Online Post-Production Management with ShotRunner

The days of cobbling together a database to track shots, assets and progress are numbered. Although nowadays it has become common for many post-production projects to be managed with Basecamp, it’s an application hardly specialized to our industry.

Two web based tools currently in late beta anticipate the needs of post production more directly. Shotgun has been adopted at large facilities around the world and will be profiled separately; this article focuses on ShotRunner, and my own experiences using it as a visual effects supervisor on a pair of feature films.

Has the Demise of Film Been Hastened by the Impending Actors’ Strike?

Episode 29 of the excellent Red Centre Podcast consists of an interview with L.A. based director of photography Rodney Charters, who makes the assertion that entertainment industry strikes have hastened the demise of film as a shooting medium.

“Out of 100 pilots this year,” reports Charters, “only 3 are being shot on film.” This is a dramatic decline from years past, a much faster rate than one would expect in the natural evolution to high-end digital shooting in the 21st century. Why?

As you are probably aware, SAG has for some time been threatening to strike, having failed to come to an agreement with MPAA in 2008; after the writer’s strike which cost the California economy some $2.1 billion, this has caused a good deal of consternation on the part of producers. It also apparently led to a split with AFTRA, the sister union to SAG which traditionally is the “television” unit where SAG is feature film.

AFTRA’s contract stipulates that shows featuring its members be shot electronically (the television link) and therefore, in order to avoid the unexpected, producers have apparently been demanding AFTRA agreements. Thus, the vast majority of new television projects, including dramatic series that would traditionally have been filmed, have been shot with cameras like Panavision Genesis, Sony F35 and RED.

Whereby, according to Charters, “the actors have single-handedly killed film.”

NAB 2008 Super Session: A Million Dollar Look on a Thousand Dollar Budget

With big exhibitions like The NAB Show falling out of favor, and some disappearing altogether in the 21st century, NAB struck back this year by offering more educational fare than in years past, featuring keynotes and panels of experts from the industry, as well as day-long classes. On Wednesday was “A Million Dollar Look on a Thousand Dollar Budget,” a keynote and panel on getting cinematic production values out of equipment you may already have sitting around your studio.

The session was kicked off with the Legend of Zelda fan trailer “linked” here (nerdy pun for gamers paying attention) which appeared on April Fool’s Day, followed by a keynote by Stu Maschwitz of The Orphanage (and author of a fantastic blog) and then a panel featuring Dave Basulto of Clarity Pictures,  Alex Lindsay from Pixel Corps, D.P. Taylor Wigton (447 Productions) and moderated by Brian Valente from Redrock Micro.

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