The
Producer. The smooth-talking, latte-toting, slickster who
promises you everything. At least that's what we see in
movies. In reality, the producer is a kind of jack-of-all-trades,
the one who knows people and knows how to make sure things
get done. It's really not a glamorous job for the most part;
I know because I've done it. Granted, it was for an ultra-low-budget
film, but that meant I had almost no one to delegate things
to. Ah the joys of microcinema! Some of the producer's responsibilities
involve (but are certainly not limited to): raising funding
for the film; scheduling the production; finding actors;
finding crew; scouting locations; writing up the budget;
making sure people follow said budget; organize lodging/food
for cast and crew; organizing post-production; making publicity
arrangements; submitting movie to festivals… You can
see why a lot of producers are always caffeine-addicted
and on the go!
Enter
Jungle Software's Gorilla 3. While it's listed as
"Scheduling and Budgeting Software", it's a lot
more than that. It can import scripts directly from Final
Draft or Movie
Magic Screenwriter and incorporate it into pre-production
planning; store actors' publicity photos and audition video
clips with their profile information; import video clips
and still images to help with editing, storyboarding, shot-sheeting,
and location hunting; figure out and organize your budget
and (hopefully) profits; it even contains detailed information
for 1,200 film festivals!
Ease
of Use
Like Photoshop or Dreamweaver or any other
program dealing with a specialized field, Gorilla
takes some adjustment to learn to navigate. It has 11 categories
on its main menu, each with a secondary drop-down menu that
pops up when you click it. For example, let's say you click
on "Story" and select "Projects." This
pulls up a window where you can begin to enter in information.
Just beneath the top taskbar are several folder tabs--in
this case, "Story," "Plot Points," "Acts,"
etc.--so you can quickly switch between the various structural
elements of your project's story. Also, with almost all
screens, you can click on the "List" button at
the top to see a complete list of your contacts or "Sort"
to organize them differently.
Utilizing
the "Calendar and Scheduling" options are not
very difficult, just mostly a matter of selecting boxes
and entering in the appropriate information. The nice thing
is that you can get fairly detailed and still keep your
information straight. Additionally, you can import photos,
video clips, or images from storyboarding software, like
Frame Forge 3D Studio 2,
to help organize your shot list.
The
"Budgeting and Accounting" sections are a little
more complicated. Okay, well a lot more complicated (unless
you've done in-depth film finances before). I reviewed the
Pro version, which gives you an unlimited budget (versus
a $625,000 limit on the Standard and $50,000 limited for
the Student version). Obviously, the more money that you
(as a producer) are working with, the more familiar you're
going to be with the various aspects they address here.
Most folks coming to this site will be dealing with a low
budget, and won't need everything in the Pro version. The
Regular version of the program is probably the best for
microfilmmakers, because, although it's got a higher budget
than you'll need, it will allow a 45 day shooting schedule
rather than the meager 2 week shooting schedule in the student
version.
However,
no matter which version you get, if you happen to get stuck
or confused, Jungle has included a very nifty feature: a
real Help button! Not something that will take you
to a generic "type your problem here" Windows
menu; no sir, this pulls up several red-text explanations
of the various buttons and options, explaining what they
are and what they do. This is a huge help, because sometimes
all you need is a quick, basic explanation of how something
works.
