Avid Technology > Case Studies > Avid's IoT Solution Streamlines Film Editing for The Grand Budapest Hotel

Avid's IoT Solution Streamlines Film Editing for The Grand Budapest Hotel

Technology Category

Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms
Sensors - Acoustic Sensors

Applicable Industries

Education
Equipment & Machinery

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development
Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Time Sensitive Networking
Visual Quality Detection

Services

System Integration
Testing & Certification

About The Customer

The customer in this case is the editing team of The Grand Budapest Hotel, led by Academy Award-winning editor Barney Pilling. Pilling has worked on a wide range of genres, from dramas to romantic comedies, with his most notable work including the 2009 film An Education and Mark Romanek’s Never Let Me Go. For all his editing projects, Pilling has embraced Avid Everywhere. The team also included the film’s producer Jeremy Dawson, Pilling’s associate editor Steve Perkins, sound designer Wayne Lemmer, and music editor Yann McCullough. The team was international, with members working from different locations across the globe.

The Challenge

The challenge was to cut a massive amount of complex material from many sources, often in the same frame, into a fast-moving yet comically nuanced film. The film in question was Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, which narrates the adventures of legendary concierge Gustave H. at a famous European hotel from the fictional Republic of Zubrowka between the first and second World Wars. The film required a high level of editing precision to maintain the rhythm of the script and the tempo of the editing. The editing team had to manage a multitude of creative elements happening at different rates, and keep the cutting married to the rhythm of the comedy and action with working temps. This was an immense challenge, especially considering the complexity of so many different and fast-moving elements.

The Solution

Academy Award-winning editor Barney Pilling and his team embraced Avid Everywhere, using a workflow powered by the Avid MediaCentral platform, to create one of 2014’s most acclaimed films. They relied on Avid Artist Suite creative tools, and Avid Storage Suite solutions, powered by the Avid MediaCentral platform. Avid systems are designed specifically to help streamline and expand collaboration in the editing workflow, with all processes linked to the main project and media. Media Composer and the Avid ISIS 5500 shared storage system facilitated real-time collaboration between all members of the international team. A 4GB fiber connection produced relatively high bandwidth, essential because of the team’s work with DNx115. This was crucial to Pilling because they “often had video layers into double figures in order to comp the elaborate effects and frame manipulation that a Wes Anderson film requires.”

Operational Impact

The use of Avid's solutions allowed the editing team to manage a complex mosaic of split screens, re-speeds, building comps, and even marrying two different performances in the same frame sometimes. All these were meticulously spliced so the rhythm of the script translates to the screen. The software’s acceptance of so many differing formats and codecs played a large role, as did its organizational capabilities. Media Composer’s media management capabilities also proved invaluable to the project. The project/bin structure is a great cataloging tool and the media management and organization is streets ahead of anything else. This also helped in a big way when the editing process had to be moved to different locations. The team was able to keep both systems up-to-date and in sync. The audio tools in Media Composer were instrumental in achieving premium sound across dialog, music and effects.