

Ask HN: Movie/film post-production tool - thoughts on the Landing/Beta page? - chrisrickard
http://eastwoodapp.com
Hey guys,&#60;p&#62;After a busy 5 months some friends and I are &#60;i&#62;nearly&#60;/i&#62; ready to start alpha/beta testing on our web/mobile app for managing the post-production of movies (plus short films, t.v etc).&#60;p&#62;We just threw up our landing (and beta signup) page yesterday - and was wondering if anyone had any thoughts/ideas on this?&#60;p&#62;Any advice or opinions would be great - thanks in advance.&#60;p&#62;Cheers,&#60;p&#62;Chris
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anigbrowl
Not bad. The app looks great and your page copy is very effectively targeted.
However, there isn't enough of it. when I click one of the items in the
cycling list of features, then I expect a new page or a significant amount of
extra detail 'below the fold' - not a stock photo with a one-line explanation
of a concept that is already self-explanatory to anyone working in the
industry.

there are other features that I want that I don't see, which are increasingly
important to ADs. These are not as critical as the 5 primaries identified
already, but which in my view are essential for buy-in. If they're absent or
not planned for, then a competitor is going to be able to add duplicate your
existing features with little difficulty, add others not available here, and
generally leverage their brand to drink your milkshake. The first-mover
advantage is very slim, especially in a cutthroat business staffed by
technological conservatives who are used to overpaying because they're
spending OPM. If an existing provider goes mobile within the next 1-2 years
(and they will) their install base will swamp yours. Delays to market will be
explained away as 'making sure the product is really ready'.

So what are those missing features?

o screenwriting software integration - Final Draft at a minimum, also Adobe
Story and other competitors. FD can generate breakdown lists, and being able
to import these will reduce the work needed for breakdown by 80-90%.

o screenplay/breakdown versioning - on large projects, changes in shooting
order or rewritten scenes are the norm. Assume they will occur and make sure
the process of 'forking' is as easy as possible.

o Storyboards. I can't believe you don't have 2-way integration of location
scouting and breakdown with mobile cameras.

o export to media/printing - in a remote location, you cannot safely assume
access to the internet, cloud, or universal availability of smartphones or
internet-capable devices among the cast and crew. You will still need to be
able to produce sides and fall back on more primitive methods. On long nights
in the middle of nowhere with terrible weather, paper, pencil and flashlight
are going to be around for a while yet. When it comes to charging electronic
devices, cameras and sound recorders are going to take priority over ipads and
cellphones.

o allow for retroactive changes to be made under the cirucmstances described
above; sometimes a weary crew will come back to base camp with a list of
necessary changes that are handed to a confused production manager, and which
must be entered correctly for the following days' shooting schedule to work.

o contact management - naturally you want to have that information
centralized, but nobody likes having to enter everybody's contact details into
a yet another database program with yet another set of misspellings, incorrect
phone numbers, yadda yadda. Allow contact import from GMail, Facebook, google+
hotmail, and other major providers. Allow the creation of a contact address
that automatically harvests email information and builds the mailing list.
Provide call sheets that include hyperlinks and/or graphical maps leveraging
some popular mapping API. Use email, Twilio, Twitter, checkin and location
services to automagically alert and monitor call times, navigation planning,
ride-sharing, and general logistics.

o Ensure that the logistical functionality also applies to location/prop
management, gear rental, suppliers and so forth.

o Include templates for model, location and service releases and allow for
digital signature and post-production hard-copy transmission to reduce presale
clearance issues. Releases matter, but to so few people on set that they are
frequently overlooked during production, leading to expensive headaches later.
The closer to sale or release, the more expensive the headache.

o Pre/post breakdowns - breakdowns are such a hassle that they are often
prepared only for production, while project management before and after
principal photography is often done on the back of an envelope. Get pro with
this from the outset. Which also means...

o input for shooting logs from the AC/Sound team

o digital slating - again, this should be out front - scene/shot # and shot
clock on an iPad or Android tablet are a no-brainer, and a key visual sell for
your branding. A major missed opportunity in your existing design.

o Not to mention GPS on mobile devices. Don't just do an electronic
implementation of what's already on paper or a laptop and then make people
manually add information from digital sensors.

o Hell, start planning now for being an input vector for video/audio
recording. I have posted audio that was recorded on an iPod because the
director suddenly got inspired while he was having coffee with one of the
actors and had the means of production in his pocket.

o Platform agnosticism - although Apple dominates in the film world, it is by
no means universal. Don't confine yourself to a single platform, especially
when 95% of your functionality can be achieved with html, css, and node.js.

o Build marketing in from the getgo. Eastwood should also be the tool of
choice for image tagging tagging, media assets, managing a social media, and
driving your marketing campaign from pre-production onwards using the most
enthusiastic and committed members of your team - your cast and crew, who
stand to benefit directly from the film's success. You'll also need to
coordinate their availability for post-production, sales, and release phases,
from wrap parties to reshoots to private screenings.

o I'm not 100% sure about your branding; the name 'Eastwood' is very clever
but might be misinterpreted as implying the authorship or endorsement of a
certain Famous Actor...who has more money, fans, and legal experience than
your whole team put together. If I were your lawyer, which I am not and which
I could not be because I am not a lawyer, then I would advise against
infringing on Clint Eastwood's right of publicity because that would basically
require you to give him a Large Amount of Money or ownership of the company in
lieu. Great name, now pick another. Sorry.

~~~
mdrake123
Hey guys,

Thanks so much for the feedback. You have some great points anigbrowl, and
trust us when I say we have thought of - and wish to include - most of those.
Things like FD implementation are a must, I agree. As Brian says, it's really
a matter of selecting the minimum required value and using that as our first
goalpost with Eastwood. Rest assured that we have our sights set high on how
we think Eastwood will affect the industry and how many ways it can be
implemented effectively with different forms of technology.

Thank you again for the feedback. I look forward to hearing it all.

Cheers,

Matt Drake

\-- Eastwood

~~~
waterlesscloud
Best of luck, it's a field that desperately needs some real software. All the
options out there, even (especially) the big standards, just suck.

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9999
There's really not enough of the product on the landing page. Instead of
random photos of DPs behind cameras on each feature tab, show us animations of
the actual site in use. Even after watching the video I didn't get to see the
actual product, unacceptable. What you are showing me here is simply the idea
of the product (which is exciting and potentially useful), but I need to see
the product to want to actually sign up for the beta.

