Brian Holgate likes to say that he started his film production career “below the bottom.”
The chef-turned-cinematographer entered the industry as a production assistant in catering and craft services, then climbed the ranks from camera assistant to camera operator, and eventually to director of photography and editor.
Today, Holgate is the owner of Frames In Motion and co-owner of the COOP. Specializing in jib, remote heads, and motion control time-lapse, his mission is to create dynamic movement that captivates audiences.
Juggling Hard Drives And Tight Deadlines
Prior to co-founding the COOP with Dave Carafelli, owner of Carafelli Productions, Holgate and Carafelli worked together on several projects. For years, they shared media by bouncing hard drives around editors with no central storage device for shared assets. When they landed a large project with technology giant Microsoft, it became evident that the lack of centralized storage would be problematic.
“We were working with eight different partners and had incredibly tight deadlines. I knew passing around hard drives was going to be a bottleneck,” explained Holgate. They had to find a way to share media, fast.
The Need For Speed
Holgate and his team initially implemented a small, basic shared storage server so everyone could access the same files. But they quickly learned that not all storage is designed for media workflow the way EVO is.
“Our first server was so bad. It didn’t allow me to use the speeds that I needed. I figured, if it was going to be that slow, I may as well go back to passing around solid-state drives,” said Holgate.
“I also considered cloud-based storage, but the syncing just wasn’t there, and speed would likely be an issue in the cloud as well. We needed something that was right for the whole workflow, not just the storage part.”
With another large project looming on the horizon, Holgate and Carafelli realized that their existing shared storage solution wouldn’t cut it. So they set their sights on a better solution that would take their workflow to the next level: EVO shared storage.
Upgrading To EVO Shared Storage
“EVO is just so smooth,” Holgate asserted. “It’s a huge advantage for us.”
EVO gives Holgate, Carafelli, and everyone at the COOP the ability to access and work on the same footage simultaneously, without skimping on performance. Beyond storing shared media and projects, EVO comes with the award-winning EVO Suite of software tools to facilitate organization, automation, and workflow efficiency. These tools made all the difference when it came to their next major project: Oreo.
“Oreo was another fluid and complex project like Microsoft, but this time everything ran exactly as I wanted,” said Holgate. “With EVO, performance is never an issue. Working with R3D raw files on EVO, I’m achieving read/write speeds anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 Mbps. Having something that works fast is essential for us.”
EVO’s Unparalleled Performance
“In the past, working with raw media from our server was insanely slow. The difference between what we were using before and now is just night and day.”
While their old system couldn’t handle the raw codecs they work with, EVO has no problem with the performance demands of their media. Every part of EVO and the included EVO Suite is finely tuned for professional media production teams and designed to meet the most demanding workflow requirements.
“Dave and I will be hitting the EVO with various projects at the same time,” said Holgate. “I may be out shooting drone footage for Premier Boxing and sending it to EVO while someone else is editing footage from the NBA’s summer league. Anything we throw at it, EVO can take it.”
Live Video Production and REMI Workflow
EVO is not just for post-production workflows. Holgate uses his EVO server in a REMI workflow, capturing live content in one city and editing remotely in another.
“EVO fits perfectly into our remote productions. I can cut a TV broadcast directly from my remote edit bay connected to EVO. Footage is brought into our Ubiquiti server and stored on EVO, then we can edit and encode the content remotely. It’s incredible what this technology enables us to do.”
With this flexibility to edit live event broadcasts in real-time from a remote location, production companies like Frames in Motion, Carafelli Productions, and others at the COOP can streamline operations, deliver high-quality video content from anywhere, and significantly reduce costs associated with traditional on-site production.
“My edit bay is connected directly to a ten-gig port on the EVO. We have a remote edit suite for live productions connected to a second port, and a third port ties to our Wireless Access Point, so anyone on the network can have access to the same media and projects.”
Built-in Proxy Generation And MAM
Beyond the marked improvement in performance and new remote production capabilities, Holgate added: “EVO simplified the process of organizing, accessing, and sharing media. Every shoot has its challenges, but with EVO, my concerns are put to rest.”
The included EVO Suite was a big part of that. Slingshot, the EVO Suite’s built-in transcoder and automations engine, helps creative teams maximize efficiency in live and post-production workflows. “We use Slingshot for proxy generation and automated backups. It has been a huge time-saver, and I know we’re just scratching the surface of what Slingshot can do.”
ShareBrowser MAM, the Media Asset Management arm of the EVO Suite, makes finding and sharing assets among team members a breeze. Unlimited users can tag, comment, organize, share, and preview media with the powerful and easy-to-use MAM system. “Previewing our media within ShareBrowser has sped up our workflow. Overall, ShareBrowser has made a dramatic difference for us,” added Holgate.
Adobe Premiere Pro Integration
From capturing aerial drone footage to crafting intricate timelapses, Holgate leverages EVO and the Adobe Creative Suite to create compelling stories and visuals. EVO serves as a central hub for shared assets and projects, while Adobe applications handle the creative process.
“EVO stores all my assets and projects, and I edit everything in Adobe,”added Holgate. “For example, timelapses start in Lightroom for raw color correction and photo editing. Then, I create the sequence in After Effects and export it to Premiere for final edits.”
To further streamline the workflow, ShareBrowser integrates with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects. The ShareBrowser panel (available for free on the Adobe Exchange), allows users to search, preview, and import media, metadata, and proxy files directly into their project without leaving the editing environment. This integrated approach eliminates the need to switch between multiple programs, creating a seamless end-to-end experience.
Powered By EVO
“Together, Frames in Motion, Carafelli Productions, and the COOP now boast a central hub for streamlined production thanks to EVO.” said Holgate.
“I am a Studio Network Solutions super fan, and I know there are many of us out there,” he proudly declared. “I love knowing that if I need to set up a new workstation or add a user, I can easily do that at any time. I love that I can mount it to my computer without having to go and access it somewhere else. There is a lot to love about EVO. It’s perfect.”
Contact SNS to schedule a demo of EVO shared storage, the ultimate live, post, and remote production solution for creative media teams.