Whiskey Tango Foxtrot EN

Case Study 'Whiskey Tango Foxtrot': Developing and Deploying the Film’s Final Cut Pro X Work ow with Accusys Storage

• 16 Bay maximum 3 JBOD Introduction • Compatible with C1M, PCIe to Thunderbolt The movie Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is a dark comedy about converter the experiences of a female journalist in Afghanistan, based on Kim Barker’s memoir, The Taliban Shu e: • PCIe 3.0 32 Gb bandwidth Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Paramount • Compatible with 3.5” and Pictures tapped the writing/directing team of John Requa 2.5” SATA/SAS enterprise and Glenn Ficarra (Focus; Crazy, Stupid, Love; I Love You hard disks Phillip Morris) to tackle the lm adaptation, which stars • PCIe SAN ready Tina Fey, Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman, Billy Bob Thorn- • Redundant power supply ton and Alfred Molina. The duo started production of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot on the heels of completing Focus. They brought along editor Jan Kovac, as well as use of Apple Final Cut Pro X for editing.

Challenge Instead of shooting Apple ProRes 4444 the team used for Focus, they switched to using the new ProRes 4444 XQ codec, which was deployed by ARRI on the ALEXAs. Most of the production was shot with two ALEXAs recording in a 2K theatrical format using the ProRes 4444 XQ codec. There are about 1,000 VFX shots in the lm. Also, there were a DIT on set who took the camera les, added a basic color LUT, synced production sound, and then generated viewing dailies, which were distributed to department heads on Apple iPads. The DIT also generated editorial les that were in the full 2K ProRes 4444 XQ resolution. Solution Both the camera original les and the color-correct- ed editorial les were stored on a 160TB Accusys Edit MDC MDC Edit ExaSAN system back at the lm’s post headquarters. Two Mac Minis served as metadata controllers. Kovac explains, “By always having the highest quality image to edit with, it meant that we could have the highest quality screenings at any given time. You always see the lm in a state that is very close to the nal product. Since visual eects were being handled in-house, it made sense to have the camera original les on the SAN. This way shots could quickly be pulled for VFX work, without the usual intermedi- ate step of coordinating with the lab or post house that might otherwise store these les.” All media and render les were kept on the ExaSAN storage, but external of the Final Cut Pro X library les, thus keeping those small. The library les were stored on a separate NFS server (a Mac Mini using NFS Manager) with a separate FCPX library le for each reel of the lm. This enabled the editors and assistants to all access any FCPX library le, as long as someone else wasn’t using it at that time. A shared iTunes library for temporary sound eects and music selections was stored on the SAN with all machines • 3U Rack Mount pointing to that location. From within Final Cut, any • PCIe * 1 editor could browse the iTunes library for music and • SAS/SATA *16 sound eects. • JBOD exp * 3 • RAID 0/1/5/6/01 • SMART FAN • Redundant PW

Conclusion "Filmmakers who are using new methods are those who aren’t satised with the status quo. They are willing to push the boundaries," says co-director Glenn Ficarra. Instead of simply creating another “me, too” SAS or bre channel product, Accusys has built a new generation of devices that would make use of the rapidly increasing performance envelope of PCI-E, with the advance of PCI-E technology now moving to PCI-E Gen3, Accusys storage solutions have provided a large performance improve- ment for digital content creators in editing workow and are compatible with professional tools such as Final Cut Pro X uently.

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