iPads as a Film Production Tool
We have a new iPad at our house. Sure, it’s technically my wife’s birthday present but that hasn’t stopped me from starting to load it up with filmmaking apps. You can just feel the potential when you’re holding this little technological wonder. That’s why I was very interested to find this article about how the iPad is being used on the set of a major motion picture.
A Bento database, running on the iPad, is used to log clip details on-set – the database is then synchronised with the main database running on a server in the edit suite. This allows the editor instant access to all the clips logged for the scene he is editing, along with information on the matching sound files (recorded on a Sound Devices 788T), log notes, Directors comments, and information from the script supervisor’s notes. The database also stores reference stills from each scene.
The iPads are also used to view and annotate the script, using the elegant iAnnotate PDF reader and annotation app. Notes added from iAnnotate can be exported and are available on the production office’s desktop PDF readers.
Finally, of course, selected rushes and assembled scenes can be uploaded to the Director’s iPad as self-contained video files – HD Magazine
At the recent PhotoCine Expo, I saw how cool it is to broadcast an HD signal from the camera to a laptop (it also works with the iPad but I only saw the laptop footage) using the Teradeck Cube. The interest in using an iPad on set is definitely growing and evolving.
