Final summer season we obtained a peek into the exceptional 8K dailies workflow of the indie comedy Faith Based.
This spectacular workflow proved what was doable with present know-how: 8K seize, with full-quality dailies, delivered inside hours, to anybody’s telephone, nearly anyplace, on an indie price range.
However this turned out to be only the start for this scrappy group, they usually’ve pushed their workflow even additional since then.
In in the present day’s article, we’re catching up with the crew behind this movie, which premiered this past weekend on the Santa Barbara Worldwide Movie Pageant, to see how they constructed a studio-quality workflow on a distinctly indie price range.
With regards to video workflows, budgets inevitably decide the scope of what’s creatively doable and what know-how a manufacturing can afford.
This chilly actuality means we received’t get all the pieces we would like in each workflow for each venture (at the very least not so long as we’re paying for it). Compromise is simply a part of the inventive course of—the previous adage “quick, low-cost, good—decide two” nearly at all times applies.
However compromise additionally forces the trade to maintain creating higher instruments at decrease costs.
As we begin a brand new decade and look again on the monumental developments in video know-how over the previous ten years, it’s time to reassess the assumptions we take to work day-after-day.
It wasn’t that way back that the game-changing DSLR revolution tore down the boundaries to capturing “cinematic” video. It was much more just lately that inexpensive drones and stabilizers unleashed an entire new world of inventive prospects on set. And our extra “seasoned” readers bear in mind the times when these new-fangled NLEs eternally modified the artwork and craft of modifying.
Most of those instruments and processes had been barely conceivable 10 years in the past, however now they’re so mainstream and accessible that we take with no consideration how unimaginable they’re and the way far we’ve come.
So, as we enter the brand new period of cloud-based post-production, let’s check out what’s already doable, and picture what’s but to return.
Breaking down boundaries, on a price range
Patrick Southern, Body.io’s very personal Workflow Architect, was the editor on Religion Primarily based. He informed us that one of many best challenges (and rewards) of this venture was reducing by way of the fog to show what was technically doable.
“One of many frequent misconceptions about low-budget initiatives is you’ll be able to’t entry all of the instruments and methods that higher-budget productions get. However, given how rapidly video know-how is advancing, that isn’t true anymore,” Patrick says.
In Patrick’s opinion, most of the workflow instruments crucial for this stage of manufacturing are throughout the attain of most indie budgets—and many video groups already use them day-after-day.
“For those who’re prepared to attempt new instruments in new methods, you’ll be stunned what technical feats you’ll be able to obtain on a good price range.” And when Religion Primarily based knew that they couldn’t afford the very best price workflow, they constructed one which was environment friendly, quick, and versatile.
Velocity or spend
From the beginning, director Vincent Masciale wished to deal with the manufacturing course of as professionally as doable, leveraging the capabilities of a studio-level workflow to construct a lightweight and nimble group.
“One of many issues that’s vital for me as a filmmaker, particularly on low price range initiatives, is to ensure we’re respecting individuals’s time on set. If we will’t pay individuals effectively, we will at the very least be certain we’re not losing their time,” Vincent says.
“Since Religion Primarily based is a comedy, we knew we had been going to rely upon improv for lots of actor performances. To that finish, we wanted to get all the pieces as rapidly as doable. We didn’t have time for reshoots. It needed to be captured proper the primary time. And so we began planning our workflow from there.”
The forged they obtained for this indie comedy is sort of spectacular: arise comic Margaret Cho, Second Metropolis veteran David Koechner, Lance Reddick (the Continental concierge from John Wick, who can also be an Government Producer), and Seinfeld alum Jason Alexander.
To do that, they determined early on to shoot with two cameras, so that almost all performances and scenes had cross protection. And since they wished to maintain their choices open for Netflix distribution, they selected the 8K RED Helium.
Netflix requires {that a} digicam has the photosites required to create an precise UHD or 4K picture. Will Stone, the Religion Primarily based DP, wished to make use of an ARRI digicam, however most ARRI cameras that match inside their price range must do an up-res in digicam to get to 4K. So that they selected the RED to get look with out dropping out on the potential for distributing to Netflix.
Vincent admits that capturing with two RED cameras in each scene might have difficult the logistics, however finally they obtained their protection extra effectively.
By utilizing this method, they shot a 90-minute function in simply 17 days.
The group additionally determined that to fulfill their want for pace they’d design their workflow to lower the time between manufacturing and publish.
“We didn’t have the price range for a correct publish home, and we knew we wished nearly quick entry to footage on set or at dwelling. And so we constructed our personal course of from the bottom up,” Vincent says.
On previous initiatives they used Dropbox and Google Drive to preview clips and ship suggestions. However that meant the dailies had been low-res and took days to course of.
This time, they began recent with Frame.io. “Given our restricted sources, we didn’t wish to tie up our DIT or editorial each time we wished to look at footage. By utilizing Body.io, we may see all the pieces immediately, on set, as quickly because it got here off the digicam.”
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By enabling the crew to continuously verify takes, scenes, and performances, they had been capable of give actors prompt suggestions and save large quantities of time. And so they additionally saved cash, as a result of they may guarantee continuity with out having a script supervisor.
One of the best half about utilizing Body.io is that it turned their work on set into the primary a part of the publish course of. However earlier than they may try this, they needed to get all that 8K footage backed up.
Instruments of the commerce
One of many challenges of their homegrown workflow was coping with the sheer quantity of information from the RED Heliums.
“8K information are nice, however they take up a ton of house,” Patrick says. “We would have liked a steady course of for transferring and verifying the integrity of these big information, which compelled us to decide on a strong set of instruments.”
The group used Hedge (media administration software program) on set to switch OCFs (unique digicam information) and in-camera proxy information to a number of locations without delay. “We used a mixture of a Jellyfish, OWC Thunderbays, and G RAIDs for editorial and backups,” Patrick says.
“Hedge may copy information to them concurrently with checksum verification. We additionally took benefit of Hedge’s ‘Checkpoint’ function, which is like an additional spherical of checksum verification on the supply gadget. It principally ensures that there wasn’t an error with the supply in the course of the copy and creates a “hero” checksum that can be utilized when transferring to a different vacation spot later.”
However the group didn’t cease there. “We used LTO tapes for all of the digicam unique information, simply to make certain we had backups if all of our spinning drives died.”
Typically LTO might be finicky, however Patrick and his group used an app known as Canister to make the archival backups a simple drag-and-drop course of.
“Canister copies the precise file construction from the supply, so it’s actually useful if it’s a must to restore from an archival copy,” he says. “And since it used the LTFS format, it makes the LTO knowledge readable by macOS and Home windows machines similar to every other mounted drive. It relieved numerous the uncertainty and issue of utilizing LTO.”
As soon as the information had been safely off the digicam and on the varied storage arrays, it was time for the publish group to get to work. However as you might need guessed, this wasn’t going to be a typical course of, both.
“We weren’t understanding of a everlasting publish facility, and most of our group was working part-time. That meant we needed to share tasks, and wanted handoffs to be as seamless as doable,” Patricks says.
However because of their good storage infrastructure and asset administration plan, they had been capable of make actual copies of all the venture’s file construction on a number of machines, which made syncing again to the grasp initiatives painless.
“We had entry to all of our footage always, wherever we had been, on any gadget,” Vincent says.” So whereas I used to be within the edit bay with Patrick, I had the power to continuously pull up footage and INTVs whereas he was modifying. It was unreal.”
The group additionally used Body.io to go music and sound results between group members and gadgets. “Actually, Body.io ended up as our cloud-based server for all issues Religion Primarily based,” Vincent says.
The ultimate main piece of the group’s workflow is one which was indispensable, but in addition might be controversial within the post-production neighborhood—Last Lower Professional X.
Pushing FCP X to the max
One huge fable Patrick and his group had been wanting to dispel is that FCP X isn’t an efficient NLE for feature-length initiatives.
“I nonetheless hear individuals say ‘FCP X can’t be simply built-in into advanced skilled workflows’…at the very least not and not using a ton of workarounds or plugins or patches to make it work,” he says. “However let me say on the file, with my intensive expertise throughout most modifying platforms, this isn’t true. Our group discovered FCP X to be absolutely able to dealing with this venture, and it has a ton of awesome features that different NLEs don’t.”
FCP X is commonly criticized for not having collaboration options which might be as sturdy as Avid’s or Premiere Professional’s. So the group used a software known as Postlab to bridge that hole.
“Postlab is type of like Github, however for FCP X,” Patrick says. “We may hold all of our libraries there and share them throughout the group. We locked and unlocked libraries as we labored on them [to prevent multiple people from making changes to the same library at the same time], and Postlab robotically dealt with versioning.”
Postlab let Patrick and his group get pleasure from all the benefits of FCP X, with out reducing corners for his or her function movie.
As a result of all of the libraries had been within the cloud, the group may lower from anyplace, with out delivery drives between customers. “Since all of us had proxies on our personal drives, all we needed to do was add lower reels to Postlab, after which everybody had entry to them. Then, as soon as a reel was completed, it was straightforward to resync the OCFs,” Patrick says.
This setup allowed the group to interrupt the movie up into 5 separate libraries, which boosted system efficiency and allowed them to spit out completed reels in remarkably quick time. “As soon as we had a screener prepared, Postlab and FCP X allow us to put together it in about 10 minutes.”
However there have been a number of issues left to do earlier than Religion Primarily based hit the large display screen.
Huge display screen and massive sound
Vince and his group had been fortunate sufficient to preview their work at Red Studios Hollywood. Given the venue’s 5.1 capabilities, they needed to do some advance preparation to display screen their work to full impact.
“We had been working in stereo as much as that time, however we wanted to combine it for five.1 earlier than screening,” Patrick says.
This would possibly seem to be a significant technical problem, however FCP X made the method clean and easy.
“First, we had to ensure every venture and compound clip was set to ‘Encompass’ after which we made positive the pan modes had been laid out accordingly. We used the “Music” pan mode to take stereo audio and unfold it throughout all the encompass discipline. For Atmosphere results, we assigned an “Atmosphere” Audio Function, and utilized the Atmosphere Pan Mode, which panned the audio largely to the left and proper encompass audio system. Due to Audio Roles and Pan Modes, this solely took a number of clicks inside FCP X.”
As soon as the audio mixing was full, the following step was prepping a Digital Cinema Bundle (DCP).
“We used Resolve Studio 16 to create our DCPs, and it was really easy,” Patrick says. “All we needed to do was spit out a reel in ProRes from FCP X (with encompass sound configured correctly) and import it into Resolve. From there, we exported DCPs instantly. The one factor we wanted was a Linux machine as a way to format the DCP drive within the EXT2 format.”
As soon as the DCP was exported, all that was left to do was put the drive in a CRU enclosure, drive to RED Studios, and slap it into the projection system.
“It was wonderful to see work we had lower on laptops be projected in big-screen glory,” Patrick says.
The Religion Primarily based group was capable of do unimaginable issues on an indie price range. From seize and dailies to editorial and ending, this workflow delivered capabilities rivaling many studio-level productions.
“I’m at all times taking a look at new instruments to assist enhance workflow,” says Patrick. If this venture is any indication, we now have religion that his subsequent venture could have an much more modern workflow.
Are you utilizing any of those instruments and methods in your work? Are there different workflows you’ve developed on an indie price range? Share your expertise within the feedback.
Authentic images by Loren Malley.
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