Filmmakers Versus IT – Creative Storage
June 28, 2011, Creative Storage Conference, Culver City, CA– Larry Jordan, producer and host of Digital Production Buzz, talked about “why do filmmakers and IT pros have trouble talking to each other” in his keynote address. There is a major disconnect between filmmakers, who are not technology experts, and the IT market, which considers computers and communications their central focus.
Jordan started with a rant against Apple computer for their release of Final Cut 10, which is now focused on the middle tier of content producers. This change is an example of a company on the technology side that is forgetting to consider the needs of their customers. The new release may be opening a new market but is alienating the high-end customers.
This release is a change in market focus from the high-end production people who think that multiuser and non-attached storage are critical to their operations. In addition, the new release now transcodes all media into Pro Res format, which is efficient but big and uses about 18 MB per second. Now, a dissolve takes more than 400 MB per second which is one of the reasons that storage volumes are up by a factor of four and data rates have to increase my factor of 10 to keep up with the volume.
For better or worse, filmmakers are not a sophisticated audience. The media requirements for storage are drawing more marketing discussions but fewer actual results. Digital media absolutely devours storage and many filmmakers think of storage is either empty or full. Even small projects generate dozens of gigabytes and all production is project-based.
Filmmakers work on the craft of telling stories, and use technology as one of their tools. Technology people on the other hand are all about specifications and functional descriptions, but not uses for their hardware. For example, Steven Spielberg only edits on film, because nonlinear editing flows make it difficult to manage continuity. Video needs a story or it is of no value to the viewers.
The two groups also have different perspectives about their working environments technology people talk about machine rooms with controlled environmental conditions. Filmmakers talk about an editing suite, which can be anywhere and is usually very sloppy. They always work in something much less than an ideal environment because the deadline is key not technology.
What filmmakers really need are the five following items: quiet, expandable, connectivity, performance, and manuals written in English not IT speak. Here are some examples of existing equipment that failed at least one of these requirements. RAID arrays with utilize cooling fans which create sounds like a jet engine starting, and are shipped with very short interface cables. The filmmaker wants to hear the dialogue and effects sounds, not the hardware cooling fans, and not have the storage devices in their work surface area.
Storage systems need to be expandable in increments over time. Filmmakers don’t know their data needs until the shooting is completed. IT systems suppliers always want to sell you a full-blown system up front and don’t allow for expansion in changing increments of size. They also want to lock you into their drives, that can only be added when the system is down, and need reconfiguration before being operational.
A typical production may be working from a multi-camera environment and it is using Final Cut. When 16 cameras are transcoded to Pro Res, the total bandwidth requirements are about 424 MB per second. Therefore, 450 MB per second is a maximum speed necessary to handle the data volume. Faster I/O doesn’t do anything other than consume more electricity and certainly don’t help the filmmaker use a computer.
All of the IT systems need manuals that identify useful information. Vendors need to think like a consumer, not a technology person. In addition, vendors must consider small-scale productions are using only three cameras most of the video is edited on a Mac laptop or iMac and not on a Mac Pro or on a Windows machine. Storage makers must consider this audience in developing their hardware, software and user manuals.
One storage system maker who seems to understand the filmmaker is Drobo. Their system is user-friendly. It is expandable in any increments and self configures upon insertion of a new drive. The manual has lots of pictures. These characteristics are important because tapeless production doubles the data volume per project and 3-D doubles it again.
Archival storage is another area that needs attention. Film makers needed integrated solution that costs less than RAID, and can store data volumes ranging from low terabytes to petabytes.
The challenge for the storage industry is that storytellers are not technically literate. Some of the storage makers are making systems that don’t require IT staff to install, configure, and operate. Silence is golden. Expansion has to be incremental.
All media projects are sporadic solo half of the industry is constantly unemployed. Therefore, vendors need to supply technology film makers can use and not technology you prefer to sell. A perfect storage system would include RAID five, with connections through iSCSI and Ethernet, and FireWire 800. It would be networkable and incrementally expandable. Consider implementing Thunderbolt interfaces for your next generation products.
