Mar 31, 2025
Jesse Korosi, Thijs van de Kamp, Mayra Vega, Laura Futuro, Anton Margoline
The journey from script to display is stuffed with challenges within the ever-evolving world of movie and tv. The business has at all times innovated, and over the past decade, it began shifting in the direction of cloud-based workflows. However, unlocking cloud innovation and all its advantages on a world scale has confirmed to be troublesome. The alternative is evident: streamline complicated media administration logistics, eradicate tedious, non-creative task-based work and allow productions to deal with what issues most–artistic storytelling. With these challenges in thoughts, Netflix has developed a collection of instruments by filmmakers for filmmakers: the Media Production Suite (MPS).
Significant time and assets are dedicated to managing media logistics all through the manufacturing lifecycle. An common Netflix title produces round ~200 Terabytes of Original Camera Files (OCF), with outliers as much as 700 Terabytes, not together with any work-in-progress recordsdata, VFX property, 3D property, and so on. The knowledge produced on set is historically copied to bodily tape inventory like LTO. This workflow has been thought of the business norm for a very long time and could also be cost-effective, however comes with trade-offs. Aside from needing to bodily ship and observe all motion of the tape inventory, storing media on a bodily tape makes it tougher to look, play and share media property; slowing down accessibility to manufacturing media when wanted, particularly when titles have to collaborate with expertise and distributors all around the world.
Even when workflows are absolutely digital, the distribution of media between a number of departments and distributors can nonetheless be difficult. A scarcity of automation and standardization usually leads to a labour-intensive course of throughout post-production and VFX with a whole lot of dependencies that introduce potential human errors and safety dangers. Many productions make the most of a big number of distributors, making this collaboration a big technical puzzle. As file sizes develop and workflows grow to be extra complicated, these points are magnified, resulting in inefficiencies that decelerate post-production and cut back the accessible time spent on artistic work.
Moving media into the cloud introduces new challenges for manufacturing and publish ramping as much as meet the operational and technological hurdles this poses. For some post-production services, it’s not unusual to see a wall of moveable laborious drives at their facility, with media being hand-carried between distributors as a result of options usually are not accessible. The want for a centralized, cloud-based resolution that transcends these obstacles is extra urgent than ever. This leads to a willingness to embrace new and progressive concepts, even when exploratory, and introduce drastic workflow modifications to productions in pursuit of artistic evolution.
At Netflix, we imagine that nice tales can come from wherever, however we have now seen that technical limitations in conventional workflows cut back entry to media and prohibit filmmakers’ entry to expertise. Besides the necessity for strong cloud storage for his or her media, artists want entry to highly effective workstations and real-time playback. Depending available on the market, or manufacturing price range, cutting-edge know-how may not be accessible or inexpensive.
What if we began charting a course to interrupt free from many of those technical limitations and located methods to boost creativity? Industry commerce reveals just like the International Broadcast Convention (IBC) and the National Association of Broadcasters Show (NAB) spotlight a robust world development: as an alternative of bringing media to the artist/purposes (conventional workflow) we see the shift in the direction of bringing individuals and purposes to the media (cloud workflows and distant workstations). The idea of cloud-based workflows is just not new, as many know-how leaders in our business have been experimenting on this house for greater than a decade. However, executing this imaginative and prescient at a Netflix scale with a whole bunch of titles a 12 months has not been achieved earlier than…
Building options at a world scale poses vital challenges. The artwork of constructing motion pictures and collection lacks equal entry to know-how, finest practices, and world standardization. Different international locations worldwide are at completely different phases of innovation based mostly on native wants and nuances. While some areas boast over a century of cinematic historical past and have a robust business, others are simply starting to carve their area of interest. This huge hole presents a singular problem: creating world know-how that caters to each established and rising markets, every with distinct languages and workflows.
The massive variety of wants by expertise and distributors globally creates a standardization problem and may be seen when productions use a world expertise pool. Many mature post-production and VFX services have constructed scripts and automation that movement between varied artists and personnel inside their facility; permitting a extra streamlined workflow, although the customization is time-consuming. E.g., Transcoding, or transcriptions that mechanically run when recordsdata are dropped in a sizzling folder, with the expectation that sure sidecar metadata recordsdata will accompany them with a particular organizational construction. Embracing and integrating new workflows introduces the concern of disrupting a well-established course of, rising extra strain on the revenue margins of distributors. Small workflow modifications which will appear arbitrary may very well have a big influence on distributors. Therefore, innovation ought to present significant advantages to a title with a purpose to get adopted at scale. Reliability, a confirmed observe report, robust assist, and an extremely low tolerance for bugs, or points are high of thoughts in well-established markets.
In creating this suite, we acknowledged the need of addressing the huge array of titles that movement via Netflix with out the luxurious of increasing into a large operational entity. Consequently, automation grew to become crucial. The intricacies of coloration and framing administration, together with deliverables, should be seamlessly managed and effortlessly managed by the person, with out the necessity for guide intervention. Therefore, we can not lean into people configuring JSON recordsdata behind the scenes to map digital camera codecs into deliverables. By embracing open requirements, we not solely streamline these processes but in addition facilitate smoother collaboration throughout numerous markets and international locations, making certain that our world productions can function with unparalleled effectivity and cohesion. To guarantee this, we’ve determined to lean closely into requirements like ACES, AMF, ASC MHL, ASC FDL, and OTIO. ACES and AMF for coloration pipeline administration. ASC MHL for any file administration/verifications. ASC FDL will function our framing interoperability and OTIO for any timeline interchange. Leaning into requirements like which means that many issues may be automated at scale and extra importantly, high-complexity workflows may be provided to markets or reveals that don’t usually have entry to them. As an instance, if a present is shot on varied digital camera codecs all framed and recorded at completely different resolutions, with completely different lenses and completely different safeties on every body. The job of normalizing all of those for a VFX vendor into one widespread container with a normalized heart extracted body is usually solely provided to very high-end titles, contemplating it takes a human backstage to create all of those mappings. But by leaning into a typical just like the FDL, it means this could now simply be automated, and the management for these mappings, put straight within the arms of customers.
Building a world scalable resolution that could possibly be utilized in a variety of markets has been an thrilling problem. We got down to present customizable and feature-rich tooling for superior customers whereas remaining intuitive and streamlined sufficient for much less skilled filmmakers. With collaboration from Netflix groups, distributors, and expertise throughout the globe, we’ve taken a daring step ahead in enabling a collection of instruments inside Netflix Content Hub that democratizes know-how: the Media Production Suite. While leveraging our scale economies and entry to assets, we will now unlock world expertise swimming pools for our productions, drastically cut back non-creative task-based work, streamline workflows, and degree the taking part in discipline between our markets, in the end maximizing the time accessible for what issues most; artistic work!
1. Netflix Hybrid Infrastructure: Netflix has invested in a hybrid infrastructure, a mixture of cloud-based and bodily distributed capabilities working in a number of areas the world over and near our productions to optimize person efficiency. This infrastructure is on the market for Netflix reveals and is foundational beneath Content Hub’s Media Production Suite tooling. Local storage and compute companies are related via the Netflix Open Connect community (Netflix Content Delivery Network) to the infrastructure of Amazon Web Services (AWS). The system facilitates massive volumes of digital camera and sound media and is constructed for velocity. In order to make sure that productions have enough add speeds to get their media into the cloud, Netflix has began to roll out Content Hub Ingest Centers globally to offer high-speed web connectivity the place required. With all media centralized, MPS eliminates the necessity for bodily media transport and reduces the chance of human error. This method not solely streamlines operations but in addition enhances safety and accessibility.
2. Automation and Tooling: In addition to the Netflix Hybrid infrastructure layer, MPS consists of a collection of instruments that faucet into the media within the Netflix ecosystem.
Footage Ingest — An software that enables customers to add media/recordsdata into Content Hub.
Media Library — A central library that enables customers to look, preview, share and obtain media.
Dailies — A workflow, backed by an operational staff, providing automated Quality Control of your footage, sound sync, software of coloration, rendering, and delivering dailies on to editorial.
Remote Workstations — Offering entry to distant editorial workstations and storage for post-production wants.
VFX Pulls — An automated technique for changing and delivering visible results plates, related coloration, and framing recordsdata to VFX distributors.
Conform Pulls — An automated technique for consolidating, trimming, and delivering all OCF to picture-finishing distributors.
Media Downloader — An automated obtain instrument that initiates a obtain as soon as media has been made accessible within the Netflix cloud.
While every of the person instruments inside MPS is at completely different states of maturity, over 350 titles have made use of at the least one of many instruments famous above. Input has been taken from all around the world whereas creating, with customers starting from UCAN (United States/Canada), EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa), SEA (South East Asia), LATAM (Latin America), and APAC (Asia Pacific).
The Brazilian-produced collection Senna, which follows the lifetime of legendary Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna, utilized MPS to reshape their content material creation workflow, overcome geographical obstacles, and unlock innovation to assist world-class storytelling for a world viewers. Senna is a groundbreaking collection, not only for its storytelling however for its manufacturing journey throughout Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, and the United Kingdom. With editorial groups unfold throughout Porto Alegre and Spain, and VFX studios collaborating throughout areas in Brazil, Canada, the United States, and India, all orchestrated by our subsidiary Scanline VFX. The collection exemplifies the worldwide nature of recent filmmaking and was the right match for Netflix’s new Content Hub Media Production Suite (MPS).
At the guts of Senna’s workflow orchestration is MPS. While every of the instruments inside MPS is predicated on an opt-in mannequin, with a purpose to use lots of the downstream companies, step one is making certain that the unique digital camera recordsdata (OCF) and unique sound recordsdata (OSF) are uploaded. “We knew we were going to shoot in different places,” mentioned Post Supervisor Gabriel Queiroz,“to have all this material cloud-based, it’s definitely one of the most important things for us. It would be hard to bring all this media physically from Argentina or wherever to Brazil. It will take us a lot of time.” With Senna taking pictures throughout areas, permitting manufacturing the aptitude of importing their OCF and OSF resulted in not requiring shuttling laborious drives on airplanes, creating LTO tapes, & managing bodily shipments for his or her damaging. And sure, you learn that appropriately; when using MPS, we don’t require LTO tapes to be written except there are title-specific wants.
With Senna starting manufacturing again in June of 2023, our funding in MPS was nonetheless very early phases, and the tooling was thought of beta. However, with the assistance, suggestions, and partnership from this manufacturing, it was rapidly realized that the funding was value doubling down on. Since the early model used on Senna, Netflix has been spinning up ingest facilities around the globe, the place drives may be dropped off, and inside a matter of hours, all unique digital camera recordsdata are uploaded into the Netflix ecosystem. While creating the flexibility to add is just not a novel idea, behind the scenes, it’s removed from easy. Once a drive has been plugged in and our Netflix Footage Ingest software is opened, a validation is run, making certain all anticipated media from set is on the drive. After media has been uploaded and checksums are run validating media integrity, all media is inspected, metadata is extracted, and property are created for viewing/sharing/downloading with playable proxies. All media is then mechanically backed as much as a second tier of cloud-based storage for the ultimate archive.
Traditionally, for those who needed to verify in together with your publish vendor on how issues are going for every of those media administration steps famous above, or whether or not or not you possibly can clear on set digital camera playing cards for those who haven’t gotten a completion notification, you would need to decide up the cellphone and name your vendor. For Senna, anybody who needed visibility on progress, merely logged in to Content Hub and will see any exercise within the Footage Ingest dashboard, in addition to search for any data wanted on previous uploads.
While many companies in MPS can be found as soon as media has been uploaded, Senna’s use of MPS targeted on VFX. With Senna taking pictures a excessive quantity of footage and the present having a excessive quantity of VFX photographs, in accordance with Post Supervisor Gabriel Queiroz “Using MPS was basically a no-brainer, [having] used the tool before, I knew what it could bring to the project. And to be honest, with the amount of footage that we have, it was just so much material and with the amount of vendors we have, knowing that we would have to deliver all this footage to all these kinds of vendors, including outside of Brazil and to different parts of the world.”
With a standard workflow, using accessible assets in Latin America, VFX Pulls would have been achieved manually. This course of is susceptible to human error and extra importantly, for a present like Senna, too gradual and would have resulted in numerous I/O strategies for each vendor.
By using MPS, the Assistant Editor was capable of log into Content Hub, add an EDL, and have their VFX Pulls mechanically transcoded, coloration recordsdata consolidated and all media positioned right into a Google Drive model folder constructed straight in Content Hub (referred to as Workspaces). The VFX Editor was capable of make any extra tweaks they needed to the listing earlier than farming out every of the photographs to whichever vendor they have been meant for. When it got here time for the VFX distributors to then ship photographs again to editorial or DI, this was additionally achieved via MPS. Having one commonplace technique for I/O for all VFX file sharing meant that Editorial and DI didn’t must handle a special file switch/workflow for each single vendor that was onboarded.
After image was locked and it was time for Senna to do their Online, the DI facility Quanta was capable of make the most of the Conform Pull service inside MPS. The Conform Pull service allowed their staff to add an EDL, which ran a QC on the entire media from inside their edit to make sure a easy conform after which consolidated, trimmed, and packaged up the entire media they wanted for the web. Since this early beta and because of learnings from many reveals like Senna, developments have been made within the system’s potential to match again to supply media for each Conform and VFX Pulls. Rather than requiring an actual match between EDL and supply OCF, there are a number of variations of fuzzy matching that may happen, in addition to a present investigation in utilizing one in every of our perceptual matching algorithms, permitting for a perceptual conform utilizing laptop imaginative and prescient, as an alternative of solely counting on metadata.
The Media Production Suite (MPS) represents a transformative leap in how we method media manufacturing at Netflix. By embracing open requirements, we have now crafted a scalable resolution that not solely makes financial sense but in addition democratizes entry to superior manufacturing instruments throughout the globe. This method permits us to eradicate tedious duties, enabling our groups to deal with what actually issues: artistic storytelling. By fostering world collaboration and leveraging the facility of cloud-based workflows, we’re not simply enhancing effectivity but in addition elevating the standard of our productions. As we proceed to innovate and refine our processes, we stay dedicated to breaking down obstacles and unlocking the complete potential of artistic expertise worldwide. The way forward for filmmaking is right here, and with MPS, we’re main the cost towards a extra related and creatively empowered business.