StudioNow - A Cut Above

Is 2008 The Year of the Editor?

Happy New Year to everyone who has contributed StudioNow's success to date.  We appreciate your hard work, and look forward to a successful 2008.

To get the new year kicked off, I wanted refer you to a blog post by one of our fellow entrepreneurs here in Nashville, Jackson Miller.  Jackson weighs in on the potential importance of editors - of all kinds - to the future of content online with a mention of StudioNow. 

There is such a demand for quality content out there, and it is only growing. As you might imagine, we agree that the future is bright for editors online. 

Here's to Jackson being right about 2008 being the year of the Editor - especially the StudioNow Editor.
 

John

A Few Resources/Tools that Might Prove Useful

This post is designed simply to call your attention to resources online that we have found helpful and think could be of interest to you.  We hope to provide posts with additional resources on a semi-regular basis.

Music and Audio:

Soundsnap.com - Need an acoustic guitar loop?  How about the sound of a waterfall?  Chances are you'll find it at Soundsnap.  Soundsnap is a free online sound library and community for sound designers and producers. People can upload sounds and share them with the world.

Shockwave-sound.com - Not free, but still a valuable resource for royalty-free music tracks.  They have sound effects too, but I'd scour for free sounds at Soundsnap before paying for it at Shockwave-sound.

Video Editing:

2-Pop.com Forums - This community covers all aspects of digital film-making but plays special attention to editing and editing tools.  Chances are that whatever question you have has at least been asked on this forum - and probably answered.  Heavily weighted toward Final Cut Pro users but there are also forums dedicated to other systems.

Apple Final Cut Pro Discussions - Go direct to the source for questions regarding functionality and features of Final Cut Pro.  Many helpful discussions occur here.  At the same time, discussions for many other Apple products including Motion, Soundtrack Pro, Final Cut Express, LiveType, and more are just a couple of clicks away.

Adobe Premiere Forums - Numerous forums for various versions of Adobe Premiere.  We don't feel that the layout of these forums is quite as intuitive as the Apple Discussions are, but the content is just as helpful for the Adobe Premiere user.  Answers to a lot of questions and a lot of helpful hints can be found here.

The Editblog -  A blog dedicated to video editing and film-making run by Scott Simmons, an independent editor who is proficient with both Avid and Final Cut systems.  Often times provides helpful tips and reviews of new products among other things.

If you have certain sites, tools, or resources that you find helpful, please share them with us in the comments below.  We are always looking for additional information that can help the members of our Editor Network learn, improve, and grow as artists and professionals.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Where we are now & where we are going

I want to take a moment to talk about where we are in terms of getting projects out to our ever growing Editor Network.  As most of you already know, we are still in private beta for the StudioNow Editor Network.  In fact, several of you are participating in this testing process.  For those who aren't already participating, we want to give you brief overview of what the testing process looks like right now and how it works.

Currently, editors who have agreed to participate in the beta testing of our Editor Network receive an email when a project is available to be edited.  This email provides some basic information relating to the project (including project title, file size of assets, and commission to be paid upon purchase) along with a link to the project page on the StudioNow website.   

On the project page, you can review the project in more detail and decide if you want to accept and edit the project.   If you decide to take the project, click 'Start Project,' and the project will be assigned to you immediately and made unavailable to other editors.  When you accept a project, you are expected to complete it within 48 hours.

So far, this method is working very well.  We have a great group of test editors who are working hard and creating fantastic movies for our customers.  That said, however, we recognize that this is not the ideal solution.  As a result, we are moving toward what we are calling a 'bulletin board' system. 

The bulletin board will be an environment where you will be able to view all of the available projects at one time, and accept (or check out) projects that you want to work on.  Projects will still largely be offered on a first come, first serve basis.  Instead of receiving an email every time a project is available,  however, you will be able to view the bulletin board at your convenience and control when you are notified. 

Only want to receive alerts when projects that qualify as Music Videos, Weddings, or Sports are posted?  How about only when projects that pay a commission of more than $200 are posted?  Want to be notified every time a project is posted on the board?  Or would you rather only receive a daily summary?  Perhaps you don't want any notifications at all. These are the choices that you will be able to make and control with the bulletin board that we are designing. 

The bulletin board is still in development so there are details that are still being defined and tweaked, but we are excited about it and think that it is a step toward providing a better experience for our editors.

Look for the release of the first version in the next 30-60 days.  As we continue to work toward the release of the bulletin board, if you would like to become a test editor, please visit our contact page for test editors and let us know that you want to participate.  By participating as a test editor, you will also be one of the first to access the bulletin board when we release it. 

John Wallace
VP, Production