Cinema should be a doodle-art but far too often its not. Cinema, as the art of the moving image, is rarely thought of as an artform of brain-storming, of un-directed experimentation, of idea bouncing and of... well, Doodling.
Cinema tends to fall under the banner of production, of assembly and construction and, sometimes, an even factory-like processional of steps with an air of the pre-ordinaied.
Now get me wrong. Im a pragmatist and at the International Film School Sydney where I teach we focus a great deal on making self sufficient filmmakers with a strong streak of pragmatism and business savvy. Art is useless if it remains unable to be manifested into a tangible engaging experience for a viewer. The artist/producer is infinitely more powerful and effective than just the artist.
But, there is an incredible power in doodling, in playing with ideas and images, of approaching the creative development and inception of an idea from a more free-form position. A film need not start with a script. A script need not start with words. Why should a script start with images, or sounds?
Over the years I have engaged a variety of approaches to fueling creative endeavor and of prompting new-thinking in my students. Its the driving impetuous towards my adoption of CELTX; a creative writing development system that whilst designed to develop screenplays doesn't privilege the Word or the even the Script itself. Unlike other screenwriting; tools, Celtx allows the idea of a script to be attacked in whatever creative manor suits the creator and the creative product. Pictures, Video clips, Sounds, Images, Index cards, Storyboards, alternative script layouts; these are all legitimate means to an ends. In simple terms Celtx allows for doodling, it allows for other influences. traditional filmmaking process so very often does not.
Its in this vein of thinking, of seeking digital tools that allow for cinematic doodling that I have stumbled one of the most exciting Web2.0 inspired, online tools I have yet seen. MOODSTREAM comes from the Getty Images company, the worlds largest supplier of stock media. MoodStream is a dynamic, real-time, brainstorming and creative development system that sits astride the massive repository of the Getty media file database.
The concept is simple; a panel of controls allows the user to choose their mood. The choices on those settings set the MoodStream engine in motion drawing upon the Getty database to draw forth images, video files, photos and music in real-time up onto your screen. See something you like, something captures your eye in an interest net then you click a button and its added to your palette. Its effectively a form of digital media scrap book assembly; the sort designers have used for decades (perhaps even centuries) to collate ideas and inspiration.
You can control transitions between images, the rate at which they cycle, use preset moods or custom sliders, control or change the music, and gather all these media assets together into a swatch palette you can save and retrieve.
For production designers this is a gold mine of experimentation and doodling. For Directors its a great way to form a visualized construct of a cinema experience. A perfect medium to communicate visual ideas to a production team in the early development phase. Its uses are virtually infinite and its most definitely highly addictive.
The creators of MoodStream describe it as
a concepting tool. The modern version of the fireplace. An interactive art piece. TV for the future. It's a website we created for and with Getty Images to showcase all of their offerings - still, video and sound - and inspire interactive creatives. And it's really, really fun to use.
Usually I baulk at this kind of marketing speak, but not this time. They are dead-on and theyve created soemthign very special.
Its an old cliche but no less true now than ever in the digital age. In fact perhaps even more so as options and flexibility continue to dominate the cinematic industries. So in that line of thinking Ive come across a very simple tool that adds a great deal to planning and structuring cinemaic works.
Called MindNode this small and simple app for OSX follows the long tradition of Mind-Mapping tools. Long a hip buzz word in business and mangement circles the cocnept in many ways is more tangibly and pragmatically applicable to creative development.
MindNode allows you to build complex flow diagrams to illustrate structures of any kind. The purely practical application would be to layout DVD menu's or Website plans using MindNode; an extrmely effective way to visualize and pre-test the the flow of content from menu to menu. Technical directors and post-production supervisors will see the potential for creating informatics of post-production workflow; showing how footage will be handled and processed through the various stages of visual and audio post. Producers and Unit Production Managers will immediately see the benefits of planning the stages of pre-prodction; a visually diagramatic checklist of the stages of Pre-production. To take a larger step a tool like MindNode also has great potential for planning narrative structure from a screenplay; using the nodes to plan plot-points and major events and character development. Anyone with a visual mind will find befeit in using MindNode to layout information that might otherwise drwn in textuality.
The best bit about MindNode is not just that its free (at least for now) but thats it's simple! Its not bloated with features you're never going to use. Its not trying to be all things to everyone. its not tryign to throw in the kitchen sink. Crimes many other such mind-mapping tools are certainly guitly of. MindNode is fast, simple, can be mastered in 3mins flat and is very veyr functional. My only gripe would be that nodes cant be connect toeach-other in a non-linear way, its purely a diverging tree-bunch structure. Next version may add this and then it would be perfect.
Colour-Grading, Superb results, Low Budgets too easy.
My current bunch of students at the International Film School Sydney are currently in the throws of shooting and hurtling towards post. Considering that this means we have 50 short films on the go over a 10 week period with up to 7 being shot concurrently at any given time, there's a huge potential for chaos! But its the good kind of chaos - the rampantly creative and industrious kind.
What is complicating that process however is that many of the young filmmakers will be engaging for the first time with more complex and detailed post-production processes - visual effects, motion graphics, compositing and colour grading. Some of them are chomping at the bit to get their hands dirty with tools like Magic Bullet (hich is our chosen and preferred colour-grading system) whilst others might be terrified by the thought of all those buttons and mouse clicks.
To help put it all into perspective PVC has an excellent article that walks through the process of a very low-budget music video being colour graded with Magic Bullet. The article has before and after video clips to watch and lots of images to compare.The article is called 'Its not the budget, it's where you put the camera!' and have made it compulsory reading for all students and by proxy anyone looking to expand their low-budget indie horizons.
When you're done you also need to check out this colour-grading comparison image gallery called One Image-Many Visions, that shows the same photo under more than 30 different colour styles and looks. Its a perfect way to see the power of colour to shape the emotion and tone of an image
Its very easy to get carried away.Once you?ve got hands on with a ?pro?
camera, fitted interchangeable lenses, fiddled with a plethora of
buttons, wrangled cables and external monitoring systems, fitted up a
steadicam or a jib, crane or dolly; its very easy to get carried away...
At
which point the process of being carried away can lead to a destination
of delusion - delusion that all these things above are necessary, are
crucial, that you cannot make a good looking movie without the apparent
and tangible trappings of the cinema apparatus.Now this isn?t the usual
rant about ?story? is everything and it doesn't matter what it looks
like. That?s bullshit. Much like saying painting is all concept and it
doesn't matter what the painting looks like. Of course the look matters
otherwise you?d write a book and not make a movie....!
The
delusion however is to believe that a great look Cannot be made Without
the grandiose accessorizing.This is the mind set of ?professional
appearances?. That a big camera rig, all the tools of the trade makes
You LOOK like a professional filmmaker, and in looking like one You
FEEL like a professional filmmaker. And, so the equation goes, when you
LOOK and FEEL like a pro you will be capable of making PROFESSIONAL
films, received with professional adoration. It?s the deep and
universal desire for all filmmakers to be Legitimized by their work, to
feel Legitimate in their art and profession.
But Perspective is
a crucial trait and getting bogged down in the desire to LOOK and FEEL
like a Pro rather than simply making professionally accepted work is a
sure way to mediocrity and obscurity. Because if you buy into the mind
set of nothing less than the full ?Pro Kit? will allow you to make a
good looking film then you?ll spend most of your career waiting by the
phone for someone to give you Permission to make a film, rather than
actually getting of you arse and making them with whatever is available.
Don?t wait for permission... Make films without Permission..!
Final Cut Pro has a lot of fans and a big market share. But these two things do not innately indicate the quality of the product on a holistic level. Popularity should not be taken as by default proxy to Quality, rather popularity simply speaks in substantial part to the budget of the great rolling juggernaught of the Apple marketing machine.
What bothers me with FCP is that its good feature set, accessible price, flexible structure and fluid workflow are greatly let down by some major and tragically obvious technical failings. The sort of failings that often leave me scratching my head in bewilderment as to how they were overlooked.
FCP has the worst audio tools of any NLE on the market - it cant even playback mp3's without rendering. WTF..!?
FC Studio does not have an Uninstaller. Dragging the app to the bin leaves behind a destructive mess. Do Apple really belive their product to be so amazing and so perfect that youll never need or want to uninstall?
The way FCP handles Preferences is fundamentally flawed. The preference files are horribly prone to corruption and the statement 'have you tried trashing your preferences?' has become a worn out cliché from Apple support and on user forums. Why exactly are the Preferences so notoriously unstable that the only solution is to throw them away?
FCP is the only software ive ever encountered where simple point-releases (and their resulting project files) are incompatible with previous point-releases. Version 6.0.3 project files cannot be opened in 6.0.2. Youve got to be kidding me. Issues like this point to some serious instability and issues in the underlying code base of FCP that is being band-aid patched on the fly (probably because Apple is syphoning off respources to i-phone development instead of ProApps).
FCP cannot work with 4k video sizes, its engine is capped and
restricted in Quicktime (for reasons unknown) to 2k - evidently a flaw
deep down in the engine that cannot be rectified without serious
re-writing. (or else I assume they would have fixed this by now since
there is more and more 4k production everyday thansk to Red and others)
The list goes on. For every 3 things that FCP does superbly there's at least 1 rather tedious, ill-conceived flaw in need of rectifying but which has gone unfixed for many versions now....
But hooray for Free 3rd party plugins that come to the rescue...!
Whilst many of those issues above remain outstanding problems, Digital Rebellion have developed a pair of free utilities that address at least two of them and make FCP just that little bit more functional than it is out of the box.
The first is a dedicated FCStudio uninstaller that adds in what the Apple developers seemingly ignored. Using the DR uninstaller you can cleanly and totally remove FCS from your system leaving behind not a trace. Perfect for re-installs or misguided updates that need to be purged.
Avoid the all to common need to 'trash the preferences' by using this simple utility to backup and restore your entire preference file settings. And indeed the DR utility doesnt just handle preferences from FCP but all preferences for all applications in the FCStudio.
Those who work in multi-workstation studios or education institutions where its important to manage many computers and FC systems together, this utility is perfect for quickly loading in standard preference settings to use on multiple machines.
Hooray for Digital Rebellion! Its just a tradgedy that they had to make these utilities in the first to make up for what should've been obvious and easilly recitifed flaws in FCP.
Now, for those who may be oblivious, Depth of Field is the area of focus within and image being photographed or filmed. A deep depth of field will have sibjects in the Near and Far ground in focus; a shallow depth of field will have only the subjects at a specific distance in focus with objects closer or further awa in the frame out of focus.
Far too often Video cameras are seen as being 'un-film-like' because of deep depth of field, or more correctly, a lack of control over depth of field. In truth the amount of and control over depth of field has virtually nothign to do with whether a camera is video or celluloid based, but simply to do with the quality of the lens, the fstop and the size of the image receptor.
So here enter Digital Rebellion's handy little depth of field calculator. Simply select your camera model and its sensor size, its fstop and focal length alogn with how far the subject is away and Vola! Instant read out of the spatial depth of field you'll have in the shot. In other words a reading in meters of how much space will be in focus.
SO for example a Sony EX1 with 1/2" sensors at a focal length of 100mm and a subject at 10meters will have:
Near distance: 9.723 meters Far distance: 10.293 meters Total depth of field: 0.571 meters
meaning that at 9.7m the image will be in focus and 10.2 meters it will be out of focus so there is a space of half a meter of depth where things are sharp.
Useful? Certainly good to compare cameras. Very useful if you're the sort of filmmaker who likes to be anal about hard blocking and camera position.
Digital Rebellions handy little utilities dont stop there - a Pixel Aspect ratio calcuator is also availible, greta for scaling down vidoe for online and wnatign to keep widescreen aspects.
Also a Video Footage calculator which tell you how much space your video fils will take up when captured in all the major formats.
And also a Power Load Calculator for working how many lights you can run off a single circuit in any given country without blowing something up.
Anders Thomas Jensenis the screenwriter
of Mifune,
The King is Alive,
Open Hearts,
Susanne Bier's After the
Wedding and Brothers, Lone Sherfig's Wilbur Wants to Kill
Himself, and
three films he wrote and directed himself. He also won an oscar for
writing and directing a short in 1999 and has been nominated twice
before.
To really put Anders achievements into
perspective, at the age of just 36 he has written 20 feature films and
directed 3. In this insightful interview Anders shares his experience
and perspective with Head of the International Film
School Sydney,
Duncan Thompson.
Reshaping of creative software culture - Celtx 1.0
The contemporary world of cinema and moving image media production is currently in a state of change that is unprecedented. And yet the presented indicators of the revolution, the much referenced point makers of these radical changes, are often mis-aligned. The introduction of DV was sported as a 'Revolution' but whist it did provide a platform of accessible quality and efficiency it was, in truth, just an obvious next incremental step from previous steps in image quality and accessibility. The software NLE was likewise touted as a 'revolution' but in truth the NLE was just a digital way of doing a previously analogue job - the assembly of images into sequences. There's a reason why all NLE's refer to 'Bins' and 'Razor' tools and 'B-roll' and 'I/O points'; these are all legacy of analogue tape and celluloid.
This is not to say that these technologies are not significant evolutions; they are indeed major and substantial steps forward in technical proficiency. But true Revolutions are about the culture of creative process more so than the tools, re-defining the paradigm in which creative process takes place much more than just a simple advancement of technology.
In more than a decade of making moving image media and writing prolifically about the tools and technology of creating it, I have encountered very few technologies or products that truly represent a paradigm shift in the way the creative process is engaged and the framework in which creative technologies are presented, let alone tools that challenge production industry precepts.
Several years ago I stumbled across a fledgling open-source software application for screenwriting called Celtx. Though still finding its feet at that time, it was a tool that promised a great deal, a tool that, with time, had the potential to grow into an exciting and productive system with a very new and fresh perspective.
At work the other day, at the International Film School Sydney, I was delighted to hear wafting into my office the voices of students debating the relationship between Cinema and Gaming, the aesthetics of game art and narrative, the definitions of interactivity. Such intellectual rigor from my students filled my heart with joy. :) In light of this I thought it worth pointing the DigitalBasin towards further commentary on gaming - most notably the excellent blog The Brainy Gamer which also includes a regular podcast on game theory.
Also worth checking out is The Game Theory Show podcast which regularly hosts interviews with some of the leading and seminal practitioners of game development and design.
And then of course there is my own Game Probe BlipTV channel that explores the aesthetics and narrative concepts behind a variety of contemporary games. There is also a blog accompanying this series that engages in discussion around some key concepts to do with game aesthetics as contemporary cinema.
When Garret Brown invented the Steadicam he changed the way we thought about the moving image forever. B&H video in New York has posted this very interesting article and interview with Garrett Brown which also includes a video of him using it which is great to watch for good steadicam technique.
Free creative software and resources list (updated)
Here follows the updated concise list of some of the most useful, powerful, functional and downright clever free software apps, utilities, plugins and resources available to the creative media maker.
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Celtx is the creative development tool of the digital age. 100% Open Source and Free to download and use. It combines screenplay formatting with script break-down tools, research and production scheduling functions. Forget that its Free, Celtx is the best tool of its kind on the market - integrated, comprehensive, holistic and very very functional. There just isnt a reaosn on the planet to Not be using Celtx. (Win, Mac) www.celtx.com
Audacity is an excellent open source, cross-platform digital audio waveform editor that can work with a wide variety of audio codecs including wav, aiff and mp3. (Win, Mac) http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Blender provides a powerful, free and open-source 3D modelling and graphics application that is complete with all the professional features you could want. modelling, rendering, animating, radiosity, textures, virtual cameras . (Win, Mac) http://www.blender.org
Directors Boards is a very useful A/V storyboarding and script management tool. Perfect for those who like to storyboard with digital photos Uses a FileMaker Pro engine but doesnt require FileMaker to be installed. (Win, Mac) http://www.directorsnotebook.com/
QT Movie Notetaker allows you to annotate Quicktime video files with specific timecode references. Perfect for reviewing a work in progress or providing feedback on a video project (Win, Mac) http://www.dvcreators.net/qt-movie-notetaker/
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. (Win, Mac) http://www.squared5.com/
DVD 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. (Win) http://www.dvdshrink.org/
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. (Mac) http://www.mactheripper.org/
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. (Win, Mac) http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
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. (Win, Mac) http://www.wideopendoors.net/design/aspect_ratio_calculator.html
Zipeg. There are near countless archive formats around (zip, rar, iso and so on) and Zipeg, available for Mac and windows, is free and unzips them all. (Win, Mac) http://www.zipeg.com/
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. (Mac) http://www.digital-heaven.co.uk/videospace/
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. (Win) http://www.headbands.com/gspot/
Reaper. Not 100% free but very bloody close to it ($50 for non-commercial use, $175 for pro users) Reaper is an amazingly powerful, totally functional and astoundingly efficient multitrack sequencer and audio system. Reaper is directly comparable to Sony's Acid, Adobe Audition and Apple SoundtrackPro and exceeds all three in some areas. What is truly staggering is that Reaper has comparable features to these three apps and yet the installer is just 3.2mb in size. So why is it that Acid, SoundTrack and Audition take up multiple DVD's..? Windows only for now but an OSX version coming soon. (Win) http://www.reaper.fm/
Adobe Media Player. leveraging of the Flash platform and the FLV/On2 video format into what is arguably the most comprehensive net-TV system for RSS vieo feeds. Its slick, its powerful, its free. if you're into watching lots of online video then its hard to go past. (Win, Mac) http://www.adobe.com/products/mediaplayer/
Miro Media Player. The open source answer to Adobe Media Player (AMP), Miro is a very comprehensive RSS video feeder, downloader and viewer. Miro offers all the power of AMP but in a completely open platform. (Win, Mac) http://www.getmiro.com/
BlipTV. Of all the copious video hosting sites that flood the internet its BlipTV that have really found the right mix of ease of use, sophistication, clarity and quality. BlipTV doesn't play in the same lowest common denominator game as the likes of YouTube and its numerous clones; instead BlipTV is focused on hosting quality online video as a personal online Tv channel. It has fantastic RSS features, great embedding and player options, a clean simple interface and can host multiple versions and formats. t also has a Blog system built in. Blip once had competition from Stage6 and Brightcove but with Stage6 having its plug pulled and Brightcove going corporate only, BlipTV is left standing as one of the best video hosting options around. For filmmakers in particular Blip makes a perfect on-line showreel system. blip.tv
Ice Clean. The Mac OSX is a lovely efficient operating system but occasionally it demonstrates true absurdity. One such example is that all the built-in OS maintenance features are pre-set to run at ungodly hours of the morning. The geniuses at Apple obviously assume that EVERYONE leaves their computer on all night and doesn't use sleep mode to allow for this self-cleaning. Of course if you, like me, dont leave your computer on all night because you refuse to be a wasteful, environmental vandal, and do use sleep mode, your poor Mac may never get a chance to clean itself. The answer is IceClean which is a powerful system for manually running the maintenance protocols on your Mac. http://www.macdentro.com/MacDentro/Home.html
Switch. Is the free version of NCH audio editing software that functions as a simple but very effective audio file convertor. Perfect for converting OGG or FLAC files to more universal WAV or AIFF. (Win, Mac) http://www.nch.com.au/switch/
Perian for Quicktime Perian is a free, open source QuickTime component that adds native support for many popular video formats. In simple terms it gives Quicktime the ability to play a host of different file formats that it otherwise cannot. In even simpler terms, Perian gives to QT what it SHOULD HAVE HAD IN THE BLOODY FIRST PLACE! Perian is an absolute Must have for every mac user. (Mac) http://perian.org/
Celtx 1.0 - Out of Beta and into the Brave New World
Its been a long development road... from a fledgling idea for an
open-source based screenwriting application to today's imminent release
of the new Celtx
v1.0; a truly comprehensive professional creative media
development platform.
Listing the Celtx 1.0 feature
set is an almost arduous exercise in production dictation; suffice to
say that if you currently think of Celtx as a nice alternative to Final
Draft as a screenplay formatting tool then you need to very seriously
think again.
Celtx is a complete and holistic
creative development platform - from character and plot structure
planning, through the writing and script revision process, and on into
comprehensive script breakdown, management and scheduling. Screen and
Stage plays, AV scripts, Radio plays and Podcasting formats,
Storyboards and Graphic novel writing templates.
Oh
yeah, and did I mention Celtx is
FREE....?
If you're a Celtx user then
this is the version you've been waiting for.
If
you're not yet a Celtx user, be ready to buy a new vacuum because
you're old boxes of Final Draft and Movie Magic are gonna start
collecting some serious dust in a back corner of your
office....
This
video walks through some of the coolest of the new
features.
The Full New
Feature set is as follows:
KEY NEW
FEATURES Scheduling
Enhancements Catalogs Sidebars Storyboard
Enhancements Adapt To Scene Navigator
Toggle Comic Book Template Changes to HTML
Forms iPhone UI for Celtx
Scripts
SCHEDULING
ENHANCEMENTS We have made substantial changes to the just in
time Scheduling module. You can now generate standard Scheduling
Reports that will include all the information added during the
Breakdown process, like Characters, Actors, Locations and
Props.
>Start & End Shoot
Date Select your Start and End Dates for your shoot to create
a professional Schedule for your media
production.
>Calendar View You can
review and print your Schedule in either a week or month calendar
view.
>Shoot Days A Report can be
generated for each Shoot day, detailing all the production requirements
added during the breakdown process.
>Call
Sheet Generate an industry standard Call Sheet for each day of
your Production.
>Scene
Summary Replacing the awkward strip board, the Scene Summary
Report will tell you what Scenes have been Scheduled, Unscheduled or
Completed.
CATALOGS Catalogs are
a database view of all the information in your Project. The Catalogs
will automatically track and organize all of your Production
information. Mark-ups conducted through the Sidebar will get added to
the Catalog.
There are three types of
Catalogs: >Master Catalog The Master Catalog
is automatically included in each Project. It will contain all the
Production information from every department. The Production Forms can
be edited, sorted and
searched.
>Sub-Catalogs You can also
add Production Department specific Catalogs, like for Props or Set
Design or Wardrobe. These Sub-Catalogs will automatically track any
Production item tagged as belonging to that
Department.
>Manual Catalog You can
also add a Manual Catalog to your Project. You can then add any
Production Item to the Manual Catalog by dragging the Production Item
from the Master Cat or Sub-Cat to the Manual
Cat.
CREW FORM Crew Forms can be
used to keep track of people working on the Project. The Forms can be
tagged to a Scene so that the Crew information is added to the
Scheduling Module helping you to keep track of what and who is needed
on a particular shooting
day.
SIDEBARS We re-invented the
Sidebar, adding three tabs, one each for Notes, Media and Production
Items: >Notes These should prove handy for the
writers, allowing for a much easier process of adding and reviewing
Notes. The Notes in the Sidebar will not auto-sync to whatever Scene
the cursor is placed in.
>Media Any
Media can be added to your Script pictures, video or sounds files
using the new Sidebar. Similar to Notes, the Media displaying in the
Sidebar will automatically sync to whatever Scene the Cursor is place
in.
>Production Items We simplified
the process of breaking down a script by streamlining the Sidebar.
Breaking down your script will go much faster, Production Item Tab in
the Sidebar allowing for rapid categorization and tagging. Production
Items added in the Sidebar will get automatically added to the Master
Catalog (any corresponding
Sub-Catalog)
STORYBOARD
ENHANCEMENTS There are a slew of new features and improvements
made to the Storyboard Module. Generally, we have tried to
better integrate the Storyboard with a Script and provide better
navigation and support for Media.
>Thumbnails
of Images Celtx now auto generates thumbnails of any image
added to the Storyboard, providing a much better look for reviewing and
printing.
>Standard Scrollbar We got
this figured out at last, adding a standard scrollbar to the
Storyboard.
>Aspect Ratio The Aspect Ratio of any added
image is now maintained in the
Storyboard.
>Keyboard Shortcuts The
Storyboard now supports normal cursor behaviour, with the arrow keys,
space bar, etc. all behaving normally.
>Shot
Type Every image added to the Storyboard can be given a shot
tag (eg. Close Up, Wide, etc.)
>Column
Layouts You can view and print your Storyboard in a 1, 2 or 3
column
format.
>Script to Storyboard The Add Item feature
now allows you to select a specific script when adding a Storyboard.
The Storyboard will be integrated with that selected script, the Scenes
in the Script and Sequences in the Storyboard syncing with each
other.
ADAPT TO OPTION Simple to
use, this powerful new feature will allow you to adapt any script in to
any other kind of Celtx supported script format. Turn a Screenplay in
to a Stageplay, or a Stageplay in to a Comic or an AV project in to a
Radioplay all in one click. Context click a script in the
Project Library to access the Adapt To feature and select what kind of
Script you want to turn it in to.
SCENE
NAVIGATOR TOGGLE - Use Index Card Titles / Scene
Headings Alternative Scene Headings in the Index Cards can now
be viewed in the Scene Navigator. This will allow you to more easily
identify and tell the difference between two scenes whose
slug line is identical.
COMIC BOOK
TEMPLATE The new Comic Template provides support for all the
standard comic elements: Page, Panel, Caption, Bubble Type,
and Bubble
Use the Typeset feature to generate a
Panel List Report.
iPHONE
INTERFACE We added a new iPhone optimized interface for
accessing your Projects on the Celtx Server. Named My Celtx you can
use this new iPhone interface to review your scripts
remotely. We will be adding additional features to this iPhone
interface over the coming months.
CHANGES
TO HTML FORMS >We made a number of changes to the
Production Items and Story Development
Forms.
>A new Crew Form was added to help
keep track of the who when producing your
Project
>Regular users will also notice that many of the Forms
now auto-populate to include a list of the scenes that a person,
Character or Production item is used
in.
>Character Forms can now be tagged with a
specific Actor Form. This will help you organize your Production and
the new Scheduling Features will keep track of what Actors are needed
on what days based on the role they are playing.
Workflow is the key to 21st century cinema. Planning it, Managing it, Wrangling it, Customizing it. Where once workflow was consistent and predictable we now live and work in an age of near infinate production posisbility. No two movies are made quite the same way. And whilst it's easy to see the importance of workflow planning in terms of visual edit and effects and grading, audio is often neglected.
In this vein UK-based wesbite The Broader Issue has assembled a series of highly informative series of podcasts that explore modern audio workflow by way of interviews with some highly prominant and experienced sound designers from around the globe.
The series is in 5 parts and well worth a listen.
Part 1 - The technology of motion picture sound has changed radically, but what has happened to the way the work is done?
Part 2 - Programme two starts at the beginning of motion picture workflow -
modern sound recording techniques and looks at how changes in
technology affect workflow down the line.
Part 3- This episode focuses on how multitrack recordings are used in picture
editing and how these decisions are passed on to the audio department.
Part 4 - Programme four examines changes in ADR recording and editing technology.
Part 5 - This, the final episode in the series, is a wrap-up of where we stand today with motion picture and television audio workflows. How have changes in technology changed the lives of audio professionals?
My ongoing research into digital cinema aesthetics and the visual language evolutions brought about by technological shifts is now finding its way into solid written form. But whilst academic frameworks may force me into old-school paper and print there seemed no reason not to explore and present some of the thesis ideas in a new media format. So what will be presented here over coming months are work-in-progress podcasts looking at progressive chapter extracts.
Part1, entitled Cinematic Problematic sets off by seeking to understand the core pillars of cinematic thinking - mise en scene and montage - and poke a theoretical stick at them to see where the cracks are in the context of digital cinema.
