Dave Friend is the cofounder and CEO of Wasabi.
The past few years have been some of the most challenging for Hollywood. From pandemic shutdowns to budget cuts and historic strikes, creating a new feature film or TV series is far more difficult than before. Additionally, the explosion in popularity of streamers has had a notable impact, and studios are competing to churn out more content to keep pace, often with fewer resources than before.
At a time when editors are stretched thin and budgets are stretched even thinner, studios are looking for ways to streamline processes and put out quality content at rapid speed.
Many leaders in Hollywood are turning to technology, especially AI, to help expedite workflows and get movies and shows in front of audiences at a faster rate. However, this is no easy task, as a single feature film demands a huge web of infrastructure to ensure processes run smoothly, and searching through that content is nearly impossible. Especially as video quality increases, storing the enormous amount of content generated from a movie has been one of the top challenges for studios in recent years.
With all the thousands of hours of footage that can be used to create new content, many in the entertainment industry are exploring cloud storage to help serve as a central repository for easy access to content. Adding AI capabilities into the tech stack can further help streamline the processes for editors, but this process is not without its challenges.
Understanding Bottomless Storage
A single feature film from a Hollywood studio generates a mountain of data, and as camera quality continues to increase, the amount of storage needed to maintain the data from one movie skyrockets even more. Especially during a time when studios are looking to ramp up production to make up for lost time during recent setbacks, cloud storage becomes even more critical.
With a proper cloud backup option, studios can quickly ramp up or slow down the storage needed. This is especially ideal for studios looking to cut back on budgets since they can control the amount of storage based on need rather than a set standard. Further, not having to worry about a limited amount of storage allows producers to collect as much footage as needed for a project.
Beyond scaling storage up and down as needed, the cloud can also serve as a central repository for studios. With cloud storage, on-site producers worldwide can upload film captured that day onto the cloud, where editors can immediately access it back in Hollywood. Utilizing the cloud as a central repository for content allows editors to begin working on new content as soon as the director yells “cut.” This, in turn, can help speed up processes and enable studios to get content in front of audiences quickly.
While the cloud allows for bottomless storage, there are security concerns that studios should be aware of. Like any technology infrastructure, there is always the potential for a cyberattack or breach. Studios should be especially vigilant in protecting against bad actors since their content often has sensitive clips from production that should not be leaked to the public. Precautions like multi-user authentication and secondary backups can help protect against ransomware threats and other possible cyberattacks.
Using AI To Create A ‘Library Card’ For Content
Scouring an archive of videos used to take countless hours of manual labor, costing studios valuable time and money. With the introduction of AI, this is no longer the case. Think of a video archive as a library. While it is great to have thousands of books at your fingertips, those books are virtually useless without a catalog to help you find them.
The same goes for a video archive. Without detailed metadata, a video archive is like a library without a card catalog. With AI, media libraries can become useful archives with nearly unlimited capabilities. Editors can quickly search for past clips based on people, places, facial expressions, audio and more. At a time when many studios are squeezed for budget, a searchable index with AI can help expedite processes for editors by cutting down on time and costs.
However, studios must ensure that their AI usage in their catalog aligns with industry guidelines. Since AI technology is still in its early stages in Hollywood, there are still some unclear standards on properly and ethically using AI in production. Ensuring best practices is critical. Studios should receive consent from actors whose clips might be pulled from past archives and reused. It is critical that those involved in the original projects are aware and agree to the usage.
Conclusion
While incorporating AI into cloud storage is an exciting new venture, it’s important to be aware of both its potential benefits and challenges. In the realm of media and entertainment, AI represents a burgeoning frontier, offering promising advancements yet to be fully realized.
As Hollywood explores this intersection, industry leaders should assess the readiness of their technology infrastructure. Optimizing and updating their technology stack can maximize the benefits of integrating cloud storage and AI, ushering in a new era of efficiency and innovation in production workflows.
By following these steps and carefully balancing the benefits and challenges, these combined capabilities can be strategically leveraged to propel workflows into the modern era.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
