Workflow: Disney+ Film Safety
Goes Online From Set to Post

By Daniel Restuccio

You don’t have to be a college football fan to enjoy the Reginald Hudlin-directed film Safety, which tells the story of Clemson University football player Ray McElrathbey, who — aided by his teammates and the community — enjoys a successful career on the field, while also raising his 11-year-old brother. To tell this story for Disney+, the filmmakers took a fresh spin on remote workflows inspired by episodic productions.

The workflow concept, designed by executive producer Doug Jones, applied episodic television technology to a feature film pipeline. Feature film production tends to be more slow moving, while episodic television comes with fast turnaround times. This led Jones to a super-efficient “online-all-the-time” pipeline that could save time and money.

What exactly does he mean by online-all-the-time? The production used a DAM cart during the shoot, along with Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve from set through post, so the project could always be sourcing original camera files, without the need for proxies. At any time — when reviewing shots in production, in editorial during production or through post — the project could be viewed at full resolution. There was no longer a need to conform, since the edit can, with a click of a button, source camera-original files without rebuilding the edit, and with VFX, color and sound departments having access to the same high-resolution version of the cut.

Jones implemented the system on Safety in collaboration with director Hudlin, cinematographer Shane Hurlbut, ASC, and editor Terel Gibson, ACE.

Filming began in September 2019 at Clemson University and in Atlanta. Principal photography, dailies production and editing happened concurrently. Dailies, processed in DaVinci Resolve Studio, were not transcodes but Red original camera negatives (OCNs) with LUTs applied. They were viewable within six hours after cameras started rolling, and a full day of dailies was available and uploaded within 16 hours from the start of the day.

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