Technicolor moves Troy VFX workflow to the cloud

Broadcast

BBC and Netflix drama Troy: Fall Of A City is making use of a new cloud-based shot delivery system developed by Technicolor.

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/techfacils/technicolor-moves-troy-vfx-workflow-to-the-cloud/5117438.article?blocktitle=Latest-News&contentID=1151

Technicolor Pulse integrates remote file management, content player and VFX pulls into a single, cloud-based platform.

The benefit to production teams is said to be improved control of content and the ability to track thousands of files and other elements.

The 8 x 60-minute Wild Mercury and Kudos production, currently shooting in South Africa, is sending around 1.2TB per day of files over Pulse for post-production in the UK. That equates to an estimated 190TB in total, or 50,000 sound and picture files.

Around 250 shots per episode will be managed over Pulse, with some 200 pulls per shot.

“It would take two to four days to pull original camera files from an LTO tape but now it can take minutes to a few hours,” said Technicolor vice-president of product strategy George Kilpatrick. “The whole process is much faster and it removes human error.”

Pulse operates on either Technicolor’s private cloud or on AWS public cloud.

“Studios and content creators are still nervous about utilising public cloud,” said Kilpatrick. “We are keen to tap the scale of [Google or Amazon] public cloud since we believe a public cloud is just as secure as a private one.”

The company has also developed Rush, a public cloud platform for providing access to dailies assets. This will be integrated into Pulse alongside third-party applications. “If we hold all the original camera files, we could also hold all other file-based content for production, like stills, scripts and storyboards,” said Kilpatrick.

Pulse can be licensed for use independently of any of the firm’s post facilities.

“We are trying to get away from a facilities-based approach and instead use the cloud to make a virtual production environment,” he added. “People want to exploit various tax breaks, or film in exotic locations, where there’s not necessarily going to be a facility. We want to free up creatives to get the advantages of a service in the cloud and offer the same level of Technicolor expertise.”

A VFX pull is the name given to the process of sending selected frames to a VFX house. The companies providing the VFX work for Troy are yet to be appointed