Free utilities that make the production suite sweet.
When setting up a computer system for post-production work its easy to focus on the big tools; the NLE's, DAW's, Imaging and Authoring systems. But very often the tools that really make production workflow efficient, flexible and successful are the small utilities and add-ons, many of which are free.
Here's my latest list of free utilities for production.
Mpeg streamclip Cross platform encoding tool that is extremely effective. Will read program and transport stream formats and transcode to a host of MOV and AVI wrapped files.
DVD Shrink Shrink is the long standing Windows-based tool for ripping and recompressing DVD's. Of course many may use such a tool for illegal copies but with a good feature for selective DVD extraction its perfect for extracting individual scene clips. Such clips are great as examples for developing a films design or for those teaching filmmaking to demonstrate techniques and ideas.
Mac the ripper For Mac users who don't have access to shrink Mac the Ripper is your best option for DVD extraction. Though it lacks the detailed extraction of Shrink it can rip by DVD chapters.
VLC When you've finally hit the wall and can no longer tolerate the absurdities and incopetantcies of the QuickTime player (like its inability recognize widescreen anamorphic flags) move yourself on to VLC and never look back. VLC pays just about every format known to humankind. No mess, no fuss, just a better media player for all OS's. Lean, mean and effective.
Java aspect ratio calculator This is a simple java app that runs directly without installing and allows you to quickly calculate pixel dimensions based on 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios. Just plug in a horizontal measurement and the utility will calculate the vertical dimension (or vise versa). Great for scaling videos for online deliver in correct ratios. Cross-platform.
Video space widget For Mac users the Digital Heaven VideoSpace calculator runs a very useful widget. Elect your video format (hdv, dvcpro, dv, prores, uncompressed, xdcamhd, imx) and the duration and the widget will do an immediate calculation o the fie size.
Gspot If you wrestle with online video, downloaded video and video scrounged in all manner of weird and wonderful codecs Gspot is your best friend. A simple drag and drop of the file will reveal everything you need to know about it - data rate, codec, format and what application you may need to open it. Windows only.
Well there ya have it.... The DivX VOD site Stage6 is shut down.
The audacity! After i had written so many nice things about them...!
The vision tht I think DivX displayed in creating a dynamic platform for content creation and distribution in a plural way across all emdia forms at al resolutions was genuinely progressive and exciting. Alas, the company has deemed the VOD end of that equation to be too much effort for not enough return.
Is this pragmatism or short-sightedness...? Arguments could be made either way, But I do generally think its a shame. High-quality, high defintion, good user experience. Stage6 was very close to being VOD done right.
But now they are no more leaving BlipTV and Brightcove as the champions of high-quality, great-experience VOD, albeit without the holistic approach that Stage6/DivX had.
Heres is the open letter from Stage6.
---
Im Tom (aka Spinner), a Stage6 user and an employee of DivX, Inc., the
company behind the service. Im writing this message today to inform
you that we plan to shut down Stage6 on February 28, 2008. Upload
functionality has already been turned off, and youll be able to view
and download videos until Thursday.
I
know this news will come as a shock and disappointment to many Stage6
users, and Id like to take a few moments to explain the reasons behind
our decision.
We created Stage6 with the mission of empowering
content creators and viewers to discover a new kind of video
experience. Stage6 began as an experiment, and we always knew there was
a chance that it might not succeed.
In many ways, though, the
service did succeed, beyond even our own initial expectations. Stage6
became very popular very quickly. We helped gain exposure for some
talented filmmakers who brought great videos to the attention of an
engaged community. We helped prove that its possible to distribute
true high definition video on the Internet. And we helped broaden the
Internet video experience by offering content that is compatible with
DVD players, mobile devices and other products beyond the PC.
So
why are we shutting the service down? Well, the short answer is that
the continued operation of Stage6 is a very expensive enterprise that
requires an enormous amount of attention and resources that we are not
in a position to continue to provide. There are a lot of other details
involved, but at the end of the day its really as simple as that.
Now,
why didnt we think of that before we decided to create Stage6 in the
first place, you may ask? Thats a good question. When we first created
Stage6, there was a clear need for a service that would offer a true
high quality video experience online because other video destinations
on the Internet simply werent providing that to users. A gap existed,
and Stage6 arrived to fill it.
As Stage6 grew quickly and
dramatically (accompanied by an explosion of other sites delivering
high quality video), it became clear that operating the service as a
part of the larger DivX business no longer made sense. We couldnt
continue to run Stage6 and focus on our broader strategy to make it
possible for anyone to enjoy high quality video on any device. So, in
July of last year we announced that we were kicking off an effort to
explore strategic alternatives for Stage6, which is a fancy way of
saying we decided we would either have to sell it, spin it out into a
private company or shut it down.
I wont (and cant, really) go
into too much detail on those first two options other than to say that
we tried really hard to find a way to keep Stage6 alive, either as its
own private entity or by selling it to another company. Ultimately
neither of those two scenarios was possible, and we made the hard
decision to turn the lights off and cease operation of the service.
So
thats where we are today. After February 28, Stage6 will cease to
exist as an online destination. But the larger DivX universe will
continue to thrive. Every day new DivX Certified devices arrive on the
market making it easy to move video beyond the PC. Products powered by
DivX Connected, our new initiative that lets users stream video,
photos, music and Internet services from the PC to the TV, are hitting
retail outlets. We remain committed to empowering content creators to
deliver high quality video to a wide audience, and well continue to
offer services that will make it easy to find videos online in the DivX
format.
Its been a wild ride, and none of it would have been
possible without the support of our users. Thank you for making Stage6
everything that it was.
In a perfect world the only document that would determine the articulation of a project into production would be the screenplay itself. Alas the world aint perfect and so the process of moving a cinematic project from concept to production involves a range of distilled writing manifestations. Treatment, Synopsis, Outline, Tag Line, Step Outline, Concept statement - this list seems endless.
It's arguable that these ancillary documents have little purpose other than to serve as means for producers to comprehend the story and make decisions on it without actually reading the script.
That's the cynics perspective anyway. The more positive way to look at the various documents that accompany the screenplay is to consider them as building block components of not the writing process culminating in the screenplay, but rather the production process culminating in the movie.
Treatment, synopsis, outline are just tools not religious objects and writers should be free to use them as tools not end products. It's often suggested that a screenplay should start as a treatment first but if the treatment is really a 'pitch' document, a way to succinctly present the screenplay ideas in a short form, then this makes little sense. Rather, writing a tightly presented treatment after the screenplay appears more logical - a distillation of the screenplay not a precursor to it.
Likewise and conversely the Step Outline of one sentence descriptors of each scene in the screenplay is often lauded as a production document, a distillation of the screenplay to its bare bones. And yet there is a strong logic that points to the Step Outline as a structural organization tool to precede the writing of the screenplay.
This document from the Australian Film Commission provides a detailed and pragmatic overview of the various treatment, synopsis and outline documents. But at the same time it shouldn't be forgotten that its the script that counts and everything else is simply a set of assisting tools. Some can be exploited to facilitate production, others for purposes of pitching and attention getting. Still others for the development of the screenplay itself. There are no hard rules, just a set of tools to be exploited as needed.
Best known for his ground breaking title sequence designs which virtually invented the art that has become 'Motion Graphics', Saul Bass was also very engaged with more philosophical explorations of Creatiity itself.
This excerpt from 'Why a Man Creates' is (partriachy aside) a facinating examination of history and creativity that won an oscar in 1968.
So very often its the simple things that contribute to the production process in such profound ways.
My very favourite 'little thing' of late is DX Pad What does it do...? It's a note taker; a digital scribble pad, a binary notebook.... But what makes DXPad so special is that it's a plugin.
Running a simple DirectX plugin, DXpad can be 'assigned' to any project in software that supports DX. This includes virtually all DAW's and some more adventurous NLE's such as Vegas. You simply assign it to an audio channel as if it were an effect and it pops open a floating notpad window where you can scrawl notes, ideas and concepts about the project. The beauty of this plugin is that the notes you make are embedded in the project file itself, thus going everywhere it does. Its a perfect system for annotating processes, methods, formats, workflows and so on specific to the rpoject for archiving. Just open up the project, pop open the DXPad and you have project specific notes whenever you need them in the future.
Yes indeed there is one.... Not just an comic invention by some bored or desperate editor locked in a sunlight deprived haze for too long - but an official, Papal sanctioned, (1958 Pope Pius XII) Patron Saint of TV.
St Clare of Assisi.
Apparently she achieved this status by conjuring up an image of the mass on her bedroom wall when she was too sick to attend. A forerunner to the hospital, wall bracketd TV's that are always up loud enough to piss of the anyone in the bed next to you.
Now usually such saintly, 'miraculous' events are truly uninspiring. A statue of the Virgin Mary leaking olive oil in an abscure grotto in Europe is hardly worth getting excited about. If thats the best God can pull of his production budget must have really been slashed.
But with good old Saint Clare we finally have a Saint who pulled off something truly impressive. Analogue broadcast...
So as we move into the age where analogue is put to pasture we should all construct a small grotto in our edit bays dedicated to good ol' St Clarry.
Freewaregenius.com is a fantastic resource for freeware software applications. Saving you the tedium of lengthy internet scouring and scavenging, Freesoftwaregeniius aggregates the great torrent of freeware into a digestable, searchable and some what quality controlled environment.
And now they seem to have gone one better with a defintive list of tools, utilities and applications aims at a complete fresh install of of a Windows PC and outfit fo all free software tp cover all your daya to day needs. Its a very good list with not a dud tool on it and well worth a look.
With 2008 now upon us and DigitalBasin chalking up more than 200 entries in 2007 I thought it time to reflect on some of the better posted moments on the blog since it started in the first half of 07. So here's the list of my selected best post entries of the past year. If you have a favourite, let me know.
Not merely a cartoon, The Simpsons is the greatest social satire ever created. Amid the good laughs and hilarious characters is a highly sophisticated narrative vehicle that both plays to and subverts the genres it draws upon.
The Simpsons theme tune is a perfect example - whilst its hasn't won awards for musical composition it certainly should have for what it achieves in representing the thematic and conceptual base of The Simpsons is extraordinary. The theme tune is all cartoon theme songs and none. It perfectly parodies all well known American family-unit derived cartoons that went be for. Its a single short piece of music that is simultaneously uniquely identifiable and yet wholly an omage to likes of The Jetsons, The Flintsones, On the level of visual aesthetics The Simpsons too has staked a highly specific and immediately identifiable visual style and indeed visual language. And yet at the same time the characters, the faces, of The Simpsons all form some directly tangible derivative of extant cartoon icons.
This is far more sophisticated than just a copying; its a highly articulate and well constructed structure for satirizing both the genre of Animation and the entrenched Representations of definitive American family.
The great scripts and one-liners of the Simpsons can not account for its massive success or artistic significance on their own. The aesthetics of The Simmons - its technically produced look, style, feel, motion and sound are all as directly crucial to its form as the lines and voices.
And now you too can embrace the Simpsons Aesthetic and Simpsonize yourself. This website - www.simpsonizeme.com - attached to the Simpsons Movie, allows you to upload a photo of yourself and generate a Simpsonized avatar of yourself. here's mine...
The world has thrown much applause at this years game release of Bioshock. And certainly I have been amoung those cheering most loudly. The accolades come on many levels - from the exquistie sound design and score, the vibrantly imaginative design, clever and poetic writing and the superb acting and performances. Yes, this is a game and the game play is extremely good but what makes it reall special is the 'experience' it creates and that experience is driven by its sense of the cinematic - of drama, tension, action, poetry and character all building towards that most powerful of cienmatic qualities - MOOD.
Well it seems even the marketing of Bioshock has been able to tap superbly into that mood as this advert for Bioshock showing off the written compliments paid to it by journalists, shows.
At the recent LA Screenwriters Conference I had the pleasure of sitting an interview with John from the LA Screenwriters podcast discussiing screenwriting, pre-production and the integrated approach of Celtx.
One of the core skills of any screenwriter director or producer is the ability to write an effective Synopsis, Treatment and Outline for a movie project. For the production itself these documents serve no purpose but for securing funding, investment, interest and suppourt for a project they are essential as pure pragmatism.
They are remarkably difficult documents to produce with a specific need for maximum punch in the most efficient manner. There is also much confusion over how a Treatment or Synopsis should actually be laid out to achieve this efficiency.
Karel Seger is an experienced story anaylist and script consultant who runs OzzywoodFilms. Attached to the Ozzywood Films site is an associated blog called The Story Department which examines a broad range concepts around story and narrative development that should be a regular port of call for any filmmaker.
To aid the process of writing Treatments and Synopsis Karel also supplies from his Ozzywood site a fantastic document from the Australian film Commision (pdf) on how to better assemble and distill a treatment from your screenplay. Its a great resource that will be particularly useful for students of filmaking and media production.
Questioning Innovation: Apple, NLE's and Market strategy
'Innovation' is a sippery concept. Much like the word 'Intuitive' it is
bandied around with much gay abandon (usually by marketing directives)
without a truthful engagement with what it really means.
A dictionary definition of Innovation can be read as : "the act of introducing something new: something newly introduced" "advanced: ahead of the times" "producing something like nothing done or experienced or created before"
When
we view the technology sector, and in particular digital creative
production tools, it is most often Apple that holds a popular
perception of Innovation and of being Innovative. But is the mantle
warranted? Is Innovative - in the true sense of the word; that of being
without precedent - really the best way to describe Apple's creative
tools?
Frank Capria at Capria.TV
makes the argument that in regard to creative tools such as Non Linear
Editing systems, what Apple has sold with unprecedented marketing
finesse as 'Innovation' is really much more accurately described as
'Commoditization'.
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