i love new technology. I especially love it if it saves time and energy. I am a big fan of the software that #digitalrebellion make. I have many of the products, #cutnotes being my favorite but I also use the #promaintenancetools which is incredibly useful for editors. 

The reason I bring this up is I am starting my new production as post supervisor/editor/final mixer/ colorist so things are going to get busy. One of the slowest aspects of my work is the approval process and getting all the relevant people in the room at the same time to view a cut, well herding cats is easier. So you could go the other route and burn a dVd or Dropbox a lo-res version or password protect a Vimeo clip etc and then get random notes that have no timing attached or if you make a cut at 1 minute like they suggest all the other timings go for a ball of shit and you are having to work out timings based on what you have cut out blah blah blah. Or you work backwards with the changes so as not to affect timing or you create manual markers. Blah blah blah headache already. 

So starting tomorrow we are going to be ironing out the logistics of putting a digital approval post workflow into practice. 

Now the most bestest and importantest thing is collaboration on viewings and that is now taken care of by the wonderful people at Digital Rebellion. It’s called Kollaberate and can be found online at kollaberate.tv. It’s essentially an online viewing platform that allows you to make comments as the video is playing. So first step after cutting something’s to upload it to your Kollaberate account and invite your peeps to watch it.  While they are watching you can type comments in the comments box which records the note and timecode and creates a marker at the moment you start writing the note in the viewer. At the end of the clip that list of notes and markers can then be exported as a marker list and imported into your NLE.

It also has the facility to conference view a cut and make notes etc. All notes are recorded as a single entity and again can be sent to the editor for review.

The iPad app which accompanies the tech is fabulous. It’s called cut notes and I am pretty sure it’s been discussed here before. The beauty of it is that it syncs to the desktop browser and as you press the note button it is updated on the website where you are viewing the cut. 

I love it. My producer, director and DoP all love the ability to login and check out yesterday’s cuts and adjust accordingly. They are also able to let you know when you fucked a scene up as well. 

The other piece of software I am looking into is a script supervisor app for the iPad. And there are a few. ScriptE looks amazing, if a little pricey for this poor soul. There are cheaper versions but to be honest ScriptE beats them all hands down. From inputting scripts directly from final draft and breaking it all down automatically such as scene numbers, character lists, locations etc as well as the ability to line scripts with slates and takes and timecode and and and…

It’s gonna be awesome. 

It will be the first time ever that this kind of process has been used in this country as far as I know but it is the way of the future and it brings me peace. And I can be like a leaf on the wind over the weekend doing stuff with my family. Oh the joy😀

Peace love and vomit. 

Jayce