Lost in Light

A few weeks ago, in an effort to show my students some of the more interesting film and video work being created for the web I discovered Have Money Will Vlog. It's an ingenious site that helps media artists raise funds to produce their web-distributed videos and films. The project budgets are in the $2000 - $3000 range, and the donations are usually small -- $10, $20, and so on. Of course, that money adds up when you consider all the people online. You get what you pay for, too. The work you'll find on HMWV is about, oh, a zillion times better than anything you'll see on YouTube or Google Video. (Unless, of course, you have some predilection for watching pre-teens doing karaoke in front of their webcams.)

Anyway, if you've not yet run across Have Money Will Vlog, now is a particularly good time to check out the site (and to dig in your pocket for some loose change) because funds are currently being raised for a project by Jennifer Proctor and Aaron Valdez, two Iowa City filmmakers. The project is called Lost in Light and, in Jennifer's words (via email) the project is "devoted to preserving, archiving, and making available 8mm and Super 8 films that are otherwise being lost to time."

In fact, as they state on the Lost in Light websites (HMWV site, official site), "we will provide free Super 8 and 8mm to video transfers to anyone who asks, in exchange for posting their video to the Lost in Light site and on the Internet Archive with their choice of Creative Commons licenses. In addition, Lost in Light will include articles and features by members of the filmmaking and film preservation communities, video tutorials for making 8mm films, as well as creative work, all with the goal of preserving and championing this important film format."

So, send them your Super-8 and 8mm films. And send them some $ while you're at it.

Screenwriting Software

Lately I've been working on some rewrites of a short script, and I find myself dividing my time between two different screenwriting applications. I'm not sure if I'm transitioning from the old (Final Draft) to the new (Celtx), or if I'm just trying to choose between the lesser of two frustrating applications. This post is intended as a kind of sketch of what I've been encountering over the last few days in hopes that some readers might contribute some comments on how what they're choosing to use (and why). Final Draft I've been using Final Draft 6 since it was released years ago -- like '99 or 2000. For the most part, after several updates and bug fixes (version 6.0.6.0 anyone?) over the years, it's pretty stable. In the end, it does what it's supposed to -- it makes writing and rewriting scripts in "proper screenplay form" as simple as it is to type a regular text document in something like Microsoft Word. What more could you ask for? Well, a few things:

First, Final Draft has a copy protection scheme that is frustrating for the way I work. I support the rights of developers to profit off of their work, so I'm not opposed to copy protection. When I've paid for the program, though, it shouldn't interfere with my ability to do my work. Basically, Final Draft's copy protection allows for two "authorized" hard drives. The first problem with this is that it doesn't acknowledge the way many of us use computers. I, for one, have three different computers (one at the office, one at home, and one laptop). But I can only install FD on two of these. Even worse, when a drive crashes (an inevitability, really) I have to actually call Final Draft and explain that I'd like to reinstall their application on my computer. At times, with some of their tech support, I've had to lobby to them that I'm not pirating their software but there really has been a hardware malfunction.

Even worse is their technical support: You get 20 minutes free in the first 90 days of owning the program. After that it's $2.50/minute. This ranks Final Draft somewhere between my current cell phone company and the Philadelphia Parking Authority in the category of Customer Service.

Reports from other quarters that Final Draft 7 is a bugfest have kept me away from upgrading. My guess is that the reason for the bugs is that, having reached the limitations of what it can and should do in version 6, all the new, bloated features are interfering with the real reason many of us adopted the software in the beginning.

In sum, I've been grudgingly using FD6 with the suspicion that, sooner or later (because of computer or operating system upgrades), I'm either going to have to swallow hard and buy FD 7 or find a replacement.

Celtx Last weekend, then, while doing a polish of a rewrite, I made an earnest effort to make the switch to Celtx, the open source screenwriting/production application. I've written about Celtx twice before (here and here), and I've definitely been rooting for it because of the reasons listed above. In fact, after my last survey of the application, Celtx seemed ready for use.

Now, after a few days of working with it fairly rigorously, I feel like I've reversed my opinion of it again. Alas.

Among the bugs:

- I've had repeated problems with different document elements being mistakenly tagged. For example, some dialogue I've typed appears in all caps as if it's a character name. So I'll select that text and select "Dialog" [sic] to correct the problem. This fixes the selected text, but the text surrounding it -- e.g., the character speaking the dialogue is now also classified as dialog. Needless to say, this is distracting and slows down the creative process. Very frustrating.

- I've encountered odd cursor behavior. Sometimes, as I move the cursor around, it leaves a non-blinking cursor in a previous spot. Not only is this annoying, it makes you question the overall stability of the application.

- The "underline" feature still doesn't work. Not a deal breaker, I grant you, but it's a glaring bug when clicking on a menu icon does nothing.

These are elemental problems that make me inclined to continue using FD6 for the short term, at least. Beyond these basics, though, there are elements of Celtx that still make it less than ideal:

- I still dislike the obligatory introductory menu that appears each time you load the program. Especially annoying is the fact that I can't seem to erase the Celtx tutorial project from the menu even though I've deleted it from my hard drive. I'm sure there are people out there that like the menu screen, so perhaps the developers can make toggling it an option in the (under-developed) Preferences menu.

- File saving is confusing. Inside my Celtx project folders are numerous files, which is a little confusing. I want to be able to save a "Celtx" document (as I do with MS Word, or Photoshop, or any other normal application), drag it to my jump drive, and open it on another computer. Is that so wrong?

- For all of Celtx's features, you can't highlight script text in yellow (or any other color). This is an immensely useful feature in Final Draft. It allows me to draw attention to something in a draft (so I can return to it, to spotlight it for a collaborator, etc.)

- I'd like to see keystrokes in the text elements' drop down menu (e.g., "Dialogue Cmd-4").

- I want to have the option of breaking out of screenplay format. For example, if I want to type "The End" I should be able to simply center the text. (This feature would be useful, too, for the way I prefer to type out montage sequences.)

- Online sharing. As I've written in previous evaluations of Celtx, I'm not interested in sharing my work via their online servers. And I don't think PDF creation should be connected to registering with their online community. As a workaround I've simply used OS X's "Print to PDF" feature, and then used the ever-useful PDF Lab to marry my title page and script. It gets the job done, but they're needless extra steps.)

So, as of right now, Celtx feels like a case of software under-/over-development. I'd like to see the developers work out the bugs in the essential (that is, screenwriting) areas as it approaches Version 1.0, before pushing too far on the pre-production aspects of the program. The open source philosophy of the application, the general responsiveness of its developers and, admittedly, my frustrations with Final Draft have me rooting for it. Until then, I'll probably return to Final Draft 6 in hopes that Celtx will fulfill its promise soon. If it doesn't, I guess I'll be checking out Movie Magic Screenwriter, which I suspect is overpriced ($250), but works.

Until then, I've got some question for the writers out there: What are you using? Are you having the same problems? And what would you like to see?

Red Footage Posted

If you're following the development of the Red Camera (I am), you'll want to check out the footage they've posted on their recently overhauled site. Mike @ HDForIndies says that he thinks it's only 1K. And it's not terribly interesting -- some sunglasses, and steel grey at that. So what can we judge from this? Not resolution (if it's 1K) and not color or exposure range (because of the subject matter). In sum, very little. But, it's another step in the process of the design and hype of this camera -- an unusual mixture of transparency and secrecy. There are rumors that there's more footage soon to come. Hopefully that footage will be accompanied by technical specifications, not to mention some human subjects. The clip is a downloadable torrent, so you'll need a peer-to-peer application like Transmission.

Of course, if you've somehow only recently discovered filmmaking and/or the internet, you can read this earlier post to get caught up.

ADDED: Matt @ FresHDV catches you up on some of the other recent RED developments.

Amazon Unbox, or: The Price of Immediate Gratification

You've probably heard that Amazon has gone live with it's movie download service -- Amazon Unbox. In the interests of movie-loving consumers everywhere I decided to visit the site for 30 seconds, role-playing as a prospective customer to this new technology, to report my first impressions. Here's how it went:

0-5 seconds: The Unbox page loads.

6-10 seconds: Oh, ok, it's the same old stuff. Hey, there's a list of what other people are buying. What are the tastes of the early adopters? Lots of TV shows, Office Space, The Family Stone, Walk the Line...

11-15 seconds: Wow these seem overpriced to me: The Matrix via Unbox digital download is $9.88, while the DVD from Amazon is... the same price.

16-20 seconds: Oh hey, look: I can get The Matrix on DVD from one of Amazon's Marketplace Sellers, for $1.98. That seems reasonable for a mass-produced piece of Hollywood entertainment that's seven years old. Plus, if I buy this DVD I would have a permanent hard copy that can be played on a DVD player, unlike what the Unbox regulations allow. And it's at that point that I stopped looking.

***

Unbox is clearly aimed at people wanting immediate gratification. I can't WAIT two-to-five days for The Matrix to arrive in the mail -- I need it now! But I think you always pay extra for immediate gratification -- sometimes in cash, sometimes otherwise.

I would, however, consider using Unbox for movies that were otherwise not available on DVD. Something tells me that this might take a while to materialize, but Amazon says its in the works.

One final note: The Unbox page for The Matrix says those with DSL might need about 68 minutes to download. (Cable modem speeds are MUCH faster.) If you have DSL, it will take you longer to download this movie than it would to drive to your local video store. Then again, that would require that you interact with human beings. You make the call.

UPDATE: Beyond the issues outlined above, there are apparently some pretty insidious things buried in the agreement Amazon asks (read: demands) of its customers. Read this fancifully titled post from BoingBoing for more.

Google Earth Movies

I was screening the rough cut of a friend's documentary the other day and, in this doc, there was a map shot that had the "Ken Burns effect." It seemed somewhat out of place in the movie, so after about 30 seconds of digging I found someone that had figured out how to do what I was going to propose: Capture Google Earth movies to video. And now the link is passed along to you.

What To Do When Your Hard Drive Goes Soft.

I personally know of at least five filmmakers whose hard drives have gone buggy or outright died in the last month. The original internal drive on my old (2003) G5 was one of them. Kaput. So here are some quick tips in the public interest. Because I've been Apple-centric since, oh, 1984, this is for Mac users only. Sorry PC people. These tips aren't meant to be exhaustive -- they can't be, since hard drives crash for a number of reasons -- but if these tips... Can. Save. Just. One. Computer.... Well, you get the picture... Before you begin: First, having access to another Macintosh computer during the process of diagnosis and repair is essential. It doesn't have to be a supercomputer: My 2001 G3 iBook has saved my butt on a few occasions. The main thing is, the computer you use will need to have a firewire port so you can analyze your ailing drive in target disk mode. (If you don't know about target disk mode, read more here.) Having an internet connection will be useful too because you might need to download a program, look up some information, etc.

If you're having a problem with an external firewire drive, skip on over to Josh Oakhurst's site where he gives some fine tips.

If the problem drive is your computer's main (boot) drive, well, I feel your pain. Let's get started:

First, try to get the thing to mount on your second (working) computer's desktop. As mentioned previously, you do this using target disk mode. I'm going to assume this will work.

Let's stay optimistic and keep things simple at first. Hopefully, it's just a small problem.

1) Run Disk Utility Disk Utility is Apple factory software and it should be on every Mac computer. (You'll find it in Applications --> Utilities.) First, you'll want to select the problem drive in the left hand column and then select "Verify Disk." Assuming it shows some problems, click "Repair Disk." And cross your fingers. If this works for you, you got off lucky. While you're there you'll want to "Verify Permissions" and, if there are problems with permissions, "Repair Permissions."

Let's assume this didn't work. What next?

2) AppleJack Here's what Sourceforge.net has to say about Applejack:

AppleJack is a user friendly troubleshooting assistant for Mac OS X. With AppleJack you can troubleshoot a computer even if you can't load the GUI, or don`t have a startup CD handy. AppleJack runs in Single User Mode and is menu-based for ease of use.

If you don't already have it installed on your computer, you'll need to do that first. Follow the AppleJack ReadMe instructions and take it from there.

You tried AppleJack and it's still not working? Uh oh.

3) Disk Warrior Next I would recommend Disk Warrior by Alsoft. DiskWarrior is commercial software, so it actually, you know, costs money. It's worth it. It has saved at least one hard drive of mine. One of the nicer aspects about DiskWarrior is that you can purchase it by download so that you can start using it immediately (instead of, say, having to order it from an online vendor or buying it in a store). That is, if you have a working computer.

There are other applications out there -- Norton makes one, TechTool is another. Those may work, too, though their ratings on VersionTracker are not as high.

4) Data Rescue II If DiskWarrior doesn't solve your problems, there's probably little hope left for your drive... Still, there's hope for your information, and that's what's important.

I speak from experience: In May, I tried all of the above steps and nothing worked. I mean nothing. I pretty much gave my drive up for dead because DiskWarrior had worked like a champ for me before and even it wasn't helping things. Then I read a little about DataRescue II and decided to give it a shot.

Data Rescue II works. Basically, the program goes over your hard drive very, very slowly itemizing everything that it can. When it's done it then allows you to save (literally and figuratively) that information to another hard drive. The process can take days. You read that right. For my 160GB hard drive it took about 60 continuous hours for this process to work. But it did it -- it saved my information.

If you've gotten this far and nothing is working, well, I think it's time to evaluate just how valuable that information is. You've probably spent hours, and maybe dropped a couple hundred bucks, trying to fix the thing. Take a browse through the recent HDforIndies discussion (some people talk about freezing hard drives). If none of the suggestions there work, and you need the information that badly (and don't have a decent backup) move on to the next step.

5) Ship it off. You're going to need to send it to a company that specializes in disk repair. The good news is, they exist; the bad news is, you're going to pay for it. Luckily, this is something I've never had to do. One such company is TekServe. Another, DriveSavers, has repaired disks for everyone from Industrial Light & Magic and Pixar to Beck and Keith Richards (!?!).

Remember: I'm not a licensed (or, for that matter, unlicensed) Apple technician, hard drive repairman, or anything else. You follow these tips at your own risk, yadda yadda. This is simply stuff that's helped me.

Finally, two other things to consider:

1) Check your RAM. Once a computer I was using kept crashing. I thought it was the hard drive, but everything checked out okay. Reinstalled OS X. Still no fix. Then I tested the RAM: Bingo! A good tool for checking it: Rember.

2) If you're having a hard drive crisis right now, I know you don't want to hear this... but the reason it's probably a crisis is that you've not been doing regular back-ups. Using a computer without backing up your data is like driving without insurance. So: Make sure you have a hard drive that is dedicated to regularly backing up your data. And then do it. It's easier, of course, to backup data using an application like ChronoSync SuperDuper which is my NEW favorite, but there are other programs out there. The point is: If you're not backing your data up, you're asking for trouble.

Okay. That's all I got. Good luck.

ADDENDUM: Make sure you read the fine comments below, especially #3, which discusses Apple Hardware Test. That's an important step, and one I really should have included.

Celtx update 0.9.7

In February I wrote about Celtx, an open-source screenwriting and pre-production application for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux. A new version (0.9.7) has just been released, and it appears to be a winner. In my February notes, I was critical of the application's lack of "more"/"continued" support; that's been added. I also had problems importing scripts originally written in Final Draft. So far, this seems to work like a charm. These improvements, though, appear to be just the beginning. You can read about the revisions here. Or you can watch a video about the changes here. Taken together, all of the changes, additions, and fixes make this a major upgrade.

If I do have a quibble it's that I think that Celtx's developers are premature in calling Celtx "a new platform for the Pre-Production of Media." At the moment the application has neither a stripboarding, nor a budgeting, feature.

Until it has these things applications like EP Scheduling and Budgeting, Company Move, and even Gorilla will maintain their dominance over Celtx as pre-production applications.

Maybe that's okay. Personally, instead of seeing Celtx's developers add on feature after feature to the application, I would prefer to see a kind of "sequel" to Celtx for pre-production, which would integrate seamlessly with Celtx's development ideas and script tools.

From a software development standpoint this could help keep the application from becoming bloated (as often happens) and it could allow the applications develop at their own pace. (As a point of comparison, Firefox and Thunderbird work much better as stand-alone apps than the so-called "Mozilla suite" does. At least that’s been my experience on a Macintosh.)

Anyway, this is all speculative and/or wishful thinking. Celtx is not even at its 1.0 release, and the bottom line is that it excels at providing a one-stop dumping ground for all of the ideas, notes, and documents associated with a film, up to and including the screenplay. I look forward to seeing where its developers take it next.

Transcription Tools for Mac Audio/Video

Here are two useful transcription tools for Mac users: First, there's Inqscribe, which lets you watch your footage and transcribe it at the same time. No more switching back and forth between applications, or using two computers. Haven't tested it, but it looks promising. Free trial for 30 days, then $69.

The second is Transcriva, which is an audio only transcription tool. Same as above, but no video. I used this to transcribe the Joe Swanberg interview from a few days ago, which I had recorded using my iPod and iMic. It works like a charm. Cost: $20.

Red Round-up

Details on Jim Jannard's Red camera surfaced today. If you don't know about Red, you've probably been off-line for the last few months. It has been -- and continues to be -- developed as a radical, iconoclastic digital cinema camera. Many people are saying this could be the biggest step forward since the DV revolution in the early 90s. Could it be so? Possibly. The camera has yet to be manufactured, so until we see footage, let's keep our socks on. On paper, though, it must be said: Red doesn't look like "a step up." It looks ground-breaking -- from specs to its physical design.

Some people have suggested that because Jannard & Co. haven't been in the day-to-day business of camera manufacturing that this won't work. In fact, the opposite is true. Revolutionary technology usually springs from mavericks and Red is, in essence, a hacker project by a maverick with the DIY spirit. The notable difference, of course, is that Jannard has a ton of resources to put into R&D. Anyway, we're rooting for its success.

Red resources (as of 4/24):

Red - Official Site

DV Info Red Forum

DVXUser Red Forum

Red Camera Wiki

StudioDaily interview with Jim Jannard

DV.com interview with Ted Schilowitz, head of the Red development team

UPDATE:

Red Camera Company Wikipedia article

Shooting Modes on Red (HD for Indies)

"Red Day 1 Report" from HD for Indies

Images from Red announcement (via DVInfo)

DVX-100 modification for uncompressed video

Rob Travis has alerted me to the Andromeda Data Acquistion System, which modifies a Panasonic DVX-100 to allow for capture of "4:4:4 10bit RGB Uncompressed output." Assuming you already own a DVX-100, it costs $3000, which includes the software needed to do the capture. You can read more about it at the Reel Stream website. Andromeda says they're considering offering this modification for other cameras. Needless to say, such a thing for the HVX-200 could be outstanding. Imagine: True 24P 4:4:4 10bit RGB Uncompressed HD.... for less than $10K....

Sorry. Back to reality. Some quick thoughts:

- $6000 ($3000 for Andromeda + $3000 for DVX100B at street prices) gets you uncompressed 4:4:4 24p in standard def. (See comments.)

- $6000 can get you a Panasonic HVX200 without P2 cards. No P2 cards means you're just using the HVX as a standard def camera. But you can invest down the road in P2 to get HD in true 24p.

- $9000 gets you a Canon XL-H1, which is HD. It can do uncompressed 4:2:2 via its HD-SDI output.... but it doesn't have true 24p.

The question for a lot of owners of the DVX-100 will be: Do I spend the cash on modifying my camera, or do I move up to something else?

Personally, if I had a DVX-100, I'd at least consider the Andromeda upgrade. All of the currently available under-$10K HD cameras are a mixed bag (at best), plus delivery of HD content is a big question mark (what with the HD vs. Blu-ray format war) anyway. Making a small upgrade investment in SD in the interim could be a smart move. Then again, I'm saying all of this speculatively since I've not seen anything except the tests on Andromeda's website.

New Blog Alert: SpringBoardMedia

Some of you may have noticed Brian Newman's comment yesterday on this website (down in the article on fests and microcinemas called "Fresh and Local"). Among the things he had to say was this:

Having run a film festival, I was always amazed at how many people used the festivals to find a distributor (and failed) instead of using it to find an audience. Festivals are generally poor, but we should start to develop systems that allow filmmakers to better use the festival tour as part of their distribution and to help them seel DVDs and maybe make a living.

It was a great surprise to hear from Brian. I first met him back when he ran the Atlanta Film and Video Festival. I haven't talked with him in a few years, but I really respected his taste and the way that festival was run.

Brian emailed me yesterday to say hello -- he's in New York now, and it turns out he recently started a blog, SpringBoardMedia. I've just spent a few minutes reading over the early posts. Wow. These are susbstantial thoughts on distribution, the future of film and video, and the issues facing film/video makers. It's great to read something written from his unique perspective -- he's in the non-profit sector and it's his job to help filmmakers.

The blog is young so, not surprisingly, it's thin on comments. I hope you'll check it out and give him some feedback on his ideas. I'll see you over there.

FresHDV's Oakhurst Interview

Matt at FresHDV has been running a two-part interview this week with indie film/postproduction techie blogger Josh Oakhurst. Josh's from-the-hip style suggests what might happen if you crossed that Mad Money guy on CNBC with a video engineer. This is my way of saying Josh's energy can make some otherwise somniferous subjects (say, differences in video codecs) interesting.

Josh, if you're reading, I do have two bones to pick with you:

Small point: I'm not convinced when you argue that Panasonic's P2 technology is ready for the trash heap. (For what it's worth, I have no allegiances in the HD/HDV format wars and I own none of those competing cameras.) I think it hurts your argument when you compare P2 to Panasonic's other failed/non-adopted formats, but you don't do the same for Sony (which it sounds like you use). Remember, Sony is the originator of Betamax. Shouldn't the same logic apply to HDV? Anyway, like I said, the logic didn't seem strong. Plus, a lot of people I've talked to that have used P2 say that a) it's getting cheaper and b) once you use it you never want to go back to using tape. My $0.02.

Bigger point: I think taking punches at "film school" kids is too easy. Sure, there are lots of spoiled rich kids making movies. (As a big-time indie producer once confided to me at the Rotterdam Film Festival, "They call it independent film because you have to be independently wealthy.") But film school kids and the crowd you're griping about aren't one and the same. For my part, I went to school before the DV revolution. It was the only way for a guy growing up in East Tennessee to get his hands on the tools of production. I went, I learned, and because of teaching assistantships I incurred very little debt. I have no regrets.

Likewise, the students I have taught at Temple and University of Tennessee (as well as the students that I've met in my travels) weren't born with silver spoons in their mouths. In fact, most have pretty heavy work schedules just to pay their state-school tuitions and the rent. They've come to film school to meet fellow-travelers, to have access to computers and good cameras they couldn't afford otherwise, and maybe, just maybe, to learn some ways to challenge the system that produces the television crap that you and I both hate. Like you, they are hungry to make films, that's all.

Anyway, other than that, I liked the interview. Keep up the good work with your blog.

Celtx!

Tomorrow I am giving a lecture on screenplay formatting in the screenwriting course I'm teaching this semester at Temple University. It's a fairly straightforward topic; you can go over the basics in about an hour or so. The problem in the past when I've taught this stuff to college students and in workshops is that most beginning writers only have access to Microsoft Word, which can be a real chore to use as screenwriting software. Of course, they could invest in software like Final Draft or Movie Magic Screenwriter, but those are pricey (around $180) -- not a wise investment unless you know you're going to be pursuing screenwriting as a career. (As a side note, universities do sometimes invest in this software -- Temple has it in some of their computer labs -- but writing a screenplay in bits and pieces in various computer labs during their free hours is problematic for students that work, etc. I've found the software gets used intermittently at best.)

Anyway, this brings me to Celtx, which is an open source (i.e., free) screenwriting and pre-production tool. I tested it out last fall and it didn’t seem quite ready for use. Today, I downloaded a new version of it (0.9.5.1). Now it's got my attention.

After a few hours of toying with it, here are my jotted-down impressions:

1. I'm not crazy about the weird splash screen interface at the beginning, but maybe I can grow to appreciate it.

2. Once you get into the actual application the interface is clean, well-organized. Celtx appears to do what it aims to if you're writing from scratch.

3. It can be a little finicky at times when you’re quickly moving from one format to another (say, dialogue to action). In that sense it's kind of like Final Draft when it was in 3.0 or 4.0 mode.

4. "More" and "continued" either don't exist or aren't working. This needs to be fixed before being ready for prime-time.

5. Column for moving scenes around is appreciated and it works. Unfortunately, moving groups of scenes (like a sequence) can't be done at once. That would be useful.

6. I love being able to move via tabs from the main window to the title page to "Scene Details"and "Character" pages that help you keep your thoughts organized.

7. Importing from Final Draft (sorry, I don't have MMS) is not flawless. You save in FD as a txt file and then import. But importing doesn't retain breaks between different paragraphs of action/description. RTF importing isn't supported.

8. Not sure I understand (or like) the internet features. Why should I use this instead of a regular browser? And I don't want to upload my work to the world. These efforts seem to be an effort to distance itself from the competitors, but I wonder if this is an unproductive detour?

9. Haven't tried out the breakdown and scheduling features. More on this later, perhaps. Could make it a killer pre-production app.

I wouldn't say I've run the thing through its paces, but for someone that in his earliest days wrote screenplays using Microsoft Word (and before that Bank Street Writer on an Apple ][e !), I have to say this program is an absolute must for students, beginners, and anyone else that doesn't want to shell out the money for FD or MMS. And that goes double for an application that's not even reached its 1.0 release. This is VERY promising stuff.

I do not recommend it yet for those sending out their scripts to people/production companies for financing. I think "more" and "continued" have got to be fixed before it’s ready for that. But my guess is that it won't be long before this and the other bugs listed above are fixed.

I've previously written that "an inexpensive... tool that doesn't get the job done is less of a bargain than an overpriced mass-produced tool that does get the job done." It's a beautiful thing, though, when the open source developers prove the opposite is true.

My guess is that when the developers fix its few shortcomings Celtx will surpass Final Draft and Movie Magic Screenwriter in the same way that Firefox has surpassed Internet Explorer and (for me, at least) Safari.

Anyone else tried it out?

Film & Digital Cinema search engine

If you look at the top of the right-side column you'll notice a brand-spanking-new searchbar made by me and powered by Rollyo. The new search tool allows you three options (accessed by the drop-down menu):

    1) a search of the Self-Reliant Film site 2) a search of the web's best Film and Digital Cinema sites/blogs 3) a full web search.

You can add this search engine to your Firefox browser, or you can search through a web interface. Link to it, if it's helpful.

List of sites included:

All These Wonderful Things Association of Independent Video & Filmmakers (AIVF) CinemaTech Cinematical Cinematography.net Creative Cow Creative Planet sites: Cinematographer.com, Digital Cinematography, Videography, etc. David Lowery's Blog DV Guru DV Info.net -- extensive forums DVXUser.com Filmmaker Magazine Filmmaking for the Poor Filmmaking.net (includes the Internet Filmmaker's FAQ) FresHDV GreenCine Daily HDforIndies Indiewire JoshOakhurst.com Masters of Cinema Millimeter MovieMaker Magazine Self-Reliant Film Senses of Cinema Wikipedia

Don't be offended if your site or some other favorite site isn't listed. Rollyo limits the sites you search from to 25, so I didn't have space for some other sites I love. If my choices don't help, rollyourown.

A Subtitler and the Subtitled

Today at HDforIndies Mike Curtis points us those of us not lost in translation to Belle Nuit Subtitler. Looks like it does the trick. Thanks, Mike. Meanwhile, in a more theoretical (but not less entertaining or useful) vein, Mike's tip reminds me that I need to check out a very cool book that some friends were showing me a few months ago, Atom Egoyan's Subtitles : On the Foreignness of Film. Gotta see if the library has this and, if not, I imagine it'll be added to the ol' Amazon wishlist.