M+E Daily

Jeff Olm, a world-renowned colorist and VFX artist (The Fifth Element, Guardians of the Galaxy), and director of cloud services for cloud computing firm Eclipse Tech, has his fair share of tales from the trenches during the pandemic. And, as many in the industry know by now, shutting down on-location productions and going remote was easier said than done.

“[Productions] didn’t want people to take their drives home, and storage was still an issue, access was still an issue, the [Motion Picture Association] doesn’t want you to have you to have the discs at home,” he said, speaking May 12 at the annual Hollywood Innovation and Transformation Summit (HITS) Spring event, during the presentation “Remote Production Should be Easier. It can Be.” “So really the best thing you can do is have your data on the cloud, where the entire team can get at it.”

For Olm, that means using LucidLink’s Filespace solution — a software-as-a-service cloud file system for distributed workloads — which provides instant access to data, in the cloud, from the edge; enables shared storage for collaboration; ensures infinitely scalable cloud storage; and allows for integration of legacy applications with cloud storage.

“You can have your editor, your colorist, your visual effects guys on it,” he said. “We had an editor in London, another in Los Angeles, I was in Wisconsin, and we were all on the same storage in different time zones, still able to collaborate.

Dennis Radeke, director of sales for LucidLink, said the ideal benefits of remote production capabilities should include real-time access, be easy-to-set up and used with any creative software, mean no compromises on security, capable of scaling up users and storage, and be able to work with a variety of internet speeds. Allowing creatives to interact, regardless of location, is a given as well, he said.

LucidLink’s Filespace covers all those bases.

“In the wake of COVID-19, the need for scalable remote editing is critical to success,” Radeke said before the event. “With a cloud NAS solution, you can not only address remote production regardless of where people are located but it is scalable, accessible, and secure, enabling you to expand your talent pool and safely meet your deadlines.”

Richie Murray, media workflow and cloud technologist for LucidLink, also was in attendance, showing off a lice demo of Filespace with Olm.

To view the entire presentation, click here.

HITS Spring was presented by IBM Security with sponsorship by Genpact, Irdeto, Tata Consultancy Services, Convergent Risks, Equinix, MicroStrategy, Microsoft Azure, PacketFabric, Richey May Technology Solutions, Tamr, Whip Media, Eluvio, 5th Kind, LucidLink, Salesforce, Signiant, Zendesk, EIDR and the Trusted Partner Network.