ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
The Mesoft Workflow: Reality Goes Smoothly
By Michael Kunkes
The unscripted nature of reality programming has created vast challenges for editors in terms of workflow and creative decision making, especially when confronted with daunting amounts of footage, sometimes 50-60 hours worth per day from multiple cameras. On June 30, Mesoft, Inc. (Los Angeles) officially announced some new enhancements to its reality TV and documentary workflow software package, and company co-founder and chief technical officer Freddy Goeske talked about the new workflow potential at a recent presentation at the Sheraton Universal in Universal City.
 Mesoft co-founder and chief technical officer Freddy Goeske. |
The company’s two companion applications, Media Logger, and the completely re-designed Story Editor (which debuted at NAB 2008) work together to ingest native Avid formats, log media and metadata and then allow users––primarily producers––to assemble storyboards using a simple graphic interface and timeline drag-and-drop process, with the ability to re-order clips individually or as blocks. Equally as important is Mesoft’s powerful media search engine, which allows users to search and sort content through the use of cast names, locations, keywords or a full range of metadata values such as tape logs, camera logs, script notes, etc.
In the Mesoft workflow, which has been adopted by numerous production companies and used on dozens of reality series, clips can be logged and tagged with metadata such as location, transcription data, cast and other relevant information, and long takes are broken into virtual subclips. The producers will search by that criteria across what could be literally thousands of clips and construct their stories within the Mesoft Story Editor. Says Goeske, “Once the producer has created a string-out, it is exported as an ALE file and sent into the Avid, where the editor takes over. In the case of Sony XDCAM source media, Mesoft modifies the metadata structure from Sony’s OP-1a (Operational Pattern) into Avid edit-ready MXF media and OP-Atom proxy video files with full-fidelity audio.
 Screen shot from Mesoft's redesigned Story Editor application. |
“At that point, editors can drag and drop the ALE file into their bin, with a sort order column that maintains the same sequence order between Mesoft and the Avid, allowing for frame-accurate re-linking to the media files,” he continues. “Then, the editor drags and drops the clips into the Avid timeline, refines the story and creates a final presentation cut of the show.”
It’s incredibly fast as well. According to Goeske, an hour of typical Avid media takes about six minutes to be ingested into the Mesoft system, working similar to how multiple Avids digitize on a Unity. “The truth of the matter is that reality requires a great deal of searching and sorting through an incredible amount of media to create a story, and the Avid can be challenging for producers working on a show as it lacks robust search capabilities,” he says. “So we created the Media Editor as a pre-editing and pre-filtering tool that would let the producer build a rough story, then get the info to the Avid editor timeline-ready. It comes down to not wanting to saddle editors with something they shouldn’t have to do––which is writing a story rather than telling it visually.”
Goeske also talks about the Media Logger’s newly announced native support for Sony XDCAM and XDCAM HD. In a program developed along with Sony’s support and licensed codec, producers will be able to take advantage of the tapeless Sony format’s ability to transfer media much faster than real time and deliver high-quality audio as well. Mesoft has also added native support for the Avid MXF file format and DNxHD codec as well as for Final Cut Pro. As with many of the new tapeless workflows, these features are key in allowing media to be directly imported to and exported from editing systems without having to use intermediate file formats.
 Screen shot of Mesoft Logger software. |
Working with XDCAM also helps producers and editors limited by the proxy sound quality they endure while reviewing footage. “The XDCAM records HD material, and also creates a low-resolution proxy MPEG-4 format that producers can look at right away on their desktops,” explains Goeske. “The challenge, however, was that the audio that came with the proxy video had limited fidelity. Our solution takes the 48 kHz high-resolution audio that was married to the HD video, re-mixes it to the low-resolution video and puts it into our own system. XDCAM just became a natural add-on for us, and the more I learned about Sony’s technology, the more I realized we could easily overcome these proxy audio limitations through an integrated software approach.”
Goeske reports that the system is a major time-saver, with one producer claiming that the production time has gone from 15 down to 13 weeks using this workflow. “Normally, all the content from the camera is ingested into the Avid, and then from there it goes into our system,” he says. “The XDCAM format can further streamline the workflow, allowing us to ingest the native media and metadata into Mesoft first, bypassing the usual requirement to go from baseband on ingest.” And, he adds, the workflow does not lessen the role of the editor; rather, it makes him a more critical part of the process. “The editor always has access to the content, either through our logger or through the standard Avid timeline. This doesn’t affect the creative decisions that editors make. It just makes it easier for them to get to the content they want.”
Goeske is a strong advocate of tapeless workflows in general. “As we move more and more to other tapeless systems, I see assistant editors working right on the set to begin preparing content, and I am talking now about conventional, scripted shows,” he explains. “The value of content is going to be dependent on its purpose, and an editor is going to have to know how to think when content is re-purposed for the web or cell phone.
A master shot won’t work on a tiny mobisode, and an editor will have to know how to quickly locate and replace it with a medium close-up, for instance,” he concludes. “This is where this whole process becomes interesting. People are going to expect more from their devices––and the only way that’s going to happen is by selecting the best cuts for each medium.”
Michael Kunkes is a freelance editor and writer specializing in animation, production and post-production. He can be reached at writermk@sbcglobal.net.