Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1513434
32 cgw o c t o b e r • n o v e m b e r • d e c e m b e r 2 0 2 3 l ee Daniels, creator and director of the Fox hit series Star, has Mariah Carey on set in Atlanta for a 12-camera shoot. It is a crucial scene and Daniels wants a very specic look for his star. To execute Daniels' creative vision, the colorists need the full- size, original footage to show him exactly what he is striving for as quickly as possible—but they are 2,100 miles away in Los Angeles! In the past, it would have been an expensive solution to have colorists on set to determine a look and then basically wait for hours on end. Fortunately, Mango/NewEdit uses Signiant Media Shuttle's fast le transfer service to work remotely as if they were local, saving time and money. Beginnings NewEdit began in 1993 providing editorial equipment and services to hit television show productions like Melrose Place, Beverly Hills 90210, Roseanne, and Third Rock from the Sun. In 2013, they added Mango to provide on-location services wherever production needed to go. Today, their productions are mainly for streamers like Netix, Ama- zon, Hulu, and Disney+. With regional production oces to support productions closer to their production locations, Mango/NewEdit works in a hub-and- spoke business model based on state tax incentives and remote workows that make security paramount. As many as 33 U.S. states oer tax incentives to production companies who shoot within their borders, including Georgia, where Star is based. Stan Cassio, President at Mango/NewEdit explains, "We have of- ces in all those states, and we hire local talent. We train them how to use everything, including Signiant and how to push les." While production locations are all over North America and as far away as Morocco, Spain, and Portugal, editorial for dailies and more takes place in Los Angeles. Signiant is a crucial to their workow ef- ciency. File Security and Compliance Just as state tax incentives enable the Mango/NewEdit business model, content security is as important. "Number one for us is security. Let's begin there," Cassio asserts. It's the other element that binds with state tax incentives to make the dynamics of shooting outside of California a powerful alterna- tive. Because Signiant has been vetted by all the studios, a mis- sion-critical stamp of approval, Mango/NewEdit doesn't have to worry about content security when working with large studios. "The good news is that because a lot of people in our industry know and use Signiant, it's very easy for us to set up a vendor with a Media Shuttle account," Cassio said. "It's not very complex. We send them an email, they set it up, we transmit, they download." Signiant's encryption during transport is essential and a main rea- son why the big studios have approved the Signiant Platform and its transfer products and allows Mango/NewEdit to work remotely in an ecient and cost-eective way. Secure and Accelerated File Transfer Pipeline While Mango/NewEdit has used Signiant on location to quickly inter- act with colors remotely, they primarily use Signiant for their dailies pipeline—sending proxy footage made at their regional oce to its facility in Los Angeles for camera syncing and editing preparation. It is organized in Avid Media Composer and then uploaded to a Sig- niant Media Shuttle portal for distribution and remote access by the creative teams. "We grab everything from the set and process it, generate the edi- torial les, and transmit those les back to Los Angeles," Cassio said. "We use Signiant to encrypt and push the les, and receive them in Los Angeles so the next morning, the editorial team can begin their process. "Once we know that the [Avid] media and the bins are linking, we've already gone through the Signiant process, and everything SHOWCASE SIGNIANT SECURES REMOTE FILE WORKFLOWS FOR MANGO/NEWEDIT M&E PRODUCTIONS