The Media Workflow Puzzle

How It All Fits Together

Clyde Smith, Chris Lennon

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781351189538
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Communication Studies
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This edited collection brings together a team of top industry experts to provide a comprehensive look at the entire media workflow from start to finish.

The Media Workflow Puzzle gives readers an in-depth overview of the workflow process, from production to distribution to archiving. Pulling from the expertise of twenty contributing authors and editors, the book covers topics including content production, postproduction systems, media asset management, content distribution, and archiving and preservation, offering the reader an understanding of all the various elements and processes that go into the media workflow ecosystem. It concludes with an exploration of the possibilities for the future of media workflows and the new opportunities it may bring.

Professionals and students alike looking to understand how to manage media content for its entire lifecycle will find this an invaluable resource.

Chapter 1

Introduction

Section Editors: Chris Lennon & Clyde Smith

Welcome to the wonderful world of media workflows! Many take the process of getting audiovisual media from initial production all the way to distribution to the viewer largely for granted. In many cases, it just seems to happen as if by magic. Things have evolved a great deal from the early days of shooting a production on film, editing using human hands and razor blades, creating physical prints, and shipping those to theaters or later to television networks so that viewers could enjoy the finished product.

Today, as a result of over a century of evolution and continual improvement, we have amazingly capable (and complex!) systems and processes in place. The fact that these all work together in a way that seems like “magic” to those not involved in the day-to-day creation of audiovisual content is a testament to the hard work of many over the years to get where we are today.

Plenty of publications exist that can help you to dig deep on various technologies and approaches in use in the entire world of media workflow. This book makes no attempt to replicate or replace any of those.

This book is different. Its intent is to provide a very high-level overview of what’s involved in the process, start to finish, of producing audiovisual content.

Who should read this? If you’re new to the media business or a student, this should serve as a good place to start. If you’re in the business but have a limited view into a relatively small portion of the process, this book should also help you. If you’re an executive, not needing to know the details of exactly how things happen technically but need a solid grounding in the process as a whole, you should also find this book helpful.

As you progress through this book and find that you’d like to dig deeper into a specific area, we highly recommend you search for some of the excellent publications available that dig into the technical details you seek. In many cases, the section editors and authors of this book are terrific resources themselves and would be only too happy to point you in the right direction.

We hope you find this book a reliable high-level resource. Our aim is to provide you with a solid appreciation for all the various elements and processes that go into the media workflow ecosystem.

Chapter 2

Overview

Section Editors: Chris Lennon & Clyde Smith

Like all industries that survive in our changing world, the ability to transform and adapt has been key in the media business.

When one considers where things started in the movie industry in the early twentieth century and where they now are just over a century later, the rate of change boggles the mind. The media business has been in a constant state of evolution ever since it began. In fact, it could be argued that this evolution has been interspersed with several revolutions along the way.

Revolution #1 – ​Television Enters the Scene

Consider the sea changes that occurred when television first became a popular medium. For the first several decades, the world of audiovisual content primarily revolved around Hollywood and its studios. The number of players was limited and geographically concentrated. This meant that establishing standardized workflows was relatively easy. Techniques were developed and implemented with relative ease among this targeted group. Production, Post-Production, Managing and Archiving Assets, and Distribution was well-defined, and matured to a great degree.

When television entered the scene, it had several important impacts. Production became quicker. Networks now cranked out dozens of episodes per year. Live events had their own workflows by necessity. Managing large quantities of programming and ad content became a reality.

Revolution #2 – ​We Go Digital and Files Replace Physical Media

The shift to digital and file-based workflows in both Motion Pictures and Television changed everything again. Some think of the switch to digital in a transmission context but although that was a big change, the impacts all the way upstream to production of digital workflows made this perhaps the biggest revolution ever in our business.

It’s easier to make a list of what didn’t rather than what did change during this revolution. Very little was left untouched by the shift from analog to digital. Every piece of equipment involved in media workflow in the analog world suddenly became obsolete, but this was not just a “lift and shift” to digital equipment. The way things were was transformed and replaced entirely. The replacement of physical media (film, tape, etc.) with digital files opened up entirely new approaches to media workflows. This didn’t happen overnight, as this shift was so dramatic it took time for those involved to fully appreciate the opportunities for dramatic alterations in workflows that could be realized through the new technology.

Cost and complexity involved in producing audiovisual content plummeted. Specific equipment that could only be afforded by the elite few was now democratized into “apps” on computers, available for very little cost. Virtually anyone who wanted to could now compete with “the big guys,” and produce content that in many cases was competitive in every way with so-called “professionally produced content.”

Revolution #3 – ​Multiplatform Distribution

Things were upset again when distribution expanded to a plethora of new methods, including cable, satellite, Internet, mobile, social media, and the list goes on. Again, although on the surface this would seem to be purely a revolution in the distribution realm, that’s not really true. Whereas the Television Revolution had impacts far upstream of distribution, Multiplatform Distribution upset things even more. Workflows and practices all the way up to Production had to be re-examined again. Content being produced must now be suitable for viewing on screens from a few inches to wall sized. Long-form content that worked well for decades wasn’t so well-suited to mobile viewing or to social media viewing, where attention spans are counted in second, not minutes or hours.

Competition went from a few studios and a few networks to a virtually limitless number of media outlets offering content to the world via the Internet.

Revolution #4 – ​Things Get Cloudy

Today, we see further revolution taking place with the onset of Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence and its application to media, alongside the movement toward cloud-based processes and storage.

The onset of “The Cloud” has further moved media workflow into a world of lower cost and high efficiency. While earlier revolutions moved things more and more away from specialized and expensive equipment, this revolution made any type of equipment almost an afterthought. Producers of content can now simply invoke processes online without ever having to purchase any equipment at all. They can pay by the minute for hardware and software resources, allowing them to scale up and down on demand.

One could say this further democratized the media business, removing some of the last barriers to smaller players that want to get involved.

All of this has meant that processes in some ways became simpler, while at the same time becoming incredibly complex on another level. For the user, it’s hard to argue that things have not become greatly simplified. However, in order to make all of this work seamlessly and efficiently, operations “under the covers” have become incredibly complex. All of the diverse systems involved in media workflows don’t just work together by default. A large amount of care and attention to the small details must be taken to ensure that this complex ecosystem operates as expected under the increasingly complex demands put on it every day.

In the pages that follow, we will walk you through the process, in a logical sequence from start to finish.

We will begin with Production, addressing with how audio and visual essence is captured.

We will then move onto Post-Production where all of the various elements come together to form a finished product, no small task.

Next, we will talk about managing those assets and their associated workflows which has become increasingly challenging with the sheer volume and diversity of the versions of assets that exist.

Distribution naturally follows. As we mentioned earlier, things have come a long way from distribution consisting of films being shipped to theaters. It takes so many different forms today that it’s not a simple matter.

Last, but certainly not least, is Archiving and Preservation. As the cost and value of content increases, it is even more important than ever to properly archive and preserve it for future use. The “long tail” of monetizing content as long as possible after its initial distribution can be a make or break factor in the financial viability of a production. And while one might think that the move to digital has made this all much simpler, it has actually complicated the process a great deal.

We will conclude with a look into our crystal ball at what might be in the future of media workflow. What is likely to be the next (r)evolution we need to pay attention to? What are the likely impacts and opportunities?

Chapter 3

Production

Section Editors: Jay Veloso Batista

Production of media is the beginning of our workflow chain. Most often, compelling content is produced through a collaboration of talented individuals and technological tools. To provide you a basis in understanding, we need to start with the origination and capture of the media itself, along with its metadata. This section covers both motion picture and video production together because, while for many years they were separate processes with film dominating the cinema productions, modern tools supply quality media and have relegated film to specialty projects.

Cameras

Capturing images began when scientists discovered the light sensitive properties of certain chemicals and began to experiment with substrates and supports, leading to the forerunner of the modern camera and the initial blossoming of tintypes during the mid-nineteenth century. By the twentieth century, innovations had led to motion capture – ​a video camera is a camera used for electronic motion picture acquisition initially developed for the television industry but now common in all applications.

The earliest video cameras based on the mechanical Nipkow disk were designed by John L. Baird and used in experimental broadcasts from 1918 to the 1930s. All-electronic designs based on the video camera tube, such as Vladimir Zworykin’s Iconoscope and Philo Farnsworth’s image dissector, replaced the Baird system by the 1930s. These remained in wide use until the 1980s, when technological break-throughs introduced solid-state image sensors such as CCDs and CMOS active pixel sensors into digital camera systems, completely eliminating common tube technologies problems such as “image burn-in” where an overly bright light or a stationary picture would imprint on the tube. For the first time, these developments made digital video workflows practical. Around the world, digital television gave a boost to the manufacture of digital video cameras and by the 2010s, most video cameras were digital for professional and consumer applications.

With digital video capture an affordable technology, the distinction between professional video cameras and movie cameras disappeared. Today the mid-range cameras exclusively used for television and other work are termed professional video cameras.

Creating content with video cameras is dedicated to two core industrial applications. The first, a reflection of the early days of broadcasting, is live event production, where the camera provides the source of real-time images directly to a screen for immediate viewing. While a few production systems still serve live television, especially sport event production, most live camera connections are dedicated to security, police, military, and industrial situations where monitoring is required. In the second applica...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Contributors
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Overview
• 3 Production
• 4 Post-Production
• 5 Managing Your Media Assets and Workflows
• 6 Distribution to the Viewer
• 7 Archive and Preservation
• 8 Looking Ahead
• Glossary of Terms
• Index