The Promise of the Cloud

It’s not much of a secret that the motion picture industry has difficulty keeping up with the pace of developments in Information Technology (IT). It took approximately 10 years to fully embrace digital cameras as a viable alternative to 35mm film, and to date, much of the process of actually making a film is dependent on hand-written notes, as opposed to the electronic documents that are used in almost every other industry imaginable.

The latest significant development has fared much better in this regard. The promise of being able to work and communicate easily from any location with a minimal amount of setup and initial cost is something that appeals to pretty much everyone in every role on a production, whether an assistant or an executive. This is the promise of the “Cloud”, a catch-all term for a group of technologies dependent on the Internet that provide a number of different IT services that are immediately available to use.

The services on offer span the gamut from file storage and organisation, through aggregation and analysis of data, all the way to distribution and playback of digital media. It’s possible to pick and choose which services (if any) to use, but the Cloud is at its best when you use as much of it as possible, with services that tie into each other and provide out-of-the-box automation, saving time and energy and making processes more efficient.

With the Cloud, everything can be archived for posterity, analysed for a variety of purposes, and scaled on demand. Everyone can be connected at all times, providing clearer, more direct lines of communication between people, no matter where they are geographically. Systems and workflows can be consolidated and templated, and processes and knowledge can be shared so there’s less reliance on people with specific knowledge of bespoke processes.

From a business perspective, the Cloud is here to stay and is getting bigger. The entire market for the Cloud is estimated to be worth $250 billion by 2017, with organisations big and small investing heavily in both using and creating Cloud-based services.

The Challenges of the Cloud

It’s not all clear skies and sunshine, of course. Though the Cloud promises greater ease and efficiency, there are still challenges ahead. The most immediate problem is the concerns people who are resistant to change have. Having to learn new systems and new ways of working is a difficult sell for people who have built a career out of selling their expertise, experience, and carefully designed systems and practices of their own. The old adage “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” can certainly apply to everything the Cloud can provide, and as a result many services can seem limiting or unnecessary, particularly those with limited scope of the larger production process.

What’s more, everything new has to be learned on whilst in production. The nature of the business means there’s little possibility of a production providing on-the-job training for most crews and freelancers who work only for the duration of the project. Until particular Cloud services reach a critical point of adoption, where it becomes expected that they’ll be used on a film, there’s also very little chance that crew members and freelancers would independently seek out or pay for training in such systems in their downtime. This means that Cloud services have to find a balance between ease of use and functionality that’s rather difficult to attain—being flexible enough that people can continue to use processes and workflows they’re already familiar with, whilst be accessible enough for people to figure out how to apply those processes and workflows without feeling frustrated.

In an environment where everything is connected, it’s equally important to realise that many of the processes of making a film or video are isolated from each other. Delivering a script has repercussions all the way to marketing and distribution, but similarly it’s unlikely anyone will care about the résumé of a particular actor who didn’t make the cut during casting (even though at the time it may have been the most important issue). As a result, there’s a tendency towards “information overload” when using Cloud services, with redundant or outdated information remaining in place, and available to people who might not find it as relevant, creating clutter where there should be clarity.

For these reasons, for the Cloud to succeed within production environments, there will likely need to be a new role created. In much the same way as Digital Imaging Technicians (DITs) were needed to help transition from film and video-based shoots to fully digital ones, providing essential functions and support to traditional camera crews, so too we might see the rise of a person (or group of people) whose jobs will be simply to manage the flow of data throughout a production, ensuring that people can see what they need to (and likely, ensuring that they can’t see information that’s of a secretive nature), pruning data that become irrelevant as time goes by, but also providing a degree of support to help transition people into using new workflows and processes.

How to use this Book

This book is intended to provide an introduction to the Cloud, as well as the services available, specifically as they apply to film and video productions. Though this book contains information useful to anyone who is creating audio-visual content and is looking for ways to streamline aspects of it using the Cloud (specifically in terms of working collaboratively or whilst on the move), it is structured to present information in a way that makes the most sense to people working on narrative script-based productions.

There are mentions of various services and sites throughout this book. These are presented as examples for comparative purposes and should not be taken as endorsements of their respective quality. Thorough, independent research is highly recommended before committing to a particular service, and it should be noted that while information is accurate at the time of writing, prices and functionality of many services will be likely to change over time, and as such might be different by the time you read about them. Many of the services mentioned here have free or trial accounts, however, which will allow you to get first-hand impressions of what’s on offer.

Though the organisation of the chapters follows the chronological process of a typical production, the chapters themselves can be read out of order, depending on which topics are of interest. As with the Cloud itself, it’s possible to make use of the entire book or just specific parts as needs dictate. At the end of each chapter are links to articles that go into some of the topics discussed throughout the book in greater detail, as well as those that provide interesting opinions and points of views.

Chapter 2, “What Is the ‘Cloud’?” provides a general overview of the Cloud and the technologies it encompasses, as well as the benefits and disadvantages it provides.

Chapter 3, “Film and Video Production in the Cloud” discusses the role of the Cloud strictly with the requirements and limitations of a production context, covering what the practical and theoretical benefits can be, as well as potential pitfalls to watch out for.

Chapter 4, “Cloud Storage” covers data storage in the Cloud along with comparisons of related services that offer it, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of using the Cloud as opposed to relying on more traditional digital storage approaches.

Chapter 5, “Cloud Computing” looks at services geared towards processing data in the Cloud in a number of ways, whether performing calculations or actually providing a software interface to organising and storing data.

Chapter 6, “Collaboration and Communication” examines the possibilities of using Cloud services to communicate with others through text, voice, or live video, and looks at some of the approaches that are enabled by the Cloud to make collaboration clearer and more efficient.

Chapter 7, “Production” takes a number of processes that are typically required during the course of a production and shows Cloud-based services that aim to build upon or replace them entirely, highlighting where gains can be made by moving to the Cloud.

Chapter 8, “Planning” covers a range of processes that begin before a production even starts, as well as methods for using the Cloud to help with knowledge-sharing and project management.

Chapter 9, “Finance” looks at options for leveraging the Cloud for budgeting and funding productions, as well as options for financial accounting and payroll.

Chapter 10, “Tracking” provides a comprehensive look at managing information with Cloud-based services, whether in the form of digital files or all the information that goes with them.

Chapter 11, “Asset Management” describes some strategies for managing assets with the benefit of the features provided by the Cloud, as well as potential issues to be aware of.

Chapter 12, “Review and Approval” discusses the process of looking at completed work and providing feedback and compares different approaches and Cloud-based services for making the process more streamlined and robust.

Chapter 13, “Distribution and Archive” looks at methods for using the Cloud to share media and information with an audience and other external parties, as well as solutions for long-term storage.

Chapter 14, “Security Considerations” covers different options the Cloud provides to keep information safe, as well as the real and imagined risks to security using the Cloud entails.

Chapter 15, “Automation” illustrates a number of ways the Cloud encourages efficiency and productivity through automation and sharing of data between separate services.

Chapter 16, “Crowdsourcing” provides an overview of some of the ways that the Cloud enables utilisation of a greater number of people than would be possible without it, for a variety of purposes from funding to feedback.

Chapter 17, “Potential” looks to the future, discussing where the Cloud might be headed and the options that might be available in a few years’ time.