American Cinematographer - January 2012 - 75

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.

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 Alist 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

stand, 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 together?” asks Cioni. “Well, for some equipment. people, that’s a workflow. Several possible workflow paths “The first mistake many produc- can be introduced through this process, tions make is deciding not to spend the and each has potential pitfalls that can money on the workflow up front,” he impact the image. Does the production continues. “People are reluctant to spend want to use the transcodedfiles for money on something they don’t under- offline purposes only, similar to a work

“Describing on-set data management as ‘copying data’ just doesn’t tell the whole story.”

Diagram courtesy of Michael Cioni.

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American Cinematographer - January 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - January 2012