It’s every producer’s desire to run a smooth production, win over their clients and grow their business. That’s why it’s important to communicate early and often throughout the production process.
There are online collaboration tools to fit just about every size of production imaginable, from the one-person freelancer who works with a single client to the corporate enterprise with a global talent pool and client base. Many of the available online collaboration services are scalable and able to adjust the size of their services to fit the client’s needs. These collaborative services are building their tools to coincide with the production pipeline of most major production platforms. Here’s a look at some of the most popular platforms available.
Wipster.io
Wipster.io is primarily a video review and approval platform. It allows producers to share their videos for review and comment directly on the video itself. Any comments made will be associated with the frame upon which they are entered. A producer only needs to drag and drop their video to start the process with Wipster; from there, they can share it out for comments.
Two notable features of Wipster are its integration with Vimeo and with Adobe Premiere Pro CC. Users can link Wipster with their Vimeo account and share a video that’s on their account. Likewise, Wipster has an Adobe add-on panel for Premiere Pro CC. The panel will show up in the user’s Premiere Pro interface and all they have to do is click on a button to upload and share their timeline. Wipster.io is available at $15 per month, per individual and has specialized pricing for clients with enterprise solution needs.
Frame.io
Frame.io is an online collaboration service that provides solutions for the review process, file sharing, and file management. Not only does it allow collaborative teams to share their edits for feedback and review, but it provides a simple solution for sharing dailies and a variety of media types. Users can share video clips, storyboards and audio tracks — allowing the client to be engaged in every step of the production process.
Frame.io has integration with both Apple Final Cut Pro X and with Adobe Premiere Pro CC, with both integrations allowing you to share your content from directly within your native editing platform. Normally, sharing dailies can be a tedious process. You have to either upload each clip individually or create a master timeline containing every shot and export with a window burn that includes metadata, so that the producers and clients can make selections. With Frame.io, you can create one timeline in FCP X or Premiere Pro and upload it to your account. Frame.io takes care of breaking out each clip as it’s own file on the upload. Frame.io has a tiered pricing plan with monthly rates, from a free version that allows for a single project to an enterprise solution at $150 per month.
Axle Video
Axle Video offers a number of solutions for video producers. Predominantly, their products work with a user’s existing storage infrastructure and allow them to manage their video assets through any web browser. Their software is a media management solution that allows the user to tag, sort, view and share content. The combination of these features make it a useful tools for collaborative production teams who have the need to search and share footage. This type of collaborative thinking is what powers some of Axle’s tools such as Axle Edit, an editing platform for mobile devices that allows users to access the content on their servers and edit proxies. These proxies are then conformed back on the server side for finishing and distribution. Pricing varies for the Axle products, which are sold through a traditional software license model.
Aframe
Aframe is a cloud-based platform for video collaboration that boasts a number of large scale clients. Their website is full of resources; it offers a number of white papers and downloadable files to help answer questions that producers might have in regards to implementing the use of an online video collaboration service. They offer media asset management, file transfer, transcoding, cloud storage and asset review tools. This wide toolset makes it a great option for multi-location teams working on different platforms. Collaborators are able to comment directly on their shared assets, while uploading and downloading those assets in the format they need for their particular platform. Aframe is a robust enterprise solution that starts at $1,000 per month.
Working Together
It’s not uncommon for production teams and clients to work in tandem across multiple locations and online collaboration services like these make it an easier. With widespread video distribution being only a click away, it’s no surprise that post-production and collaboration are running at the same speed. Online collaboration services allow anyone, from anywhere, to stir the pot of video production.
Chris “Ace” Gates is a four-time Emmy Award-winning writer and video producer.
