The Entertainment Technology Center @ USC will announce the launch of “Production in the Cloud” today, a new project that brings together key media and cloud-resource leaders to develop guidelines and accelerate innovation and adoption of next-gen cloud-based content creation, production, and distribution tools and processes. Senior executives from the six major studios in coordination with Rackspace, EMC, EVault, Dell and other cloud companies convened recently to serve as governing body to collectively guide this process.

The project is looking at the entire life cycle of film and media production, from pre-production collaboration and production, to marketing, distribution and all the way through archiving.

The major technology shift in the entertainment industry from film to digital medium and the corresponding transition to digital asset creation, management and distribution brings an urgency to identify the fundamental elements of next-gen workflow that should be common to all solutions.

“When there is no effort to define guidelines for the framework of an emerging technology,” noted Ken Williams, ETC executive director and CEO, “multiple formats evolve and battle for supremacy, bringing uncertainty, inefficiency, and confusion to the marketplace. This effort will work to avoid those pitfalls.”

“This is an opportunity to rethink workflows and explore the adoption of various cloud-based tools and services for the future of film and media creation, production and distribution,” said Erik Weaver, project lead at ETC.

Check out the full press release for additional information. Interested companies should contact Erik Weaver (eweaver@etcusc.org) to discuss participation in this initiative.