Production Technology

The media industry has seen tremendous technological advances and achievements in film making over the last 10 years. We foresee the next 10 years as a period of even greater industry-changing innovation that will help storytellers realize new creative visions, reduce costs for the industry, and increase output for viewers. In collaboration with industry partners, we are examining the potential offered by cloud tech, improved security approaches and innovations that facilitate flexible workflows.

MovieLabs and its member studios have published a white paper that lays out a bold vision for the future of media creation technology some 10 years into the future. We describe technological advances which will enable seismic changes in media workflows, and we propose ten foundational principles as keys to that future. Those principles provide a roadmap for industry collaboration across three key workstreams: New Cloud Foundation, Security & Access, and Software-Defined Workflows. We invite stakeholders across the industry to read the white paper and work with us to deliver on the future of media creation and continue to empower some of the world's best storytellers and the entire creative community.

Protecting cloud production needs a new approach to security. That includes protection from malicious and unauthorized activity and protection of the integrity of data, workflows, applications and processes. To help enable that level of protection in native cloud workflows, and as an initial follow-up to the 2030 Vision, MovieLabs is publishing a second white paper which double-clicks on the security principles in the 2030 Vision and offers six security principles as the foundation of a security architecture for the future of media creation workflows.

The white paper explains the principles and articulates practical ways that each principle can be achieved. We look forward to working with the industry to build on these principles and secure the creative endeavors our industry.

In an effort to assist with safe resumption of film and television production, MovieLabs has released a detailed breakdown of workflow information that may be relevant to the development of Covid-19 health and safety guidelines. The document lists categories of work activities typically involved in production, both on-set and off-set, and describes some key characteristics and workflow considerations that may be helpful to health and safety professionals.

MovieLabs does not list or recommend any specific health and safety guidelines for the work activities described. We understand that industry, labor and government organizations are working actively with health experts to develop those guidelines. Our goal is to provide a map of production work activities, along with relevant information about each of those activities, that will assist in their work.

We look forward to partnering in every way we can with the many industry efforts working to protect the talented people involved in the production of the movies and shows we all love.