Author: Mike Buhrow

Fotosync

Mike Buhrow

by Mike Buhrow,

Senior Editor, TeamWorks Media

Another month has passed in this unbelievably isolated time of the pandemic.  It isn’t like we have not had connections with our co-workers in any manner, in fact many may believe we have focused much more time than normal getting organized and ready for our return.  A hyper focus to be exact, on getting things organized and in a place where we will benefit in the future with extreme efficiency. This led to a great development with AsaPro named Fotosync that I will now describe.

One major focus that we have had at TeamWorks this past year, is to transfer all of the metadata within our enormous photo library to our EditShare system.  When I say enormous, there are probably different definitions that each company has for such an amount.  Ours was in the range of 20,000 photos…and counting.  The photographer we use has created a library with incredibly detailed logging notes for every photo.  We can always find what we need in Adobe Bridge, but then we have to copy and upload the photo into another folder and location to share with our production team.  

We all know what this can lead to as this goes on every day.  A system of hide-and-seek for which photos are being used, has been used and should be used. The issue we have had is that using Adobe Bridge to search for the keywords and photos, all the photos would have to be on one local media space and only one computer could do the search and finding of the photos we were looking to use for the current project.  What we really wanted to be able to do is search the photos within our EditShare system and keep them in a nice and tidy folder structure.  We would then allow all of our production people to log into our EditShare AirFLOW server in order to do a search for which photos they want to use for a specific project. Then they would be able to download what they needed from the AirFLOW server to their local drives for quicker working conditions.  Our goal was to keep our original raw elements in the folder structure we developed from the start.  And most importantly, our employees could search all of our photos from anywhere in the world with WIFI and a browser and keep our level of productivity at a high level.

This is where having a great relationship with a company like Asapro comes in handy.  In just a few short conversations, they had brainstormed this new approach to taking the detailed metadata that our photographer added to each photo and transferring it into an easily searchable database on our EditShare system.  When we first discussed this idea, I thought it would still take months to do the actual conversion.  Let’s just say, my estimation was further off than can even be imagined.

Within months of the first conversation we had with AsaPro, we had a new server added to our EditShare FLOW server.  A few extra tests and we were off and running.  We gathered as a team and talked about how we could take a few hours a day to get this done within a month or so and then we began the actual work.  Within one day of clicking the additional Fotosync button on our newly designed template and server, we had all 20,000 photos completed and searchable on our EditShare AirFLOW server.  That is correct, I just wrote one day.  In the past world of copy and pasting of metadata onto our server, I can only estimate that we were in the realm of possibility of having someone work on this over the course of a year and still not getting through all the photos.

I am not sure of the return on investment we have just encountered, but what I do know is that within one day we have successfully given access to all of our employees an incredible photo library. This will not only make searching easier and more refined, but it has most definitely added potential to our creative capabilities that we never could have imagined one year ago.  I sincerely hope that other companies with similar needs get a chance to work with AsaPro’s Fotosync.  This development has given us freedom from the mundane and allowed us to use our energy to create.

Mike Buhrow is the Senior Editor at TeamWorks Media and is an AsaPro Contributor. Click here to see all of Mike’s articles.

Old Habits Are Easy To Break

Mike Buhrow

by Mike Buhrow,

Senior Editor, TeamWorks Media

One of the first editors I assisted could be found in the same place at the same time every day of work.  His routine was exactly the same.  From his breakfast, to his lunch and sometimes to his dinner, I would witness him eating the same thing almost every day. 

There is indeed something to be said about the value of routines.  You become efficient because you aren’t wasting your brain power on meaningless decisions when you have already found what works best for you.  However, the biggest disadvantage is that you may miss the opportunity to try new and exciting things that cross your path.

One of the most exciting things in the world of editing that I was lucky enough to learn about in the early days of non-linear editing was plug-ins.  Effects, transitions, text treatments, sound filters and many more items were added directly to the computer and within the application I was working on.  All in one place.  I didn’t have to learn a whole new machine to make a logo move.  I didn’t have to go back into the color correction room to change the brightness of a shot.  I didn’t have to reserve a studio to take out a little background noise.  And before I give any more examples, I need to make it clear, that I prefer using the talents and equipment of graphics, color and audio professionals over my own abilities at these things, however, there are budget and time constraints to consider on every project and it is nice to have the option to just get things done sometimes.

I think it is in our best interest as post-production specialists, to always try to learn new programs, new plug-ins, new panels and even new styles and tricks.  It is important to always keep an open mind when new things are presented.  I remember being in a room with six editors when one of Chicago’s biggest equipment dealers had us in to present the newest non-linear editing system.  We sat and watched an editor from L.A. show us how they were editing a television program with this new non-linear system.  Most of the room looked at the computer screen and said, this is never going to replace all of our equipment in the edit suites we have because the quality was poor.  I shared lunch with another editor who had also only been editing for about a year and we were so excited that this was going to be our future.  It took a few years before it overtook the industry, but here we are all on our computers, editing high-definition footage on our computers and laptops while sharing footage from around the world.

At TeamWorks, we just installed the new Premiere Pro panels for EditShare.  This opened a new door to our footage and A-Roll sequences that we have never had available with such ease.  There were ways to track it down and load it into our editing software, but now we can stay within our current project and drag and drop clips and sequences directly into our working project.  I realize these types of advancements come quick and often now days and that is exciting.  The more that companies offer to editors to save time and keep their media organized is what moves them to the top of the list.  Companies that offer panels for stock footage, music and templates will all get more business if they offer ease of access to their product.  If you are using a certain service for these visual and audio enhancements to our editing, please reach out to those companies.  Check their websites or call them to find out if they have a panel to add to your software.  They will help you change your routine and try some new and exciting way to enhance your creative abilities.

Mike Buhrow is the Senior Editor at TeamWorks Media and is an AsaPro Contributor. Click here to see all of Mike’s articles.

People Power vs. Automation

Mike Buhrow

by Mike Buhrow,

Senior Editor, TeamWorks Media

When I began editing back in 1990, I never thought a computer would be such a great assistant.  To me, the inevitable change that occurs in the business of media creation is always the most exciting and one of the easiest aspects of the overall industry to accept. 

By change, I mean advancements in technology and its role in assisting the overall process.  By allowing us to automate menial tasks automation opens up large amounts of time to utilize our creative abilities.  

I have seen rooms filled with film, one-inch tapes, three-quarter-inch tapes, betaSP tapes, DigiBeta tapes, DVCam tapes, DAT tapes, and so on.  By now, some people reading this are thinking of all the other formats of tapes and file formats we have had to keep track of, log, organize, store and sometimes just remember what was on them.  Now we can set up procedures with automation to make all the different forms of media that anyone would want to see.

We had a client where we had to create multiple high-resolution media files for 14 unique presentations on stadium video boards, webM files for playback in a museum, H.264 files for the client to use as they wish, as well as MP4 files for social media that people will watch on their phones, computers and tablets.  Now we can set up exports of all these formats easily using our EditShare automation.  Then we can maintain properly named folders that are searchable by anyone, anytime, and anywhere as long as they have a computer and access to the internet.

Some may look at automation as a way to take away jobs from people who are employed to perform some of these tasks.  Others may look at automation as a way to create more jobs and allow more time for people to create media. 

In my opinion, we should embrace these advancements when they present themselves because they will continue to make the end result of our work better.  And if you don’t know if you have automation capabilities in your infrastructure or if you don’t think it is something you can learn by yourself, ask your equipment supplier to help you get going.  The return on investment will be incredible and you will see great change in the end result.

Mike Buhrow is the Senior Editor at TeamWorks Media and is an AsaPro Contributor. Click here to see all of Mike’s articles.