Jesse Korosi, Thijs van de Kamp, Mayra Vega, Laura Futuro, Anton Margoline

The journey from script to screen is full of challenges in the ever-evolving world of film and television. The industry has always innovated, and over the last decade, it started moving towards cloud-based workflows. However, unlocking cloud innovation and all its benefits on a global scale has proven to be difficult. The opportunity is clear: streamline complex media management logistics, eliminate tedious, non-creative task-based work and enable productions to focus on what matters most–creative storytelling. With these challenges in mind, Netflix has developed a suite of tools by filmmakers for filmmakers: the Media Production Suite (MPS).

Significant time and resources are devoted to managing media logistics throughout the production lifecycle. An average Netflix title produces around ~200 Terabytes of Original Camera Files (OCF), with outliers up to 700 Terabytes, not including any work-in-progress files, VFX assets, 3D assets, etc. The data produced on set is traditionally copied to physical tape stock like LTO. This workflow has been considered the industry norm for a long time and may be cost-effective, but comes with trade-offs. Aside from needing to physically ship and track all movement of the tape stock, storing media on a physical tape makes it harder to search, play and share media assets; slowing down accessibility to production media when needed, especially when titles need to collaborate with talent and vendors all over the world.

Even when workflows are fully digital, the distribution of media between multiple departments and vendors can still be challenging. A lack of automation and standardization often results in a labour-intensive process across post-production and VFX with a lot of dependencies that introduce potential human errors and security risks. Many productions utilize a large variety of vendors, making this collaboration a large technical puzzle. As file sizes grow and workflows become more complex, these issues are magnified, leading to inefficiencies that slow down post-production and reduce the available time spent on creative work.

Moving media into the cloud introduces new challenges for production and post ramping up to meet the operational and technological hurdles this poses. For some post-production facilities, it’s not uncommon to see a wall of portable hard drives at their facility, with media being hand-carried between vendors because alternatives are not available. The need for a centralized, cloud-based solution that transcends these barriers is more pressing than ever. This results in a willingness to embrace new and innovative ideas, even if exploratory, and introduce drastic workflow changes to productions in pursuit of creative evolution.

At Netflix, we believe that great stories can come from anywhere, but we have seen that technical limitations in traditional workflows reduce access to media and restrict filmmakers’ access to talent. Besides the need for robust cloud storage for their media, artists need access to powerful workstations and real-time playback. Depending on the market, or production budget, cutting-edge technology might not be available or affordable.

What if we started charting a course to break free from many of these technical limitations and found ways to enhance creativity? Industry trade shows like the International Broadcast Convention (IBC) and the National Association of Broadcasters Show (NAB) highlight a strong global trend: instead of bringing media to the artist/applications (traditional workflow) we see the shift towards bringing people and applications to the media (cloud workflows and remote workstations). The concept of cloud-based workflows is not new, as many technology leaders in our industry have been experimenting in this space for more than a decade. However, executing this vision at a Netflix scale with hundreds of titles a year has not been done before…

Building solutions at a global scale poses significant challenges. The art of making movies and series lacks equal access to technology, best practices, and global standardization. Different countries worldwide are at different phases of innovation based on local needs and nuances. While some regions boast over a century of cinematic history and have a strong industry, others are just beginning to carve their niche. This vast gap presents a unique challenge: developing global technology that caters to both established and emerging markets, each with distinct languages and workflows.

The large diversity of needs by talent and vendors globally creates a standardization challenge and can be seen when productions use a global talent pool. Many mature post-production and VFX facilities have built scripts and automation that flow between various artists and personnel within their facility; allowing a more streamlined workflow, even though the customization is time-consuming. E.g., Transcoding, or transcriptions that automatically run when files are dropped in a hot folder, with the expectation that certain sidecar metadata files will accompany them with a specific organizational structure. Embracing and integrating new workflows introduces the fear of disrupting a well-established process, increasing additional pressure on the profit margins of vendors. Small workflow changes that may seem arbitrary may actually have a large impact on vendors. Therefore, innovation should provide meaningful benefits to a title in order to get adopted at scale. Reliability, a proven track record, strong support, and an incredibly low to