DRAMA AND FILM POST AND VFX
WHAT’S NEXT
The post and vfx industry had to be quick on its feet when lockdown hit. And many have found that changes forced on them by COVID restrictions could now be there for the long term. Jon Creamer reports
hen lockdown hit, unlike production, post and vfx companies were never forced to shut
down operations. But they had to move quickly. For
some organisations already embracing a remote, or semi remote, working set up it was a (relatively) seamless transition. For others, it was quite the learning experience as they rushed to connect up workers from bedroom- based suites to the post house itself. Most had managed the task within a couple of weeks. For vfx producer, Rob Delicata,
it meant making sure his four vfx vendors on six-part HBO and Sky show, The Third Day, could “switch from a normal facility vendor model to remote working” as soon as lockdown hit. But he says, “the process was quick and seamless.” MPC and Freefolk “switched within a matter of days” and IMG and Lenscare are “a network of artists who have moved away from the facility model working together while never being in the same room.” For many others, typically those
working in full service post production, there was a bigger task at hand. “We essentially had to complete one year’s worth of engineering in a few weeks,” says Envy’s Chief Technology Officer, Daniel Sassen. Because while most had various remote solutions in place already, often to easily ship Flame suites to different rooms depending on client demand, there was still the need to find remote solutions for tens of offline suites, whole finishing departments and very large QC setups. “Some solutions have worked better
than others,” says UK Screen Alliance chief exec, Neil Hatton. “There’s been a lot of learning. Companies that have taken on that experience will be better placed for what was already beginning to happen.”
Leap forward It’s become a cliché, but COVID-19
has been an accelerator of change. Moves to remote and cloud working projected to happen on a gradual, graceful curve have been forced through in a matter of months.
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televisual.com Summer 2020
POST AND VFX: NEXT
Hatton points to similarities to
the 2011 Japanese tsunami when the Sony factory producing much of the world’s tape stock was knocked out. “I remember the price of HDCAM- SR stock quadrupling overnight. That probably accelerated the move to fully digital working by a couple of years ahead of the planned the DPP digital delivery day. So what’s going to be the change that we get now? I think more distributed working, more video conferencing clearly. And there will be changes in the way that we structure our teams and make use of the fact that not everyone needs to be in the office.” John Fleming, VP Post Production,
Technicolor UK, says that it has changed attitudes among the post world’s clients too. “While we have held many conversations with stakeholders, including individual productions, cinematographers and directors and studio executives, it has often been difficult to convince them of the benefits and future value of
certain solutions. I think this pandemic has shaken things up. There is now a willingness to see things differently.” And it has certainly opened the
eyes of those in the post and vfx business, with many now seeing a future where both remote and studio working will sit side by side, even after the pandemic. “Maybe distributed working will be
the new norm,” says Dominic Parker, co-director of One of Us “because we have shown that it’s not necessary to have your whole workforce in the same place at the same time.” But “in a post-pandemic world, there will still be many strong reasons to gather groups of people together. “ Clear Cut md, Rowan Bray, similarly
says the company will “hang on to the ability to do a few of your days at home and come into the office less. I think we’ll be more flexible. We’ll be able to be more intelligent about the way that we deliver work and give the work life balance of our staff an uplift.”
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