Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/100015
Small Tree MICHAEL CIONI CEO Light Iron www.lightiron.com Hollywood Light Iron is a post house that specializes in on-site dailies, digital intermediate, archival and data services for projects originated on file-based cameras. The company offers both hardware and software solutions that have been custom configured to enhance the creative process. Credits include Hitchcock, Flight, Lincoln and Halo 4. STRENGTHS: ���The market of on-set is not an alternative to brick-and-mortar infrastructures, rather it is the replacement to brick-and-mortar. Thanks to the advent of GPU-accelerated software tools and a number of image processing hardware and software combinations, the ability to perform typical post laboratory activities has shrunk into a smaller set of tools.��� WEAKNESSES: ���The weakness with any new business model or service is an education. And education affects both ends of the market. First, we have to educate the customer to inquire about the options that on-set services bring them.They need to learn the process, the benefits, how to budget it, where it goes and who operates it. ���The second part of that education is the on-set operators themselves. At this point in time, there is a fog over the DIT���s role on the set. Some DITs come from a video engineering background. Others are camera technicians or data managers. The problem is that because it���s not clear to the producers who does what and exactly what services they offer, some producers shy away from hiring DITs or kit rentals on the set. The way to deal with this is to educate the on-set operators to offer more value to the producers they work for.��� OPPORTUNITIES: ���Training people in this new post production technology is one of the most promising and profitable areas of post and production, but it does require an investment in education or the entire system can fail to deliver as efficiently as promised. ���Currently, our work has been mostly in feature films (2D and 3D), but recently the television market has been opening up to on-set. Television is almost all off of tape. Their adoption of file-based capture and post in 1080 and 2K-plus is similar enough to the processes of features that we can deploy successful feature workflows and tools on television shows. Because TV is on a tighter schedule and often with less financial resources, these on-set tools can have a much larger impact compared to a feature that shoots and edits a two-hour project over an eightmonth period. On-set delivers a better solution, but TV has to be open to letting go of their traditional reliance on laboratory support.��� THREATS: ���The biggest threat to the on-set business is fear. In baseball, if a conservative base runner never takes a lead for fear of being picked off, he���ll never make it to home plate. In business, you also have to take risks, despite fear of leaving the comfortable space of legacy techniques. ���It���s hard to understand now, but in four years, onset will seem as common as using the Internet to read articles like this one. But 10 years ago, the Internet being the best resource for information wasn���t a slam-dunk concept. People are addicted to legacy tools and techniques, and the talent behind them because familiarity breeds comfort. Admittedly, those legacy systems have and will get the work done, but the goals of better, faster and cheaper are not achievable with legacy tools. When something shrinks, it is usually less expensive, and when something is less expensive and small, it is likely to be treated as portable.This combination: size, cost and portability is the Shared Stor age thats Simple, affordable, & high performance Small Tree Shared Storage unleashes the capability of Ethernet - simpliing your editing worklow while cutting your SAN production costs. Small Tree���s high performance products support next generation technology such as Thunderbolt I/O and 10 Gigabit Ethernet. Call for a quote or reach us at www.small-tree.com In addition to post services, Light Iron offers these on-set tools. triple threat that makes on-set tools superior to brick and mortar.��� OUTLOOK FOR 2013: ���Failure to recognize the burgeoning market of on-set post production will result in massive downsizing and even closings. You���ve seen this before: Blockbuster vs. Netflix, Best Buy vs. Amazon, Walkman vs. iPod. Like many good ideas that eventually become obsolete, post dailies laboratories are an endangered species. By 2016, if companies don���t make the necessary changes, the graveyard of post houses will be a sad place to visit.��� The outlook for the on-set business in 2013 is extremely promising. When Light Iron started our on-set program, Outpost, in 2009, we did two jobs. In 2012, we are closing in on 100. We recently opened a second facility to meet the growing demand for on-set services.��� www.small-tree.com ��� www.granitestor.com ��� 866.STC.4MAC 7300 Hudson Blvd., Suite 165, Oakdale, MN 55128