Introducing OnStage! – The Idea Editor
OnStage! is a software product designed for motion picture and video producer or directors that will help them work out the flow of their shows. OnStage! is a nonlinear idea editor, where scenes are edited in very much the same way as words are edited on a word processor.
OnStage! can also be used in place of an animation camera to perform pans and zooms on high-resolution images, similar to those used by Ken Burns in his documentaries. OnStage! can pan and zoom through images up to 4000 by 4000 pixels in REAL TIME, provided you have an appropriate OpenGL accelerator card. Click here for pan and zoom description
A Previsualization Tool
OnStage! is a scene previsualization tool. Previsualization is the process of creating a rough approximation of a show that is used to aid the planning of the production, before and during the shooting process.
Francis Ford Coppola pioneered the concept in the early 80’s with his "Silverfish" mobile editing studio. His notion of the "Electronic Cinema" was one of a tool that could extend the thought process.
In many ways, previsualization performs very much the same purpose as the traditional storyboarding that is commonplace on many projects: To help define and communicate one person’s vision of the completed production to others.
Previsualization is simply an extension of this process. Instead of a series of crudely drawn captioned pictures, the scenes in the show are represented by animated images of the actors moving within a set.
Scratch sound tracks represent the dialogue and/or narration, and plays in synch with the actors and camera’s moves. The result is a more graphic representation of how the final show will look like.
For more information about idea editing, CLICK HERE.
OnStage! Benefits
This proxy for the show serves a number of purposes. It allows for a more accurate portrayal of the project to others, as an aid in communicating with crewmembers as well as pitching the project to prospective investors.
Most importantly, previsualization is a design tool. It provides the ability to help see the show as a coherent whole. In very much the same way that a word processor or nonlinear editor allows unlimited changes OnStage! makes it easy to change your mind.
The freedom to keep trying new things is fed by the low effort required to effect them. Scenes can be viewed in context of other scenes and continuously molded. The result is a better show.
Finally, OnStage! can reduce production costs. By trying out ideas before the production begins, producers can avoid shooting scenes that will not be used.
A reprint of an article in POST Magazine on the history of previsualization in feature film production can be found here:
Price
OnStage! is priced at $199.
Click here to see how OnStage! Works
Click here for OnStage's hardware requirements.
Click here to see OnStage! VRML samples.
Download an evaulation copy of OnStage!.
