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Netflix’s Media Production Suite

netflixtechblog.com

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Re: Netflix’s Media Production Suite

#31

Post by fastball »

anigbrowl wrote: post #27
fastball wrote: post #3

The tech is cool, but it seems like the main result of having such a pipeline is that Netflix has been able to produce an incredible amount of low-effort schlock that mostly lacks soul and artistic merit.

Having worked on both quality and junk film productions I assure you the editing workflow is not the determinant of artistic quality. No film or TV program has ever been improved by the editor(s) trying to build their own NAS or hack a version control system together.

It's not just editing though, right? This whole system makes it more viable to just film tons of b-roll quality footage without worrying about the end result. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention, and this system makes it much less necessary to worry about what you're filming and why.

Re: Netflix’s Media Production Suite

#32

Post by progbits »

_m_p wrote: post #29

I was reading about the cinematography of _Collateral_, possibly the first large budget feature film to be shot digitally, and one of the issues back in 2004 when it was made was the amount of storage required for digital video and the risk of not being able to retrieve the images from the data stores: > “We did massive testing with the hard drives, and everything was great, and then we had an experience where we sho…

> we were backing up, two or three times

So they just rediscovered what IT world knew for decades, or what am I missing?

Re: Netflix’s Media Production Suite

#33

Post by gcanyon »

I read through that whole article thinking,

   - I wonder what the UI looks like compared to tools I use now
   - I wonder if there will be a free tier, since my video needs are modest
It never occurred to me until I reached the end that this wasn't a "enjoy this tool we made" post, but instead a "look how awesome we are" post. :-/

Re: Netflix’s Media Production Suite

#35

Post by fastball »

crazygringo wrote: post #21
fastball wrote: post #3

The tech is cool, but it seems like the main result of having such a pipeline is that Netflix has been able to produce an incredible amount of low-effort schlock that mostly lacks soul and artistic merit.

Are you serious? Have you watched Adolescence ? It's got more soul and artistic merit than practically anything else I've ever seen. And that was just last week. Maid ? The Queen's Gambit ? Baby Reindeer ? The Crown ? Ripley ? BoJack Horseman ? Sure they make a lot of schlock too, because they're a business and that's what most of their audience wants . But I don't see how you could possibly criticize them for that w…

You don't need this pipeline to produce 6 shows over a decade. Said another way, they almost certainly would not have bothered to build this system if the purpose was mainly to produce the shows you mention. The reason these systems exist is to enable the creation of hundreds or thousands of productions.

Re: Netflix’s Media Production Suite

#37

Post by wodenokoto »

progbits wrote: post #32
_m_p wrote: post #29

I was reading about the cinematography of _Collateral_, possibly the first large budget feature film to be shot digitally, and one of the issues back in 2004 when it was made was the amount of storage required for digital video and the risk of not being able to retrieve the images from the data stores: > “We did massive testing with the hard drives, and everything was great, and then we had an experience where we sho…

> we were backing up, two or three times So they just rediscovered what IT world knew for decades, or what am I missing?

That you don’t film on two or three wheels at a time

Re: Netflix’s Media Production Suite

#38

Post by Gshaheen »

gcanyon wrote: post #33

I read through that whole article thinking, - I wonder what the UI looks like compared to tools I use now - I wonder if there will be a free tier, since my video needs are modest It never occurred to me until I reached the end that this wasn't a "enjoy this tool we made" post, but instead a "look how awesome we are" post. :-/

Ha! Yes sure, but it does make sense that they’d keep something like this to themselves.

Creating massive amounts of high quality content efficiently, on a global scale, with seamless global distribution is an incredible competitive advantage.

I don’t see why they would provide it to anyone outside of their ecosystem.

It’ll be interesting to see if they translate this to games as well.

Re: Netflix’s Media Production Suite

#39

Post by m463 »

progbits wrote: post #32
_m_p wrote: post #29

I was reading about the cinematography of _Collateral_, possibly the first large budget feature film to be shot digitally, and one of the issues back in 2004 when it was made was the amount of storage required for digital video and the risk of not being able to retrieve the images from the data stores: > “We did massive testing with the hard drives, and everything was great, and then we had an experience where we sho…

> we were backing up, two or three times So they just rediscovered what IT world knew for decades, or what am I missing?

probably 20 years and the switch from hard disks to flash drives.

I remember when hard drives started getting big that it took a long time to get data on and off them. They got bigger faster than interfaces could keep up.

I think about 2004, a "big machine" would be an aluminum powermac G5 with an 80gb sata hard drive. Or a powerbook G4 with a 60gb ATA drive.

Re: Netflix’s Media Production Suite

#40

Post by anigbrowl »

fastball wrote: post #31
anigbrowl wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having worked on both quality and junk film productions I assure you the editing workflow is not the determinant of artistic quality. No film or TV program has ever been improved by the editor(s) trying to build their own NAS or hack a version control system together.

It's not just editing though, right? This whole system makes it more viable to just film tons of b-roll quality footage without worrying about the end result. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention, and this system makes it much less necessary to worry about what you're filming and why.

I mean you could say the same thing about video cameras making it too easy to shoot footage compared to film.
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