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Documentary Filmmakers Streamlining Collaboration with Frame.io and Synology
Company Situation
The company operates in the documentary and legacy filmmaking space, specializing in creating commissioned films focused on preserving personal and family histories for high-net-worth individuals. Their team setup is small—on the edge of five users—but they collaborate with multiple editing teams distributed internationally, including locations in Eastern Europe and the U.S. Each company project is unique, with a different editing team assigned annually, and the volume of raw media per project is substantial and growing over time.
Existing Workflow
Currently, the company relies heavily on traditional, physical workflows for media transfer and storage. Raw footage is stored on hard drives that are mailed internationally to editors. For review and approval, the company uses cloud-based platforms such as Frame.io and Vimeo. Final deliverables are stored locally on large-capacity Synology drives, ensuring archival preservation. Company delivery is managed through a web-based service called MediaZilla, which provides a presentable but limited interface for sharing final content.
Issues with the Existing Workflow
Reliance on physical hard drives for transferring terabytes of footage leads to delays and logistical challenges, especially with international teams.
High cost and impracticality of raw media cloud storage solutions, with some alternatives exceeding $20,000 per year, which is beyond the company’s budget.
Lack of integrated asset management tools complicates tracking and organizing large volumes of media over long-term projects.
Existing company delivery solutions do not support modern, user-friendly experiences such as branded apps or seamless TV integration, limiting the presentation of legacy content to companies.
The growing scale of raw media (up to 30 terabytes per project) and multiple concurrent projects make physical storage cumbersome and hard to manage.
How Shade Would Change Their Workflow
Shade’s platform enables an efficient proxy-based workflow that drastically reduces the volume of media needing to be uploaded or transferred while still allowing editors to access the content they need remotely. The company’s experienced editors can easily navigate and download proxy files from Shade’s system, streamlining collaboration across multiple international teams. Shade’s white-labeled “collections” feature provides a modern, elegant interface for delivering content to companies, offering a branded experience without the need for additional costly integrations. Although Shade does not currently offer a TV app integration, its open API and flexible delivery options lay the groundwork for enhanced company distribution over time. Overall, Shade replaces cumbersome physical shipping with secure, cloud-based workflows tailored to the company’s budget and scale.
Benefits
- Dramatically reduced need to ship physical hard drives internationally, saving time and lowering costs.
- Proxy workflow minimizes upload and storage demands while maintaining remote editor access to necessary footage.
- Streamlined collaboration with multiple editing teams working concurrently on different projects.
- Modern, branded company delivery via Shade’s collections replaces less flexible, outdated platforms.
- Scalable storage and asset management solution able to handle growing volumes of legacy media over years.
- Integration with existing review platforms (Frame.io, Vimeo) ensures continuity while enhancing workflow efficiency.