Film and Video Production in the Cloud

Jack James currently works for Autodesk, helping UK film productions work with the cloud-based production tracking software Shotgun, and has worked widely in cloud production for film and video. He has previously published two books with Focal Press, Digital Intermediates for Film & Video (2005) and Fix it in Post (2009).

• - Chapter 1 Silver screens and silver liningsIntroduction- Chapter 2 What Is the "Cloud"?Origin of the term; different types of "clouds"- Chapter 3 Film & Video Production in the CloudPractical and theoretical benefits of cloud computing in a production context: efficiency,connectedness, access, going mobile- Chapter 4 Cloud StorageBenefits vs local storage: encryption, cost-effective, easy, robust, sync. Drawbacks: transmission speeds, internet connection required, security concerns, lack of immediacy. Dropbox, box, google drive,iCloud, Amazon S3.- Chapter 5 Cloud ComputingRendering; heavy number-crunching. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud- Chapter 6 Collaboration and Communication Software as a service; online project management solutions; cloud-based video-conferencing. Google docs & spreadsheets, Asana, Basecamp, Shotgun, Adobe Creative Cloud, Autodesk A360, Avid Media Composer Cloud- Chapter 7 ProductionOutlining; scheduling- Chapter 8 PlanningImporting data into a single place; logging metadata; synchronisation; logging information as it occurs; best practices for structuring metadata; being prepared for data to transform; versioning- Chapter 9 FinanceSending & receiving digital assets; best practices for organising digital assets- Chapter 10 TrackingProgress reporting; dashboarding (summarising large amounts of data); benchmarking (comparing one production to others)- Chapter 11 Asset ManagementStreaming playback; review sessions; annotation; getting feedback to the right people- Chapter 12 Review and Approval Sharing metadata with third-parties & vendors; long-term storage benefits; reusable assets for episodic content; Amazon Glacier, Vimeo, YouTube, Pix- Chapter 13 Distribution and Archive Watermarking; access restriction; trusting the cloud providers- Chapter 14 Security Considerations Crowd-voting; crowdfunding; crowdsourcing labour. Ethical considerations. Kickstarter, Amazon Mechanical Turk.- Chapter 15 Automation Access to better tools; more ubiquitous access; faster speeds; reduced costs- Chapter 16 Crowdsourcing -Chapter 17 Potential Index

"As always, Jack has a three dimensional understanding of a subject that, until he explains it, you are left thinking ‘Why didn’t I see it like that?’ He makes an extraordinary complex subject seem so simple with an understanding of how networked remote systems or the Cloud has become known and how it can work for you on your production. Jack’s expertise is a great filter for the myths a lot of people talk on this subject, separating fact from fiction, telling you how it is and how it will work. A prefect read if you ever wondered how the Cloud could help your project."- Jon Thompson, FBKS Producer Post Production, Disney, BBC, Earth (2007)"It offers a decent and current introduction to what ‘the Cloud’ is, how it works and how it can help productions in very practical ways."- Jonny Elwyn