SHIFT Blog How to Protect Your Film and TV Productions On Set and Beyond

With so much media production now taking place digitally, it’s easy to lose sight of the analog assets that need protection. Unattended scripts, expensive equipment, or devices uploaded with proprietary material can all pose serious risks in the wrong hands.  Physical assets like costumes, props, paper documents, and computer equipment also have value greater than just the cost of their replacement. Often, items unique to a production have no substitute, and hardware like tablets or phones could allow catastrophic access to confidential financial data, intellectual property, or personal images and correspondence. Productions often contract out their security, both on-set guards and consultants who develop security plans that establish guidelines for protecting assets. While they can play an important role, outside contractors often lack a core production team’s deep understanding of any particular project. And until recently, each contractor implemented their own set of standards, leaving personnel scrambling to adjust to different protocols for each project. New guidelines released by the entertainment industry’s Content Delivery and Security Association’s (CDSA) Production Security Working Group strive to correct these issues by creating a set of security standards that can be implemented across the industry. The standards develop an important baseline of best practices designed to address both digital and physical assets. Rather than tackling new protocols for each project, film and video professionals — including security contractors — can now share expectations adaptable to many different creative contexts.