Hey there, I’m looking at producing my first documentary and one of the tools people use for that is called Studio Binder. It’s an all-in-one for making your scripts, shotlists, moodboards, location scouting, storyboards, production planning, collaborators management etc etc.

Any of you know of similar tools that are FOSS? I think some VFX/animation pipelines also have similar needs.

I already found storyboarder for making panels which seems amazing but I’m getting a bit lost in the jungle of options for the project management/scripting side of things. I’m considering Airtable for example but might be overkill for my needs.

Ideally it’s something tailored for filmmaking specifically but open to hearing about general purpose planners that can be adapted.

  • beefcat@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Even if you don’t like Visual Studio specifically, you probably still use some kind of IDE rather than a plain text editor plus command line tools. Even basic things like syntax highlighting are tremendously useful features that significantly reduce cognitive load.

    One use case I can think of for soemthing like Studio Binder is their scriptwriting tools. You can do that all in a word processor, and there are probably even good templates for it. But presumably Studio Binder’s script editor is built to ensure all your formatting adhere’s to existing industry standards. It probably has a custom spell checker to enforce some of this. I also wouldn’t be surprised if it has built in functionality for tying scenes to a shot list, tracking locations and props as they are introduced, etc. I don’t know if they actually do these things, but they are features I would likely build into such software based on my own experience that regular word processors and project planners don’t really do.

    • ObiOP
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      1 year ago

      You’re precisely right all of these things and more are what tools like Studio Binder do. It reads from the script and creates required items like locations, actors, props etc.

      A lot of that is mostly relevant for narrative works, to be honest, and since I’m planning for a documentary initially I won’t need everything. But I might also do narrative or commercial work that is fully scripted in the future so I want to set myself up for success with a pipeline that can do it all.

    • flatbield@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Sure I usually use a language sensitive editor. They are ubiquitous. I use Spyder sometimes for Python. Mostly because it is handy for static code checking. Generally I use Geany or nano.

      Regarding Visual Studio. Used it for 15 or 20 years. Nice editor and debugger. For Windows is it is kind if required. Intel compiler tools for Windows were designed to be used with it too. Thankfully I am retired now. No need for Windows any more.

      • beefcat@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Visual Studio got a lot better after Microsoft finally pulled their heads out of their butts and made it 64-bit. But, at least for .NET development, it is no longer required. VS Code is a viable alternative with some extensions, and JetBrains Rider is downright awesome.