AmericanCinematographer201201

This graph by Los
Angeles post
facility Light Iron,
which specializes
in file-based
workflows,
predicts that such
workflows will
eclipse all others
by 2015.
Diagram courtesy of Michael Cioni.
before, so handling data seems even
easier than handling film. Many people
assume [the task] can therefore be
handed down to the least-experienced
person on set.”
The data on a memory card or
tape that is removed from the camera is
extremely vulnerable until it is retrieved,
backed up and verified. The efforts of
the entire production team are held
within this small digital package of ones
and zeroes, so it’s vital to establish a
structured hierarchy for the handling of
shot media. “Describing on-set data
management as ‘copying data’ is sort of
like describing cinematography as
‘pointing a camera’ — it just doesn’t tell
the whole story,” Willard observes. “A
proper on-set digital workflow requires
an experienced individual. The time,
money and sanity saved by hiring an A-
list team will be worth a hundred times
more than what it costs.”
Many methods and devices are
used to store, back up and transport onset
data, and given the serpentine path
any particular workflow can take, it is
crucial to establish a clear set of checks
and balances to safeguard your “digital
negative.” In addition to verifying the
data copies (by performing checksums
on copied data across several duplicate
drives), one must create a procedure for
methodically rotating media cards,
shuttle drives and archive masters both
on set and when transporting materials
to and from post houses.
“Have you ever seen someone
sitting on set with 20 fire-wire drives
of different sizes all daisy-chained
“Describing on-set
data management
as ‘copying data’
just doesn’t tell the
whole story.”
together?” asks Cioni. “Well, for some
people, that’s a workflow.
“The first mistake many productions
make is deciding not to spend the
money on the workflow up front,” he
continues. “People are reluctant to spend
money on something they don’t understand,
and that’s logical. But trying to
save money on your workflow and
slowly trickle it out as you go actually
creates bumps in the road. You need to
decide up front that you will get the
right type of drives and the right
number of drives, not to mention the
right amount of recording media, like
solid-state cards. Clients often ask me,
‘Will five or six cards do the trick?’ And
I ask, ‘For what, the morning? Because
ideally, we’d like to hold onto cards that
are storing footage for at least 72
hours!’”
The next hurdle in a digital workflow
is preparing the media for its move
to the editorial and post teams. Many of
today’s high-end digital motion-picture
camera systems shoot to their own
proprietary file formats that don’t
directly allow for editing in systems such
as Avid and Final Cut Pro. Therefore, it
is often necessary to transcode the
footage into a format that is compatible
with the post house’s chosen editorial
equipment.
Several possible workflow paths
can be introduced through this process,
and each has potential pitfalls that can
impact the image. Does the production
want to use the transcodedfiles for
offline purposes only, similar to a work
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