[Oliver Peters]

[Herb Sevush] “America’s Test Kitchen has been employing a hybrid WFH system since it’s inception 20 years ago, so I might have a different take on things.”

Cool. Thanks for the insight. Good info.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[Michael Gissing] “Rupert Murdoch is a classic example of old media fighting to slow the change while he learnt how to catch up to the new tech billionaires”

I think you are using a small example to generalize the whole. When it comes to internet development, you can just as easily point your finger at government-owned telecom agencies who have done much to hinder advanced development worldwide. Then there are the counter-examples of players like Musk, Kapor, Zuckerberg, Thiel, Bezos, etc. Like them or hate them, they all clearly have an interest in advancing the technology.

I think you are placing too much emphasis on terrestrial internet, when clearly future development is in wireless and LEO/MEO satellite fleets. However, if this means everything moves to the cloud, then we are clearly in trouble, as Adobe demonstrated this past Wednesday. Because sometimes the cloud simply isn’t there.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[Jeremy Garchow] “is that this needs to be done with consideration.”

I don’t disagree at all.

But consider this. Covid aside. If we truly believe that the majority of post work from now on will be remote, then in the past few years, facility owners have flushed a helluva a lot of money down the drain. That fleet of new Mac Pros? No need for those. That big honking NAS? Nope, should have saved money there. Simply make sure the freelancers you have working from home have adequate set-ups.

Maybe that’s an exaggeration, but if remote work will truly be the norm and not the exception, you are going to design and build post facilities in a completely different way.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[Jeremy Garchow] “So what do you do in the meantime? Wait?”

And what’s your plan? If staying home is the solution, what do you say to your assistant editors or IT personnel when they are the ones who do have to go into the office?

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[Jeremy Garchow] “What is known is that this is certainly NOT the flu”

I wasn’t saying nor implying that it was. Merely that dealing with viruses is anything but predictable. The flu is a very known disease to us, yet each year it is different. Producing vaccines for each year’s version is as much a guess as anything. If the virus develops the way you think it does, then the vaccine will have a higher success rate than if it develops differently.

OTOH, diseases like Ebola, SARS, MERS, etc do not yet have vaccines. Although there are trials.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[greg janza] “And while I certainly hope we can get past this pandemic quickly, it seems essential to keep in mind that the fastest a vaccine has ever been created is four years for the Mumps. “

There are also plenty of diseases for which we never created a vaccine. They simply went away or morphed into something less virulent. Flu vaccines are also an educated guess each year they are formulated. Some years are more successful than others. That’s all part of the unknown right now.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[greg janza] “There’s simply no way any employer can expect employees to return to offices if there’s no childcare solutions in place”

But, if the employer hires contractors to edit and there’s a choice of someone who comes in versus someone who doesn’t, then that’s where the dilemma comes in. Especially knowing that the one who doesn’t come in represents a higher business cost. OTOH, if you are a valued employee or contractor, then certainly allowances will be made during this time.

However, I’m not talking about Covid circumstances today or in the next few months. I’m talking about what it looks like down the road, when Covid is no longer a factor any more than the flu is now (and no, I’m not making flu comparisons).

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Indeed there is not. It’s fine if you don’t want to talk about it or agree with me. I am trying my best to make sure I have employment as well”

I get that. I’m just trying to stay on track and avoid the obvious politics of the situation.

[Jeremy Garchow] “One of the big conundrums is production. We will not have post without production.”

Understood, and yes, we have also been dealing with those considerations.

[Jeremy Garchow] “Things will take longer, costs will be higher, a set will not look like sets from pre-pandemic.”

Temporarily, yes. This time next year or in 2 years? I’m not so sure.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

Thanks for your lengthy reply, Jeremy. Obviously, everyone’s situation is very different. The benefits of living in markets like NYC, Chicago, LA, and SF to name a few – due to their nature and this business – are also the precise ingredients that push the numbers up and make cost assessments harder than in smaller communities. So there is no “one size fits all” solution. Other than that, there’s a lot in the last part I simply disagree with, but I’ll leave it at that.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[greg janza] “I hear you in terms of skepticism. There’s still a lot of infrastructure that needs to be built out for this remote workflow to become the norm.”

There’s a large business component against this. Let’s say the going rate for an editor is $500/day w/o gear or $1,000/day with their own gear. If you are a production company owner and have already made some investment in a workstation, will you bring in the editor at $500/day or let them work from home for $1,000/day while your gear sits idle? I doubt most production companies will pay the editor the full rate, simply so you can work from home. If you are an editor who wants to work from home, are you going to absorb the cost of owning the gear, because they’ll only pay you the $500/day rate? Bit of a dilemma.

[greg janza] “In addition, for many of us in the Bay Area a 3-hour roundtrip commute each day is not uncommon”

You have my sympathies, but just consider that decompression time ☺

– Oliver

Oliver Peters – oliverpeters.com