Two M&E instruments make it doable

Nobody was too excited to leave the story room last year.

Fortunately, the collective shock of “OMG how are we supposed to work like that?” promoted creativity, forces teams to do so Media and entertainment Finding solutions that they would not otherwise have explored.

Content production teams rushed to Zoom rooms to do what used to be done in person. Zoom was there when the world had nowhere else to go.

But this article is not about zoom.

It’s about two other tools – Bluescape and Autodesk ShotGrid – who do more than keep things afloat. They’re doing content production as well, if not better, than before.

Meet the players

ShotGrid (formerly Shotgun Software) is the creative project management software used by over 2,200 creative studios, including Warner Bros., DreamWorks Animation, Illumination Mac Guff, Ubisoft, and more.

Bluescapes Visual collaboration platform attracts similar customers. Netflix, Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, and more use virtual workspaces for content development, reviews, and presentations.

Thanks to the eagerly awaited Integration between Bluescape and ShotGrid, content production teams now have a streamlined workflow that is 100% virtual and can be run from anywhere.

Important: This virtual workflow does not just fill up until it is “normal” again. It’s part of a bigger discovery in the industry.

Executive producer and co-designer an upcoming series told us how his show would have been different had it not been for a pandemic.

“I assure you … it wouldn’t be any better than the version of the show we’re doing because of this pandemic and the tools it introduced us to.”

When a door closes

When the story room door closed, it opened up a world of possibilities for television and filmmaking, although it took time to discover. Tools like Bluescape and ShotGrid have paved slick new streets and teams are not turning back.

The Bluescape + ShotGrid integration creates connection points between two important pieces of software: the virtual storyroom (Bluescape) and the creative project management system (ShotGrid).

This is how the integration works:

1. Organize content in ShotGrid in assets, shots or versions.
2. Submit ShotGrid content to Bluescape for review. Smart layouts put collections in the right place so that less time is spent “setting up” the space.
3. The best part? Content in Bluescape is linked to source files in ShotGrid to update status, tracking, and timelines.

Why check in Bluescape? It’s a live story space environment where you can see reference material, collections, and previous reviews at a glance. Then zoom in on key details, compare versions, mark them up and leave feedback in real time.

This integration is the latest example of how Bluescape’s API is used to move assets from the recording system to the virtual storyroom and back.

Cool right? Will it change your life? Actually it could. One streaming service customer said of the integration:

“That will change your life.”

Open new doors

What has changed in content production since things went virtual?

immediacy

A virtual story room (one that’s filled with pictures and content, not just people in boxes) has great advantages. Connect this storyroom with your project management system and you have released an efficiency and immediacy that did not exist before. Add things directly to the review session. Make changes on the fly.

Visual historical record

Bluescape’s virtual story room creates the feeling of “art and boards everywhere” of a physical space, but in an infinite space that means assets – and decisions about those assets – are not torn down, stored and forgotten. They are kept in a visual historical record.

Creative people love to be able to see the development of the story at a glance. Financiers too.

Cooperation across countries

Working with producers, artists and costume designers in different countries was not impossible via Zoom. It wasn’t great either. Without a way to gather around collective work, teams lose the glue that holds them together.

In Bluescape, teams have a meeting point that resembles a physical space. Since it is virtual, it exists everywhere: at home, on site and across all time zones at the same time. Someone in Korea can “walk” through a work area in the evening, reviewing a prop sheet, making changes, and adding sticky notes while someone in LA goes over the changes over morning coffee.

Conclusion: teams can be with whom they want, where they want, without losing the overview or their ability to contribute to a project.

More options

Bluescape + ShotGrid is an important integration for media and entertainment. It is one of many integrations This will integrate the virtual storyroom into the content production workflow so that teams can be anywhere in the world. D.discover new stories. mtheir best versions of television and film.

Curious how The creators of “The Blacklist” use Bluescape?

Feel free to explore Bluescape’s virtual story room yourself. Start a free trial and let us know that you are interested in the ShotGrid integration!