CET Universe Breakes New Ground in Digital Workflow and Archive for "The Social Network"

Fincher, the renowned director of such technically demanding films as “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, “Zodiac”, and “Fight Club”, used the CET Universe’s Final Cut Pro edit systems and XSan storage Area Network throughout the entire production of “The Social Network”.

Wolcott was tasked with designing a workflow that allowed Fincher to shoot on multiple Red One cameras, archive the media quickly and safely to duplicate LTO-4 tapes, and transcode the files in real time to Apple’s ProRes for editorial. Since production took place in Boston, Baltimore and Los Angeles, the solution also needed to be portable, powerful and stable.

“Red was great – they upgraded our camera sensors, built custom cameras, and collaborated with us to provide David with the ability to over-crank to 36fps at 4K, on a very short schedule. We then quickly needed a new data management system optimized for Red, but able to incorporate the best features we designed into the Zodiac and “Button” ViperCam workflows” said Wolcott. “CET Universe was equally helpful and collaborative. Their engineering team customized a system to suit us perfectly - including a “stripped down” single editor version for Boston locations, and a full blown four station Xsan based system for post in Los Angeles.”

“We engineered the location workflow so that everything in Boston could be completed by a single editor. Even with three cameras rolling, Tyler was able to keep up with production and have everything archived to duplicate LTO-4’s, processed to ProRes for editorial, and processed to h.264 and uploaded to PIX System for dailies, well within a 24-hour period,” said Cahill. “Tyler was able to do the ingest, cloning, processing and picture QC all by himself. He was processing between 50 and 80 RED CF 16GB cards every day. He even did split-screen with camera motion control as well, creating ‘pre-viz’ versions of special effects shots before a location wrapped.”

The initial shoot in Boston lasted two weeks, before moving to Baltimore for a few days and then returning to Los Angeles for the final fourteen weeks of shooting. The L.A. set-up at Fincher’s No. 13 offices incorporated 96TB of Promise V-Trak RAID storage into a powerful Xsan solution with Polaris RAIDs working as an ongoing backup of the entire 96TB SAN for safety. Additionally, LTO-4 tapes were made throughout the process to ensure off-site file backup and safe-keeping.

“The process and products we have created literally changes the game for many productions,” said Adams. “These guys were able to do in a day with one person what typically takes several people several days to handle.”

“Collaboration between filmmakers and digital workflow providers is essential, RED is more efficient, communicative and expedient than any other company we have worked with,”said Cean Chaffin, producer of “The Social Network.”