The restructuring of the post-production industry ...

[Neil W. Smith]

It was very apparent at yesterday's DGA Digital Day that there is a significant sea change taking place in our industry ... with the rapid adoption of digital dailies and mobile post-solutions it is evident that "post" is quickly moving out of the large brick facilities and onto the set and near-set .... post is rapidly becoming free of geo-physical constraints.

We demoed Express Dailies and Resolve 9 running on mobile solutions ... most of the DGA attendees totally got (and accepted) that we can now take post to wherever it makes most economic and logistical sense for Producers, Directors and DPs ... when I was looking to trademark the name for our new near-set service, the name 'Post In A Box' was already taken by some obscure mailing company which is why I had to compromise with the name 'Dailies In a Box' .... however, on-set and near-set digital dailies are but the tip of the iceberg .... post is moving out of post exactly in the same way the editing has moved into production offices and studio corridors.

This coming year is going to see a massive re-structuring of the post industry .... as ever, in periods of rapid technologically driven business change, there will be winners and losers ... geography independent post-producton will rapidly become the norm.

As well as demoing Express Dailies running on a standard MacPro Tower with a $39k Dolby reference grading monitor (very nice) we also had a Retina Display MacBook Pro laptop attached to a 27 inch Thunderbolt display running Resolve 9 AND Express Dailies AND Smoke 2013 as well as Media Composer and FCP ... this super slim "box" represents the future of post for all of us ... it's the best example of Moore's Law i've seen in a long time .... it won't be long before we're processing dailies, editing, compositing and finishing whole movies on a chain of laptops linked together over the Internet or 10gigE.

If you're scared of change, suggest you look away now ... on this system below we are processing 5K EPIC files using a free pieces of software on a $2700 laptop! .... the world is spinning faster ... the heat is burning quicker:

Neil

[Tom.Wong]

now let's hope next gen TOWER is gonna be a fusion reactor of computers... love the mobile setup options now, but I'm still looking forward to a powerhouse of computing power from apple. i'm one of the few that still has faith.

and you really gotta stop posting this stuff Neil, I just got my 17 inch mbp last year, and can't justify getting a new laptop now, but you keep going on like this and I'm gonna have no savings left :)

[Mark Toia]

Conforming, grading is one thing... CG / 3d / VFX is another... When you have a job were you need 20 to 30 3d dudes bashing out a few 3d heavy shots for you in a week and then compositing them into live action plates... I'm afraid that process will stay in brick buildings for a while yet. You can do alot of it yourself for sure. But this argument all comes down to the scale of the job.

Post is changing fast, im a huge advocate of change. But post is way more than just grading 5k's in a lap top I'm afraid.

But I get what your saying. I also do a lot from my laptop.

[Kwan Khan]

If you're scared of change, suggest you look away now ... on this system below we are processing 5K EPIC files using a free pieces of software on a $2700 laptop! .... the world is spinning faster ... the heat is burning quicker:

Neil

Same here

[Paul Toth]

I've been editing from home for almost 5 years and am more portable now than ever before thanks to lneqer technology. I love the idea of editing on/near set. And for sure not everything can/will be done this way but it's another option.

[paulherrin]

size is not the limiting factor. the world isn't spinning out of control, we are. everybody needs to chill. seriously.

[Subhadip Sen]

One could edit and grade a 4K RED One shot film on a $1000 laptop back in 2009. (Probably even $500, dropping resolution low enough)

It is not a question of whether it is possible - no one is doubting that - but how fast it can do it.

My definition of optimal is 100% real-time at full resolution, no transcoding at any step whatsoever, and faster-than-real-time final renders at the end. I.e. 5K RAW to graded and finished 4K Uncompressed output in real-time.

Unfortunately, even the fastest laptops today featuring 6-core CPUs, a couple of Quadro K5000Ms and multiple drives in RAID are not quite optimal, let alone the new Macbook Pro with a consumer level mid-range GT 650M, which is about 3-4 times slower than GTX 680M / Quadro K5000M.

Of course, things get increasingly more complicated once high frame rate, 3D, and CGI / visual effects are added to the mix.

In short, good enough is never good enough.

[Peter McCully]

For me a film set is one of the worst places to try to make important decisions in editing or grading. For those people who can work that way, good on you though. But invariably, everything comes back to a building, and it doesn't have to be brick! :-)

[jake blackstone]

Computer power is just a piece of overall picture. The other important part of the equation is the elegance and flexibility of the software.
Just a few years ago, I would be hired to do freelance color grading around the world. I would fly to far away places, put up in the hotel or an apartment, paid a lot of money and between the infrequent jobs, I would spent time doing local sightseeing. For my clients, it never made economical sense. Fast forward to today. I get hired by the same people, often for just 3-4 hours. I do remote grading on Resolve, often with clients thousands of miles away. My world had changed forever and I love it!

[Frank Cueto]

Neil, You can certainly do that. It has been doable for years... But I agree with other posts here, that someone can do it doesn't mean it should be done. Since it has been possible for the last couple years, one most ask oneself, why hasn't this caught on before?

We are used to change, nothing new. But the more things change, the more they kinda look the same :s.