Digital Rebellion, a developer of video workflow efficiency software, announced feature and performance enhancements to its CinePlay professional Mac media player. Working in conjunction with other Digital Rebellion products and services, CinePlay allows editors, animators, visual effects artists and producers to play media formats in a professional screening environment and collaborate remotely with others–features designed specifically to meet the demands of postproduction professionals requiring instant real-time feedback from colleagues and clients.
The updated functionality in CinePlay enables new features such as Synced Sessions, where remote synchronized screenings can be controlled directly from CinePlay, the Annotations feature in which users can draw over images, as well as support for playing back image sequences. These enhancements, coupled with existing features, make CinePlay ideal for dailies, client feedback, note taking and QC checking.
For Digital Rebellion founder/CEO Jon Chappell, CinePlay’s capabilities such as timecode support, user-defined markers and cloud functionality have proven crucial for professional users’ workflow efficiency.
“Implementing methods to stay in touch and organized on video projects is a constant challenge in today’s production,” Chappell said. “The enhancements we’ve made to CinePlay deliver on our commitment to provide the production community with flexible and scalable tools, which are used everyday in numerous major film and TV productions, tightly integrated into our cloud platform and suite of helper apps. This integration gives our users a powerful way to streamline workflows, manage media assets and achieve measurable time and budget savings.”
French film editor Matthieu Laclau has been using CinePlay since it was first released, and as a beta tester continues to provide Digital Rebellion with real-world product feedback. On a recent feature film project for Jia Zhangke (“A Touch of Sin”) CinePlay was used constantly for dailies with the director.
“As a film editor, it’s important to get comments about my edits as it helps me to improve my cuts,” said Laclau. “CinePlay is my default media player as it is fast and responsive, especially in the Fullscreen mode. It allows you to use markers to add comments, which you can import on your timeline, send them by email or work with Digital Rebellion’s Cut Notes app for improved workflow. I’m especially looking forward to testing the new annotation feature that allows you to draw on the image.”
CinePlay is available on Mac OS X.
Key CinePlay updates:
New features available in CinePlay include:
* Synced Sessions hosted on the Kollaborate cloud platform enable direct playback control on colleagues’ computers
* Completely overhauled playback architecture
* Image sequence playback
* Annotations allow users to draw over a frame
• Enhanced integration with Kollaborate includes caching, file approval and viewing the status of a file on the cloud
App Integration:
CinePlay provides users with scalability, optimized workflows for post professionals and seamless integration with Digital Rebellion cloud services and apps including:
• Kollaborate: Extensive cloud-based review and approval service.
• Cut Notes: iPad note-taking app that reduces the amount of time users need to look down to write notes during a screening. Creatives can sync timecode from CinePlay and remotely control playback.
• Editmote: iOS remote control complete with gestures. Remotely control CinePlay playback and other functionality from the comfort of your screening room couch.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this โ and those many "Babadook" memes โ unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables โ "Bah-Bah-Doooook" โ an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More