Today’s experiment.

[Gav Bott]

“IMO, we stand on the threshold of a working environment that I think is being deconstructed into a more mobile, more distributed model.”

This already happened. 5 years ago.

For some of us at least.

The Brit in Brisbane
The Pomme in Production – Brisbane Australia.

[Bill Davis]

Great, Gav,

I’d be interested in hearing your experiences in moving away from the ” studio” approach and into actual “end to end” production using exclusively Mobil tools.

It’s something I’m increasingly contemplating. What editing software are you running? What hardware are you running it on? What’s your field storage, mastering and archiving look like?

I would assume that 5 years ago, you were doing stuff like client dubs on DVD, but are now delivering mostly digitally?

If so, how do you distribute long form review materials like field tapes? Here in the US, there’s often a premium on digital uploading of files larger than 2gigs. How are you handling that in a mobile workflow?

Honestly interested.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Bill Davis]

Yeah, but while the wide adoption of the typewriter certainly fostered an era where a lot more people could TYPE, only a small fraction of them actually became successful professional writers.

Same same.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Tom Prigge]

Actually, I think a better analogy would be did the typewriter make more people literate. Not sure if that is true or not. For the purposes of the point I was making, try this: The advent of computers and word processors created more people who could type. Back in the day, a corner office executive couldn’t use a typewriter. Today, everyone, including the corner office executive, can type. Some even type their own letters, or at least, their own e-mails.

Perhaps these exec’s letters and e-mails are not as professionally formatted and checked for grammar, etc. as in previous generations, but they’re good enough and the process is much faster. When it comes to video, for some–not all–clients good enough is, well, good enough. Cheaper too. I just believe that that attitude, along with inexpensive tools, will eventually force a lot of video pros to find other work. What can we do to make sure we continue in this business? Well, that’s up for discussion. Which is why I brought it up. I think it’s something that needs to be discussed and addressed.

[Bill Davis]

Tom,

I don’t disagree with you at all.

In fact, I’ve long felt that with the “democratization” (whatever that actually means!) of video editing tools and techniques, the ONLY thing that will separate practitioners are the skills outside mere “operation.”

Thankfully, making a quality video is a dauntingly complex task. That’s why the typical Sundance Festival – after announcing they would accept “digital” film submissions – was generating something on the order of 10,000 yearly entries even a decade ago, of which only a tiny fraction were typically worthy of real notice.

Tools are one thing. Talent another. And if Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” perspective is to be believed, none of the above will make much of a decisive difference if you don’t have the proper skills during the brief window when the market values those skills over others.

The work we lose to the camcorder kids wasn’t real work in any lasting sense. It’s just supply-side realities in a world where mechanisms keep cropping up to make large supplies of cheap stuff ever present. That makes quality more difficult to spot. And cheap will win in the short term when that’s the prevailing necessity. But over time, quality has it’s place. Thus it has ever been.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Gav Bott]

Hi Bill,

Am software/hardware agnostic. In terms of being mobile I don’t think it matters at all – don’t feel the need to run top end hardware to be able to be mobile (always nice, budget dependant as always) – cut the cloth, make it fit and all that. FCP, ADOBE, VEGAS – Vegas is so light, for some jobs on a laptop it really is a no-brainer for us.

Good laptop of whatever your preferred reliable flavour, the best studio cans you can afford, a couple of external 1 terra drives, and the lightest software set you can use to get the job done. Card recording makes this easy, P2, DSLR’s, whatever – loading onto the system as they fill up & are swapped out, during lunch, etc. Archiving (not “real” archiving of course) to externals while shooting more etc.

All the mobile work we do is based on still having “a home” to return to or send things to/from – for heavy lifting and storage. So not “end to end” in the truest sense, and we still do lots of non-mobile work as well, so it’s some jobs, some of the time – but bringing elements of the studio out on the road is the norm.

Does everything get done this way? No, but lots of projects can get the majority of the decision making and grunt work pushed through out of the studio. To be honest I pretty much assume if I think about it for a bit – just about anything (audio is often the exception) can come out of the studio for us – not all things are equal for everyone of course.

Started with FCP on books, bringing the edit to clients/execs for reviews and rapid small changes. Now it’s checking chroma matts in the studio and editing on the fly post shoot for script editing and structure – and as you found, delivering low complexity finished jobs very rapidly, on site. Web distributed presenter piece or similar? Don’t even think about needing a studio.

As far as delivery goes – show it on screen right there, get the OK and then go back to base to finish off. Delivering large files isn’t something we’ve solved (mobile uploads are painful so far), unless on site and can deliver a drive or DVD burn. Returning to base to create deliverables is just fine – having a still space to review and finish off is perfect for that stage of the job.

The Brit in Brisbane
The Pomme in Production – Brisbane Australia.