09 Jul Docs in Progress – Documentary Film Educators Try CloudScript
Sometimes people ask where we got our old moniker, “Scribe to the Video Industry.”
While we provide many types of transcription services, one of our biggest sources of work is in support of documentary film production. The saying around here is “Docs are King in DC.”
When making a documentary, first you must interview a lot of experts, witnesses and other talking heads. In order to find useful sound bites for your production among all of this verbiage, it helps to have a transcript. If you add time code reference to these transcripts it helps to identify sound bites of interest in the source material even quicker. Word Wizards pioneered the process of adding time code to transcripts for our clients in the “Docs Biz” fifteen years ago.
Up until now, once a sound byte was located in the transcript, you still had to manually check the source material in order to find and review the potential clips to make sure they fit with the cut. This is an extremely time consuming process, and can be brutally tedious.
Enter our newest service, CloudScript creates a media player that is synced to your transcript. Simply click on any time code number in the CloudScript and the media player in your browser will instantly jump to that point in time. The Scribe to the Video Industry has earned our moniker again.
Docs in Progress Dives In
What better way to judge the usefulness of CloudScript than to run it by a group that teaches experts and amateurs alike about how to make better documentaries? Located within a few blocks of Word Wizards in Silver Spring, MD, is the home of Docs in Progress, (DOP.) DOP is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization that provides individuals the skills and resources to tell meaningful stories through documentary film and to educate, inspire and transform the way people view their world. Their graduates include award winning film makers as well as people from other walks of life with an interesting story to tell.
Both the Executive Director Erica Ginsberg, and Director of Operations, Sam Hampton are accomplished film makers and expert fund raisers in their own rite. Courses include “Making Your Documentary a Reality”, “Creating a Killer Crowdfunding campaign” and the ever popular “Works in Progress” where a studio audience is asked to provide feedback on unfinished documentary films. This fresh prospective helps filmmakers work out issues of story and character development, and provides a unique insight into the creative process.
Therefore we decided to sponsor these creative folks and their fascinating screening process during their annual Open House get together. In exchange we will be presenting the CloudScript transcription media player and workflow at some of their “Works in Progress” sessions some time this fall. Established film makers and yet to be discovered ones, will have an opportunity to try out CloudScript for free and learn to make life easier during production, writing and editing. Check back for our reports on these events!