Dwarfed Films NEW ESSENTIAL FREE SOFTWARE LIST

A few years ago I compiled what I believe were the best free software tools for movie-making in list formate (DWARFED FILMS ESSENTIAL FREEWARE 2007).

Well I think it's about time I updated the list for 2011, taking into account any newer programs that have popped up during this time and removing programs taht are obsolete or which I personally are old hat.

So here goes:

DWARFED FILMS NEW ESSENTIAL FREEWARE LIST 2011

Essential Freeware or Open Source Software:
Note: items frequently used by Dwarfed Films.

Animation/Modelling Tools

(Alternatives to Maya/XSI/Lightwave 3D/Cinema 4D/3DS Max/Poser)

Blender 3D: Open source (freeware) 3D modelling, animation, sequencer for windows/mac/linux/etc
Still, in my humble opinion, one of the best graphical software programs out there. There has been a massive redesign of the user interface with versions 2.5+.

The only issue I have with the new versions is the problems it has displaying images in the sequencer; to make your images display in the display window while editing you need to set the output formate to 512X512 pixels (also works 1024X1024, etc). Maybe this has been corrected in the updates but I haven't checked.
Anyway, you can always use an earlier version (Blender 2.49 for instance) for sequence editing.
Visit www.BLENDER.org to download Blender (you can visit the archives and get earlier versions also)

Makehuman: Open source software for creation of hyper-realistic human characters with no need for any modelling experience - just toggle some parameters and you can tweak every anatomical part of the base character to create any male/female character of your choice. Exports to OBJ format.
www.makehuman.org/

Image Editor Tools
(Alternative's to Photoshop/Painter/MS Paint)

The Gimp: Open Source image editor that is just like photoshop www.gimp.org.
I've used The Gimp for years and prefer it to Photoshop and Painter. Some people find it fiddly, but I love it and think it is reliable and allows me to do whatever I need to get done.
The very best graphical software program - and its free.

Irfan View: Freeware image viewer supporting practically every format from .png to .mov.
Mainly use it for converting images to different formates and viewing stuff. Fast, reliable.
Find it at www.irfanview.com/

Paint.Net: Similar to The Gimp but easier interface and it also loads much quicker. Supports layers and a whole range of effects.
Haven't used in a long time, but if you like nice interfaces and want something like Painter - but Free! -then this is for you.
www.getpaint.net/index2.html

Visual FX Tools
(Alternative's to Adobe After Effects/Nuke/Mocha)

Terregen: Freeware landscape creator for making stunningly realistic landscapes.
Haven;t used in a while but this program can really give you options if you really need a cool helicopter-flying-over-mountains type sequence.
Terragen 2 was released which offers import of 3D objects and creation of fully 3-dimensional worlds.
www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/

Terranim: Freeware plugin for terregen that makes animations of created landscapes.
Without this you only get static images from Terragen. With it you get unlimited camera moves and image morphing (to simulate a flat plan 'growing' into a mountain, for example).
Do a Google search to find "Terranim plugin for Terragen".

Landformer: Freeware landscape map generator for use in Terregen.
Do a Google search for "Landformer for Terragen".

Voodoo Camera Tracker: Freeware camera tracking software.
Raely use as I have After Effects and don't really ever need 3D motion tracking, but this could od the trick for you. And its free. Downsides are the import formates accepted: TGA.
www.digilab.uni-hannover.de/download.html

Apophysis: Fractal-based image creation. This can produce incredible imagery (see our short film "BIRTH" for Apophysis designed animation).
Not sure if the basic download package includes an animation output, so do a search for "apophysis animation plug-in" on Google if it doesn't.
www.apophysis.org

Video Editors
(Alternative's to Sony Vegas Pro/Adobe Premiere Pro/Avid/Final Cut Pro)

Lightworks Beta: the legendary Lightworks video editor is now available for free!
Enjoy the weird editing process and famous Shark delete button in the safety of your own home!
I remember learning to edit using this thing when I was in college. It was very intuitive once you got the hang of it (is that an oxymoron?). It has auto save...which is handy becasue the program has an annoying habit of randomly crashing. I find it a bit finicky nowadays when compared to other video editors such as Sony Vegas and others. But it's a small download (approx 40MB) and it can't hurt to try it.
http://www.lightworksbeta.com/

Blender: Didn't I already mention this? Who cares! Not only is it a great animation/modelling program, but the Blender sequencer is one of the best video editing applications you will find: fast and free.
www.blender.org

Image Players/Editors
(Alternative's to Windows Media Player)

Handbrake: Open Source media converter. Highly regarded.
http://handbrake.fr/

Super: Freeware video converter for conversion to avi/mpeg/wav/mp3/swf/ogg/mobile phone/etc and vice versa.
www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

VLC Media Player: Multi formate media player.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

MPEG Steamclip: Plays and converts multiple file formats.
http://www.squared5.com/

VirtuaDub: Still good after all these years. Great for quickly converting video footage to image sequences (although I personally use Blnder to do this as I find it faster). http://www.virtualdub.org/

Audio Editor/Sequencer Tools
(Alternative's to Pro Tools/Adobe Audition/Sound Forge)

Audacity: Open Source audio editor and recording audacity.sourceforge.net/

Reaper: The best audio composer/editor. It's not free technically, but you can download it and use the full version indefinitely if you don't use it for 'commercial purposes'.
Excellent program.
www.reaper.fm/

Acid Xpress: It's free and it's Sony. Sony make good products generally, so put two and two together and see what you come up with.
www.acidplanet.com/downloads/

Shittalker: Basic text to speech program. Not sure how much use you would get out of this but it will make you laugh, and that's gotta be a good thing. www.unaesthetic.net

DVD Tools

EXPRESS BURN: Excellent, Freeware DVD/CD/BlueRay/HD DVD burn sotware that is 100% compatible with Windows Vista. Nice clean design and the best DVD burning program we've yet seen. Choose this instead of Final Burner! Download it here http://www.nch.com.au/burn

DVD Shrink:Excellent and versatile Freeware tool for copying DVD's and compressing them so that they can fit on a standard DVD-/+ disc. (NOTE: Copying a commercial copyright-protected DVD may be done for personal use only). www.dvdshrink.org/

Final Burner: A great Freeware CD/DVD burning program like Nero (the program - not the Roman emperor). Small download size (about 2mb) and with a user friendly interface. Recommended (Note for personal use only). http://www.protectedsoft.com/

Presentation Tools
(Alternative's to Microsoft Word/Excel)

*Open Office: Open Source equivalent to MS Office, but far superior. Can write direct to .pdf format. www.openoffice.org

*Wink: Freeware tool to create presentations in .swf (shockwave flash) or .exe (executable file) format. Records mouse movements and allows you to edit this into a tutorial demo. www.debugmode.com/wink/

*Cam Studio: Open Source screen-grab utility that records video/audio to .avi or.swf format. Pretty much similar to Wink except for the .avi capabilities. Very useful.
www.camstudio.org/

*Foxit PDF Reader: Freeware PDF reader and editor. Better that Adobe Reader. www.foxitsoftware.com

*PDF Xchange Viewer: Freeware PDF reader and editor. Again better than Adobe Reader. www.docu-track.com

Compression Tools
(Alternative's to WinZip/WinRar)

*7Zip: Open source compression software. Much better compression than winzip/win rar etc. Supports all compression formats. www.7-zip.org/

Web Browser Tools
(Alternative's to Internet Explorer)

*Mozilla Firefox: Open Source web browser. Far more secure and user friendly than Internet Explorer. www.mozilla.com/

Operating Systems
(Alternative's to Windows/Mac)

Linux Ubuntu: Open Source (ie: FREE) operating system that is updated every 6 months. Has received a lot of very good feedback and reviews and is considered to be more secure that Windows. Comes with software such as Open Office, etc. Can be downloaded from the site or you can apply to receive a copy by post for free! www.ubuntu.com/

Freeware Websites

Major Geeks: Safe and secure freeware software arranged into various categories. Click here to visit site

Sourceforge: Directory of open Source projects with downloads. Not the best laid out site in the world but you can find programs of all types for all formats. Click here to visit the site

VST4FREE: Site offering free VST plugins for creating and editing music. Use the plugins alongside other free audio creation software such as Psycle or Reaper. Click here to visit the site

PC-Utilities: Website of the PC-Utilities magazine. You can directly download software in various categories. Click here to visit the site

Wikipedia: The Wiki list of Free/Open Source software. Click here to vist the site

FSF/UNESCO Free List: A list of freeware compiled by the UN. Click here to visit the site

Light Links: This is a bit strange but it's religious site offering freeware! You can ignore the christian preachy stuff and check out the free software links on the left hand side of the main page. Click here to visit the site



As always you can contact us here
Or you can leave a comment or any other links to free software that you think others might find useful.

Zoom H1 Audio Recorder

Just received a Zoom H1 audio recorder.

It's the 'baby' version of the more swanky Zoom recorders such as the H4n, and from the reviews I've read it certainly scores highly.
First impressions:

- It's small. Smaller than I imagined. It's tiny! You can literally fit it in your pocket and almost forget it's there.

- It comes with a 2GB micro SD card (with adaptor) and a battery to power the unit. This is nice as some electronic products ignore the basic fact that people like using the product straight out of the box without having to worry about scrambling to find essential accessories. But it doesn't contain a USB cable for connecting to a computer....but I prefer using SD cards to transfer work.

- It's very 'plasticky'. This was something that most reviewers commented on when I was reading up on the recorder. This causes A LOT (I'm emphasising this becasue its important!) of creaking sounds when you record if you hold the device in your hand. The main area that makes noise is the battery compartment cover: it creaks more than an old door in a haunted house!
If using the Zoom H1 for hand held recording, the battery compartment would need to be gaffer taped securely.

- There's a screw-in hole for connecting the recorder to a tripod, which is nice.

- It records to WAV (up to 24bit/96khz) and MP3.

- It has one line-in and one line-out jack connection.

- The microphones are pretty good (but ultra sensitive) and you can listen back to what you've recorded using an in-built speaker. Online reviews have heaped praise on the quality of the H1's recording capabilities despite the low cost.
To really get any practical use from the Zoom H1 you need to plug a lavelier or shotgun mic into it...you simply couldn't use the in-built microphones as they are far too sensitive.
This webpage offers some recommended microphones to use with the Zoom H1 if you are unsure of what to look for.

- Something that is far more annoying than the creaky plastic noises is the way the machine plays back what you've recorded. Say, if you have 10 recordings and you want to listen to the 8th recording, you have to go through the previous ones first before you get to hear it instead of being able to skip through to the ones you want!



Conclusion:
Pro's:
- Small and easy to transport.
- Good sound recorder when used with external microphone.
- Cheap and cheerful.

Cons:
- Wading through audio recordings instead of being able to automatically jump to the ones you want is a nuisance.
- Cheap construction causes creaking noises when hand-held.


- Shane

Get in touch by leaving a comment on the blog or email dwarfedfilmsinfo[at]gmail.com

The Importance of Sound in Film.

How important is sound in film?

Well, it’s more important than the image. Crazy talk, you say? Nope. It's much more important than your beloved images.

Think about it: how many times have you sat through a movie you watched back in the day on a fuzzy VHS tape? Many, I’m sure.

Now how many times have you got frustrated watching a DVD that had pristine, crisp images but bad audio? You can tolerate the bad pictures if the audio is fine but the other way around and you go mad, pull out your hair, strip naked and run screaming through the fields slaughtering animals on your way (?).

So how do you get clean audio?

Use good microphones and an audio recorder. Your audio equipment needn’t be something that is gonna leave you broke and homeless, but it should be up to the task.

Test your audio equipment before shooting. Go to where you wanna shoot and do some experiments where you talk and record it. If it sounds crap then you know its better to find somewhere else rather than cause yourself heartache trying to cope with crap sound in post-production.

Back to the topic of audio equipment: you don’t need some ridiculously priced brand name microphone with audio compressors and a fancy-schwansy recording device with 20 gazillion XLR inputs, etc.

A Dictaphone placed near the actors could do what you need it to.

Do you need a sound person? It’d be nice to have one. But someone who is a sound person generally LOVES sound and might get on your nerves after a while as they ask for ‘another take’ because they heard a mouse tap-dancing just off screen.

If you don’t treat them nicely they could just walk off and then you are back where you started – except they’ve taken their fancy equipment with them AND the tapes with your audio!

Try your luck with a Dictaphone or cheap pocket recorder first and see how that goes.

The Sound of Silence.

Sometimes too much sound is bad.

From composing the soundtrack of every film I’ve made I know that it’s better to be selective in what you let the audience hear just as the cinematographer needs to be selective in what the audience sees.

On our short film A POLISH WINTER I was composing the music in bits and pieces that I kept adding to. Each piece sounded great on its own and in my head I thought ‘My God! This is going to sound amazing when it is all played at the same time!”

I was wrong.
Things may sound good on their own, but it needs to sound good in context otherwise it's just noisy crap. I went back over the music and made sure that the sound heard on screen was only what was needed and removed anything that got in the way - even if it meant scrapping stuff that I loved.

On the ALIENS DVD featurettes there is some good stuff on audio, and particularly the importance of silence. The sound mixer is talking particularly about the sequence in the film where the marines are investigating the miner's colony and they discover a person still alive but attached to the walls by the Alien gunk.

The sound levels drop dramatically (almost to silence) as they approach the seemingly dead person, but then the sound shoots right back up (with a flute-like high pitched squeal) as the head is raised and they are revealed to be very much alive.

The use of sound makes this scene have the 'leap out of your pants' scare effect!

And at the end when Sigourney Weaver says the line 'Get away from her, you bitch!", the sound drops again to emphasise the classic line and remove any background distractions.

So, audio is really important.

But the weird thing is the way that audio is treated in film-making. It is normally one of the last considerations when people are shooting.

I remember back in my college days of yore (circa 9000BC) and watching a student film that had ridiculously bad audio. When the characters mouths moved nothing came out, that’s how bad it was. Maybe it was audible to dogs? I don’t know. But it sure as hell was not audible to human beings.

The person that made the film told me that they shot the movie in a house that was right beside a busy road and the audio recorded was basically unusable. They had to lower the sound levels on the movie because otherwise the cars driving by on the soundtrack would be heard and ruin the mood (I think the film was supposed to be set in a rural, isolated place).

This happens all the time: film-maker finds great-looking location but doesn’t consider that it’s not great-sounding location. End result is frustration at your film being ruined by something so seemingly basic.

This is one of the main reasons why the vast majority of my films have featured no dialogue (or limited dialogue). Recording speech is tough. All it takes in a creaking door or a gust of wind blowing against the microphone to destroy what the actor is saying.

There’s a scene in BLUE VELVET where Laura Dern and Kyle McLaughlin are talking in a diner. I have no idea what they are saying for certain sections because the sound levels are awful.

This sort of audio problem happens all the time.

Mainstream movie's have ADR to compensate for this where the actors are brought back into little sound booths to re-record their dialogue in order to have perfect audio.

This seems very time consuming and wasteful; surely if the sound was recorded correctly the first time then everybody would be much happier?

Sometimes it’s unavoidable. You can’t help it if an aircraft flies over just as your lead actor is in the middle of making an important speech. And sometimes you just don’t have enough time to re-shoot because you need to get other shots or it’s getting late.

In those cases you may have to resort to ADR (which is a luxury for independent film-makers).

But what I don’t get is somebody deciding that they are going to shoot in a place next door to an airport landing strip and thinking that it won’t affect the audio!

So, recording your characters dialogue is the most important factor when making a movie. You could cheat by filming the entire movie with the speaking characters facing away from the camera and re-dubbing later on….but that is entering the Ed Wood school of movies!

On a side note, I've read before that one of the main reasons that people's films have not been accepted for film festivals is becasue of the quality of sound. It seems such a shame to spend time making something and then ignore the importance of sound...the thing that has the capacity to ruin all your work in one fell swoop if it is messed up.

-Shane

[All pictures from Google.com/images; images remain the copyright of respective owners]