CineCast: A Cinedeck Podcast

Mike Nuget has always been ready to work from home. As a freelance colorist, Nuget often goes to post-production houses to work, but he’s also had a home setup for years with the software he needs to do his job and work with producers and directors all over the globe. With the COVID-19 pandemic creating the need to shelter-in-place, most people have become remote workers, putting Nuget in a unique situation as one of the few people in the industry who was prepared for that change. He was working on a five-episode series that suddenly needed to get wrapped up quickly with people contributing from a number of places. “When the pandemic kind of really struck and they were kind of shutting everything down, literally, at that moment, all five episodes were being worked on at the same time,” Nuget said. “It was literally the worst time that this could’ve happened, because we had so much going on.” Nuget took on a bigger role, adding responsibilities beyond the colorist position. He’s leaned heavily on tools like Cinedeck’s cineXtools and its file delivery system, which can shrink the time it takes to make changes a producer wants by hours. “That insertion ability, it’s just – it’s priceless,” Nuget said. Nuget isn’t sure if work will ever look the same after the COVID-19 crisis, but he was happy he’d prepared himself to work from anywhere now that working from home is a requirement.

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Noah Chamow and Conor Burke share the twists and turns of their post-production careers in this final episode in a three-part series on careers in post-production for CineCast, powered by Cinedeck. Host Shelby Skrhak sat down with the two founders of Assistant Editors' Bootcamp, an informal education program that teaches the ins and outs of post-production skills and duties for newbies, to dig into their specific paths to arriving at post-production. Chamow worked in several different aspects of the film industry -- pre-production and production as an extra -- before landing on post-production as the right fit for him. "Pre-production was such a heavily relationship-based part of the industry and I'm just not that person," he said. "I realized then I wanted to get into assistant editing." Burke had no problem with the relationship aspect of the industry, but found it challenging to learn on the job until he met Chamow. "Just having someone I could ask questions and call if I didn't know how to do something," Burke said. Since then, Burke has gone on to help other editors learn on the job, just as Chamow did for him. The two discuss the specific and unlikely ways they found work in the film industry and share tips along the journey.

Assistant Editors' Bootcamp, a post-production training and education program for industry novices, was born as a way to combat the incredible Catch 22 that green candidates face in getting their first job. For the two founders Noah Chamow and Conor Burke, the struggle was all too real. In this second in a three-part series on careers in post-production for CineCast, powered by Cinedeck, host Shelby Skrhak sat down with Chamow and Burke to discuss their how they arrived at the idea for Assistant Editors' Bootcamp To land a gig, newbies need something on their resume that proves they're smart and talented enough to perform editing duties. But no studio wants to take the time to train unproven talent, or take the chance on being someone's first post-production job. "Nobody wants to take a chance on anybody," Chamow said. "So for my first job, basically I had to stretch the truth to say I was qualified." Chamow was lucky in finding a senior editor who taught him along the way, and he reciprocated the favor when he met Burke years later as a newbie. "Noah taught me everything I know," Burke said. "I wouldn't be here if it weren't for Noah." Assistant Editors' Bootcamp, which is taught by working industry professionals in small workshop environments, trains students on the talent skills they'll need for their first post-production job and the soft skills they need to work with a team effectively. "We're training them for what we're looking to hire in an assistant editor," Chamow said.

Noah Chamow and Conor Burke, founders of Assistant Editor's Bootcamp, attended some of the best film schools in California, and yet their best learning experience was creating their own. On this first in a three part series on careers in post production for CineCast, powered by Cinedeck, host Shelby Skrhak sat down with Chamow and Burke to discuss their paths to becoming an Assistant Editor. Chamow studied film at UC Santa Cruz, but his best training came at the grace of a co-worker. "Fortunately one of the editors working on the show took me under his wing," he said. The young editor learned more from this senior editor on set than he did from years of college and set a precedent Chamow would realize later as he moved up the ranks in post production roles. Soon Chamow was in a position to pay it forward when he met Burke, a newbie, on set. "Noah basically taught me everything I know," Burke said. On this episode, Chamow and Burke share what they learned by learning on the job and how one person's hand up put an informal mentor/mentee relationship into motion.

Taking Cinedeck from the hardware world to the software world impacted leaders' outlook on the company business model and shaped the company in an unexpected way, COO Jane Sung [contributor page] said in this third of a three-part conversation on CineCast, a Cinedeck podcast. "When we first launched the software, we launched with our same hardware mentality," Sung said. "As a matter of fact, we launched because it was an easy thing to do, almost like an addendum to our hardware product." Six months later, clients were choosing cineXtools software instead of Cinedeck's legacy hardware tools. "As a business owner that's scary because our software was 1/20th of the price of our hardware," Sung said. The success of cineXtools taught Sung and the company the importance of process and structure to manage scalable growth, and that's advice she shares with other young software companies.

Cinedeck COO Jane Sung says there were huge barriers when it came to entering the software technology market with cineXtools. "Especially when you're bootstrapping that new product," Sung said in this second of three-part discussion on CineCast, a Cinedeck podcast. "Basically it felt like we were starting as a brand new startup." Like a startup, Cinedeck was reaching for a new audience that was unfamiliar with the company and its prior product offerings. Though they were a well-established company, they had to break through like a brand new player in an increasingly "noise-filled" marketplace. They teamed with marketing and other experts for outsourced operations and kept a large in-house development team in-house.

From its inception, Cinedeck has worked tirelessly to bring innovative video recording and editing tools to the market, but that was no easy feat persuading the industry their solution was feasible. On this first of three-part conversation on CineCast, a Cinedeck podcast, COO Jane Sung takes us behind the curtain to reveal the challenges they faced and how they solved them. "With any startup, sales is the number one thing you're focused on," Sung said. "But it's a big challenge. It was certainly our biggest investment of time, creating that strong sales pipeline." But creating that pipeline meant more than selling a solution; it was opening up two-way communication with their customers. "Offering a space for our customers to opine about the state of the industry was important for Cinedeck," Sung said.

Gone are the days of waiting long hours for media files to render thanks to insert-editing software, like cineX. On this three-part CineCast podcast, we have discussed the evolution of cineX with Cinedeck CEO himself, Charles D'Autremont. On our last and final episode with him, D'Autremont wrapped up the conversation with real stories from the industry and cineX users. “It can’t be done. It can’t be done,” was the repeating affirmation D'Autremont heard from the media editing industry. But as it turns out “data can be manipulated." This notion, at its core, is how cineX came to be and how the software eliminates hours of costly and cumbersome exporting. “Even though you’re not changing the way the frames are compressed, you’re changing the way they’re stored in the file,” D'Autremont said. As a result, editors are eliminating hours, even days, from their workflow. This is no more evident than in the case of cineX freelancers, who work with residential internet on at-home hardware. cineX freelancers can now make changes that would have taken days—in seconds. “People are very averse to things that are new, and aren’t the way they’re used to,” D'Autremont said. But in the case of cineX, the proof is in the software and the adopters of the time-saving software.

On this episode of CineCast by Cinedeck, we are joined once again by Charles D'Autremont, CEO of Cinedeck, to discuss the innovation of insert-editing software in the world of digital media. If you haven’t listened to part one, start there to learn about D'Autremont’s early career and how the idea of insert-editing came to be. On part two today, we explored how cineX evolved into a working program, and the challenges of introducing this revolutionary software into production media workflows. “Because we were editing files, there was initially pushback about... ‘How do we know you haven’t screwed up the file?'," D'Autremont said of early naysayers. Even now, he said, there are reluctant adopters still clinging to the idea that “a file is this inviolable object.” But as the cineX demonstrated its capabilities, editors began to change their minds. “As soon as they saw it worked, they were totally psyched about it, and became great advocates," D'Autremont said. Today, D'Autremont said cineX is “...used for hundreds of thousands of hours worth of television...” But the journey to where cineX is today was not easy, and continues to overcome challenges as it must simultaneously remain cutting edge, as well as compatible with the past.

Amateur and professional video editors alike know the slow and excruciating process of rendering a file; perhaps setting the file to export before bed only to find their hardware still churning next morning. This slow and painful process has been the norm in the film and broadcast industry since the beginning, that is until “insert-editing,” came along. Insert-editing is revolutionary in the digital media production industry, saving editors valuable time and money. Here to talk about it on this three-part CineCast podcast is the insert-editor creator himself, Charles D’Autremont, CEO of Cinedeck. “People have been told by other software developers that it couldn’t be done,” D’Autremont said of insert-editing. But in the early 2000’s, Charles’ experience in the field proved otherwise. Starting out drafting 3D architectural presentations for upscale real-estate, Charles soon began dabbling in tape-simulators and film editing. It was here, in the field, where insert-editing was conceived. ”The way most editor software is designed, you have to start from scratch every time you want to export that file,” D’Autremont said. But cineX turns this theory on its head. “It was really a mentality thing of what a file is." D’Autremont explained how he used off-the-shelf supplies to create the first ideation of insert-editing in the real world. Join us for parts two of three on our next episodes of CineCast by Cinedeck.

Our three-part podcast concludes with Alex Parnell, president of Splitting Lanes Entertainment. Parnell's work as a freelance colorist and online editor is ever-changing. No two workdays look alike. On this final episode, we explored his workflow, what software he relies on to keep his work running smoothly, and what changes he forecasts seeing in the future of coloring media. “It’s really hard to keep up on everything and every change," Parnell said about staying current on software updates and new editing programs on the block. But by scheduling personal time to familiarize himself with software, Parnell has set himself apart from the competition. His familiarity with a variety of programs keeps his projects running smoothly. For a multi-user environment, Parnell attested that Avid is “by far the best editing software.” But he cautions Avid for being slow to update, postulating that they may soon be irrelevant in the fast-changing market. With computers becoming faster, clients demand a speedy turnaround. Parnell elaborated on how this change is affecting his work, and how he suggests other media professionals deal with the high demand. Efficiency is key in this career, and he divulged the tricks to keeping his workflows running smoothly.

We welcomed back Alex Parnell, president of Splitting Lanes Entertainment, for episode two of our three-part series of CineCast: A Cinedeck Podcast. On episode one, we got to know Parnell as a creative in the industry of media, film, and television, how he got into the field and what gets him excited for work each morning. On this episode, we explored what a day on the job looks like for Parnell, and listened to personal stories of tricky clients and challenging workflows. “People are definitely more educated on color science," Parnell said, explaining how a more informed client can make his job easier. But it is a double-edged sword. With colorist software like DaVinci Resolve being free and relatively user-friendly, higher-ups think they can do the job of colorist. The reality couldn’t be further from the truth. With different clips and quality, particularly in reality television, a keen eye is needed to blend media. Colorists and editors work with a variety of programs like Premiere, Resolve, Avid, Cinedeck and more. As files get passed between programs, dozens of different files are created, often forcing colorists to manually transcode, creating hours of extra work. But Alex revealed a trade secret. “The file-based delivery...is very efficient if you used something like a Cinedeck or cineX insert," he said.

Television is going through a(nother) Golden Age. With the influx of streaming companies to the entertainment sphere, there have never been more TV programs to watch than today. For colorists and online editors like Alex Parnell, this means ample work and incoming clients. Today marks the first episode of a three-part series in this edition of CineCast: A Cinedeck Podcast. Designed to elevate the voices of creative professionals in the field of media, film, and television, CineCast dove into Parnell's freelance journey as a colorist to unpack the vision and software the guides his work. On the first part of this series, we got to know Alex Parnell, president of Splitting Lanes Entertainment. He elaborated on what drew him to the creative field of media and why the freelance lifestyle worked best for him. “I love taking footage ...and figuring out what’s wrong with it,” he said. The field is full of challenges and hiccups, but the daily life of a freelancer never looks the same, a quirk of the job that Parnell thrives on. With an ever-changing office, he must remain flexible to the tools and apparatus he has to work with. Different monitors, panels, and button configuration add extra challenges to the job, but the joy, freedom, and financial benefits of being a freelancer outweigh the extra effort. With the world of entertainment demanding fast turnaround, Parnell explained how long days can work against colorists trying to set themselves apart. Despite the struggles, the reward of the final deliverable is worth the industry uncertainty. “I love it when someone comes to me and something isn’t working and we’re able to make it work," he said.

The typical two-hour movie that audiences enjoy across the world daily is the culmination of a year or multi-year process. Projects fit for the big screen or the flat screen take months to put together once filming starts, but by the time it hits the desk of freelance colorist and finishing editor Mike Nuget, it is expected to be finished within days. Nuget gets films fit for viewing by perfecting audio, color, and other fine edits. This can be an extremely pressure-packed job, and with ever-changing technology, Nuget has continually had to adapt to the tools at his disposal. “If I’m not thinking about my job then I’m falling behind in a way,” he said. “I’m constantly learning something, whether it’s just watching a tutorial online about software that I already know and it’s just tips and tricks from somebody else, or it’s a completely different software that I’ve never heard of that I want to learn about.” An editor’s toolkit is essential for not only quality work, but an efficient workflow. Though there are many, Nuget cited Cinedeck’s cineXtools specifically as one of his favorites and calls it an indispensable program for saving time and increasing efficiency. CineXtools allows editors to make small changes to an exported file without having to completely rerender the final piece. He estimated that the ability to insert an edit into a file using Cinedeck’s software once saved him at least 21 hours on a project, which carried the added benefit of reducing costs for his client as well. The ability to stay sharp and in tune with new pieces of equipment keeps Nuget in demand by some of the largest names in television and film. With a portfolio that includes work for HBO, Netflix, ABC, NBC, ESPN, and Hulu among other major networks, he said his flexibility on multiple editing platforms, coupled with 20 years of experience, keep him busy. While there is pressure to learn quickly and turnaround projects sometimes within the same week, Nuget takes time to enjoy learning the nuances of different editing software services while doing his job. He advised young editors to make YouTube their ‘best friend’ and puts together tutorials on basic editing tips to continue preparing the future of the workforce.

Considering that our oceans cover more than 70 percent of our planet’s surface and contain more than 97 percent of the Earth’s water, it’s surprising to realize that only about 5 percent of the world’s seafloor has been mapped in detail, leaving approximately 65 percent of the Earth (excluding dry land) unexplored. With so much of our planet yet to discover, governments, organizations, and private funding are furthering mankind’s ventures into sea, helping us to unravel the mysteries of the deep. Yet, there is a high degree of difficulty and cost in exploring undersea. Vessels are one of the most critical elements in any ocean-going venture, carrying food, water, fuel, and the equipment necessary to the crew’s survival while on mission. These vessels must also house specialized tools and technologies that allow scientists and researchers to explore underwater environments, including cutting-edge computers and navigational and communications systems. For video production staffs responsible for capturing potentially once-in-a-lifetime discoveries in these extreme environments, their equipment must be rugged, dependable, and of superior quality in order to provide quality image streaming to shoreside teams and online viewers. On today’s episode of the podcast, we sat down with Ed McNichol, video operation manager on contract for Ocean Exploration Trust. OET was founded in 2008 to engage in pure ocean exploration, seeking out new discoveries in the fields of geology, biology, maritime history, archaeology, and chemistry. With all scientific research conducted at the highest international academic standards, OET pushes the boundaries of ocean engineering, technology, education, and communications, sharing their expeditions with explorers around the world via live telepresence. “The most fascinating thing I’ve ever seen at the bottom of the ocean is what we’re just about to see next. It’s just such a mystery. And whatever’s just outside the reach of our lights, no matter how tired I am at sea, that’s what keeps me energized and engaged, because it’s such an unknown. So, I can’t fall back and say there’s any one particular thing I’ve seen that stands out because it’s all such a magical, mysterious area of our planet,” McNichol said. As OET’s contracted video operations manager, McNichol shoulders a lot of responsibility. He must ensure that each expedition is optimally captured and recorded on film. While new technology such as satellite equipped vessels have made a great impact on ocean video exploration, evolving technologies and companies like Cinedeck’s are helping to refine and optimize undersea video production.

Each innovation to the ways that we consume television and film creates new problems for the people in that industry to creatively solve. For freelance colorist and finishing editor Mike Nuget and director of technology for PostWorks Matt Schneider, that means the workflow for every project looks slightly different. Nuget and Schneider joined this episode of the podcast to explain how 4K and other new technologies have changed the way they do their jobs and talked about some of the new software that’s making their lives easier. “People think that files are easier because you can just drag and drop them,” Nuget said. “If the camera guy two years ago who shot something didn’t label the files right, then two years later when it gets into my room it’s chaos.” Nuget and Schneider talked about the challenges presented with each project and the increasingly blurred lines between the creatives and the post-production experts.

Trends have a tendency to be cyclical. That helps explain the recent interest in everything “retro.” In the Pro AV world, “legacy procedures” don’t typically have the same romantic image. Cinedeck is bringing a classic, common-sense workflow approach back to the forefront. On today’s podcast, our host spoke with the director of business development for Cinedeck, John Harris. They discussed the reason some procedures were so functional in the first iteration, how scalability is critical for new clients (of all sizes), and how Cinedeck is constantly trying to improve their approaches and products to challenge the “that’s just the way it’s done” mindset. “We can’t avoid the first render, we have to create that file, there’s no doubt,” Harris said. “But, what we have to consider in all our workflows: when are we ever repeating the same task again?”