Samsung: Finding creative freedom
Posted on Sep 1, 2021
Adventure filmmaker Rachel Sarah is used to travelling to wild, distant reaches. But this month, she discovers the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Touch can take her work further than ever before
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“My film work is a mix of documentaries, short narrative films and commercial projects. Whatever the reason for shooting, though, the subject matter is usually centred around the outdoors and adventure sports,” explains Rachel Sarah.
“I also try to infuse ethics that are meaningful to me, like an emphasis on mental health or the environment.”
Working across every stage of production, from writing to the edit, it’s safe to say Sarah has a broad skill set, and requires professional tools to match. On location of The Ice Mile, which documents the challenging journey of a long-distance wild swim, Sarah found just that in the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Touch.
“I used the portable drive as my primary backup,” she says. “I can live and work in my van for weeks at a time, so storage is a crucial part of the process for me. I’ve also had some bad experiences with corrupted drives, so I’m more vigilant than most.”
Needless to say, the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Touch didn’t let Sarah down. She was also a big fan of its efficiency, with massive top read and write speeds of 1050MB/s and 1000 MB/s, respectively.
“With my particular workflow, I’m usually left waiting for my files to transfer before I can get some sleep!” Sarah laughs. “During this shoot, I was able to upload footage to my laptop and review it with my swimmer, Becca, five minutes later. In other cases, I could do this with a client, which would be immensely helpful.
“I also edit in the van, with external storage as a scratch disk to assist my laptop. Like most filmmakers, I use high-resolution, high bit rate footage. It’s hard to go back when you’ve seen how good it looks. In this case, without even making proxies, I was playing 4K 100fps clips in my editing software very smoothly.”
Naturally, keeping her kitbag light is another key consideration for Sarah, with limited space in her home on wheels and much time spent on foot.
“The Samsung Portable SSD T7 Touch is about eight times smaller than my current hard drives, and much lighter. I’m often carrying a heavy rope, metal trad climbing tools, then a 70-200mm lens. You feel like your back could break!
“It’s one thing to carry any old kit, but it’s another to say, ‘This kit is highly portable and allows me to do a professional job.’ You learn quickly when to leave an extra lens at home, but good storage is essential.”
Despite its palm-sized design and a depth of just 8mm, the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Touch is a rugged device, capable of withstanding falls up to 2m. Safety comes on another front, too, with AES 256-bit encryption, unlocked via password or a quick and secure fingerprint scanner.
As her shoot comes to an end and she prepares to hit the road, Sarah’s lasting impression is that the drive is revolutionary.
“Its physical features are ideal for my needs, but that’s just one side of things. Most of all, I find it so enabling. When you get stressed by slow or unreliable storage, it can completely throw you out of the creative process. To have something that performs exactly as you want, so you can just sit down and work – I don’t think people realise how much that means.
“I’ve been meaning to get an SSD like this for a while, but kept putting it off, thinking my hard drives were good enough. Now I’ve actually seen the difference first-hand, I realise how much I need one!”
Visit the Samsung website for more information.
