Keeping your creative & technical partners aligned on creative vision from the start has become key to the production workflow. We explore how best to keep your key players connected and ensure they can work on content ‘together remotely’
Last year was a record-breaking year for content production. And, as the demand for ambitious, high-quality, technically challenging content intensifies, ensuring your creative and technical partners are aligned on creative vision from the start is becoming ever more essential. Factor in the increased investment in VFX-intensive shows — it is no surprise that the role of Previzualisation (“previs”) has become increasingly significant to the production workflow.
VFX shots have the big wow-factor – flying superheroes, transformative objects, alien worlds – but it’s also the camera movements, set extensions, lighting and scenic backgrounds that equally warrant time and discussion.
Working with previs teams, content creators are given the freedom to explore ideas and produce proofs of concept before your production needs to commit actual resource. They (the director, DP, VFX supervisor, editor, production designer, etc) can experiment with various artistic components such as composition, lighting and camera placement of a scene or shot and weed out any possible issues, revise ideas and even change artistic direction before the camera captures a single frame (and money is spent).
Since previs takes place very early in the production process — when key players are likely to be found around the world as they finish other projects or prepare the new production — a large part of this process is ensuring all stakeholders remain connected and are provided with the right tools to view and work on content ‘together remotely’. This is hugely important right now requiring that all parties rely on remote tools while Working From Home (WFH).
Tools that facilitate real-time remote collaboration are key. Creative and technical partners at different global locations need to review and approve previs content and offer instant feedback. This rapid give-and-take allows previs artists to make adjustments in real-time, speeding up the pre-production workflow. Sohonet’s real-time review tool, ClearView Flex offers an easy-to-use, cost-effective solution to the ‘review from home’ conundrum. Flex enables directors, producers, DPs and key team members to review previs content in real-time with the artist on their mobile device, PC or via Apple TV using a basic Internet connection. With Flex you can add up to five viewers to a session, enabling team collaborations. Getting this real-time alignment amongst key parties not only speeds up the previs workflow but mitigates the need for continual changes and reviews.
The same benefits ClearView Flex offers the previs process extends to the post workflow if content requires post visualization. VFX-intensive productions often add or revise shots well into the post-production stage, so the need for remote collaboration continues. Once again, key players may be scattered around the world, so easy real-time remote collaboration remains crucial to keeping all parties on the same page through the finishing process.
