DAM - Digital Asset Management, what it is and what it means for Producers
Tape is dead.
And with that comes many advantages, now your assets are digital and you can manage them in a database and process them using tools that IT has been using for decades.
It's basically about streamlining and automating all the things that are the same on each production so you only have to concentrate on the things that are different, and not having to fix the same little problems again and again.
Practically that means setting up Apple Final Cut Server (a Digital Asset Management system that I specialise in) so that it defines Shows and Episodes and Producers and Stages of Productions and Editors and clips and projects in a database. We call this metadata.
It manages access to Media and it allows people to log clips while others are editing with them, it keeps a track of where FCP projects are and can automate things (like transcoding or FTPing to remote sites for signoff).
It allows you to archive footage (removing it from your expensive on-line fast storage) while still allowing you to search and review low-res proxies.
It allows anyone (in a managed way!) to access, review and add metadata to footage.
What this means is that producers will have to spend less time dealing with crises in productions and more time being productive.
Glossary:
metadata: data about data
proxy: a low-res copy of a high-res piece of footage
MSP
