Once upon a time, collaborative efforts involved sitting around a table, discussing the problem, and working with on-site staff to execute the results. This is how characters like Jon Snow and Shireen of House Baratheon met their untimely demises, but the real examples of coordination in action for the Game of Thrones production team are the video and sound editors who piece together vast amounts of raw footage into a series that has the visuals to go along with the gripping story. They utilized the power of Avid Workflow functionalities.
Fluidity of Sound and Motion: Avid Workflow Tools
As your project scales up from one or two video editors in a traditional working environment, each additional layer of modification imposes delays as the group waits for each individual to complete their work. Avid Media Composer has a host of available workflow options that cut and slash at the horror of frigid and slow production times with dragon-forged Valyrian steel.
The software already allows multiple users to work on a file simultaneously, but services like the Unity MediaNetwork make sharing the data with production partners quick and painless. The Game of Thrones team was able to feed the data to Yellow Moon, a post-production facility using Avid technologies in Northern Ireland, and Screen Scene, an editing company in Dublin who handled the sound mixing for the show. While the growing team of video editing specialists expanded, the use of Avid media sharing and storage services reduced the amount of time that would have been wasted on transporting the terabytes of data over traditional Internet services, enabled simultaneous work to be done between the various studios, and made meeting the deadlines for one of the most prolific modern shows achievable without sacrificing the quality that both fans and creators demand.
A Workflow Workhorse
While not as glamorous as a new suite of visual effects and editing tools, the workflow options are essential for managing larger projects. Any studio who finds itself moving beyond a handful of staff members or incorporates one or more associated companies should spend the little bit extra to add the options to the already terrific package offered by Avid Media Composer. The production speed increase can end up paying for itself, and the process becomes easier from start to finish.
