Nicholas Goodwin of Constantin Film
They created the H.264 QuickTime files in 1280 x 720 resolution with a Constantin Film watermark and then uploaded them to Webgate. During 71 shooting days the production generated approximately 18,000 minutes of footage, with about 13,000 separate clips – totaling two terabytes of compressed data – uploaded to Webgate and viewed by up to 55 people.
Did the performance and usability of the platform stand up? We didn’t hear anything negative about the performance or capacity of the system. We were told that the executives at Sony are used to viewing their dailies through a TV settop box – not streamed but automatically downloaded overnight and readily available in the morning. They were a bit apprehensive about streaming data, thinking the picture might stall or jitter. Thorsten Wirth, the Postproduction Supervisor at Constantin in Munich, had set up the viewing environment for our US colleagues. He provided a bit of training for the users and was available as a support contact, but the system is quite selfexplanatory and so the whole process was very smooth. During the first two weeks of shooting Searle Street only uploaded selected takes that were pre-edited. After 15 shooting days the producers wanted to see all dailies. That’s when the load got really heavy, but we never had any problems.
Does Webgate have other uses for you? Constantin uses Webgate as a working platform for everyday business, not just for dailies. We use it in all phases of our productions, all the way through postproduction to distribution. With Resident Evil, editing moved back to Los Angeles after the shoot and thus it seemed expedient for Sony to keep the data local. Nevertheless, they were able to view all the material during photography and selectively share access to Webgate in order to generate marketing and promotional materials early in the process.
Watch the Webgate promotional film: www.arri.com/goto/1604/webgate
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