Managing your post workflow can keep you from the important aspects of your project. For example, when capturing the action of first responders on the frontline, there are no opportunities for second takes.
For post-production teams working on unscripted series in this genre, this requires transcoding hundreds of hours of footage from a wide variety of different cameras to ensure all action is recorded.
To expedite post review processes under the tight delivery deadlines required by episodic series, Moxion, Autodesk's cloud-based collaborative digital dailies, and review system, has been an integral tool. Freelance Co-Executive Producer Malia Marshall and the team at 44 Blue Productions recently completed delivery of season seven of A&E’s hit series Nightwatch, a show that follows EMTs and EMS paramedics in New Orleans, and the upcoming series LA Fire & Rescue for NBC. Using this system, the team achieved a monumental task, all while meeting their deadlines and staying on budget.
Streamlining A Colossal Post-Production Workflow
“This genre of episodic content is as real as it gets, portraying men and women heroes in action. I’ve met a lot of incredible people as a result of my work, and to be able to tell these types of stories about their courageous actions and serving their community is a real privilege,” said Marshall, who for the past decade worked on several first responder series for networks including A&E, FOX, and NBC.
Credit: Autodesk Moxion
She continued, “First responders see a lot of crazy things – some good, some bad, and a lot of the time, ugly. But that’s the job they know they signed up for. To have access to their environment and be able to capture these real-life moments of heroism or hear their personal stories about their own journey throughout the years – you start to peel back the layers and truly see an intimate point of view that not a lot of people experience.”
Following the delivery of 30 episodes of Nightwatch, Marshall introduced her team to Moxion to implement a more streamlined post-production review process while ramping up for back-to-back production on LA Fire & Rescue.
Moxion streamlined the post workflow for 'LA Fire & Rescue'Credit: Autodesk Moxion
Prior to implementing Moxion Rooms, the team had relied on a collaboration tool that was not tailored for post-production workflows and often caused bottlenecks in the review process. Marshall shared, “Projects weren’t viewable full raster, and regardless of how fast internet speeds were, there were delays in playback. Any time the program would have a random update, it would send our hardware into a frenzy, and we’d have to reset."
There were days when I’d show up for a review session, and due to a technical snafu, I’d have to wait upwards of an hour for everything to work.”
Fine Tuning Cloud-Based Post-Production
With work-from-home the new norm, Marshall also found the team missing daily in-person interactions in the edit bay while reviewing live cuts. Notes and communication during these sessions were often lost in translation.
“When you’re trying to relay notes and collaborate with your team remotely, the need for real-time review sessions or one-on-one interactions in a creative environment is a must,” she said.
Streamlining post workflow with one application.Credit: Autodesk Moxion
“For remote teams, Moxion Rooms offers a simple and streamlined solution for crucial real-time review sessions and more effective communication, which is critical for the creative process. Having the type of open dialogue and collaboration that was absent during most of the pandemic is now a real option again.”
Easily create a room to connect your team in one place.Credit: Autodesk Moxion
Once up and running on Moxion Rooms, the team used the tool’s real-time review functionality to collaborate with live chat and video conferencing during remote review sessions. “This was pretty incredible and like being in an edit bay with the team. Though everyone was working at home, we were able to have one-on-one conversations while scrubbing through the Avid timeline,” shared Malia.
Features To Save Time
Moxion’s Playlinks feature further helped the team organize feedback in a central location and export notes directly as an XML file for the online editor. “This was especially a huge timesaver during our final check process.
After our online and mix, we used Moxion’s Playlinks feature to view the full show again and compile notes between the Clearance Supervisor, Post Producer, Showrunner, and myself. All notes were collated in a single column, we’d export it as an XML, then go directly back to the online editor working in Avid.
Use the built-in collaboration tools to streamline communicationCredit: Autodesk Moxion
Prior to Moxion, the Post Producer would collate different notes as they came in via email, then the online editor would have to go through them one by one and add them as locators into Avid. It was a much more time-consuming process, as you can imagine.”
Moxion Rooms’ ability to playback high-quality video footage was especially beneficial for the team’s Clearance Supervisor. As clearance is paramount for a complicated series of this magnitude, the supervisor was able to view the show in real time and check to ensure all blurs were properly placed. “It was a night and day experience compared to our previous workflow,” added Marshall.
The Future of Post
For future productions, Marshall is eager to use the Moxion platform for onset dailies and immediates, a camera-to-cloud workflow that makes all camera footage and data captured on set instantly available to all collaborators.
She shared, “I come from a more technical background, having started my career as an assistant editor, then worked for many years as an editor, I understand how easily you can transcode work, drop it into buckets, and have instant access via Moxion. It’s an exciting prospect, and I’d like to get my team fully onboard.”
For more information about Moxion, visit https://www.moxion.io/ to see how its tools can help you streamline your workflow and focus on what’s important.
