This week @guidetofilmtvpost interviewed our postproduction colleague at a major studio. JC’s official title is sound recordist, but he wears many hats and is a member of IATSE, the Motion Picture Editors Guild.
He describes a pre-covid “normal workday” as crazy long drives to and from work, lines of cars to get into the studio, upon arrival there would be meetings with client reps and / or corporate, where he would receive assignments and a breakdown of the project.
Face to face interaction was a big part of his day, work overlapped with various departments, there were shared rooms with other staff, teammates in various areas of post would check in with him throughout the course of a project, meetings with showrunners, clients…
A common theme we’ve heard throughout the lockdown and in doing these interviews is how easy it used to be to get someone on the phone for approvals and troubleshooting, how quickly personnel and clients would sign off on an element, there was a sense of urgency in the responses, as projects needed to be pushed through the pipeline quickly.
Workflow differed depending on the project, but where a time frame might be tight before, there were tons more on-site staff working to meet those deadlines. At this point, all postproduction was done on site at the studio facilities. Their team would get upcoming major studio projects “in progress” with temp effects, there were FX approvals, QC on bits and pieces of a project along the pipeline. JC would work with the sound department getting audio from the stage, repurposing it to go to the sound engineer doing the final layback to deliver on tape to network.
Post-covid workdays have looked a lot different. The studios are handling the lockdown and covid protocols like any other company or organization, they’re pivoting, based on the needs of the consumer and / or market. JC’s particular department was fortunate in that they are somewhat smaller and more contained, so they were less affected than larger departments.
Because of the type of work JC does, he was able to be a utility of sorts, and was shifted around to different departments.
Assignments came in much slower at the start, and through various new channels. Response times were heavily affected, at times taking days to get an answer or the sign-off from the client or other team members instead immediate in-person access. This changed as content changed, clients across the globe would have sudden major deadlines daily to meet deliverables for streaming platforms. This became way more intense at times. If there was a delay in one area, it caused delays everywhere else.
Due to security it was difficult to do zoom meetings, and remote working was limited to specific staff. Editors, sound mixers, VFX were approved to work from home, and were set up with the necessary software and hardware to do so. These teams work on Mac, which tends to be more secure, offering some reassurance. There were heavy security measures put in place, utilizing passcodes and tokens to access the data base remotely. More technical teams were encouraged to work on the lot, under strict covid safety protocols (testing, temp checks, ppe, sanitizing workspaces, social distancing…). Of course this increased workloads for those working on site. JC was allowed to do about 20% of his workload from home (namely research, paperwork, etc.) but nothing proprietary due to these security concerns. Unfortunately as with most studios, companies, organizations… a good portion of staff worked from home.
The landscape changed at the studio, as JC would see thousands of people around his area, after the shutdown he maybe ran into 10 people in a day, mostly security or covid compliance officers. Even with restrictions lifting and things easing, it is eerie to him how few people are back on the lot.
Although JC works primarily in the digital packaging department, he would alternate between various other departments as well, such as sound, color correction, archival… He suggests to those looking for jobs now that it will pay to be flexible, willing and able to shift between departments, multi-tasking… It will be essential moving forward in the industry. He’s had to learn Clipster, Avid, Final Cut Pro, Protools, etc., for JC it has paid to be open and able to shift.
During the lockdown, the workload shifted from the upcoming theatrical film releases to archival and remastering of older titles / older series for streaming platforms for the U.S. and across the globe, including overseeing versioning and quality control on all of these titles. There was a significant increase in requests for older IP, “legacy” titles, archived content, so that was his department’s main focus.
Film and TV production still takes place at the studios currently, but you may have noticed that your favorite broadcasted series may have less episodes in its season. There may be less content available and it may take longer to get that content. Productions are pulling back from filming on location and opting for filming on a sound stage on the lot to save on location shooting, and to utilize studio safety protocols (such as covid stations set up along the studio). The studios have wisely used the less trafficked time to retro-fit sound stages for air to move through better. They are putting in new stages, several more green screen stages are going up according to JC. Changing out ventilation systems and retrofitting old piping. Any sets that were put on hold were torn down and repurposed by late summer. Trailers for talent and H&M are out in parking lots now away from the rest of the crew. You must be vetted at a covid station before entering the lot. The studio set up open air eating spots.
Sound recording continues to happen from home for the most part. Talent recorded in sound proofed areas of their own homes during the lockdown, including their closets, directed by the production team via zoom. Instead of recording at the studio facilities, they recorded on their own and it was either securely transferred via the cloud or the elements were picked up. Loop groups are now able to have 5 to 6 people in a large sound booth, whereas before they could have 30 to 50, so the process will be more drawn out.
The studio now looks to the future, but how all of this continues to change the landscape remains to be seen. Is this all temporary or is this really the new normal? Will there be more remote working in our future or will they be able to encourage people back to the office? The mindset around remote working has been altered, knowing that you have the opportunity to live wherever you want and work from there.
JC says to keep in mind that this not the first major change we’ve been through in exhibition, “we worked during the conversion of film projection to all digital, and the change over from film reels to digital distribution and all of the troubleshooting that came with that.” Eventually he believes all workflow will be happening in the cloud. It will all continue to evolve, some things will go away and some things will grow mostly cloud based.
They’re all still figuring it out, altering workflows and troubleshooting as they move forward into uncharted territory. For many studios and productions, a saving grace has been their archived IP and on demand, the internet, streaming platforms…, but they remain hopeful for theatrical exhibition. There has been talk of new deals, buying theaters to keep them open, etc.. They do believe theatrical will make a comeback and is already showing positive signs. It may take a few years, but there will be a resurgence. There may be fewer bit blockbusters and big holiday releases. It may be more like going to the stage theater, more special, but people will always want to go to the movies for escapism and camaraderie.