Working From Home

Over the last week or so, millions across the country have started working from home. Welcome to my world for the past 30+ years.  With the exception of filming assignments, my home post production studio has been a little part of Essex that is my place of work.

Without a doubt there are many pro’s and cons to working from home. It goes without saying that the morning commute is invariably stress free.  No traffic jams or train delays for me. The worst might be “giving way” to my wife on the stairs.

My wife, who is office based at Ford Dunton,  did have a spell working from home following an accident back in 2013. Unlike me, she was very disciplined and made minimal changes to her routine and whilst she might not have been dressed for the office, she was at her temporary “desk” at 7am working or talking to colleagues in the UK and Europe,  just as she would have been under normal circumstances.

I on the other hand, tend to wake up anywhere between 4 am and 7am and come straight into the studio, (only stopping to put a pot of coffee on), check overnight emails and start work. I don’t wear pyjamas which is fine until the doorbell rings and the poor postman is confronted by…well let’s just say at least two have required therapy and one UPS driver was so traumatised, he was never seen again! The other problem is going back upstairs in the middle of the morning to shower and just when the shower gel is doing it’s stuff the phone rings…just as well there’s no webcam!!!

Distractions are all too plentiful, ranging from could I pick up something from the chemist/drycleaners/supermarket to domestic appliance issues, like the dishwasher pump error code, when the pump is blocked or the vacuum cleaner is making a funny noise, et al. Of course if I worked in London it would have to wait but when you are working from home these things do seem to get prioritised. All too often that “5 second” light bulb change in the bathroom, turns into something more serious as the bulb holder is disintegrating and needs replacing and so it’s off to Screwfix or wherever…and two hours later, if I’m lucky I can start work.

At very busy times, or when I am working on some editing projects, I would often work late into the evening and not have to worry about getting home, plus my wife knew I wasn’t “down the pub”. This would often be an advantage when editing projects for a couple of US based clients, given the time difference. Interim edits could be sent over the internet and work could be completed in a shorter time frame. The downside is eating – snacking at all hours of the day and night or just not resisting a pizza that is screaming from the freezer “cook me and eat me”.

I recall many years ago, working on a complex training DVD, with lots of inter connected menus and had some real logistical hurdles to overcome to make it work.  I woke up one morning at 3am with a clear vision of how to overcome the problems and rather like the composer who suddenly has a tune or rift in his head, rushed downstairs booted up the PC and for the next 3 hours worked furiously.

Looking back across 30 years of working from home, the technological changes have been phenomenal.

From very basic beginnings in the early 80’s I quickly moved to Umatic for all filming and editing, being the pro-format of the day. By 1990, the studio was home to 25 VHS recorders for  duplication, Cine film transfers were running to VHS 5-6 days a week and I was using Betacam SP which by then was a pro and broadcast standard, for filming and editing.  In 1997 I made the transition to computer editing (and what a learning curve that was) and a year or so later all filming and editing was to Digital DVCam. By 2002 DVD was becoming the main delivery format and I had the ability to duplicate 28 DVDs at a time and then print onto them with a robotic printer. 100 DVDs of any length could usually be duplicated and printed within a couple of hours and in 2005 another robotic printer was added to keep up with demand.

These days, mp4 files on USB sticks are the most flexible end user format for video and cine transfer and with the advent of fast Broadband from the comfort of my home studio for the past 5 years, I have edited and delivered TVads to UK TV stations including ITV Sky C4 for international companies and touring shows.

Working from home hasn’t been bad for me and I hope it’s not bad for you in these unprecedented times.

Stay Safe.

Comments are closed.