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Eve M. Cohen

Cinematographer

Eve M. Cohen is an award-winning cinematographer known for her work on independent feature films, social justice documentaries and as a pioneer in the world of virtual reality. Her visual style is fueled by collaboration, empathy and intention.

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"Film productions are constantly pushing the limits of how technology can save on time and money. Intelligent storage decisions are crucial to saving money without sacrificing performance and convenience."

Born to Store

Eve’s lifelong fascination with film began when she was 12 years old. Her middle school and high school had a black and white darkroom, and the process of developing negatives and images consumed her—it was all she wanted to do. She soon discovered that the act of capturing images enhanced her memory. Just the act of clicking the shutter was enough to crystallize that instant in her mind.

After growing up in Philadelphia, Eve moved to Los Angeles and received her BFA in Photography from UCLA. Once there, she transitioned from the black and white darkroom of her youth to a full-scale color lab. During the summer of her junior year, she took a class on cinematography, and it was there that she discovered how seamlessly her photography skills translated into cinematography:” motion picture film is just 24 frames of a negative in one second.” What little bit of Eve’s creative passion wasn’t already on fire at that point ignited. She pursued the path of filmmaking by applying to the Theater Film and Television graduate program at UCLA where she received her MFA in Cinematography. She has been working as a professional cinematographer ever since.

Most creative professionals suffer at least one data catastrophe on their road to success, a little life lesson to stand as a cautionary tale. Eve’s warning happened early on after finishing her masters thesis at UCLA and assembling a highlight reel. "I didn’t lose the final reel, but I lost all the footage and all the elements that went into it,” she remembers. "I hadn’t turned the drive on in years, and it just...didn’t turn on. That was the one and only time I lost something, and I learned my lesson.” That was the last time she ever kept digital files in only one location. True to her word, Eve hasn’t lost a single file since, but she’ll be the first to say that her "luck" comes from having a meticulous workflow and using the right storage tools from G-Technology.

The Perfect Process

Ask most photographers and cinematographers where their workflow starts, and they’ll say it begins when the files are captured in the camera. Eve begins even earlier, in the pre-production stage, thinking about the project as a whole from capture to final distribution. Eve explains, "As the DP I need to know how the post-supervisor and editorial team want the footage to be delivered, what kind of system they are working on, and what the final delivery goal is for the film.” Clear communication between production and post-production is essential to a smooth workflow and must take place before you even begin filming. 

"Storage is just as important as the things you’re putting into it."

The recent trend in shooting 8K video is accompanied by very large storage needs and from a cost perspective it is important to know if this resolution is necessary for your production. Eve explains, “The files generated from the camera you are using and the estimated number of hours filmed, will dictate how much storage is required. Feature films typically generate larger more robust files, but a finite number of hours, versus a feature documentary that might have smaller file sizes, but many more hours of footage.” She continues, “New productions require three different kinds of drives: shuttle drives, editorial drives and backup drives. Each of these necessitates a different feature set at a different price point. Features to consider are transfer speed, drive speed, physical size and capacity — an SSD wouldn’t be cost effective for my backup drives, however the transfer speed of the backup drives wouldn’t be sufficient for downloading camera media on set.”  Eve keeps her files in the G-Technology family of Thunderbolt™ 3 and USB-C™ connections, for shuttle drives she uses G-DRIVE Mobile SSD as they need to be physically robust and do not require large capacities; and for editorial and backup she uses G-DRIVE or G-RAID devices. Film productions are constantly pushing the limits of how technology can save on time and money. Intelligent storage decisions are crucial to saving money without sacrificing performance and convenience.

"Eve keeps her files in the G-Technology family of Thunderbolt™ 3 and USB-C™ connections, for shuttle drives she uses SSD as they need to be physically robust and do not require large capacities; and for editorial and backup she uses G-DRIVE or G-RAID."

Eve says that for her, G-DRIVE Mobile SSDs sell themselves as shuttle drives, “I physically put the Mobile SSD into producers hands, and they can feel the lower cost of shipping; I show them the file transfer speed on the computer and they see how much time they save.” In addition to the benefits of transfer speeds and physical size, SSDs also can withstand more severe conditions. Eve has worked on documentaries around the world and it is essential for the drives she uses in the field to hold up against extreme environments, unpredictable handling and trans-continental shipping. “If the SSDs can safely make it back to the US from remote villages in Africa or India, I am confident they can make it across town in Los Angeles."

Eve practices what she preaches. Her personal archival storage setup includes multiple G-DRIVE Mobile SSDs, G-DRIVE Mobile Pro SSDs, G-DRIVE and G-SPEED Shuttle XL. The 2TB G-DRIVE Mobile SSDs are her choice for daily use as they are extremely durable and lightweight; she keeps a pair of them in a bag that goes everywhere with her. The G-DRIVE Mobile Pro SSDs are reserved for copying feature dailies on set or the final export from the colorist. Everything from the SSDs is then backed-up to her G-SPEED Shuttle XL and on a mirrored set of G-DRIVEs as an archive, the SSDs are reformatted to be used over again.

Perhaps still smarting from the loss of her early footage, Eve is emphatic about the importance of having a current archiving strategy. "Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t have the right impressions about the best ways to archive, and it changes constantly. What was the best method a couple of years ago is not necessarily the best method now. If you’re working with an archive solution from 10 years ago, it might not be sufficient. That’s why staying educated is one of the most important things when it comes to storage.”

In particular, she points to the common misconception that USB 3.2 and Thunderbolt protocols are the same from a performance standpoint. They’re not. Thunderbolt connectivity, now available on all modern Mac workstations and notebooks, offers up to 20 Gb/s throughput. Thunderbolt 3 doubles that. This speed difference can be essential to maintaining a fluid workflow during real-time editing. In contrast, USB 3.2 tops out at 20 Gb/s, and this may be constricting when dealing with 4K and higher multi-stream workflows.

G-Team members are leaders in their respective fields who use G-Technology products in their day-to-day work lives. G-Team members are compensated for their participation.

G‐Technology external hard drives serve as an element of an overall backup strategy. It is recommended that users keep two or more copies of their most important files backed up or stored on separate devices or online services.

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