SHEN_Post_Production_Statement_of_Work_(1)_1.docx

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK

Project Title: Shenandoah Post Production Services Park: Shenandoah National Park (SHEN)

I. BACKGROUND

Shenandoah National Park lies in northwestern Virginia, spanning nearly 80 thousand acres of forest, canyons, hollows and streams in the Blue Ridge Mountains, with basement rocks over one billion years old. The park rises above the Virginia Piedmont to the east and the Shenandoah Valley to the west, a distinct highland with elevations above 4000 feet. The vertical relief between the valley and the highest elevations exceeds 3000 feet, creating a mix of habitats due to the range of elevation, slopes, soils, precipitation and latitude, creating dramatic and distinctive biodiversity. Nearly 40 percent of the park is designated wilderness.

Tens of thousands of living creatures make their homes in the park, from black bears feeding on soft mast in trees to one of the few remaining wild populations of brook trout, a keystone species in the aquatic ecosystem. Raptors and songbirds migrate through and nest in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the emergence of spring ephemeral flowers is unmatched in the mid-Atlantic.

The park is the source of more than 90 freshwater streams which flow into the Shenandoah, Potomac, Rappahannock and James Rivers and down to the Chesapeake Bay. The park is the only place in the world with a population of the endangered Shenandoah salamander. Only 75 miles from metropolitan Washington, DC, the park welcomes millions of visitors seeking communion with the natural world. There are 500 miles of hiking trails in the park, including 101 miles of the Appalachian Trail.

A film project profiling the park and surrounding environs' natural history will tell an ecosystem story of Shenandoah National Park. In addition to presentation in the park's two visitor centers, a longer version of the film will be sold by the park's nonprofit friends group, distributed on social media and made available to PBS for broadcast, extending the park's interpretive program to a national and international audience. Footage is also intended for scientific inventory and monitoring of resources in and around the park.

II. PURPOSE

The purpose of this contract is to provide minimal location shooting and integrated post production services with final production elements for two versions of an interpretive film on the natural history of Shenandoah National Park and the mid-Atlantic region.

III. SCOPE OF WORK

The Contractor shall provide the Shenandoah National Park with all labor, materials, services and facilities necessary to create two 4K versions of an interpretive film on the natural history of Shenandoah National Park and the mid-Atlantic region from approximately 100TB of existing 4K footage to be provided by the Government.

The Contractor's primary role shall be to provide integrated post production services and post production management necessary to complete two versions of a 5.1 surround sound interpretive film: one 14-16 minute version for visitor center presentation and one 26:40 minute version for nonprofit sales and potential PBS broadcast. A secondary role shall be to provide location shooting crews and equipment rentals, if necessary, to capture critical footage to address any gaps in the previously captured footage. It is expected that this could be accomplished in ten days or fewer.

In a mid-Atlantic post production facility reachable in daily travel (no more than 2.5 hours driving time) from SHEN headquarters in Luray, Virginia, the Contractor shall provide all post production services necessary to produce all audiovisual media in accordance with the specifications as detailed in this contract and its attachments. This shall include but not be limited to scriptwriting, narration recording, original orchestral music composition and recording, offline editing, online editing in 4K, color correction, sound mixing, multiple file and format deliverables fulfilling all Americans with Disabilities Act requirements in order to deliver a complete, scripted program with an original orchestral score for SHEN visitor center presentation, nonprofit sales, and PBS broadcast. Some of these services may take place in other locations, subject to approval by the Contracting Officer's Representative (COR), but shall be reviewable in the Contractor's facility by SHEN park staff.

Extensive previous experience in and subject matter knowledge of the natural history of the Blue Ridge Mountains and mid-Atlantic region is required for the scriptwriter. Extensive subject matter review and direction during the post production process will be provided by park experts.

It is expected that to accomplish the post production, the approximate time involved will include approximately eight weeks offline editing; approximately four days of 4K online editing; approximately five days of graphic design, including 3D animation of geological processes; and 10 days audio edit and mix. Thorough experience with PBS technical specifications for delivery is required. Thorough knowledge of and experienced in creating Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (SDH) and Audio Description (AD) is required. A demonstrated capacity for seamless and rapid integration of post-production staff and a wide range of complex equipment and post production processes is required in order to maximize efficiency, time management and savings to the Government.

It is expected that little to no sync sound will be available. A demonstrated capacity for and experience in scientifically accurate, species-specific sound effects for a wide variety of mid-Atlantic fauna, particularly avifauna, insects, and amphibians, is required.

IV. TIME FOR COMPLETION, REVIEW AND APPROVAL AND PAYMENT

All work shall be completed on or before December 30, 2023 (including review and approval) in accordance with the following schedule. Review and Approval and Payment Schedules are also set forth below:

(NO LATER THAN)

Post-award conference and submission of memorandum outlining post production process

TBD

2 Days

5%

Submission of treatment

5 Days

NA

Submission of first draft script

10 Days

10%

Submission of video stringout of footage assembly

Submission of first rough cut edit

10 Days

20%

20%

10%

V. AUTHORITIES AND DELEGATIONS

A. The Contracting Officer is the only individual authorized to enter into or terminate this contract, modify any term or condition of this contract, waive any requirement of this contract, or accept nonconforming work.

B. The Contracting Officer will designate a Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) at time of award. The COR will be responsible for technical monitoring of the contractor’s performance and deliveries. The COR will be appointed in writing, and a copy of the appointment will be furnished to the Contractor. Changes to this delegation will be made by written changes to the existing appointment or by issuance of a new appointment. The COR for this contract will be announced at time of award.

C. The COR is not authorized to perform, formally or informally, any of the following actions:

1. Promise, award, agree to award, or execute any contract, contract modification, or notice of intent that changes or may change this contract;

2. Waive or agree to modification of the delivery schedule;

3. Make any final decision on any contract matter subject to the Disputes Clause;

4. Terminate, for any reason, the Contractor’s right to proceed;

5. Obligate in any way, the payment of money by the Government.

D. The Contractor shall comply with the written or oral direction of the Contracting Officer or authorized representative(s) acting within the scope and authority of the appointment memorandum. The Contractor need not proceed with direction that it considers to have been issued without proper authority. The Contractor shall notify the Contracting Officer in writing, with as much detail as possible, when the COR has taken an action or has issued direction (written or oral) that the Contractor considers to exceed the COR’s appointment, within 3 days of the occurrence. Unless otherwise provided in this contract, the Contractor assumes all costs, risks, liabilities, and consequences of performing any work it is directed to perform that falls within any of the categories defined in paragraph (C) prior to receipt of the Contracting Officer’s response issued under paragraph (E) of this clause.

E. The Contracting Officer shall respond in writing within 30 days to any notice made under paragraph (D) of this clause. A failure of the parties to agree upon the nature of a direction, or upon the contract action to be taken with respect thereto, shall be subject to the provisions of the Disputes clause of this contract.

F. The Contractor shall provide copies of all correspondence to the Contracting Officer and the COR.

G. Any action(s) taken by the Contractor, in response to any direction given by any person acting on behalf of the Government or any Government official other than the Contracting Officer or the COR acting within his or her appointment, shall be at the Contractor’s risk.

VI. DELIVERABLES

All deliverables shall be shipped FOB destination with all shipping and transportation costs prepaid. Deliveries shall be shipped by courier or Express Mail to ensure that shipments can be tracked and traced and tracking numbers shall be emailed to the COR at the time of shipment. All deliverables are subject to final review and approval by the COR. Final payment will not be made until all deliverables are received and accepted by the COR.

All deliverables shall be sent to the following address:

Upon completion of the project, the following program media shall be submitted to the COR:

Four Replicating Blu-ray Masters Four Replicating DVD Masters DVD containing attribution information for any non-government-owned footage used in the film Four identical hard drives, each with the following files:

Per hard drive

Film only

Film only

Film only

Film only

AD shall be optimized for analog outputs on the BrightSign player, fed to RF transmitters. AD requirements shall include:

a. WAV & MP3 (at 320kb/s) audio only files of audio description track with mono program audio on left channel, clean unmixed Audio Description narration on right channel. (stereo, 48 kHz)

b. H.264 1080p file output of the audio described final program with audio description narration integrated into stereo mix.

1 each program

a. Voiceover Narration Only Track (.wav)

b. Effects Only Mix Track (.wav)

c. Music only mix track (.wav)

d. Music & Effects Mix Track (.wav)

e. Original Sound Effects Audio Files (.wav) 1 each program

a. 5.1 surround sound or stereo mix

b. SDH on/off

c. Audio Description on/off 1 master/ 3 copies

a. 5.1 surround sound or stereo mix

b. SDH on/off

c. Audio Description on/off 1 master/ 3 copies

a. H.264 program stream at 25 MB/s (25 megabyte per second) of each video program with stereo audio and for playback on BrightSign XD series

b. H.264 program stream at 25 MB/s of each video program with stereo audio and NO subtitles

c. Audio Description files of each video program, in MP3 and .wav formats (waveform audio file): two-channel MP3 file @ 48k sampling rate/256kb/s (48,000 sampling rate/256 kilobyte per second) with mono program audio on CH-1 and clean AD narration on CH-2 Four

a. Items 1-16

b. Original Subtitle files, native format, all programs

c. Caption files for Closed Captioning, for display online (.srt) and on disc: Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing; Spanish language subtitles

d. All Audio Description files

e. Clean cover shots for all programing; titles; graphic templates for lower 3rd identifiers

f. All audio files (string-outs, mixes, etc.) produced under the contract

g. Archive of transcoded/uncompressed/color graded QuickTime footage and NLE (non-linear editing) project files

h. All final scripts in Microsoft Word: Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing; Spanish language subtitles; Audio Description, English and Spanish; final edit scripts

i. All original artwork, graphics, photographs, slides, transparencies, and other source materials created for the production

j. Completion Report including all documents and logs

i. Hard drive specifications: Mac compatible, 7200rpm (revolutions per minute) or higher; Industry standard USB 3 (universal serial bus 3), Firewire, Thunderbolt, or faster connection *The size of hard drives shall be twice the storage space required for the project data Four hard drives

*The size of hard drives shall be twice the storage space required for the project data

TBD

Specifications for Hard Drives:

All final video programs, animation, and production elements shall be delivered on four redundant hard drives filled to no more than 75% capacity. The drives shall be Hard Disk Drives (HDD) formatted for Mac & PC, 7200rpm or higher, with minimum USB2, Firewire, or Thunderbolt connection.

IV. PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE

The NPS anticipates a period of performance period starting October 1, 2022 and ending December 30, 2023 including final review and approval.

V. REVIEW AND APPROVAL

The COR shall notify the contractor, in writing, of approval or rejection of the work within 15 calendar days. Any additions or corrections shall be completed within 15 calendar days. In the event the government delays comments beyond the period specified, the contractor shall be entitled to a day-to-day extension in the completion date.

VI. CONTRACT TYPE

The NPS anticipates awarding a firm fixed price contract.

VII. GOVERNMENT-FURNISHED PROPERTY

Upon award the Government shall supply approximately 100TB of location footage in various file formats on hard drives for the Contractor to process and ingest for offline and online editing. Other government furnished property may include gate keys for access to various areas within the park.

VIII. EVALUATION FACTORS

A. VOLUME I - TECHNICAL CAPABILITY – Limited to forty (40) Pages

The technical capability shall contain a cover page with RFQ title, number, and name; and sections corresponding to the sub-criteria below.

Volume I shall consist of the following:

· Factor A: Samples of Work

· Factor B: Creative and Technical Abilities

· Summary of Deviations/Exceptions (if any)

THE FOLLOWING SPECIFIC INFORMATION SHALL BE CONTAINED IN THE TECHNICAL CAPABILITY:

(1) SAMPLES OF WORK

Samples shall demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed personnel and designated subcontractors to successfully post produce audiovisual programming that is similar in scope and complexity to the Shenandoah film, as well as interpretive, imaginative, creative, and professional in presentation. The offeror shall provide samples that reflect the work of the proposed personnel, as follows:

Note: Sample Groups 1, 2, 3 and 4 may be combined into one Sample Group, 10-12 minutes in length if the Director, Scriptwriter, Editor and Animator have worked collectively on all of the samples.

Sample Group 1: Finished Program Excerpts 10 minutes total of original format High Definition (HD) or better footage demonstrating the offeror’s ability to successfully and safely create content similar to what is required by this scope of work, including:

a. Natural History in subject (defined by the landscape or wildlife being the primary character);

b. Interpretive (focused on connecting the audience to the subject, telling a story they can relate to or be awed by, as opposed to a focus on being educational or informative);

c. Emphasis on visual storytelling that ‘shows’ more than it ‘tells’;

d. Creative, energetic, and engaging for both natural and cultural history subject matter;

e. Targeting a general audience;

f. Rich and accurate use of sound design, including on and off-screen sound effects of the natural environment and subjects;

g. Narration;

h. High production value (demonstrated by use of aerials, original orchestral scores, accurate color grading, professional grade graphics and animation.

Sample shall include excerpts from at least three separate, completed natural history projects. The excerpts shall demonstrate the offeror’s ability to post produce productions fulfilling ADA requirements including Audio Description and Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing;

Sample Group 2: Scriptwriter

1. Three final complete film script samples by the Scriptwriter demonstrating his/her ability to create engaging, interpretive scripts for natural history projects similar to what is required by this scope of work.

a. At least one script shall be for a 14-16 minute program;

b. At least one script shall be for a program 26:40 minutes in length;

c. Scripts shall be narration based;

d. Scripts shall demonstrate an understanding of storytelling and an engaging narrative arc;

e. Script language shall be accessible by a general audience;

f. Scripts shall be interpretive in approach (focused on connecting the audience to the subject, telling a story they can relate to or be awed by, as opposed to a focus on being educational or informative);

g. At least one script shall focus on Natural History subject matter (defined by the landscape or wildlife being the primary character);

2. Scripts shall be submitted as electronic files on USB.

Sample Group 3: Editor 10 minutes total of footage demonstrating the editor’s ability to complete projects similar to what is required by this scope of work:

a. At least three examples shall be Natural History in subject (defined by the landscape or wildlife being the primary character);

b. Interpretive (focused on connecting the audience to the subject, telling a story they can relate to or be awed by, as opposed to a focus on being educational or informative);

c. Emphasis on visual storytelling that ‘shows’ more than it ‘tells’;

d. Creative, lyrical, and engaging;

e. Targeting a general audience;

f. Rich and accurate use of sound design, including on and off-screen sound effects of the natural environment and subjects;

g. Narration;

h. Use of style (including cutting and any effects) that is evergreen;

i. A variety of different pacing;

j. Consistent and accurate color correction;

k. Sample shall include excerpts from at least three separate completed projects.

Sample Group 5: Animation 3-minutes total of animation demonstrating the offeror’s ability to produce short, clear, and logical sequences that assist with demonstrating complex natural processes such as geologic change over time. Sample shall include animation from at least three separate projects.

Samples of work shall meet the following requirements:

Submittal Format:

Sample Groups shall be submitted on a single multi-platform Universal Serial Bus (USB) Flash Drive, either as individual drives for each sample group, or on a single drive with a selectable folder structure. Submit to Claire Comer, Shenandoah National Park, 3655 US Highway 211E, Luray, VA 22835

a. All files on the USB Flash Drive shall readable on both a Mac and a PC.

b. The USB Flash Drive shall be clearly labeled and organized into cases or sleeves.

c. All work included as samples shall have been produced within the last 15 years.

d. Total run time of all video on the USB drive shall be no more than 30 minutes.

Project Details: For each sample group, provide the following information in PDF or Word file document hard copy and place in the binder under Volume I-Technical Proposal. The information shall include the following:

a. Title of full program

b. File name of excerpt on Flash Drive (or time code if presented as one demo reel)

c. Length of full show (in minutes)

d. Production objective(s), intended audience and credits

e. Production medium and format

f. Original cost, final cost, and reason for change (if any)

g. Year of completion

h. Involvement of the individual Key Personnel represented in sample

i. Summary of any additional information to clarify the relevance of the samples to the project described in the scope of work.

Samples that represent the work of the organization but not identified specifically as produced by proposed personnel and subcontractors shall not be evaluated.

(2) Creative and Technical Abilities The offeror shall provide a narrative outline that demonstrates their understanding of the project requirements stated in the Scope of Work and how they propose to meet those requirements. This shall include:

The offeror’s process for:

a. Post-production

b. Ensuring quality, timeliness, and effectiveness of the finished programs

c. Effectively managing the work of subcontractors

Detailed information regarding:

a. Level of effort, including number of proposed off-line editing days

b. Project and staff organization

c. Scheduling

B. VOLUME II – MANAGEMENT CAPABILITY – Management Plan is limited to five (5) pages. Resumes for proposed personnel limited to two (2) pages each, but with no overall page limitation.

Volume II shall consist of the following sub-factors:

· Factor A: Management Plan

· Factor B: Proposed Personnel

(1) MANAGEMENT PLAN

The offeror shall provide a management plan which states how the offeror’s proposed Project Manager/Post-production Supervisor manages project workflow, schedules, personnel, and maintains quality control.

(2) PROPOSED PERSONNEL

The offeror shall identify the personnel proposed for each of the roles identified below as a list at the beginning of this section. Identify each person by name, their role in this project, and as a member of your staff or as a subcontractor.

The offeror shall submit a resume for each person proposed for each of the roles identified below. Resumes must clearly demonstrate the ability to perform the work for which the person is proposed.

The Government considers the strength of the entire team essential for this project.

More than one individual may be identified for a position and one person may be identified for more than one position. Submit resumes for the following positions:

a. Project Manager/Post-production Supervisor

b. Scriptwriter

c. Editor

d. Sound mixer

e. Music composer

Each resume shall include the following:

i. Name of person, job title, and statement of primary duties;

ii. Person's proposed role(s) and responsibilities under this contract;

iii. Person's list of completed projects and description of their role (not title) on each project;

iv. Employment history:

· Present and previous employers;

· Beginning and ending dates of employment for each employer;

· Job title(s) for each position; and,

· Description of the specific duties for each position.

v. Related work experience for each employer, identifying:

· Each project by name;

· Type of project and dates; and

· Position, title, and specific duties and responsibilities for each project listed.

vi. Education and training background, including names of educational institutions attended, dates, and degrees or certificates obtained.

vii. Training related to current position and experience.

Exclude information that is not relevant to the person’s designated role in their project.

C. PAST PERFORMANCE – Contractor must return a minimum of three past performance questionnaires – attached.

D. COST/PRICE – Completely fill in attached price schedule