The 2020 Pandemic's Impact on the Production Industry

The COVID-19 pandemic has catalysed profound change within the production industry. As it has rebuilt, a new approach to remote collaboration has emerged as essential. Blake Jones, a user of ioGates, shares his insights on how the platform's blend of user-friendliness, functionality, and security has revolutionised his workflow. In his words, "There’s no going back."

The Shift from Conventional Production Workflows

Traditionally, production, editing, and colour grading workflows were location-bound. However, the pandemic's restrictions necessitated a swift and innovative response. "We needed to devise a workflow that allowed the same degree of interaction between the Producer, Director, Editor, and Colorist – even though they were in different countries or cities," explains Blake.

Navigating New Challenges in Post-Production

Blake Jones identifies three primary challenges that had to be overcome:

Cross-Country Media Sharing

The first hurdle was transferring media from on-location shoots to crew members globally. Blake recounts, "We achieved this by using ioGates, which is an extremely flexible cloud-based storage and media transfer platform. It’s extremely secure and automatically generates lower resolution proxy copies of the original media during upload."

Adapting to Home-Based Setups

Several crew members faced the challenge of inadequate home equipment. "Many had computers that were not good enough to run applications like Adobe Premiere or DaVinci Resolve," Blake notes. The solution lies in leveraging cloud computing platforms to overcome hardware limitations.

Maintaining the Human Element

For Blake and his team, preserving the human touch was crucial. They opted for DooZZoo over more mainstream platforms like Zoom for its enhanced security and collaborative features, allowing seamless sharing of desktops and ideas.

Revolutionising the Editing Process

Using the new workflow for a documentary aired on French Television, Blake reflects on the profound impact of these changes:

"Our 52-minute film about the Italian comic Totò...let us put our ideas into practice thanks to a system called ioGates...The ioGates system allowed the editing to continue. Letting everyone access the material reduced our physical presence in the editing room to a mere six days."

Establishing a New Standard in Production

The success of this project led to an expanded role for ioGates, as Blake describes:

"We decided to expand the usage of ioGates to not only look after the Raw media from the project but in the end, also the rendered deliverables...Creating unique ShareLinks for customers with or without watermarks is extremely simple, and it’s fantastic that ioGates even supports DRM."

In managing their media, Blake's team adopted a novel approach, using one ioGates volume for archiving post-project, thereby streamlining their process for future productions.

Conclusion: A Paradigm Shift in Production and Post-Production

Blake Jones' case study illustrates a significant shift in post-production workflows, accelerated by the pandemic. Tools like ioGates have facilitated this transition and set a precedent for more innovative and flexible methods in the production industry.

Can I try ioGates before committing to a subscription?

Yes, ioGates offers a robust free version, so you can test drive the software for as long as you need to feel comfortable it's the right solution for you.