CoreWeave’s Mac Moore shares how more cloud provider choices give studios leverage to negotiate better, more flexible deals that don’t penalize for multi-cloud usage and enable, not inhibit speed, flexibility, and efficiency.
When viewers tune into shows like HBO’s House of the Dragon, they’re mesmerized by the plot, character development, and of course, the incredible visual effects of the dragons themselves. While your average viewer is focused by the unbelievable imagery in front of them, what I and other industry experts see is the [X hours/$XX dollars] and the staggering computing power needed to bring these visuals to life.
This is a big change from what was possible even just a few years ago - the VFX space is the most competitive it has ever been. Studios are under increasing pressure to deliver the most sophisticated visual effects to market in the most cost-effective manner. To do this, studios have aligned behind the MovieLabs 2030 Vision to empower creatives to be faster, more efficient, and flexible.
The studio has evolved, but has the technology evolved to support studios?
Why the cloud?
In my long-term partnerships with studio teams, I’ve seen the benefits that cloud rendering enables for studios. I’ve also seen where today’s solutions fall flat.
When creative directors evaluate the right VFX rendering capabilities for them, the cloud is the easy solution because it offers the ultimate elasticity for VFX studios. It replaces repetitive and menial tasks so that artists can focus on creative ones; it enables studios’ workflows to change and adapt to new situations and technologies; and it gives back one of the most precious resources for studios: time.
Studios aren’t in the compute business. They are artists, technical experts, creators, and creatives. As compute solutions continue to rapidly advance, studios do not want to be in the business of running data centers and updating GPUs and CPUs. They want to rely on a trusted partner to ensure that they continually have access to the most advanced compute solutions.
Pitfalls of the cloud environment today
The vision of ultimate elasticity and freedom to do creative work simply hasn’t been realized to its full potential yet. This is, in large part, because the cloud environment has not adapted to a solution that best fits the needs of small and mid-sized studios.
Many cloud providers are asking studios to metaphorically “get in line” to reserve compute in order to ensure access for their rendering - months in advance. That’s like paying for a parking meter all day to ensure you can park there for your 7:00 p.m. dinner reservation. This is incredibly burdensome and wasteful for studios, which may need zero compute today, 1000 machines for one hour tomorrow, and then zero again on the third day.
Location-based access to compute has become a limiting factor for studios in the cloud. They seek co-located data centers near their operations to mitigate latency concerns. This spikes regional demand and limits cloud providers' flexibility to scale compute resources beyond those regions, further hurting studios' ability to do their jobs.
What comes next
Studios need a cloud provider that can meet them where they are. That means cloud providers need to solve these challenges for studios: enable greater ability to scale on-demand and offer multi-region, multi-zone availability. This can include allowing studios to scale compute quickly at a moment’s notice, and then turning it off as soon as it’s done.
Cloud providers must also solve the location-based compute dilemma. A hyperscaler’s cloud infrastructure should be modernized to enable elasticity across regions. It’s possible for other industries - looking at you, AI - so it must be possible for studios.
What studios can do
For studios, the elasticity of the cloud goes way beyond achieving a goal outlined by MovieLab’s Vision. The right cloud solution that’s built for studios can give them back their creative power. It can eliminate over-paying and over-provisioning on hardware or under-provisioning and not getting the work done. It can free up time in their rendering process so that they can create more shots, be more creative, and win more projects.
Artists shouldn’t have to wait long to see these changes. Some providers, like Conductor on CoreWeave, already enable compute elasticity that’s not/less region-dependent. Conductor has always offered multi-cloud interoperability and only charges users for the compute they use, no long-term agreements required.
At the same time, clouds are starting to offer newer GPUs that will offer greater cost-efficiency and help with some scale limitations. It’s a short-term fix for a problem that will require clouds to rethink access to compute at scale.
In the meantime, studios should demand more from their own cloud providers. Why? Because studios today have more choices than they realize when it comes to the cloud, which means more power and more leverage at the negotiation table. Studio leaders should evaluate cloud partners based on whether or not the provider will enable or inhibit their speed, flexibility, and efficiency. Providers should never penalize studios for working in multi-cloud environments, especially when studios are collaborating on projects that involve multiple cloud partners. Cloud providers like CoreWeave are allowing free interoperability between clouds and others are starting to evaluate this offering. How cloud providers work synergistically with studio needs should be priority one for evaluation.
When this synergy happens - when the cloud starts to work for the studios - studios can reclaim their freedom over technology and refocus on being creatives. Artists can be artists, using tools that expand their creativity and options and the movie-makers will have more confidence and control over production to capture more of that creative magic that mesmerizes viewers.
Mac Moore is CoreWeave's Head of Media and Entertainment.
