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REMOTE WORKFLOWS www.postmagazine.com 30 POST MAR/APR 2022 ince its founding in 2009, Light Iron, a Panavision company, has been reimagining post workfl ws. Over the past two years, as the pandemic has driven productions to embrace remote collaboration, Light Iron has re- sponded with a range of innovations for dailies, offline ed orial and final olor that expand clients' creative options wherever they're working. Among the productions that have benefi ed from Light Iron's remote offer- ings are the series Delilah, Reservation Dogs and American Horror Story, each of which employed Light Iron's Outpost RC (Remote Control) system to enable a remote dailies workfl w. As a near-set dailies solution, Outpost RC allows a Light Iron dailies colorist to control the system remotely, regardless of geo- graphic distance. Overcoming the challenges of remote delivery Early in the pandemic, when productions were shutting down or looking for ways to significantly educe their crews, series and features needed to quickly transition to remote workfl ws based on fl xible and scalable solutions. Having a history in mobile dailies workfl ws with its Outpost system, Light Iron recog- nized the market's need for a near-set dailies solution that would allow for a fully-remote, decentralized workfl w. The company responded with Outpost RC. Outpost RC can be quickly deployed in a production office, data center or wherever is convenient for the production, providing all the benefits of a eal- time, near-set solution without requiring a colorist to be physically present on set. This enables the production to keep the number of on-site crew members down and comes with the further creative benefit of all wing cinematogra- phers the fl xibility to collaborate with any dailies colorist on Light Iron's roster. An on-site dailies PA simply plugs drives into the Outpost RC and slots in LTO tapes, and the remote colorist can then process the dailies from anywhere in the world with a solid internet connection. Outpost RC provides a secure connection through an encrypted VPN tunnel, using Palo Alto Networks for connectivity, and is compliant with Trusted Partner Network (TPN) require- ments for remote connectivity. Enabling remote collaboration The fir t production to implement a remote near-set dailies workfl w with Outpost RC was Season 1 of Delilah (pictured), which began principal photog- raphy in October 2020. When the Delilah team realized the local production office had no connectivity and couldn't support a traditional near-set de- ployment, they turned to Light Iron, who stepped in and installed an Outpost RC system in a nearby data center in Charlotte, NC. An on-site production assistant brought drives to the Outpost RC and swapped out LTO tapes as needed, and the dailies colorist operated the system from Light Iron's facility in Albuquerque, NM. "Outpost RC really saved the day for the production," notes Delilah pro- ducer Dave Lifshin. "It made the dailies process seamless and ensured we got our work done on time. The process itself was so well put together and also allowed us to avoid the cost and logistics of needing to ship drives to and from the post house." Just outside of Tulsa, OK, the production team on the fir t season of Reservation Dogs were also in need of a cost-conscious way to deliver dailies while shooting in a remote location without a nearby post facility. Light Iron delivered an Outpost RC to a nearby conference center in Tulsa, and the dailies colorist was then able to remote-in without requiring a technician to be on-site. In fact, Outpost RC is so plug-and-play for productions, Light Iron doesn't even have to send an engineer for the setup. "The Light Iron team's knowledge and expertise made the entire process ab- solutely stress-free for all of us on the production side," recalls producer Ingrid Lageder. "Outpost RC was incredibly easy to implement and streamlined our dailies process, saving us money, time and resources spent on set." For the team behind American Horror Story's 10th season, Outpost RC al- lowed the production to reap the benefits of a near-set dailies turna ound while the main unit was filming in an xtremely-remote location in Provincetown, MA. The system was easily set up in a nearby data center, and the remote dailies colorist could then offer instantaneous feedback from Light Iron's Los Angeles location without the need to physically transfer drives across the country. Even with demanding color requirements and a different look for the footage shot in Provincetown, Outpost RC enabled the dailies process to run seamlessly and allowed the production team to stay on schedule, benefitting f om quick access to the rushes they needed to keep production rolling. The future of remote near-set dailies With remote and hybrid work models sticking around for the long haul, sys- tems that allow for a global talent pool to work from anywhere are paramount. "With Outpost RC, we're enabling any production with access to a solid internet connection to take advantage of the time-saving benefits and ealtime feedback of a near-set dailies workfl w and collaborate with any of our dailies colorists — all without the need for another person on-site and the associated costs of travel and lodging," notes Seth Hallen, managing director at Light Iron. "Outpost RC represents a significant leap orward for remote collaboration and points the way toward dailies being processed completely in the cloud. With all of our remote offerings, we're helping productions move outside of the facility and into the future while saving time and reducing costs." LIGHT IRON'S OUTPOST RC ENABLES REMOTE NEAR-SET DAILIES S