An article by Thomas Birner, Head of Media & Entertainment at Dropbox
UFA, based in Berlin/Babelsberg, has existed since 1917 and is one of the oldest and best-known video production companies in Germany. However, not only cult films such as “Dr. Mabuse” or “Our Mothers, Our Fathers” and “The Boy Must Breathe Fresh Air” originate from UFA; one of its subsidiaries, UFA SERIAL DRAMA GmbH, produces a series of daily shows that have captivated a gigantic fan base for over two decades, namely “Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten”, “Alles was zählt” and “Unter uns”.
Limited creativity
Each camera shoot generates large volumes of data that must be backed up and shared for various editing, cutting and approval loops. With multiple daily series being produced in parallel, this amounts to gigantic data collections. In the past, these enormous data volumes were stored on IT servers, and users had to connect to the server to upload or download data. Since this process was not yet properly automated, employees had to manually download the data they needed for their work, synchronizing it onto external hard drives for editing at home, and then re-synchronizing the edited material or transporting the hard drive back to the office with the corresponding data. Communication to coordinate changes and transmit approvals was also handled via email, making it very difficult to track change requests in the film segments. Initially, large data volumes were also sent using file-hosting services or organized via OneDrive, where each user had one terabyte of storage available. “General storage space limitations often gave us headaches when transferring larger video material; we literally had to gamble on which data to keep in the cloud and which to delete. It was constantly ‘The cloud is full again,’” explains Gosche.
And… Action!
Tim Gosche, a trained media designer, is today responsible for the technological side of post-production at UFA SERIAL DRAMA as Senior Manager Post-Production. In this role, he designs smart workflows, optimizes processes, updates software, introduces new tools, solves the daily challenges faced by his teams working in post-production, and answers questions. He enthuses: “The upload speed with Dropbox is first-class,” and explains that Dropbox can be directly and extremely easily integrated with any software important to the film business via API, e.g., with synchronization software or Adobe Premiere in combination with Dropbox Replay. He sees a major advantage in the fact that even people without a Dropbox account can access important files via links, and large files can be sent quickly and easily using Dropbox Transfer. He also likes the modern interface, especially compared to other cloud providers. Gosche calls the admin area unbeatable: “In the admin area, you can immediately see if something has been accidentally deleted, and you can easily undo the deletion. In general, the search mask with its fine parameters is very helpful, especially in cases of accidental deletion, which can always happen when cleaning up or archiving. With 200 TB of storage space, these are extremely helpful functions.” The only thing he doesn’t know is how Dropbox’s support responds, because with Dropbox, everything simply works so smoothly that he has never had to contact them in all the years he has been using it.
To be continued
What is special about UFA SERIAL DRAMA is that they handle all post-production—everything related to editing, color correction, visual effects, quality control, etc.—as their own in-house department. Many others still largely work with external service providers who provide their own platforms. Tim Gosche reports: “As SERIAL DRAMA, we purchased Dropbox to become faster and more efficient. We started with around 30 seats for GZSZ—that was our first production with Dropbox. Then came the next one, and the next, and today we have up to 100 licenses. Now, this is spreading to the other units, as they are now feeling the positive effects and are interested in setting up users to try working with Dropbox themselves. It’s fun to find solutions that other productions can then benefit from as well. Especially when teams are working on film or series productions in different locations, and for decentralized, location-independent editing, Dropbox is simply unbeatable.”
Before:
- Strong data limitations on servers: Data had to be either deleted or capacity constantly expanded by IT. Archiving data was often not possible
- Difficult collaboration and time-consuming approval loops: Due to the need to upload and download huge amounts of data—sometimes even using external portable hard drives for working from home—as well as complex synchronization processes, editing and approval processes were significantly delayed
- Difficult tracking of corrections: Change requests, comments, and feedback via email made it difficult to trace changes in the edit
After:
- No more full servers, faster data transfer thanks to top-notch upload speeds
- Seamless work from home office – no more external hard drives, no more cumbersome data downloads
- Faster and better collaboration within the post-production team, as well as with all external parties and the broadcaster
- Files can also be shared via link
- Unintentional deletions are traceable and can be easily undone
“With every update, with every new tool introduced, the result must be that teams can continue working seamlessly and the improvements are immediately noticeable. Only then can a tool gain acceptance. Dropbox succeeded in doing this. Today, Dropbox is our central, secure platform for collaboration and content workflows.”
About Dropbox:
Dropbox helps you centralize your life and advance your work. With more than 700 million registered users in 180 countries, Dropbox has set itself the goal of enabling even smarter ways of working. Further information about Dropbox’s mission and products can be found at dropbox.com.