Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/49492
OUTLOOK POST BUSINESS post and media in general." WEAKNESSES: "One of the common themes that I see is that Cineworks' film lab and screening room at their Louisiana facility. during the pre-production process, even before people get started, there is a level of confusion. They are still finding people to fill the vari- ous roles. Some are last-minute changes. There are a lot of decisions to be made and people ironing things out. Often we can't get involved early enough in helping to make those decisions, so you end up finding things out the week of production, because a lot of these decisions are still being made. That can affect the entire pipeline and that is some- thing we are constantly trying to get in front of. Things are very dynamic these days and there are so many choices and so many people involved in making those choices that preproduction can get very technical and it affects post production quite a bit." OPPORTUNITIES: "I am seeing a huge amount of content being produced, largely because of the digital technology that has made stuff so accessible. There is a huge opportunity to get involved in alternative media. We've traditionally been involved in feature films, television shows, commercials and music videos, but now we are seeing opportunities in videogames, interactive rides, all sorts of streaming content, special venue events, scientific media — we did a film of a surgery that was shot in 4K. We worked on an experimental project in terms of creating free content for the Internet and You- Tube, and how to monetize that through new ways of advertising. I think there's going to be a lot of that type of thing. Maybe make the content available for free and figure out some new way of advertising with this technology. "In terms of the global question, the global network has really impacted us. There are a lot of opportunities to work on other conti- nents. We've been doing dailies all over the place: China, Ireland, we have a facility in New Orleans, so the global aspect of things is defi- nitely becoming standard. Production is everywhere, so we have to be ready to send kits or be able to use our data pipelines to send stuff all over the world." THREATS: "All this new digital technology is empowering people to circumvent traditional post. There's a process where people hear something and say, 'We can just do this, and use this tool.' more we can get up front and the less redundancy, the better." MICHAEL PHILLIPS CTO Cineworks Digital Studios/Cineworks Louisiana www.Cineworks.com New Orleans Cineworks has full-service labs and digital facilities in Miami and New Orleans, including DI theaters. The studio is currently performing full dailies services for the TV series Burn Notice. Its film credits include work on Marley & Me and I Love You Phillip Morris. STRENGTHS: "A post house is a single place of knowledge. Anybody can buy an on-set dailies system for not a whole lot of money, but it's really about how it fits into the post production cycle. A post house benefits from years and years of experience dealing with every possible scenario. Dealing with eight to 10 features a year creates a wealth of knowledge that becomes valuable in saving time, and as we all know, time is money. "Post production is the newest growth area in Louisiana's thriving motion picture industry, with recent infusion of new post operations across the state." WEAKNESSES: "The vast majority of productions in Louisiana are It's inexpensive and goes outside the bounds of sending something through a traditional post pipeline. Sometimes it makes sense for us to outline strategies that would allow a production to do things in house or with less expensive tools within their own production environment. Sometimes that becomes problematic and they are really just pushing costs savings from the front to the back where they'll need to fix a bunch of things later down the line. Sometimes it's not clear during the initial stage that these problems are going to happen due to the complexity of these new tools. There's no real standard, so we are trying to create these standard processes with our software and use our knowledge of post and fix those gaps." OUTLOOK FOR 2012: "I think the economy is always a con- cern. It's really clear that private and public cloud networks are going to drive these global workflows and the ability to seamlessly move information all over the place. It's a constant effort for us to keep up with the new technology that people are using in production and post production with cameras and file formats. It gives filmmakers a huge palette and really presents us an opportunity to streamline post production. We can take stuff that's happening on-set or on-location and streamline that information throughout the entire process. The 32 Post • December 2011 www.postmagazine.com transient, which means much of the pre- and post production work is done elsewhere. Dividing processes across different locations can produce weak- nesses in the workflow, increasing overtime and budget. One of our areas of focus is ensuring that both the front-end and back-end of the production process are properly identified and hand-offs are seamless to be sure these workflow issues don't surface. The goal is to remove 'remote' from 'remote collaboration' to eliminate that as a potential breakdown in the production chain and ensure success to all productions." OPPORTUNITIES: "One of the biggest opportunities for Louisiana is continuing and enhancing the training and education of local residents in order to grow the talent pool in all areas of production and post production. Post houses that invest in full- time local jobs create a win/win scenario for both productions and the state, fulfilling the spirit of the 35 percent tax incentive when a Louisiana resident is hired. Full service studios and facilities that offer a gamut of services, from pre-production through post, will lead the way for more production companies in the state with the opportunity to produce film and television programming in their entirety, from start to finish." THREATS: "Misunderstanding of all things digital. Digital can make many things more streamlined and immediate, but there is still a gap that exists in what digital brings to a production from beginning to end — including archive. Digital in many ways has made some processes much more complex than they used to be. It is important that productions and service providers discuss the best methodology to be used, what is best for facilities to do, and what can best be done by the production company to meet the quality standards expected for a given budget. In addition, while portable technology is seductive, it can also be deceiving in overall savings when looking at all the deliverables needed for feature film production." OUTLOOK FOR 2012: "Production numbers in the state have increased every year since 2002 and this trend is expected to continue."