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Ever since we started shooting video we have been in a constant battle for storage space. It seems like every time I turn around I am ordering more drives. First 500’s, then 750’s, 1TB’s, and now 2TB’s. In the studio we have two editing suites set up for HD video editing, and one workstation for still photography. Between the three, there is something crazy like 25TB of storage, most of which is RAID 5. Most of the RAIDS are set up with 1TB drives, and I cant even begin to try to count just how many there are kicking around to in order to create the total storage volume.
The good news is that there are some really big video projects in the works right now, but the bad news is that we are pretty much maxed out and need to find another storage solution.
Richard sent me the info on the new DroboPro from Data Robotics, and we are going to take a chance and give it a try. We have three of the first generation Drobos in the studio that we use for back ups and such, and they have been pretty much bomb-proof. Their big downside has always been that they are VERY slow! Even with the Firewire 800, they are dogs. Forget editing video with them.
CB Goes to town
Most people don’t know, but CB is a graduate of the North Bennet St School, which is one of the most prestigous woodorking schools in the country.
I’ve been after him for a while now to build us some bookcases on the second floor of the studio, and alas, this week he installed them!
They are truely very beautiful. I could never have come close as far as matching the craftsmanship. Chris has been slowly transitioning away from assisting (cherry picking the travel jobs) and moving into his woodworking. (We are going to really miss him once he really throws in the towel…)
If your interested, check out CB’s website… He has pretty much fully set up his shop, and is focusing on 16th and 17th century furniture, as well as high end kitchen and livingroom cabinets. You can see photo of his shop and follow the orgainization of his woodworking shop on his blog.
Check it out!
Kudos to Phil the intern who did his first day of solo assisting last week! Nothing got broke… nothing was lost… no one got killed! It was a good day!
Glad to have you!
I have been getting several eMails asking about storage solutions, especially for the video work that we have been doing, so I thought I would share some of the simple technology we are using in the studio.
3Ware RAID
For my personal workstation, I use an 8 Core Power PC with a Mac hardware RAID. The Mac has space for 4 internal drives, and we use 1TB drives in each bay.
The down side of the new macs is that out of the 4, one has to be reserved for the start up. This leaves only 3 for the internal RAID, and when you configure for RAID 5, you basically net just under a 2TB volume. In a nutshell, you have two drives for storage, and one parity drive. (Wikipedia has a good explanation on RAIDS if you are lost)
With respect to our video editing suites, we are running two mac towers. One is a G5 Quadcore, and the other is a 8 Core Power PC. For all our primary editing work the data is stored on internal Mac RAID 5 array exactly like my personal workstation. This is the fastest and most reliable way to work. As I said above, the main problem is that the Mac internal RAID configuration is very limited on size, and is only about 2TB of space.
This is a post that I had written back in June when we were launching the new web site. For some reason it was saved as a draft, but never posted. Why waste it I say?
Join me back in time in early summer as we were just launching the new web site.
“back in time music…”
Well I have to say it’s about time! We have been working all out over the last two months trying to get everything ready to go for the new web site. The web site that is currently live is SO outdated. In fact, the flash programming is so old, that I cant even access it from my studio work stations because we are all on new Intel Mac Pro’s. In order to reference it, for some reason, I have to go down to the workshop and jump on an old iMac.
New Web Site
Richard has been giving me TONS of shit for the last 6 months about it not working right. A photographers web site these days is (in my opinion) the single most important tool we have. If you don’t have a nice clean site that is in good working order, you might as well just forget it. It is really that important.
If you’ve worked with us over the past two weeks you already know about the joke… but Richard is taking it to the next level.
We did a photo shoot in which when buying some craft service, (snacks) I grabbed a bunch of Virgil’s Root Beer. ( I happen to like root beer!) Well, according to Rabbit, I became obsessed with the root beer, and apparently offered bottles to the crew all day long. Now, every other sentence I get is “there is root beer by the way….” or, “would you happen to like some delicious root beer?”
So this is what I get huh? (click to watch Richard’s film)
As I posted briefly, last Thursday we had the opportunity to photograph our friend Shepard Fairey.
Shepard is in town for his show at the ICA or Institute for Contemporary Art here in Boston. If you have a chance to come out to Boston to check it out… you will NOT be disappointed! You can also watch him on the Colbert Report, listen to his interview with Terry Gross of NPR, and catch him on Feb 2nd on the Chalie Rose Show. Shepard’s Obey Giant work can be viewed at his site, and his commercial work can be found at Studio Number One.
For those who are unfamiliar with his work, Shepard has been influencing pop culture since 1989 when he came onto the scene with his early Andre the Giant screen printing. Personally, Shepard’s work has influenced my own artistic direction since high school when my good friend Eric Freedman (now at Modernista) gave me one of the early “Andre The Giant Has A Posse” stickers. Since then, I have followed his work and have purchased several of his original pieces. Recently, the buzz around Shepard has been associated with his Obama Hope poster, which then lead to a commission and then donation by art collectors Heather and Tony Podesta to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery.
We had the great opportunity to shoot some portraits of our friend Shepard Fairey from Studio Number One and of Obey Giant fame yesterday.
Shepard is in town prepping for his show at the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, or ICA which opens on Feb 6th, and he was kind enough to give us an hour out of his insanely busy schedule.
I will post more about the shoot once we can catch our breath…
(L-R) Colleague Mike Indresano, Producer Michelle, Greg (muscle pose...)
Spent the AM yesterday scouting a studio location for a cool portrait project we have coming up.
We first started last week by booking Exposure Place at EP Levine’s on Dry Dock Ave in Boston, however when our subject had a conflict, and pushed the shoot time till later in the day, Exposure Place became unavailable and we had to scramble to find another location.
Just wanted to take a second and welcome Phil to our little nuthouse.
Phil is our new intern, and will be working with us for the spring semester. He will be working around the studio, on location, as well as working a little bit with Richard learning the ropes on the post production (video) side. He will start this Friday.
Looks like he passed Richards most important test. (The photo muscle pose!)
I hope you realize what you have gotten yourself into Phil!
Welcome!
I got an eMail the other day asking about how we keep organized considering the volume of images that we process.
Basically, we use a simple 8 digit code for file names, and a 12 digit date code for image files. Here’s how the work flow happens:
Images are shot (using 2 redundant cards out of the D3/D3x)
Images are transferred to the RAID, where an assistant does a rough edit. Read the rest of this entry »
Kristen did our first eMail campaign just before the holiday. She sent out 12,000 eMails with a link to the holiday film we made thats up on YouTube. So far the response has been great.
Mostly folks have been saying that the film is “funny,” but weird….which was exactly what we were aiming for. (sort of our style) Here is what the body of the eMail looked like.
After a long needed rest, we are back in the studio gearing up for a busy year.
For 2009 we have a new member of the team. Her name is Kristen Clark. She will be working as a producer as well as managing new business. Kristen went to Mass Art and has a strong illustration background. She is creative, driven and incredibly organized and will bring a needed element to the studio.
Keep an eye out for her footprint on the work this year. Welcome Kristen!
Newest team member Kristen Clark
