Production in the Cloud

ETC “Hollywood Production in the Cloud” Developmental Committee

In response to industry interest in the use of cloud computing services in the filmmaking process, the ETC, in concert with USC’s ISI, has formed the Hollywood Production in the Cloud Developmental Committee to determine if now is the right time for industries to collaborate on exploring the opportunities and challenges of cloud-based services in film production.  For the past two years, the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California (ETC@USC) has been fielding several requests to investigate the use of “virtual” technologies in the movie making process upstream from the Digital Cinema Package and the Interoperable Master Format.  Hollywood is paying close attention to cloud technologies and how they might play a positive role in the movie production process.  The goal of the ETC is to create a place for industry dialog and corresponding projects to help ease the industry’s transition to cloud-based production.

Background

The process that major motion pictures, television series, and television commercials are being made, marketed and distributed is changing dramatically. 35mm film and videotape are being replaced by digital capture technologies and file-based workflows.  This change from “chemicals” to “bits” will require a new breed of services brought forth by a new breed of supplier. As the Media & Entertainment industry becomes more and more dependent on digital technologies, companies in the current supply-chain need to anticipate and adapt to change in a new way. As the supply-chain continues to evolve into an electronic supply-chian, new vendors will also find opportunities to provide services to Hollywood and the perfect approach to accommodate the needs of electronic production is through cloud-services. For this reason, the Entertainment Technology Center organized the “Hollywood Production in the Cloud” project.

Progress

In order to better define the specific entertainment industry needs and challenges and to accelerate the transition to cloud-based workflows, the ETC held a “Cloud Round-Table Discussion” on January 27, 2011 at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. This is where worlds collided, bringing together creative professionals across Hollywood with technologists from cloud-services companies to discuss emerging cloud technologies and services and their implications in the production process. The outcome from the Cloud Round-Table Discussion was the realization that additional investigation is necessary. Therefore, the ETC@USC set-up a Developmental Committee to conduct a study into how emerging cloud technologies can impact the production process across the Media & Entertainment industry.

Developmental Committee

The Developmental Committee of the “Hollywood Production in the Cloud” project has been established to guide the effort as the ETC@USC conducts the “Hollywood Production in the Cloud” Study.

Additional Research

This Developmental Committee will conduct in-depth interviews of key “thought leaders” throughout the Hollywood production community and technologists from cloud-service providers over a 3-month period. Titled the “Hollywood Production in the Cloud” Study, it will document opinions, identify best practices, define digital workflow use-cases and summarize specific industry barriers to cloud-based production adoption from the combined wisdom of both creative professionals and cloud technologists. Most importantly, the study will serve as the first step toward bringing together two industries, both in a state of transformation, to collaborate on a very specific goal, to make movies using cloud-services.

Next Steps

Project participants will discuss and recommend to ETC’s Board of Directors next steps for the project beyond the study/survey.  It is likely that one or more collaboration events will be held and that the project will expand to include the creation of a set of requirements or a specification for cloud-based services to support production.

Email Address:

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at: cloudinfo@etcusc.org