Model enhancements for project videos

[anishTP]

In the current model, videos are linked to the each submission which are in-turn linked to a session in the project. Each session in the project schedule is linked to the submission. This submission is owned by the proposer of the submission. With the introduction of account memberships, the project owner can decide to make some sessions accessible only to members of the account. This creates a conflict with the ownership model of the submission. A few enhancements in the model for project videos can resolve this.

The session video is an artefact of the project that signifies that various stakeholders in the project have collaborated and executed it as per a schedule. So as far the ownership of the video is concerned it, the content is owned by the proposer of the particular session. But the video itself is owned by the account. So the account owners/ editors have a right to make the video private or public as per their discretion.

There is also the obligation to members of the account, for the videos to be of a certain quality and to be made aware of the status of its processing and publication. The processing of the video undergoes different stages in the current workflow:

1. The uncut version of the video is uploaded to the streaming platform like youtube or vimeo.
2. The raw video is spliced into different parts corresponding to the different sessions in the project.
3. The individual videos are further cleaned and audio imperfections are removed. Closed captions are added to the video along with other supporting graphics like intros, outros and lower-thirds.
4. The edited video are exported and uploaded to a streaming platform.
5. The URL for the video is then linked to the session inside the project. Depending on the nature of the project the video is marked as public or private by the project editor.

Each of these stages (except 5.) are ideally different products fit for consumption at different levels of consumability, i.e the products further down the stages are easier to consume than the one's at the top. The unfinished raw versions of the video have all the content that is technically owned by the proposer of the submission. The finished edited version where the project editor and the video editor have worked together belongs to the account that the project is hosted under.

Currently videos can be linked at the project level and the submission level. The session links to the submission that hosts the edited video. Unlinking the session from the submission will enable 3 levels of video consumption in the project. And further linking stage 1 videos to the the project level, stage 2 to the submission level and stage 3,4 to the session level will resolve the ownership conflict that was mentioned earlier. Further actions such as making the video private or public can be taken by the the users who have the required access permissions to the do the same.

[jace]

To clarify the current content hierarchy:

• Account
  Has owners and admins, with min 1 owner
  • Project
    Owned by account; crew are appointed by account admins
    • Submission
      Owned by the submitter, not the project or account
      • Property: video
        Traditionally, this is the submitter's pitch video, not the final content video
    • Session
      Owned by the project, optionally linked to a submission
      • Property: video
        This is usually the recorded video, owned by the project's host account

In the current scheme:

• A submission can only have one linked session. It is not allowed to schedule a submission twice.
• The video is a property of an existing content object and is not standalone content.
• Therefore, there can only be one video per submission that remains owned by the project.

Proposed amendments:

• Allow a submission to be scheduled more than once, to distinguish rehearsals from the final delivery, and to allow repeat deliveries.
• Consider making a video a standalone content document, allowing more than one video version per submission. Editors can choose to make different versions available to different audiences (public, private, submitter-and-editors-only, members-only).