metaSAN User Story: GRAFF Network Services
By enabling cross-platform connectivity through a standard file system, metaSAN solves a very complex problem elegantly. Most importantly, the special virtualization feature of metaSAN allows all of Graff's Avid workstations to share the media files that are stored in a common folder, much like Unity does.
GRAFF Network Services (GNS) was founded in 1995 by Clark Graff to serve the Entertainment Industry in the Los Angeles area.
“We have provided various services to the production of the Wachowski brothers 'The Matrix: Reloaded' and 'Revolutions' as well as the 'Enter the Matrix' game” explains Clark. “Most recently, I was the Motion Capture Producer on 'The Matrix Path of NEO' game. Before that I was invited to New Zealand to produce and assist Motion Capture Supervisor David Bawel for the main unit motion capture of the Gollum character for the critical 'Mount Doom' and 'Stairs of Cyrith Ungol' sequences, among others. We also produced the motion capture for the 'I, ROBOT' movie starring Will Smith.”
Clark prides himself in being a complete one stop shop: HD and SD digital video cameras, onset recording with in-house designed and purpose built DDRs, large shooting and green screen stages, multiple Avid editing rooms, Digital Fusion compositing, 3D and 2D digital effects, Pro Tools and Nuendo audio recording and mixing, a 24 camera Motion Analysis Eagle motion capture system…
“I have been an Avid user and owner since the Real Impact days. When my editorial department grew to four Media Composer 9000XL Meridien based systems, I really needed a centralized storage solution. My first inclination was to look into Unity because I have been beta testing many Avid solutions over the years. Unfortunately I found it didn’t deliver what I needed… and didn’t fit my budget! Let’s face it, if I have to have the Avid's on one SAN and everyone else on another SAN... it just won't work.”
Clark has always been on the outlook for new technologies - and this is a good reason his clients turn to him! His shared storage researches eventually lead him to Tiger Technology.
“By enabling cross-platform connectivity through a standard file system, metaSAN solves a very complex problem elegantly. Most importantly, the special virtualization feature of metaSAN allows all of our Avid to share the media files that are stored in a common folder, much like Unity does. However, metaSAN works with standard storage, and that has allowed me to repurpose my Medea disk arrays.” “Because we often shoot using a Thomson Viper or Arri D-20 digital film camera straight into our disk arrays, our metaSAN workflow begins right on the set. We attach the RAID units to our SAN capture system, and start recording. Since metaSAN uses a native file system, we don’t need to bring a complex SAN setup with us. When we return to the office, we just connect the RAID back to the SAN and everyone can immediately start working off it. All our systems, Windows, Linux and OSX, have access to the same footage, including the render nodes, Digital Fusion, Quick clip Pro, Maya, 3ds Max, Nuendo, and of course our Avid seats!” “In the next few weeks, we’ll be shooting a live action film in Jordan, and I will once again be relying on metaSAN to ensure a successful workflow. metaSAN has really allowed us to turn our SAN strategy around 180 degrees... Simply put, it works the way we work!” concludes Clark.
UPDATE: January 10th 2008 - Clark has returned from Jordan! Read about his experience in the AJA Press Release on Digital Media Net.
UPDATE: January 28th 2008 - Congratulations Clark for winning the Sundance 2008 Audience Award for your work on the movie Captain Abu Raed!
For more information about GRAFF Network Services, please visit www.4nr.com
