Is it true?
- Thread starter MikeNeko
- Start date
Lightinspire
Lieutenant Commander
Say it isn't so..something that important should be backed up every night after shooting or whatever. Yes, there are services out there that can retrieve data from a crashed drive for a fee (differs with the company doing the retrieving)..they can even retrieve data from a reformatted drive. Maybe this is a lesson in computers. ALWAYS backup your data. I back mine up every week and all my documents I use are on a flash drive..
I heard that one of my favorite Fan Films forgot to back up their filmingIs there anyway to retrieve what they shot off of their hard drive???
"Forget" to back up our hard drive? Well, we didn't "forget." The truth is--without getting into too many details (Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz)--that we do perform backups of our day's shooting each evening. We shoot the footage onto P2 cards and then transfer the files to a hard drive and then backup the hard drive. Then burn copies of all the footage onto DVDs and distribute multiple copies of those DVDs to key Phase II production staff. But while backing up the hard drive one evening, it failed in the middle of the back-up procedure--so we couldn't access that day's footage from the drive.
All may not be lost: it was just a small percentage of our total footage from our recent "Kitumba" shoot--and, even if worse comes to worse, it would be stuff that would be relatively simple to re-shoot. (No crazy complicated exteriors or elaborate sets that have already been struck, or something like that.) But confidence is high that 100% of the unaccessible data can be retrieved in its entirety from the failed drive. (We've retained a data recovery company to do exactly that and we should know in a couple of days.) In the meantime, fortunately, much, if not all, of the data is still sitting on the original source P2 camera cards, so we can probably just pull the footage from there if we have to.
All in all, it's a bit of a headache, but it looks like it was a fairly small bullet that we probably successfully dodged anyway. I'll probably post more when I know the final resolution.
Of course, all this highlights that shooting our episodes is not just a matter of recruiting guest cast, feeding and housing a couple of hundred people for the cast and crew, and getting cameras, lights and electricity. Much of the behind the scenes effort involves monumentally complicated IT archiving processes and massive amounts of digital footage.
Why not try this first, before incurring the expense of a data recovery company?
No, we aren't re-shooting anything for "Kitumba" in July. (We don't know for sure yet what, if anything, might be missing from "Kitumba" so we wouldn't know what to re-shoot.)
The stuff we are going to get over a two-day weekend in July are some shots for "The Child." As we begin editing pieces of that episode together, we see where we just need some better coverage for some scenes and some places where it just won't make sense when we glue the pieces together. So we need re-do a couple of shots and pick-up a couple of new ones.
But the only stuff we'll be getting in July is for "The Child." Why did you think it was "Kitumba?" Where did you get that misinformation?
Well, all this involves business decisions that you probably don't really need to know. But at any rate, the expense to us for the data recovery efforts will be minimal. We've agreed to offer screen credit in our episode in lieu of actual money. (Figuring out what screen credit is actually worth, money-wise, was the challenge.)
The stuff on the hard drive has been placed into meticulously labeled files with an elaborate filing system to make it easier for our editor to find each take of each scene. This organizing process is laborious and has great value. If we can recover this already filed and structured data, rather than go back to the raw footage and attempt to re-file it and re-organize it into the proper places, it's a tremendous benefit--especially if the cost is negligible because of an advertising arrangement.
I won't speak for MikeNeko, but it is a logical guess since reshoots have been announced and then we learn footage was lost. Not much of a stretch to think the reshoots might be to pick up any footage that can't be recovered. You wouldn't even have to know the specific lost scenes at this point, to begin early arrangements for staff/crew, etc. The cast requirements are all that would have to wait until the hard drive is fully analyzed.
You mean a "trade-in-kind agreement," right?
(why is there no Ferengi emoticon? lol)
It sounds like you guys have a well thought out storage and recovery plan, Greg. My compliments. 
In this case, it was logical assumption, but it was also incorrect. There was an underlying incorrect assumption to the question; it was a leading question. It was also an unnecessary assumption. The question could have just been asked "Is this why there is a reshoot in the middle of July?" Same question, without the underlying incorrect assumption.
And yes, we have a payment-in-kind agreement for data recovery services.
Professor Moriarty: thanks for your kind words about our IT efforts. As a Six Sigma Black Belt, I'm all about improving our various organizational processes. They're pretty solid--but as you can see, glitches creep in. But we'll revise the processes to prevent that same problem again.
And I was addressing your incorrect assumption that someone "got" incorrect information from another source. The question itself was unnecessary once the first answer was given, almost implying an accusation of a "leak" in the famously airtight P2 inner circle.
Seems like we all have to be more careful how we word things. Apologies to the mods and readers.
Ah. Well, unless you know "MikeNeko" (or unless you actually are "MikeNeko" via a sock puppet, of course), you actually don't know whether or not he did, in fact, "get" the information from someone rather than merely incorrectly deducing it. And I don't know that I actually did assume that he got the information from someone somehow. I think my first question "Why did you think it was 'Kitumba' [that we were reshooting]?" left open a wide range of possible ways to arrive at the incorrect determination--including simply self-generating the incorrect information and assuming it rather than hearing it elsewhere.
As for a "famously airtight Phase II inner circle," I think I actually have been pretty candid and forthcoming about our productions and all their foibles over the months. But, of course, exactly what information the fans of our productions actually have some right to know about us and what they simply believe they have some right to know is always an interesting point of discussion.
Greg (for I have no reason to believe that is not your name) you misunderstand me. The comment about leaks was meant as a compliment to Phase II's spoiler free record. Most fan films either get too excited or plan their PR badly or simply don't warn their cast and crew about telling tales so too much information comes out too soon, ruining the viewing experience. This is not (or rarely) the case with P2. What "rights" anyone does or doesn't have is not the issue where story integrity is concerned. Whether your entire crew is really that loyal, or if they're threatened with excommunication, it is a level of secrecy that even Hollywood productions have not been able to achieve in these day of ubiquitous twits and tweets.
Then I apologize for my defensiveness.
If we do run a tight ship, it comes at some cost: we get a lot of grief for trying to control and spin and squelch and quash and deliberately misinform our fan base in order to have some surprises still left by the time our episodes are actually released and we have a reputation for having a rather dictatorial online forum. Mostly I'm philosophical about it: we are what we are. I just try to lead by example.
But I apologize again for my defensiveness.
Sorry Greg, it just was so much fun being on the set dressed up as a Klingon. When I heard that you lost what we had shot, I just wanted to find out it was true. I did not mention that it was Star Trek: Phase II in my original post. I was trying to keep it quiet.
As for the reshooting in July if it was going to be Kitumba, I was going to see if I could come back again.
As for the reshooting in July if it was going to be Kitumba, I was going to see if I could come back again.
Why bring it up in an open (public) forum at all? Why not simply ask someone privately?
Starting a thread about an unknown event in an unknown fan production has the same effect as hitting a bee hive with a stick. You sent many people running around asking questions of people that weren't involved and you alarmed people with this that needn't be alarmed.
Sorry, but I see no innocent way of starting this thread. The motive had to be (in the end) to make this public (even though you didn't have all the details).
Well, if anyone yells fire in the screening of Kitumba, at least they'll have a good idea who it was.
Because I could not. I tried to ask questions and got silence. I did not use names in hopes that someone would at least PM me. Just don't yell fire too loud
