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REMOTE WORKFLOWS www.postmagazine.com 29 POST MAR/APR 2021 Shankar, cinematographer Jeremy Benning, VFX super- visors Bret Culp and Robert Crowther, and associate producer Gary Mueller, all of whom could work together from the safety of their own homes as Rourke graded the UHD HDR show. Additional members of The Expanse team patched into color sessions via Company 3-calibrat- ed Apple iPad Pros, using cloud-based video apps. "Typically for the last several seasons, I would go in and sit with Joanne and review each episode," says Benning. The remote workflow "enabled us to work the same way. I felt like I was next to her in the room. I would run a Zoom call simultaneously and then she would play the scenes on her end and we could discuss everything the same way — in realtime." "We hung up some blackout curtains, had my internet speed increased, and had a wall of insulation installed to block the noise," Rourke recalls. After dealing with the logistics of setting up the work- station at home, the full pipeline was tested. "The equipment was quite stable, and I was able to work fully offsite with no interruption," she reports. "We were able to stream realtime UHD, HDR from my home." Rourke worked as closely as she would within the Toronto facility with Younes. Updates were transferred from the facility to encrypted storage. "We spent much of the day either on the phone or texting," Rourke acknowledges. Project manager Amanda Champion was also instrumental in coordinating these sessions. "It certainly required adaptation by everyone involved, including the clients," Rourke adds, noting that the un- usual circumstances soon became increasingly transpar- ent. "Once we got in a rhythm, we were excited that this indeed would be an effective way to work." As the colorist for the series' entire run, Rourke had collaborated on all the different looks that repeat in Season 5, as well as the new approaches. "Whenever we've had slight changes in the look," notes Benning, "it's been driven by the story. We don't seek to invent a look for the sake of inventing a look. Since we're jumping from storyline to storyline. We're always trying to define each place with its own distinct sort of look." The current season is set more on Earth than previous seasons. "We used color to help fine-tune the gritty, rundown quality they wanted for Baltimore and the color palette of Mars, where the cinematography made use of a lot of soft sidelight," Rourke says, noting that she was able to collaborate remotely as this approach evolved in es- sentially an identical method to the one used since the show's first episode. "Joanne does a pass on her own before I show up," says Benning. "When I look at [the images], I'm not start- ing the process from scratch. Joanne's done a lot of the heavy lifting. Then a lot of the work is about me wanting to tweak things that might have bugged me when we were shooting, but I knew I could refine with her." "Company 3 met all of our expectations," Hirsch sums up. "We were able to move forward and deliver our highly acclaimed, VFX-heavy show to Amazon on time." Accurate.Video can plug workflow gaps As teams continue to adapt to remote working, many are looking for workflow solutions that will not only support creative out- put during the pandemic but also improve efficiencies over the long-term. Codemill has been building bespoke internal content manage- ment and delivery platforms for broadcast and post production workflows for the last decade. However, in recent years the industry has moved towards a more standardized, component-based ap- proach. While there are plenty of circumstances that might require a bespoke solution, there are others where it's more efficient to leverage existing technology that integrates seamlessly into the workflow. More companies have begun to see the benefits of cloud-based solutions, which use core underlying components to handle specific parts of their workflow. Components solve common problems that everyone is experiencing, which have been exacerbated by the pan- demic. A lot of organizations that were using software deployed on-prem can now access the same systems through a standard web browser. The industry is leaving behind fixed infrastructure, such as legacy transcoders, on- prem MAM servers and QC systems, to run as many workflows as possible cloud natively. The aim is to optimize data egress, bandwidth, processing and storage costs, but it also saves time, as content can be accessed immediately from any location. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, there has been a focus on remote content ingest tools and MAM solutions, which allow users to manage content for post production and creative collaboration workflows. But what about the output from the post production chain? Accurate. Video fits into this vital final stage by consolidating content coming from many different loca- tions that needs to be viewed, qualified, checked and visualized before it is sent to the broad- caster or content delivery service. This allows users to visualize time-based metadata, such as auto-QC reports, or leverage machine learning services to help determine suitable locations for ad breaks, or to efficiently add VOD binge markers when end credits roll. The web-based plat- form also enables remote users to quickly identify problematic content, which supports broad- cast compliance processes. As media organizations migrate to the cloud, the possibilities for innovation become po- tentially endless. Codemill builds tools that plug gaps in the workflow, but to be truly useful, they need to slot into a customer's internal platforms and services seamlessly. By building out front-end applications, which are user friendly and integrate into the backend, the whole be- comes more valuable than the component parts. Accurate.Video integrates with leading cloud transcoders, such as AWS Elemental MediaConvert, auto-QC software such as Interra Cloud Services Baton and Amazon Rekognition for machine learning, as well as other third-party ser- vices and custom generated metadata. Accurate.Video Validate, Accurate Player and Accurate.Video Poster make up the Accurate. Video suite. To complement these, there is also a software frontend component library and extensive backend API integrations that provide sig- nificantly-greater flexibility than legacy products and infrastructure. Components and integrations can also be custom- ized to fulfill any organization's requirements and deliver a better fit for its workflow. BY JOHAN BERGSTRÖM HEAD OF MARKETING CODEMILL UMEÅ, SWEDEN HTTPS://CODEMILL.SE