Scalability and Ensuring An Efficient Shoot to Post Workflow
Scalability is an important consideration when putting together DIT workflows for film, TV drama and commercials. It’s a well-known fact that things change quickly in each of these sectors.
Why is it Important?
Scalability is an important consideration when putting together DIT workflows for film, TV drama and commercials. It’s a well-known fact that things change quickly in each of these sectors. A workflow needs to remain effective and efficient when second units are brought in, cameras are added or crew members are off sick.
If a workflow is put into place that can’t be scaled effectively, it can put a lot of pressure on technicians and crew to stretch to meet the new requirements. It’s likely that this will increase working hours, stress and ultimately contribute to burnout.
How Do We Define Scalability?
Scalability is defined as the capability of a system to handle a growing amount of work, usually by increasing the resources it has access too.
Within the concept of scalability, there are several dimensions. The most relevant to the DIT in the film and TV industry are the following:
Functional Scalability
This is defined as the ability to enhance the system by adding new functionality without disrupting existing services. This could be interpreted as a goal of scalability in general. For example, a well-designed and scalable workflow will not jeopardize the overall system as different challenges are overcome and needs met.
Load Scalability
This is defined as the ability for a system to expand or contract to accommodate heavier or lighter loads. For example, a system could increase its processing capabilities to temporarily deal with a higher workload.
Within these dimensions, you can scale horizontally or vertically. Scaling horizontally would be defined as adding more processing nodes in a system to deal with an increase in load. Whereas, scaling vertically would be achieved by increasing the capabilities of one node within a system to deal with the increased workload. Scaling vertically has limitations in some contexts, as explained in the section below.
“A scalable department improves relationships with other departments due to the result of improvements in efficiency.”
How Can We Incorporate These Ideas Into Our DIT Workflows?
The concepts of scalability outlined above can be applied to workflows with the support of the productions who hire our services. It is important to consider the implications of the different types of scalability when designing a workflow, a good workflow will incorporate a combination of load and functional scalability and be able to quickly scale horizontally and vertically.
Scaling vertically has its limitations rooted in the hours of the working day and the constraints of the technician operating the equipment. For example, you could ensure that the processing capability of the DIT system is at its maximum to handle increased load. However, this alone is not enough. This method of scalability is bound by the capability and hours available to the technician operating the kit. There is a point where vertical load scalability on its own returns no benefits.
Ensuring that the equipment provided meets a baseline in performance is one way to plan a scalable workflow. To increase the effectiveness of this, it’s important that workload is shared by scaling out horizontally and adding more technicians and workstations to the system. For example, this may be ensuring additional units are covered by their own technician, or an external lab service help manage editorial media creation and additional backups.
Most of the scalability can be managed internally within the department, this is where assistants and trainees can step up if needed. Having an assistant and DIT trainee for the entirety of a production secures the capability for the department to split quickly to manage two units. Once the additional unit is completed they can return to their normal roles. A beneficial consequence of this is that assistants and trainees are being trained through their own experience and support of the lead technician. It could also be argued that a scalable department improves relationships with other departments due to the result of improvements in efficiency.
As desired shooting formats are becoming more demanding it’s becoming increasingly difficult for a single technician to manage everything. Scaling out responsibilities in this horizontal manner combined with ensuring that the equipment’s vertical load scaling capability is high ensures a hassle free workflow and shooting experience.