The video production industry is renowned for its vast amounts of footage captured from each executed project. Malaika Media is not exceptional because we boast hundreds of hours of cinematic video footage. This content symbolise our devotion to craftsmanship, the faith and trust vested in us by our clients. That is why in our twelve-year journey, we’ve tried not to delete footage even if it means diverging from industry norms, a perspective we’re eager to share.

We’ve tried not to delete footage even if it means diverging from industry norms a perspective we’re eager to share

Video Content Can Be Lost at any time

The vulnerability of data presents an ever-present danger—one whose realisation could lead to dire consequences. The possibility of encountering a “data corrupted” notification is a filmmaker’s nightmare. It signifies the erosion of trust and substantial investments in our projects. Therefore, at Malaika Media our approach extends beyond simple preservation. It shows our commitment to protecting the trust bestowed upon us by our clients. It’s not just a matter of production insurance because in documentary work you may only get one chance to capture something. We make every effort to avoid this possibility.

Most of us in the video business may think that losing footage just means losing some cash and a client relationship. To the client, the results could be very bad. They may not have a video ready in time for their big event. Avoiding this is very important for keeping our clients’ trust.

In 2022, while working on the USAID @ 60 production, our Creative Director Emmanuel Museruka and one of the video editors, Farook Namatiti, encountered an unexpected setback. At approximately 5 pm, as the team was making final adjustments to the video, the hard drive suddenly became corrupted. This incident occurred just one day before the video was scheduled to be showcased at the USAID@60 event.

Luckily, the backups we had came to the rescue. This anecdote is one example of the many times that data backups have proven critical to our worry-free production and excellent client relationships.

Data backups have proven critical to our worry-free production and excellent client relationships

Embracing Evolution in Video Production

The landscape of video production is undergoing a profound transformation. It has been marked by a departure from the traditional ‘use-and-discard’ mindset. Now it’s really important to keep all the original footage safe. One of our clients was unable to update a video with their previous production company because the raw footage had been deleted after the original project was finished.

Modern video production is changing, projects are rarely completed. Instead we regularly work with clients to develop a visual library of work that they can pull from again in future projects. Revisiting some of our work, we could never recreate all of this footage. So we operate on the assumption that every client will come back to update their project in the future. Now in our twelveth year of business, we still have the raw footage from some of our first projects securely stored and easily accessible.

Malaika Media’s best practices

At Malaika Media, we adhere to a stringent data management framework—the ‘3-2-1’ model. This forms the cornerstone of our storage protocols. This entails maintaining three redundant copies of all data, stored across diverse media types, with at least one copy safeguarded off-site. We always say that; “if you have one, you have none“

Here’s our workflow for data backups

1. We shoot Prores footage or raw footage onto a memory card.
2. We sometimes create an on-location backup on a hard drive or laptop before transporting.
3. Once we are back to our office, we copy the data from the memory cards onto our in-house server. That data gets duplicated on the server automatically.
4. We keep our portable harddrives in their boxes to increase protection incase of a fall.
5. As a project gets completed, we back all of its data onto a tape drive and store that off-site.
6. Finished client files are often shared by cloud methods.

We try to find the right mix between money, speed, and keeping information safe. We don’t reuse memory cards until we’ve copied the data onto three other places. When we transfer our data, we don’t organise it or change file names. Sometimes, when dealing with data, it’s best not to let people make mistakes by trying to organize it.

We organise our footage using metadata. Each project has working files saved by versions. These are entirely new ‘save-as’ files. We start new project files everytime we have a milestone. We frequently duplicate sequences while editing in Adobe Premiere. This helps us to try out different sound beds.

We envision a future where stringent data storage standards become the norm, driven by affordability and a collective commitment to excellence.

As Malaika Media, we envision a future where stringent data storage standards become the norm, driven by affordability and a collective commitment to excellence. As the guardians of our clients’ creative dreams, we are committed to keeping their projects safe and lasting. We work hard to manage data well, ensuring that our clients’ projects stand the test of time, and isn’t affected by data loss.

Storage Solutions

This process comes with a price tag, and it’s not just about spending a lot on storage. Video creatives need to juggle spending money wisely while also making sure their data stays safe. We’re smart about how we spend money to lower the costs for our clients. It all begins with making sure our system can grow and adapt easily.

Scalability

As a video production business expands, the need for more storage increases. Production people might be enticed to spend on camera gear instead of investing in backup storage. However, opting for relatively inexpensive backup options can yield similar results without breaking the bank. The goal is to transition from expensive data storage to more affordable alternatives when appropriate. Small video production businesses can control backup storage expenses by frequently transferring data to hard drivesas well as reusing the memory cards all the time.

Other Backup Methods

As we grew we added larger hard drives, servers, tape backup and most importantly- dedicated processes to use these methods correctly. Today, we operate a Network Attached Storage (NAS) – SYNOLOGY server and Linear Tape-Open(LTO) backup system. The internal server is modular and currently provides a petabyte of storage. All of our editing suites are network attached to this server and work from the same raw files. We can pull up that data instantly- even faster than a connected SSD. Our tape backup is uncommon because of its initial system cost, but it actually saves us money in the longterm because the storage medium is less expensive than common alternatives. The data saved on these tapes can sit for thirty to fifty years before it degrades. These are substantial investments but they pay dividends for an established production company.

Cloud Storage

Cloud storage is one of those backup options that havent caught upto our production needs. Our raw data files are just too big for remote access to be practical. We attempted to back up our server to the cloud once, and it estimated it would take 500 years to upload everything at that time. So, for now, we’ve put that on hold. However, we still use cloud services for lighter tasks, like storing finished files and project files. We often share our exports through these cloud services as well.

We still use cloud services for lighter tasks, like storing finished files and project files.

Conclusion

We really wish more clients would inquire about our data storage practices. It’s something we take great pride in our industry. We hope that as data storage becomes more affordable, the entire industry will adopt similar standards. Throughout history, so many valuable master recordings have been lost. We take deliberate measures to ensure that our clients’ projects don’t suffer the same fate.