We examined the challenge of designing and executing optimal on-set workflows for feature film and TV productions. Discussion focused on the questions that filmmakers ask to clarify the requirements of a project; the demands placed by tent poles, independent motion pictures (medium to micro-budget), premium TV dramas and episodics; and the plethora of new solutions on the market. Efforts were made to determine if there were patterns and commonalities across specific kinds of projects and, if so, to begin to identify those benchmarks.

Because digital technologies have upended production, because of the plethora of new solutions, and because of a lack of established best practices, filmmakers, studios and networks almost always reinvent the wheel when they design the workflow for a feature film or TV shoot. Decisions about dailies, color space, file formats and backups, on what needs to be done and where and when it should be done, are made without data from similar projects, without the necessary clarifying information and without knowledge of all the options. The goal of this symposium was to define choices, shine a light on the underlying reasons behind the selection of one route over another, and explore whether there are optimal on-set workflow solutions for projects that face similar challenges.