The Need For Transparency
Original camera footage (OCF) and metadata often travel on physical media from set to the first facility location. The geographical distance leads to extra coordination and communication requirements between the DIT (or data management person) and the DI facility (or dailies house). Notifying about and confirming the amount of data, the integrity of information, and further production context is typically done via email, PDF reports, and sometimes even phone calls if information changes or questions come up. Pomfort ShotHub reaches out to transform this communication by replacing the daily hope to have sent (or received) all required information with the continuous confidence that up-to-date information is accessible whenever needed.
Directions Of Communication
In 2019 Pomfort launched ShotHub as an “online mirror” of the DIT’s complete information repository on set – accessible anywhere, also away from the data management workstation. From the beginning, that allowed the data management team to look up shooting information on any device with a web browser, which leaves them well prepared to answer questions at any time, and ultimately increases the ease of mind after wrap.
Soon, the first customers found out that ShotHub can also be used to give facility staff “live”-access to production information. Connecting the facility to the film set that way has one profound implication. It reverses the direction of communication across the gap “between set and post”: Instead of a “push” approach (where the DIT sends information and reports to the facility), a “pull” approach is realized where the facility pulls information whenever, and in the form it needs. This has potential benefits on both sides: The DIT is not required to create and provide all the information and formats on a daily basis (just in case that information may be needed at one point in the future). And the facility knows that everyone who needs information can access it at any time.
In reality, ShotHub will not completely turn around all set-to-facility communication, but it can help realize a “hybrid push/pull” approach. For example, the DIT will still assemble a package of data and information every day and will also explicitly make that available for transfer when it’s ready. But additional information by additional staff can be pulled when required. That improves transparency across departments and reduces the administrative workload on set at the end of each day.
The Improved Overview and Transparency…
To make ShotHub more suitable for users in facilities, a few additions and changes have been made. All users of ShotHub will benefit from the new dashboard view, a summary “home page” that gives an overview of the latest activity in the user’s projects, and provides direct access to projects and shot entries via a ShotID search field.
…The New ShotHub “Team Plan”…
The latest release also extends ShotHub with a new “Team Plan” – specifically for DI facilities and teams with the responsibility for managing production data throughout the entire post-production until final grading.
The new plan is scalable with regards to its included users, giving facilities of all sizes the opportunity to only pay for what they need. Paid users can actively upload and sync (i.e., contribute) data from Silverstack or Livegrade. Hence, facilities can choose the number of such users: The standard ShotHub Team Plan starts with 5 included users and can be extended to 10 or 20 users.
But in addition, ShotHub teams can invite as many “external users” as they wish for free – perfect for sharing information with all the people that only need read-only access to the managed information.
The new “team” concept also integrates well with users that already use ShotHub themselves: As a user of ShotHub, you can now be part of more than one team. For example, a DIT can be invited to a facility’s “Team plan” to contribute to their projects and, at the same time, use a personal plan (for example, a “Pro” or “Free” plan) for managing other projects.
…And The New User Rights Management
We created new user management features that let facilities invite DITs to automatically import on-set information from Pomfort’s data management tools.
For that, the “Team Plan” comes with new team management features, access rights management, and new roles and permissions, such as
- Project Admin: Team members responsible for managing access to a project
- Project Members: The team members that contribute to a specific project
- Team Members: All users contributing to the various projects of a team
- Team Admin: Users managing members of a team
- External Users: Users invited to access individual projects from outside the team
- Team Owner: The person managing the plan and billing
Summing Up
With ShotHub’s new Team Plan, Pomfort builds on the strengths of existing systems and the value of daily maintained information from set. In addition, it offers a new service for DI facilities that simplifies communication and opens access to a rich repository of production information.
Further reading:
Learn more about ShotHub and its capabilities on
ShotHub and Pomfort’s desktop systems in larger context:
