Screenflow 3 from Telestream, Inc.
$99.00 Mac OSX 10.6.4 or higher (lower Intel OS should use the latest V. 20x)
www.telestream.com
One of the coolest tools! Named “Best Screencasting Application” at MacWorld 2009. Anyone creating screen capture
software tutorials should know about Screenflow by now, and version 3 just gets better. Not only does Screenflow capture the activities occurring live on your full main monitor, to highest resolution available, it allows you to immediately edit the capture in its own timeline, trimming and arranging audio and video separately.
Recording is utterly simple. You can invoke it from a hotkey or from the menu bar Helper controller which includes handy options such as screen selection on dual monitor setups, and mike selection for audio recording.
A Screenflow capture can be scaled to 400%. Screenflow’s video actions allow you to zoom, rotate, spin any movie for stylish presentations. Add a reflective surface for the screen to stand on.
For instructional design, the cursor can be customized, and can be enlarged for visibility. Keytaps can be displayed visibly as they occur. Blurs and highlights can be added with callouts. With a USB or FireWire mike you can simultaneously add audio as you’re recording screen activity plus any audio coming from the system. All this flexibility raises the bar on competitors such as SnapZPro and iShowU desktop capture systems.
Screenflow was central to a recent one hour full HD documentary I edited about the impacts of social media. After trimming and enhancing the captures to taste, I was able to export them at full raster ProRes422 HD to my RAID for inclusion in the program, and on an intense deadline.
Excelling at software tutorials and how-to’s you can email to students, friends or family, Screenflow enables you to export your polished screencast in any QuickTime codec or, with Telestream’s affordable Flip4Mac QuickTime component installed on your
Intel Mac, export to Windows Media format. It has publishing presets to YouTube and Vimeo as well as iPhone and iPad.
Screenflow 3 is optimized with hooks into OSX 10.7 Lion’s enhancements but works with Snow Leopard 10.6.4 or later.
De Wolfe Music Library
www.dewolfemusic.com
Rates vary per project and license chosen.
It had been years since I visited a production music library like DeWolfe. I was first introduced to DeWolfe and the concept of a film music library by composer Don Wilkins, who trained as a Hollywood music editor, grew and chaired the Film Scoring Department at Berklee College, and who to this day I credit with whatever sharpened music editing ability I have.
De Wolfe Music was the first in the business, started by composer/conductor Meyer DeWolfe in 1909, offering live orchestral sheet music for silent films shown in British movie theaters. Today it has branches in 40 countries, with music cues backing Beyonce, Addidas commercials, documentaries like Planet Earth and movies like THE SIMPSONS, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN and many others.
My first hurdle was to convince my producer that, since we had no time or money for a trained composer- always my first choice – we needed good quality, affordable, clearable music of all kinds. The alternative was cheaper (and some really bad) royalty free collections of CD’s out there. I was seeking class work on a tight budget.
My second was to wean us away from the unidentifiable temptrack I had placed into the show to cut picture against – and which we were starting to fall in love with.
So I returned to DeWolfe, now on the web, and noodled their search page. The variety of the catalog is huge. Visit DeWolfe’s website to do some sample searches to hear what I mean. Dismiss your stereotype of “elevator music” – that is certainly available if needed, but there is very compelling material in there for the rest of the building as well.
Licensing fees associated with production music had always made me cringe. I remember single-cue prices, and needle drop rates (for each use of the same tune in a show). But I liked the possibilities I was auditioning. So I contacted licensing specialist Lauren Pavia in New York, who introduced me to the present rate structure. Pricing is offered in several reasonable schemes, including a blanket license for single documentary use, which at this writing consists of the ability to raid the DW library for anything you need for $1350 per 60 minute show, cleared for public no-charge screenings, festival screenings, domestic public TV broadcast, and even a 100,000-DVD release – all in one license, easily upgradeable if/when your market expands. Offerings like this attract frugal producers in need of quality cues in a hurry.
Lauren not only gave me a log-in, but also adroitly whipped up several near-sound-alike cues to the three untitled temptracks I had used, and which I immediately downloaded, indentified three I liked and swapped out for the unidentified temps. The producer signed off on them and began negotiating the blanket license barely a week before a benefit premiere.
The art of the production music library is in the find, and DeWolfe’s search page is no toy; it’s smooth and clean. You can search by track or CD title, search for a cue by keyword , or composer – DeWolfe has always courted accomplished yet lesser known composers from the very beginning. Keyword search is powerful; type in terms such as the mood: urgent, lyrical, comic, showbiz, etc. It’s all cross-indexed. As you become more familiar with the library’s offerings old and new, you can find your way quickly into distinct
sections – or just use the Select Genre dropdown with its many categories.
You can even sequester selects into custom playlists under your own account. Playback is fast on any reasonably snappy internet connection of 1.5 to 5 Mb/second. Each cue’s download menu offers all the popular formats and bitrates you might need.
Short of budgeting a good composer and a custom score, this was truly a wild workflow, with engaged support behind the site and fast access to over 80,000 cues. And for those who are looking for a custom score, or a helping hand searching for just the right cues, it should not surprise you that DeWolfe offers those services as well.
Loren S. Miller reports for IMAGINE News and
freelances as editor of documentary and dramatic feature
productions, residing in Boston, traveling coast to coast to coast as needed.
Reach him anytime at techpress@mindspring.com