If you’re a digital filmmaker like us, you’re always looking to get the biggest bang for your buck. DSLR cameras allow us to create images that would have been prohibitively expensive even a couple of years ago and digital distribution allows everyone to be a storyteller who can reach a global audience. In the process of creating our own shows and campaigns, we’ve come across a variety of online tools that we’ve integrated into our production workflow. Some of them approximate old school filmmaking tools in the digital world, while others we’ve tweaked to fit our own style. Here are some of our favorites:
Basecamp
Managing the creative and technical sides of a production is hard enough for a regular production studio, but most digital filmmakers don’t have the luxury of all being under one roof. We use Basecamp, a project management service, as our virtual production office. It’s where we keep our files, milestones and agendas, as well as a rotating series of whiteboards that allow producers, art directors and digital designers to collaborate. Having one central place where everyone on the team can go and get a picture of where all the moving parts of a production are at really empowers our various department heads to own their responsibilities, which is key for any production, big or small. We’re also big fans of their book, Rework. Get Basecamp here.
Bits on the Run
YouTube is great for nyan cats and autotuned news, but if you’re looking to have control over your content, as well as the ability to create your own ads and sponsorship opportunities, you need to be serving up your video on your own. It’s the difference between amateur viral videos and professional web series. For Foodies, we used Bits on the Run to host our videos, as well as create the players that serve them. One of our favorite features is that the service tracks the numbers of viewers watching over the course of an episode, letting us know which parts of an episode people watched over and over again (see image at top), as well as what parts turned them away. Get Bits on the Run here.
GroupMe
This group chat service just got scooped up by Skype, but we use it during production as an internal walkie-talkie system. We create a group for our production team that lets everyone on the set know what is happening in real time. If you’ve ever worked on a set, you know that time gets lost finding people and relaying information. GroupMe solves the problem by instantly alerting the whole crew. Looking for a missing cast member? Now they have nowhere to hide. Get GroupMe here.
Dropbox
When people ask what our post-production process is, we answer “Dropbox.” For Foodies, our editor, sound guy and colorist all existed in three different states. We shipped each team member a hard drive of the raw footage and then relied on Dropbox to sync up our Final Cut files throughout the post-process, allowing the entire post team to collaborate in a way that would have been incredibly cumbersome and messy were it not for the ability to access a central location for all our project files. Get Dropbox here.
SL Director’s Viewfinder
A lot of our work involves coming into locations quickly and shooting a very rough and ready style. While it would be great to walk around with a director’s viewfinder everywhere you go, this Android app has come in handy more than once. Able to simulate a variety of lens and cameras (including Red and Canon DSLR’s), this app is what we use when scouting locations, since in one major way it beats the traditional viewfinder: You can save your shot as a photo for future reference. Get SL Director’s Viewfinder here.
Got an app or online service we should be checking out? Share it with us in the comments below.
