Adam Slohn is a veteran in media and entertainment production engineered systems and applications who has been at the leading edge of the digitization of “script to screen” production processes for the past 20 years. As an executive responsible for production technology at one of the largest Hollywood studios, he has had a “birds-eye” view of the complete technology portfolio that enhances all production operations and media workflows for studio live action and animated movies as well as related creative, physical production and business affairs. He has mastered the art of credibly collaborating with filmmakers and studio production executives to translate their creative vision, requirements, and budget constraints needed to define technology solution architectures, while overseeing their rapid implementation and white glove support.
For the past six years, Adam held progressive leadership roles at Warner Bros. Entertainment where he build and co-led the first studio-wide dedicated production technology department to architect, implement, and support the full stack of technologies used by feature and television crew working across all functions on live action and animated feature productions. This included SaaS applications for all business and media workflow functions, engineered media systems (dailies, editing, video assist, hi res media storage, VFX pipeline management, VFX/editorial review, render farm, digital archives), desktop support, cloud platforms, and networks for production offices, stages, and remote shoot locations.
Demonstrating his agility in recent years, Adam led efforts that enabled a quick restart in production under Covid-19, where he led two engineering teams to rapidly hypothesize, research, engineer, implement, and support multiple parallel sets of innovative technology solutions needed to enable “work from home” and on-set social distancing across all areas of production, including editorial, art, VFX, virtual production, physical production and camera to final delivery workflows. He also advised on the implementation of similar technologies for the studio’s marketing, post production services, and TV production units.
Pioneering innovative technology solutions, he led the implementation of the first cloud editorial system used on
a studio feature film and the workflow design and solution architecting for the studio’s first end-to-end cloud-based production media workflow, from art to camera to delivery, that included elements of live action, virtual production, and VFX.
Prior to this, from 2001 to 2015, Adam worked variously for the President of WB Pictures, President of VFX, Animation & Digital Production, and SVP of Production & Post Technology, where he helped to secure
corporate funding needed for technology initiatives for the studio feature production departments as well as individual productions. During this period, he managed a comprehensive portfolio of custom and SaaS applications used in physical production, post production, VFX, music, clearance, production finance, story, creative, casting, business affairs, casting administration, and legal. As well, Adam was a key member of a team that launched a study of production content review and collaboration applications that involved the
development and evaluation of requirements, head-to-head lab testing, and the subsequent contract negotiations, deployment, and operationalizing the selected solution.
Adam collaborated with studio feature story departments, creative executives, and script analysts, as well as freelance producers, directors, and production crew to develop the requirements and design for what later became the “Embershot” SaaS application; today, an industry standard for secure script distribution on high value production titles. Key to the success of this endeavor was Adam’s ability to pitch the concept to several Fortune 500 and entrepreneurial technology vendors and negotiate the deal needed to co-develop it. Over the
years, he has successfully evaluated, implemented, negotiated deals, and drove the adoption across a broad portfolio of SaaS applications used today by the studio’s feature productions, including Cast It, Box,
SyncOnSet, Shotgun, Pix, Scenechronize, Embershot, Aspera onCloud, and over a hundred other apps.
Prior to commencing his career in M&E Adam was in management consulting for Deloitte, where he focused on supply chain optimization and related technology strategies.
Adam’s background also includes supply chain management consulting and he has worked as a mechanical engineer designing electro-optical systems for military applications.