RLGM Footage Library

RLGM (Ralston Lapp Guinn Media) has been a client of GtP's for over a decade. Veteran political consultants, RLGM has amassed a sizable library of footage over the years. But that didn't happen overnight.

Before 2010, RLGM used videotape to record shoot footage. It was then digitized to hard drives and edited. After 2010, shoots were recorded directly to hard drives, saving a step and enabling editing to happen quickly. That's great, but it created a problem.

Once you've edited your raw footage, what do you do with all the data on hard drives? And what happens if they fail? All hard drives eventually DO fail.

The second problem: What do you do with the ever-increasing amount of footage that you shoot? How can you save the good stuff and be able to retrieve it quickly without wasting time searching endlessly for that right shot? It costs you time and money, paying by the hour for an editor to search for just the right image.

RLM worked with GtP to create a system that not only backs up and preserves their precious footage but makes a robust library of stock footage.

Here's how it works:

GtP receives hard drives when RLGM finishes a shoot. We back up the footage to LTO media that has a 30-year life. Then we transcode the footage. We create proxy files, easily downloadable files that can be accessed over the web and used in an edit immediately.

After a project is completed, GtP applies keywords and metadata to the footage. It's easily searchable, and RLGM’s producers can access the library anywhere they have an internet connection.

Over the years, RLGM has backed up and processed over 250 TB of footage with GtP.

They now have their own "personal" stock footage library. It's an affordable solution with no hardware investment required. They can view the footage remotely and plan the videos around the catalog. 

For producer John Lapp, it saves him and his client's money and improves the overall look of finished commercials.

"If you exclusively use purchased stock footage like Getty, It gets costly. Plus, stock footage looks "stocky," pre-fab, TOO perfect. What you need is a mix of real people, real moments, and the look of what you shoot. "

RLGM has invested in their footage. They don't have to worry that they will lose it when a hard drive fails. More importantly, it's also not lost in the ever-increasing amount of data added every cycle.