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Speed and Precision: Parker Croft and Nolan Gould Harness OWC ThunderBay, Atlas Pro, and Express 1M2 on "The Liars of Black Mountain Road"

Learn more about the tools that powered a demanding multi-camera workflow that required exceptional speed, reliability, and precision throughout production and post.

OWC Staff • Mar 12, 2026

In filmmaking, a flexible post-production workflow can be the difference between smooth execution and costly setbacks. Director and co-writer Parker Croft joined forces with co-writer, producer, and star Nolan Gould on The Liars of Black Mountain Road, the debut feature from Gould’s Adversary Pictures. The film follows a couple who accidentally run over a stranger’s dog and spiral into a nuanced struggle for the moral high ground.

To meet the project’s technical demands, the team relied on OWC’s ThunderBay 4, ThunderBay Flex 8, Atlas Pro CFast card reader, and the ultra-fast Express 1M2 SSD. Together, these tools powered a demanding multi-camera workflow that required exceptional speed, reliability, and precision throughout production and post.

Shot on the Sony Venice with a Rialto extension system and the Sony FX6, the team tackled an emotionally intricate story with a lean but ambitious crew. The production demanded high-resolution capture, immediate data offload, and a storage system capable of sustaining complex editing, compositing, and color grading under a tight schedule.

An OWC ThunderBay 4 enclosure played a key role in keeping the film's footage backed up.

On Set: Fast, Secure Offload

To handle footage from the Sony Venice and FX6, the team deployed OWC Atlas Pro CFexpress Type A cards for the B-cam and OWC’s ThunderBay 4 configured in RAID 5, while OWC Express 1M2 NVMe SSDs managed high-priority, real-time offloads. With transfer speeds exceeding 3800 MB/s, the Express 1M2 enabled the crew to ingest full-resolution RAW footage almost instantly—allowing for rapid review, backup, and archiving without interruption.

The OWC Express 1M2 enabled near instant ingest of full-resolution RAW footage on the set of "Liars".

“Every card held a critical piece of our story. Losing one wasn’t an option,” says Croft. “The combination of the Atlas Pro, ThunderBay 4, and Express 1M2 gave us confidence that everything was secure, accessible, and moving at the speed we needed.”

With Thunderbolt 3 connectivity across all OWC devices, the team maintained stable throughput throughout production, supporting on-set DIT workflows that allowed Croft and Gould to review sequences in real time and verify footage integrity. The Express 1M2’s extreme read/write speeds minimized downtime between setups keeping the ambitious three-day shoot firmly on schedule.

OWC Atlas Pro CFexpress Type A cards provide a huge value for Sony shooters and delivered peace of mind for the crew behind "Liars".

Post-Production: High-Speed Efficiency

Once production wrapped, the team integrated OWC’s ThunderBay Flex 8 as the central hub for post-production, editing in Premiere Pro, compositing in After Effects, and managing the final color grading pipeline. Express 1M2 SSDs powered active scratch and VFX workloads, while the Flex 8’s HDD bays maintained the extensive RAW archive. With PCIe expansion delivering high-speed rendering and real-time playback of full-resolution footage, the system offered the precision and reliability essential for meeting tight deadlines.

“The Express 1M2, paired with the Flex 8, turned what could have been a bottleneck into seamless playback and rendering,” Gould notes. “It freed us to focus on creativity rather than worrying about storage limitations.”

OWC ThunderBay Flex 8 was the central hub for "Liars" post-production.

Reliability Under Pressure

With the film set to premiere soon at the Cinequest film festival and a tightly packed production schedule, Croft and Gould relied on dependable infrastructure to keep the project on track.

“We pushed the 1M2 drives hard,” Gould admits. “I wouldn’t recommend this, but one day we accidentally left one on the dashboard of the grip van in the sun for hours. The thing was hot to the touch.”

He laughs. “It was so hot I tossed it at Parker and said, ‘Hot potato, coming in hot!’ And he yelled, ‘Nolan! Don’t throw the drive, are you insane?' But he did catch it, and honestly, he was just being a baby about it. The drive was fine and our data was safe.”

For The Liars of Black Mountain Road, OWC’s ThunderBay 4, ThunderBay Flex 8, Atlas Pro CFexpress cards, and Express 1M2 SSD provided a high-speed, reliable backbone that allowed Croft, Gould, and their collaborators to execute a complex multi-camera narrative with precision and confidence.

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