So, I presented a digital lab today - hooah! I'm really proud of that, even though I felt my presentation wasn't well received. The one before me was on a program downloaded from Serif (or Sherif? oh, it's Serif - I googled it)... Free stuff either way... I'll be looking into that. The program takes your photos and combines them to make panoramic pictures - real cool. then you have to crop them.
Mine was on Celtx. Celtx is a Free Media Pre-Production program and it does just about everything!
Now, I'm an actor... I study Acting. I study acting in Film and on Stage. I intend to make films and be in films all my life... But, I can see how my Lab audience weren't as thrilled as I had hoped. This is a cool tool and it's totally OPEN SOURCE! There are upgrade "pay" versions, but the basic version keeps getting better and better! So what is it? Well, "in the business" (that's my snooty voice - if you peons didn't know), Pre-production is everything that goes into creating a film to be made - the idea, the script, the funding, the schedule (both for filming and for finances), the casting, collecting a crew, the shot list (where the camera will be put and moved in each part of the film), the storyboard (basically a comic-book version of how to make the film), side notes, meetings, etc... And it's all in one package! Having a program like this could easily be the difference between Hollywood and... well... Bolly... I don't know... not Hollywood, okay? Really? Cause in the big world they plan, and when you plan you can convince people to pay big money, and with money you can convince people (who know what to do in film making) to work with/for you.
There's also forums and community stuff - and you and ANYONE can download this free software, start an idea, and share everything with anyone allowing for some great collaboration (for free). There are other "screen-writing" programs (Final Draft - the industry standard - Sophecles - which has shut down - and Movie Magic Screenwriter) but these are "Pay for" programs and they don't do anything much more than writing and related to writing tasks.... There is also Scrivener which is like Celtx, but it is pay for and will remain a Mac only format until 2011! Celtx is cross-platform, open-source, do everything! And for everything that the other guys can do - it just takes enough people to collaborate to make Celtx better than anything else on the market. - Bad point is that "the industry" uses Final Draft for scripts and last that I knew it was terribly difficult to convert Celtx to Final Draft, but I think easier to import Final Draft into Celtx...
Cool to me...
i didn't know that you were into films. i consider myself a budding amateur cinematographer. one idea i had for the final project was to make a short documentary about this class. but i would need a lot of help especially with the writing and narration. if you would be interested in collaborating let me know.
ReplyDeleteps. where can i see some of the stuff you have been in/made?
Check out my facebook page (shaun frenza) - I have a bunch of stuff that I'm waiting on to post to my page... and as far as collaborating with you goes... I think I would like that.
ReplyDeleteI am hoping that my idea about a crowd-sourcing production company gets approved because its one I really want to do for the final and for who knows how long there after - it's beyond just the scope of the class, you know? Please check it out - if it doesn't get picked up I'd like to still create connections for it.