Craig German
My original intent for this article was to explore how a TV producer or film director could conceive, create, and distribute a high production value show for a fraction of the typical cost. We all know about Robert Rodriguez's critically acclaimed $7,000 film, El Mariachi; Tyler Oakley's $6M/year on-line social issues show; and student filmmakers who make compelling movies on nothing but free labor and borrowed equipment and rooms. And there's no question we can learn a lot in this industry by studying these examples to test our ideas about how we make great content. But what I was after was this: how can we change our creative workflows and apply new products and services from industry disruptors to reduce the cost profile for what we do? With limited print space and time, I decided on two things: I'd focus my attention on production and post in scripted TV and film; and I'd avoid quantitative budget comparisons, instead aggregating the thoughts of some of our colleagues into a picture of where we've made progress today, where we may go in the future, and where some of the challenges will probably persist.
Historically, scripted television and film have required significant budgets and heavy infrastructure. However, progress in technological innovation and the evolution of content business models have enabled and motivated us to seek lower cost profiles, with even greater expectations that costs will continue to decrease. The sources of cost savings have been in several areas: workflow optimization; tools commoditization; cloud services; and open technology.
When we talk about workflow optimization, we're talking about intelligent process choices. Are there redundant steps? Can we remove any dependencies to shorten the timeline? If we change the order of events, do any steps collapse? We've seen workflow specialists rise to the level of key players at post houses. And with more compute power, cheaper storage, and greater connectivity, a workflow specialist has a deeper arsenal for his attack plan.
As an example, Jesse Korosi, Director of Workflow Services at Bling, has had increasing requests to be involved in a job from capture to final conform, going beyond the typical separation of on-set and post roles. Often, much of the knowledge about the assets leaving the set for post is lost - it wasn't captured in the first place, or it is not convenient enough to track. By involving the workflow specialist in technical decisions up front, from how color is created on set, to the software used for metadata logging and VFX Data Wrangler notes, he is able to aggregate project metadata so that downstream teams can automate more of their processes. Aside from some of the customized tools that a workflow specialist may use, many other software companies like Colorfront have opened up their products to enable workflow specialists to customize them, as well.
Another type of workflow optimization is talent focus. Great colorists and sound mixers still command a premium and will likely always be appreciated for their importance, as evidenced by the many award categories at the BAFTAs, Oscars, Emmys, HPAs, etc. Even in the indie world, as noted by Randall Maxwell, an indie producer/writer, you need the pop you get from the color pro and the mixer. Is there a way to focus these talented professionals on where they add the most value, and not where the work is more preparatory or ancillary? Adam Stern, Founder and CEO of Artifex Studios in Vancouver, has seen a trend of doing the initial sound or color work in a home studio before submitting it for the high end finishing step. Having said that, you won't achieve high production value without true talent, the right tools, and the right viewing or listening experience. The choice you have is how close you want to get to the look you want before you engage with the real deal.
The term cloud has been around long enough that we all have a pretty good idea of what we mean when we say it. But how does it help us to control our costs? When cloud was first becoming a thing, the only solution most of us had on our lips was Amazon, and we were skeptical about what could be accomplished in the cloud, how secure it was, and whether it could meet our SLAs. Ten years later, we also have Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, major vendors have developed vertical ecosystems in each cloud solution, the cloud providers have a solid relationship with the MPAA, and there are sophisticated tiers of storage and compute to meet our varying post and distribution needs. Erik Weaver, who ran the Entertainment Technology Center's Project Cloud, observed through various case studies that creative teams were able to exploit editorial resources, via BeBop and Avid, as well as HDR color correction via Colorfront, in the cloud to complete their films, while only paying for the transactional costs of the actual cloud cycles. Similarly, Adam Stern said that he now has the luxury of reserving budget that he used to have to hold back to keep up with the latest rendering hardware and infrastructure, and he is instead able to reallocate those funds directly to VFX burst rendering in the cloud.
Post production tools themselves have become more sophisticated and multi-purpose. The competition from Final Cut Pro and Premiere has given Avid a run for its money, and our community has benefited as a consequence. Although there have been questions over the past several years of whether Apple was serious about the professional market, they are still an important option for many post production professionals, whether as part of a large operation, or as an independent producer. And this has certainly driven each of these vendors to lower their price point while piling on features that enable content creators to get
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Craig German
