditional agency pitch is a drawn-out, sprawling, cumbersome process that has now spread throughout the creative industry. From pitching on a client’s entire creative business to bidding on a specific project or campaign, creative agencies in advertising, marketing, experiential, PR and digital all dutifully invest time, creative energy and resources into frustratingly rigid dog-and-pony shows.
Most consultants’ pitch templates are older than the internet.
The average agency spent 22.2 days of staff time last year on each pitch they entered (equal to one employee working one entire month per pitch – eleven times a year).
“We’re meant to be in the business of creativity, but the focus has shifted…The average agency now spends around 2,000 hours a year working on pitches, time that’s often tacked on to the end of the working day.”
Lucy Taylor, MullenLowe Group UK
So how can you shift the odds in your favor when preparing for the dreaded pitch? Consider the basic criteria clients use to determine the fit of any agency:
You understand the client’s business, vision and immediate needs.
You have experience in their industry.
You have a recognizable roster of previous clients.
You have the right mix and level of capabilities.
You can personalize your solution to them.
The most important thing to remember is that the best reels reflect the specific client watching it and demonstrate what you can do for their exact needs. Of course, every client is different, meaning the best reel you can use is customized particularly for them. If you’re going to engage with multiple prospects, it makes sense to scale up your reel-building capabilities internally. Doing this will allow you to conduct business development proactively, respond more swiftly to requests, reduce the expense of customizing your reels and, most importantly, increase the “at bats” your agency gets by pitching as many clients as possible.
A Digital Foot In The Door — Reel Building For Prodcos And Post Vendors
When you first approach an agency or client, you often don’t even get the chance to talk to anyone. It’s only after you’ve sent a reel and they like it that you get to have an actual conversation about the talent you represent. Whether you’re an independent rep hoping to get your future star on an agency’s radar or an executive producer with a director or editor who’s ready to tear up the awards circuit, the first step is getting agency producers or creatives to take notice. And that means you need a showreel. But how do you make your showreels work harder and cut through the clutter amidst so much competition? Our guide will help you make the most of your work by making the most of your reels.
Use advertising tactics to cut through the clutter.
You want a combination of reach and frequency, so use a platform that allows you to track viewership metrics and follow-up. You want to keep in touch and maintain an ongoing relationship to ensure viewers engage.
Choose work that demonstrates you’ll take their project to the next level. You want to show them how good their work could be if they hire you.
Specialize your reel for their project.
If you’re really strong in multiple genres or styles, there’s nothing wrong with creating separate reels for each of them, but it’s often a good idea to refrain from putting it all on one showreel (unless specifically requested).
Leave them wanting more.
Especially with new and developing talent, having a short reel is fine, and far preferable to a reel of mixed quality with some flawed pieces that aren’t up to standard. As a guideline, people will assume you’re as good as the worst work they’ve seen from you.
Look the part.
Include company graphics or animation at the head and tail, and make the hosting page or presentation look flawless. If possible, you may even want to include their logo or customize the reel with a mention of the project.
Building a great showreel can be a bit like building a great meal. You want enough courses to make everyone satisfied, but you don’t want to overwhelm with volume.
In the end, what you choose to put on the reel is about reassuring a prospective client that you have the knowledge and skills to make their project great, even if you haven’t done that exact thing before. That connection between your work and the client’s needs is what gives a reel the best chance of getting you in the door. So the more customized you can make the reel, the better your chances of winning the job.
What Matters When You’re Building Reels In-House
So you’ve decided to set up an in-house system for making your reels. There are a few basic parameters to keep in mind when you’re setting up your reel-building system:
Organization: Every additional step it takes to get your work samples onto your finished reel is another obstacle between you and your potential new work. You want to have anything that you might ever use on a reel in one place so that no one has to go hunting for an asset or version. And you want all the pieces well organized and in compatible formats, ensuring your presentations are consistent and reliable.
Simplicity, Speed, and Efficiency: Your system should be straightforward and non-technical enough that anyone on your staff can create a great reel in a pinch, even if you’re out of the office. And it should be efficient enough that it can be done on short notice. Your responsiveness alone—along with your ability to turn around a beautiful presentation quickly—will make a strong impression from the start and potentially get you the chance to compete for projects you might have missed out on otherwise.
Customization: You should be able to make customized reels for any client or project and be able to adjust the look and presentation so that each client feels like it was made just for them. Find a solution with premade templates, customizable design themes and drag-and drop presentation-building features to ensure consistency and deliver presentations quickly.
Security: Unlike showcase websites and traditional asset storage solutions, modern asset management and reel-building systems can also offer higher-tech security features, like watermarking and personal access codes. Some platforms offer more advanced multi-factor security and even integrate it with their analytics so you can keep track of who is seeing your work in real-time. You need to keep your materials safe and ensure that only the right eyes see them. This also shows prospective clients that you understand their security needs and how to keep your future work for them secure.
Analytics: You want to be able to harvest a robust set of data from the reels you send out. Being able to tell who has looked at a reel, which parts they watched, and for how long can be critical in pursuing new business and following up with the presentations you’ve already sent out. Finding this type of solution can help you make better, more profitable new business decisions.
Make Your Next Pitch A Fast One
The arduous process of building reels isn’t going away any time soon. But with tools that let you quickly present the beautiful work you’ve already created, you can get on the shortlist and possibly even short-circuit the process of winning more work.
Wiredrive by EditShare can help you share winning work with the world. Contact us to get started with a demo of the industry gold standard for building and presenting winning showreels.
If you’re unfamiliar with the church world, the extent of video production used in megachurches’ weekly services might surprise you. The definition of a “megachurch” is any church with a weekly attendance of 2,000 or more. They come in various denominations. In the United States, they are mainly protestant and often non-denominational.
Many of these churches actually use two video teams. One team runs the “live production” for the weekly service. This generally includes multiple cameras, image magnification (IMAG), live switching, slides, and streaming the service online. Furthermore, megachurches often employ a smaller “film crew” to create elements such as bumpers that complement the week’s message, commonly known as a sermon.
We’ll take a closer look at how the video teams of these houses of worship function and some of the challenges they face.
Video is a key medium for megachurches
It’s reported that 66% of megachurches “always or often” have video segments as a part of their services. Video helps these churches communicate a consistent message to their communities. Some churches meet at a single location with multiple services, while other churches have adopted a multi-site approach to their ministries. In either case, a core creative team usually helps produce design and media (with the help of volunteers) for the entire organization.
Live Production
The “Live Production” video team helps to produce the Sunday service. 75% of megachurches use IMAGE (image magnification) technology to help the crowd get a better look at the speakers and worship leaders. This involves a multi-cam setup that generally employs professional cameras, broadcast zoom lenses, and support such as jibs, gimbals, and beefy tripods.
Volunteers trained by the staff on the live production team frequently operate the cameras. This also offers an excellent opportunity for students and older teens to get some hands-on experience with gear. Even though I didn’t attend a megachurch, I remember as a teen learning to work a soundboard, lavs, recording gear (cassette tape! It was the 90s!), and projectors, and I’m still using those skills today (well, maybe not the cassette tape skills).
These live production teams need to have a firm grasp on camera operation, running professional cabling through long runs, taking live direction over headsets, or even wireless focus pulling.
Over 90% of these churches also use streaming for their services. I was surprised to learn that 45% of Americans have viewed a church service online, even though many don’t attend church in person.
This actually produces a large amount of data that needs to be managed and referenced for special events, compilation videos, or social highlights. Increasingly, ministries have needed more robust digital asset management tools to help them disseminate these assets to their teams.
Multi-site megachurches
Many megachurches have adopted the multi-site model. In this model, there is a main campus and satellite campuses. Generally speaking, each satellite campus has its own set of volunteers and worship music leaders. The sermon may be live-streamed from the central location. Other times, the satellite locations use local pastors to deliver the message. There are multiple ways of executing this strategy and many times, the satellite locations grow into their own autonomous congregations.
Church film crew
In addition to the live production crew, megachurches often have a “film crew.” Typically, a smaller team focuses on producing pre-recorded material intended for playback during the service. In many ways, this parallels the setup of professional sports broadcasts or even “Saturday Night Live.” In both kinds of shows, there is a live presentation, and they also cut away to pre-recorded segments.
The teams that create these pre-recorded segments function as small film crews rather than broadcast teams. So they might use equipment such as cinema cameras, cinema lenses, and audio techniques more commonly found on a movie shoot.
The film crews could be volunteers or even contracted on an occasional basis. The sermon series “bumpers” could also incorporate motion graphics and 3D effects. The goal of these teams is to use the beauty of cinematography and the emotional impact of storytelling to touch their audience. These teams use aesthetics and story as an extension of the Sunday message. They try to find ways to visualize the text of scripture or the stories of their community.
Challenges of video production in a megachurch
Most of the time, church leaders aren’t media professionals. This leads to challenging situations around review and approval processes. All video professionals know that it takes a long time to do high-quality work. We also know that people outside of production have difficulty understanding the necessary timelines to deliver solid work. Sometimes, those mismatched expectations can lead to burnout. In the article, Life after Church, several filmmakers describe those challenges.
Communication is key to helping leadership teams and creative teams work together in healthy ways. Creative briefs, budgets, and time estimates can help align expectations regarding production.
When you enter post-production, the review and approval process can be tricky on any project. This is where tools like MediaSilo can come in and streamline the process. It makes it much easier to work together as a team.MediaSilo also makes it simple for teams to find and repurpose archival footage. This helps to keep the video team’s efforts valuable into the future so that you aren’t digging through hard drives looking for clips.
Streamlining review and approval
Church film crews (often just a couple) also cover things like international mission trips, fundraising videos, testimonials and more. When working on the road, it is common to need to “get something up so they can see something.”
However, WiFi networks can be slow and unreliable in the field. MediaSilo’s uploader is one of its best features. It gives you the percentage uploaded, the upload speed, and the estimated time for the upload to complete. If the upload is interrupted, MediaSilo will let you know. Then, it will continue where it left off once a connection has been re-established.
When you approach the end of a project, you can enter into a phase where you repeatedly upload versions and tweak a video. We all know how disappointing it is to attempt a large upload to a cloud provider and have it fail after partially completing the upload. You can waste hours trying alternative services, re-uploading, or changing formats.
MediaSilo features panels for Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve so that you can go right from your timeline into the cloud, and reviewers will be notified. This eliminates the frustration of a multi-step export, upload, checking the upload, and then sending out a review email/message. This automation can distinguish between getting home in time for dinner or getting stuck late in the edit bay on a Saturday night.
Churches and feature-length films
As filmmaking has become more accessible, churches have embarked on feature-length documentaries and even narrative films. The Kendrick brothers (Fireproof, Courageous, War Room) started their film career out of Sherwood Baptist Church. That experience helped them grow as filmmakers, and they eventually started their own production company, Kendrick Brothers.
The church has a complicated and evolving relationship with Hollywood. The award-winning documentary Reel Redemption, directed by film critic Tyler Smith, goes into the history of how the church has engaged Hollywood. Smith covers it all from the Hayes-code to the international hit, Passion of the Christ, to schmaltzy faith-based films, to the latest entrants that have sought to improve on the craft of filmmaking. It’s an insight deep-dive into this little known chapter of Hollywood history.
This system has provided a network where young people can start as volunteers on a live production team on Sundays and move up to bigger projects with larger audiences while growing their careers as filmmakers.
Conclusion
According to NPR, there are over 1,800 megachurches in America. Many of these are amongst the fastest-growing churches in America. However, the pandemic did have a substantial impact on in-person church attendance. But with over 60% of the US population attending church at least once a month, we will continue to see the importance of video production grow in the faith-based space.
In the same way, as we are seeing the cross-pollination of disciplines between television broadcast tools and film production techniques, we’ll see collaboration between live production and film crews in churches.
EditShare tools like MediaSilo and EFS can help facilitate that collaboration with solutions for on-site storage, remote collaboration, and review and approval.
It will be exciting to see this space continue to grow. And it will also be good to see it develop in its capacity to nurture artists while still faithfully sharing its message.
You already know how important good audio and sound is for a film. When was the last time you watched through the entirety of a video with bad-quality audio? As an audience, we can deal with a certain level of poor video quality, provided the sound quality is still good. However, as soon as the sound is bad, we’ll stop watching.
While filmmaking is a visual medium for storytelling, it’s undeniable that audio plays a huge role in the process. To create great films and videos, you need to produce great audio and sound. Let’s take a look at 8 tips to achieve great film audio production.
Microphone choices
First things first, let’s talk about microphones. Yes, every camera nowadays comes fitted with its in-built microphone, but let’s be honest…these simply don’t cut it.
If you’re serious about capturing great audio and sound, you must invest appropriately. Just as we invest in cameras to achieve beautiful visuals, we need to invest in microphones and develop professional microphone techniques to capture stunning audio.
For video production, there are two main microphones to consider:
Shotgun mics
Long and cylindrical, the shotgun microphone is directional. It picks up sounds directly in front of the mic while rejecting and toning down ambient sounds to the rear and sides.
Shotgun microphones are highly versatile, allowing you to capture all kinds of sound, from actor dialogue to room noise and wild sound. Because of its directional nature, you will need to think about where you place a shotgun microphone and how you use it. We’ll take a look at how to do this below.
Some of the broadcast-grade shotgun mics you may want to consider:
Lavalier microphones, often termed “lav mics” or “lavs” in the industry, are the classic small-form clip-on microphones you’ll see used frequently in interview videos or where a presenter is talking to the camera.
Unlike their shotgun counterparts, lavalier microphones are very small and designed to be lowkey and unobtrusive. Because of this, Lav mics don’t really pick up that much background noise. Lavs are much more about capturing quality, clear audio from the person they’re attached to.
Some of the broadcast-grade lavalier mics you may want to consider:
To boom, or not to boom? That’s a common question when tackling how to capture great audio during video production. As discussed above, there’s a clear difference between shotgun and lav mics. To capture really high-quality audio and sound for your film project, you need to consider the following:
Which one you’re going to use
When you’re going to use it
Where you’re going to use it
With a lavalier microphone, you’ll capture clear, crisp human speech from the actor. However, it can create a sense of closeness for the audience, which may feel a little jarring or strange if we’re watching a wide shot. This is where you need to think about the microphone perspective.
Shotgun microphones can be attached to a boom pole, which then gives you the freedom to experiment with the microphone perspective. If you’re looking for closeness, you can bring the boom in closer to the actor. Equally, if you’re going for a wider shot and want to capture a bit more of the room tone or environment, you can bring that boom away so that the audio recording feels more natural with what you see on screen.
Stop and listen
When you’re in the middle of production, firing on all cylinders and juggling ten things at once, it can be easy to forget to check your audio before hitting record. However, it’s an essential part of any professional production.
When you take the time to listen to your audio before each shot, you’re allowing yourself to catch any potential mistakes or errors. You may notice that you can hear the traffic from a distant highway or planes from a nearby flight path. All these details help you to adjust and rethink the way you shoot this particular scene. Or perhaps (I’ve experienced this plenty of times), you realize you need to switch on your microphone!
By taking the time and slowing down to listen and double-check things, we save ourselves a lot of pain further down the line in post-production.
Invest in necessary accessories
Again, just like with cameras, where we buy different lenses and ND filters for specific scenarios, along with tripods, lights and whatever else you can think of, you need to invest in additional accessories and gear for your audio-capturing gear.
Noise-canceling headphones
On the topic of listening to audio before shooting, it’s well worth purchasing a high-quality pair of noise-canceling headphones. These will eliminate all the background noise on set and enable you to focus on the actual sound of the film. This approach often helps you detect any potential mistakes that need to be smoothed out. When the guy with the headphones on set says do it again, you do it again.
Some of the best noise-canceling headphones you may want to consider are:
It’s advisable always to avoid filming in windy conditions at all costs. However, that’s sometimes easier said than done. As filmmakers, we can’t control the weather; therefore, it’s well worth ensuring all your microphones (lavaliers and shotguns) have deadcats. These fluffy mic buffs will shield the condenser from any unwanted noise, such as wind or even a sharp exhale of breath, that could cause the audio to clip and create all kinds of issues in the edit.
Compressors and limiters
Making use of compressors and limiters can help you to smooth out an audio signal. On many higher-end microphones, you may well find that they already come with an in-built option for limiting. Employing a limiter prevents the amplitude of a signal from exceeding a predetermined value. In other words, you hopefully stop any potential clipping from happening.
Meanwhile, a compressor will reduce the volume of louder sounds while amplifying quieter sounds. This effectively compresses the audio signal’s dynamic range, making it “smoother” and easier to work with.
Think about your location
When you’re location scouting in pre-production, don’t just analyze a space from a visual perspective. Think about location in terms of audio.
How does your voice carry in a certain location – is it bouncing off walls and echoing? Are you on a busy flight path? What elements of the environment can you control, and what can you not?
Developing location-sound strategies will help you immensely later in post. Ideally, the more things you control, the better.
Room tone
On the topic of location, it’s a great idea to pick up room noise and ambient sound from the places you shoot in. Think of this as Foley on set.
When you’re in post-production working on your film sound design (more on that below), it can be very difficult (often impossible) to recreate the exact ambiance and match it with the scene you’re working with. Sometimes called “room tone,” this process helps you precisely capture the tone of your room.
For this, you may want to invest in an audio recorder, or you can use something like a shotgun microphone. However, you do it, it’s a really useful habit to have, giving your sound designer much more to work with in the edit.
Clean dialogue
Depending on the type of video or film you’re making, you may want “clean dialogue” capture.
Even if two actors are interacting with each other, going back and forth in a scene, it’s a good idea to have them redo their lines afterward, just one actor at a time. Capturing these lines crisply and clearly, with no interference from anyone else, gives you much more to work with in post-production. Clean dialogue can allow you to speed up lines, cut them out, overlay them elsewhere, and perform many other little tricks in the edit.
Post-production
Typically, the phrase “we’ll fix it in post” should cause you to run for the hills. As a professional filmmaker, you should never rely on post-production as a surefire way to patch up bad production. However, certain elements of post-production audio are essential when it comes to quality audio and sound.
For example, don’t be afraid of SFX. Great filmmakers understand that not everything can be captured during production. When you’re editing your film, you need to work closely with SFX to help build out your environments with sound design, helping to bring the visuals to life and make the audience feel like they’re truly there. This is where capturing things like room tone and ambiance can lend a helping hand.
Additionally, if working with actors, you may also need to capture ADR (audio dialogue replacement) to ensure you’ve got the best-sounding edit possible.
Wrapping up
So, there are 8 great tips to help you capture great audio and sound in your next video. It’s a challenging part of the filmmaking process to perfect, and many filmmakers can shy away from it. However, as this arti
An innovative workflow for the production of sports broadcasting for the Hangzhou Asian Games
The 19th Asian Games took place in Hangzhou in September and October 2023. Guangdong Radio and Television was contracted to cover the basketball competition on behalf of the host broadcast organization.
The goal was to provide high quality, exciting coverage in 4k Ultra HD of all the games, together with informative packages and summaries around the games. That called for sophisticated post production which could turn the content around very quickly.
Guangdong Radio and Television worked with EditShare’s partner in China, ThinkTone, to develop a core shared storage production system. This was built on a network of EFS storage nodes, linked by EditShare FLOW production asset management software.
FLOW makes it easy for users to find the material they need, and system administrators can direct individual content to bins in each edit workstation to speed up the process. FLOW panels are available for all the popular edit software packages, including Adobe Premiere Pro and BlackMagic DaVinci Resolve, so editors never have to leave the familiar environment.
Online Editing
Covering a major live sporting event is a big test for any production workflow, but the EditShare system delivered against all the demands. All the camera and other feeds, as SDI or IP, were acquired onto the EFS storage network whilst FLOW created proxies on ingest to make it easy for multiple users to start editing immediately. FLOW also automatically generated all the appropriate metadata to guide users to sort material.
Because ingest is completely automatic, it eliminates tedious linking and labeling in traditional workflows. Having both the full resolution and proxy material available maximizes the bandwidth while allowing large numbers of users to work simultaneously, creating different packages as the event is taking place. Editing while recording transforms the way that content is used in live events like this competition.
The result was lively and engaging coverage and analysis of every game of the tournament, thanks to the operational efficiency of the EditShare system. Operators and editors were able to focus fully on making the best possible content by saving them from dull and repetitive tasks, which were all fully automated.
The success of the project also paid tribute to the intuitive user interface, as well as the absolute reliability, of the EFS storage platform and FLOW production asset management. The EditShare environment ensured that the operators from Guangdong Radio and Television immediately felt sufficiently comfortable to rely on it for a very high profile, technically demanding production, with a large number of live events, all seen by audiences right across the continent.
AMP Creative is an independent agency, based in Dallas, that aims to bring a fresh approach to corporate learning and communications. Recognizing that simply putting a lecture on video is not going to engage anyone, they develop unique, tailored solutions that use the latest techniques to create packages that are immersive, attractive and compelling – while also getting across important messages.
The company’s roots lie in video production, with that experience and excellence drives much of their work. Their role is to find the compelling narratives and convey them in the most appropriate way.
As a successful business, AMP Creative has generated a lot of content over the years, and managing and maintaining work in progress and archives has been important. From early in the business’s lifetime it has relied on EditShare hardware to provide secure storage and archiving, along with content management using FLOW software.
Into The Cloud
Then along came COVID. AMP Creative moved its own operations into the cloud, allowing its large team to work remotely. With its clients also being forced into new working practices, the need for communications was greater than ever so AMP had to find a way to keep providing their signature services.
While it was simple to move AMP Creative business functions to the cloud, it became clear that they need to move their production capabilities, too. They turned to EditShare to see how their proven editorial workflows could be modified for the new environment.
The response, they were happy to find, was that EditShare was already there, and had a fully developed and ready to run cloud environment. FLEX provides the same comfortable, familiar environment of EFS storage and FLOW media management, with the same ability to manage content and projects so the creative teams can concentrate on delivering great material.
FLEX provides all this functionality as a cloud-native package. It goes further than that, by supporting editing in the cloud – where the familiar software tools run in the same remote environment as the content storage – and by automating all the necessary transfers.
AMP uses Adobe® Premiere® Pro as its preferred edit platform. FLOW fully integrates with Premiere Pro, putting project cloud storage into pre-prepared bin structures so editors are working just as they always have, with no need to learn complex communications and interconnectivity.
Remote Working
To optimize for cost, AMP Creative opted for a hybrid option of Proxy Editing using local workstations and conforming to the high resolution with using virtual GPU-powered workstations deployed in AWS. This allows remote editors to utilize their existing workstations for editing against lightweight proxy video and then use power rendering capabilities in the cloud. Proxies are automatically generated by intelligence within FLEX, which ensures each editor’s workstation is ready to go with high quality, frame accurate proxies. Projects and additional material can be easily uploaded to the cloud using CloudDat file acceleration from EditShare partners Data Expedition.
This has proved to be highly effective: editors are working in exactly the way they always have; producers have excellent oversight of projects; and clients receive excellent materials in a timely manner.
Transformation
For AMP Creative, the transformation is that it has closed down its traditional server room. This is a big saving in equipment, maintenance and real estate which is a major boost to the business. The company was already an experienced AWS cloud user, so the need for training for IT staff was minimal, as was the training requirement for creative staff who were seeing the same environment as before. EditShare was pleased to provide the necessary support to get AMP up and running.
The effects of the pandemic were transformational for many individuals and businesses. AMP Creative recognized it as an opportunity to take a major step forward in the way their creative storytelling was facilitated. EditShare FLEX made it simple and practical to move completely to a hybrid and remote operation.
The Royal National Theatre – more usually referred to as the National Theatre, the National or just the NT – is one of the UK’s best known theatre venues. Founded in 1963, the reach and influence of the National has extended over the last 15 years beyond its concrete building on London’s South Bank. This is in part due to NT Live, the cinema programme of multi-camera captures of productions, distributed by satellite or DCP, to over 700 UK sites and more globally. Making the arts more accessible to a wider audience.
During the covid pandemic the National Theatre’s live performances were suspended but they adapted by creating the NT at Home streaming service. Initially it started as a program of free streams on YouTube with the full NT at Home SVOD service launching in December 2020. During this time the National Theatre discovered inefficiencies in the infrastructure when faced with a large increase in captured content, so they needed to look at the addition of post production storage. Central to this was the installation of an EditShare EFS 300 storage system, which was designed and implemented by Tyrell.
“When the pandemic hit, we were no longer able to capture new material and the cinemas were closed as well,” comments Jim Cross, Senior Post Production Manager, National Theatre. “But part of our Arts Council remit as a publicly funded organization is to bring theatre to our audiences. Because of this we started putting out productions free on YouTube, which became the NT At Home platform. To support that we went from a team of 15 to now nearly 60 people, who now work on the dual delivery of NT Live for cinema and purpose capture for NT at Home.”
Cross explains that these services along with the requirement to promote shows in the theatre, as well as the rise in the volume of work for the internal learning department meant their workload increased significantly. As a result, both the production/post-production and archiving departments realised the three legacy servers that had been used since the mid-2010s were no longer suitable for the increased demands being put on them. “It was very hard drive-based, with IT ‘non-video’ servers that weren’t specifically for media,” he says. “And these days we do less live satellite, we do more full post-production workflows in house, including editing, mixing and grading, so we needed a more dynamic, powerful and robust solution.”
This has meant there is a lot more media moving around and being worked on by the edit team, which has doubled in size in the last three years. Cross explains that by the end of 2021 the increased workload meant the NT was beginning to run out of storage. “During the covid pandemic everyone was working from home and shuttling hard drives back and forth,” he says. “We knew we were going to come back into the building, but it became very obvious we needed near-line, hot storage. A NT Live show takes on average 4 terabytes of storage and it would take three, four or five hours to ingest that. Now with EditShare EFS we can do it in just 45 minutes.”
The NT’s digital content is archived using the Preservica cloud-based platform and although that is a self-contained operation, it needed to connect to any new near-line storage set-up in a more efficient way than previously. “Historically there wasn’t such a smooth workflow process around getting material from the digital media team into the archive involved a lot of local knowledge on the part of the editors, producers and me,” comments Post-Production Archive Manager Zoe Bowers, who describes herself as sitting between the digital media team and the archive. “The move towards the new EditShare system came in tandem with thinking we all needed to know where content is so we can find it, particularly as so much more is being created.” Tyrell’s sales and marketing director, Dan Muchmore adds, “it’s a common issue that every facility hits as they grow and it’s our speciality as a technical partner to help migrate workflows away from a single source or knowledge to a way of working that benefits the business, regardless of team size and structure”.
The NT previously did not have a digital asset management system but worked on a SMB file share arrangement, with folders for short-term and long-term storage. With both Tier 1 and Tier 2 server systems nearing the end of their operational lives, Jim Cross and Zoe Bowers instigated a request for proposal (RFP) process, with EditShare being their primary choice for a new system.
“I worked with Tyrell on the installation of the system into our server room, which involved the networking and commissioning of the 256TB EditShare hardware,” Tom Rhodes, Head of IT Infrastructure explains. “But really it was all quite self-contained within the EditShare technology. It’s now utilized on our 10Gb infrastructure, which allows us to ingest material a lot quicker than before. EditShare also has its FLOW media asset management software and although we haven’t fully implemented this yet, it is something we looked at when selecting the system.”
The National Theatre has been using EditShare for 18 months and in that time, Jim Cross concludes, the new storage installation has changed the way the post-production process for the NT. “Previously the team would take material from the SANs and save content locally and on drives,” he says. “Now, the machines themselves are clear of data and we don’t use hard drives in that way anymore because of how fast it is. This means anyone can pick up a project at any point because everything is in EditShare. It has revolutionized the way we work.”
The NT has always led the way in representing the arts in the UK. Constantly evolving to find ways to make productions more accessible to wider audiences, both geographically and financially. NT Live began as a fantastic initiative and become a leader in the event cinema industry. What we love most about their hunger to evolve is that the NT team worked hard to not only maintain the value of the arts to its patrons but also the actors and production teams, who would have been impacted by the loss of work.
This evolution continues to this day, with Jim, Zoe and Tom not only identifying their post production inefficiency but also the importance of their roles as stewards of the NT archive. Inefficiencies often result in additional expenditure, which could instead be used by the arts and as we know the NT archive is important for future generations. EditShare solves both these problems whilst giving the team another opportunity to evolve again.
In my last blog, I introduced the thinking behind our new workflow management layer, EditShare One. If you have not read that yet, you can find it here. In this blog I’ll explain how it is used in a real-world production.
Footage is shot, in a studio or on location. Those files are ingested into the shared storage, along with the metadata. That may include information from a production assistant on set, about good or bad takes and other details.
Depending on the nature of the production, a producer or director may want to make another decision on preferred takes, or an edit assistant will need to build bins making it clear to the editor which is likely to be the best material.
The editor then cuts the scene and hands it on for review. That may lead to rework later, or the scene may be locked ready for final assembly and finishing. In parallel, the sound designer will be mixing and sweetening the audio to match the cut.
The producer will be monitoring progress at all times and will be commenting on scenes as they are cut, giving notes to the editor and sound designer. The final cut will be passed to the colorist, and again the producer and director will make comments on the grade.
There may be other people taking note of the progress too. For marketing, there may be a second editorial team creating trailers and teasers, for example. Where an independent company is making programmes for a broadcaster, the executive producer will want to check progress.
The huge advantage of collaborative file-based workflows is that every stage is non-destructive. You can go back and tweak any stage of the post production until everyone is happy, because all of the material is still available in the shared storage.
EditShare One and the Produce Tool provide access to the material throughout the process. There is a single sign-on to all the content and metadata, but each user has different requirements, and will be presented with different tools, different media and metadata, and different capabilities.
A producer could be alerted to new cuts that need to be reviewed and signed off. The user interface would simply offer the new material, a player, and a text tool for comments. No need to know how the underlying technology works, or even where the content is at that moment: just focus on the job at hand.
More generally, the Produce tool is a simple dashboard that saves time and potential confusion in searching through media spaces and folders. It is completely independent of all the other tools, so users simply see what is relevant to them.
For the editor, the EditShare One intuitive interface appears as a panel within the edit software itself. Editors are, of course, free to choose whichever software package works best for them, but within the Adobe or DaVinci user interface is a panel or integration tool which is linked to EditShare FLOW asset management and its management tools.
Producers can highlight interest points in transcriptions through EditShare One’s web-based UI, which editors can then import using the FLOW panel. Services, like AI speech-to-text transcriptions, can also be seen in the FLOW panel to speed up work even further. This automated process creates rough cuts or integrates selected clips into Adobe Premiere sequences, enhancing overall efficiency in the editing process.
Once the sequence or program is completed, the same simple user interface exports it as new material in the shared storage and drives it to other EditShare One users who need to see it.
The goal is to make it simple to create and expedite collaborative workflows, wherever the individuals are, by offering just the functionality and material each needs, at the time they need it. By simplifying everyone’s working environment, more time is available to concentrate on making great content.
Production workflows have become way more complicated than they used to for all sorts of reasons, but there are ways to keep the complexity under control.
The move from film or tape to files has had the incidental effect of massively increasing shooting ratios. It is simply easier to do more takes with more cameras, and keep them all, when they are “just” digital files.
It wasn’t that long ago when holiday-makers had to take one or maybe two rolls of 36-exposure film on a vacation and carefully choose the moments they wanted to capture. Now our cameras and phones get filled with hundreds, maybe thousands of pictures which we later need to sort out. The same has happened for the movie and television industry.
While shooting ratios have gone up, timescales have often been reduced. The goal is to get from set to screen as quickly as possible, especially to start recouping production costs.
More material; less time. We have to find a better way to work.
Many production workflows are still rooted in old, linear methods. Which is understandable: if you are trying to complete a project, then having proven and comfortable practices can be very reassuring. But it is definitely time to rethink the way we work.
The idea of having a central place for all the assets that make up a production is not new. All the material comes into a single server, and everyone who needs to access it can log in. Completed work gets written back to the same server, making the process convenient and streamlined.
This is great. But the challenge is that this “single server” might actually be a distributed set of storage nodes, on location, in a post house, at the production company, or in the cloud. The system that is tracking all the material needs a single database that covers all these locations.
Also, the content might come in different formats: the camera resolution (and there may be more than one camera type); the edit format (perhaps with a proxy for remote editing); and the delivery packages. Metadata needs to track not only formats and resolutions, but also the points at which value judgements are applied: quality control; editorial decisions.
But our main goal is to create the best possible television programme or movie, which means everyone, at every stage, needs to devote their energies on their part of the production without getting bogged down in the complexities of the underlying media management system.
The goal, then, is to have a high functionality, agile storage infrastructure that can handle multiple formats (and converting between them), is geographically diverse, and can manage metadata. That is exactly what EditShare FLOW was designed for.
But on top of that you need a simple, intuitive, role-appropriate user interface, so that each person in the creative team sees the information and content they need: no more; no less.
That is why we have developed EditShare One: the next generation of workflow management. One single sign-on; one place for capture, edit, review and deliver; one platform for production collaboration.
What makes this possible is a single user interface concept that is infinitely customizable. Every user has their own dashboard, showing them just the content and features they need. These dashboards are dynamic, so tasks can be assigned as needed, with all resources available.
We think EditShare One is a transformative leap forward in workflow management. It makes collaborative production environments practical and productive, and leaves creative people free to get on with creative tasks.
In my next blog I’ll look at a typical workflow, using the Produce Tool within EditShare One.
Montréal-based production company moves to latest hardware for increased flexibility
Boston, MA, September 27, 2023 – EditShare®, the technology leader that enables storytellers to create and manage collaborative media workflows, and Canadian Channel Partner, DXM, have installed a large network of EFS storage devices at Pixcom, a leading Canadian production company. Pixcom, based in Montréal, has a permanent team of over 50, employs over 5,000 freelance artists, technicians and production teams and has relied on EditShare storage for more than a decade.
The new installation at Pixcom will provide a centralized workflow hub. With all media in one spot, engineers can ensure that producers and editors always have the right material at the right time. The company’s in-house post facilities use Avid and DaVinci Resolve editing, which is tightly integrated into the storage network meaning editors always have the right material on their workstations when they need it.
“We are very comfortable and familiar with the EditShare eco-system,” said Charles Laflamme, Technical Supervisor at Pixcom. “It was time to refresh the hardware, and EditShare and their local partners DXM Technologie showed us the benefits in connectivity and security with the latest EFS devices. It will make our workflows even simpler and more productive, while ensuring that we have complete control over all the material for our productions.”
Charles Laflamme, Technical Supervisor at Pixcom
This installation is built around six EF450 scalable shared storage appliances, each with 392TB of disk storage, plus two MDC metadata controllers, giving Pixcom both high availability plus all the benefits of the FLOW production asset management software. The network also includes four EFS 40NL nearline storage nodes totalling 1.5PB of storage, plus two backup 672TB EFS 40NL nodes.
The nearline storage provides working storage for media which is in current production but not needing the same levels of throughput as the online storage. Workflow tools built into the EditShare suite ensure material is moved between online and nearline storage as required. The new network also includes EditShare Ark LTO tape drives for permanent archiving, again automated through FLOW.
“Charles and his colleagues are very familiar with all the benefits of high-performance shared storage from EditShare, which means we could talk about the latest techniques in boosting workflows and delivering productivity benefits, like the tight integration between storage and edit software, and the ability to prepare material in FLOW, in advance of the edit.” said Adam Giraudias of DXM Technologie.
“EditShare’s commitment to enabling collaborative media workflows aligns perfectly with Pixcom’s mission to deliver exceptional content efficiently,” commented Said Bacho, Chief Revenue Officer at EditShare. “With this significant installation of EFS storage, in collaboration with our valued Canadian Channel Partner, DXM, Pixcom’s creative teams now have a centralized workflow hub with immediate access to the right material. We are proud to support their journey of simplifying and enhancing production workflows while maintaining complete control over their valuable assets.”
The new storage network was installed over the summer of 2023.
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 DXM
DXM Technology offers fast and effective services that can solve the problems and challenges faced in all fields of video content production, whether you are a broadcaster, producer, post-production house, blogger or other.
The digital age has completely altered the television and film worlds. With easier and more affordable access to technologies we can now build specific workflow infrastructures that will eliminate major headaches, which in turn allows producers to generate more effective content within established budgets and deadlines.
K-State returns to EditShare based on stability and reliability
Boston, MA, August 30, 2023 – EditShare®, the technology leader that enables storytellers to create and manage collaborative media workflows, has upgraded the existing storage network at K-State Athletics, Inc. with more facilities and cloud synchronization. The installation was completed in association with US channel partner, Alpha.
K-State Athletics, as part of Kansas State University, has become one of the forefront collegiate athletic programs in the country, coming off a 2022 Big 12 Football Championship and an Elite Eight NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament appearance. K-StateHD.TV, the official video department of K-State Athletics, provides comprehensive linear, web, and social coverage of all 16 men’s and women’s sports activities, as well as providing elements and production for third-party media companies from across the nation.
Since 2016, K-StateHD.TV’s broadcast and video board control rooms have used shared storage from EditShare. Now, as part of a major expansion of its capabilities, K-State Athletics has greatly expanded and upgraded the server network for K-StateHD.TV.
“We have been very pleased with the stability of the EditShare servers we have been using since 2013,” said Andy Liebsch, Director of Video Services at K-State Athletics. “As we looked to the future, we wanted to make sure our servers were equipped to handle our increasing storage needs. We also wanted to provide a more robust solution for legacy content and backup. Alpha and EditShare provided the solution, and a seamless integration and transition program.”
The new installation adds both online and nearline storage on site, and it now provides for storage and backup in the cloud, using EditShare FLEX Cloud Sync. Also installed as part of the upgrade were additional servers for the EditShare FLOW asset management database, which has opened up automated ingest and media acquisition.
Darren Whitten, senior account executive at Alpha, added “This is a long-standing and growing relationship. The people at K-State have benefited from the flexibility and stability of EditShare over a period of many years, and we have kept them informed about the continuing developments, including the ease of adding cloud for backup and archiving through FLEX. Downtime is also a challenge in the crowded college sports calendar, so the fact that we could get in at the right time and install the new hardware quickly was also a great selling point.”
Said Bacho, CRO at EditShare said “As well as showing how our products fit seamlessly into modern workflows, this project also shows the benefits of our comprehensive distribution channel. Darren and his colleagues at Alpha stay in close touch with the team at K-State, so they understand what the college needs to achieve. That means we can roll out the right solution at the right time.”
The upgraded and enhanced storage network went online in August 2023.
For further information on all EditShare solutions, please visit the website at www.editshare.com
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.
