Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1314367
22 PRODUCTION SOUND & VIDEO – Fall 2020 22 PRODUCTION SOUND & VIDEO – Fall 2020 – Fall 2020 – F Lady Gaga steals the night through just the two Wi-Fi-enabled ones and transfer data to all necessary destinations. Once I had access, I passed control to Thayne Knop, a networking and IT expert at Viacom, who set up a Signiant Transfer Client and watch folder on the network, giving us the ability to upload fi les directly to Lead Editor Hector Lopez at Geiger Post. During the show, the First Assistant Director would call for a record to begin via the PL system. Using one remote control, I would begin recording the show for the editors and with the other, I would make a screener copy for producers and talent. When they called for a cut, I would migrate a copy of the recorded segment into the Signiant Transfer Client watch folder, which would upload a copy of the media directly to the post-production team over a high-speed connection. This allowed editors to begin cutting the show together mere minutes after the performance concluded. Terabytes of data were transferred across multiple network attached storage pieces and I never stepped in within 3,000 miles of it. In 2019, this workfl ow would have been laughable. Setting up a daisy chain of twelve computers remote controlling one another so that the show could be recorded from home without ever having to get out of bed is a joke that plenty of recordists used to make on set. It was the sort of thing that someone would say to a tech manager, who would laugh it off before telling everybody to get back to work. Now that joke has become a potentially life-saving precaution. This process was not without its fl aws. My home internet dropped out once. Sometimes I'd have to hop on the PL and ask someone to go push a button if a machine needed to be rebooted, which is just so much more inconvenient for all parties involved than it sounds like it should be. Watching a video feed via remote control is inherently unreliable as the image degrades and drops out constantly, meaning I had no true quality control capability from my location. The equipment in New York often reacted at a slight delay to my input commands in California, leading to some delays for production. As more segments were added to the transfer queue, the network on site slowed down considerably and I lost my connection to it several times. That was scary. For the Los Angeles end of production, a fully remote recording workfl ow was not possible. My counterpart on the production, 695 Vice-President Jillian Arnold, has helped shape and develop the workfl ow for every VMA's show in the last four years. In keeping with its tradition of ever grander spectacle, Viacom enlisted XR Studios to facilitate virtual reality-based screens and projection content—necessitating a more hands-on recording workfl ow. Jillian's records featured a mixture of content of varying frame rates and resolutions, as well as a mixture of recording platforms. Content captured using an mRes system was able to be sent directly to Geiger in a manner similar to my own workfl ow but content recorded utilizing AJA's KiPro decks needed to be manually offl oaded to local storage before being uploaded. This required several overnight transfers and careful management of digital real estate as upward of 30 terabytes of data were recorded across the shoot. But we did it. On August 30, MTV brought their award ceremony back for its 37th annual broadcast and 6.4 million people tuned in to see Lady Gaga steal the night. Now, more productions are following the VMA's in safely returning us to work. In spite of the sheer volume of sanity destroying negatives associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and 2020 as a whole, there is something to be said for the innovation that's been made in what will (hopefully) be remembered as the worst year of our lives. Emerging communication technology and infrastructure have allowed us to adapt in ways few would have imagined just a year ago. In March, the sets of Hollywood went dark as social distancing protocols, safer-at- home recommendations, and travel bans were implemented nationwide. And while the end of the pandemic is still a ways away, production was able to resume in just six months. Comical and outside of the box thinking is overcoming unprecedented challenges. Remote working solutions and new set procedures agreed upon with the AMPTP in compliance with CDC guidelines have allowed us to resume our craft. And what we learned from early productions such as this year's MTV Video Music Awards ceremonies have informed our workfl ows on productions going forward. Moreover, our achievement in adapting to the current crisis and continuing our craft as artists cannot be understated. New infrastructure, technology, and responsibilities may put us in the enviable position of being more in demand than we were before the pandemic in spite of the push to move workers off set. Now it's up to us to prepare for this coming moment of opportunity so that we may grasp and use it to get our lives back on track and begin to move past this entire dystopian tragedy.