Here’s a quick way for anyone looking to save a number of stills from a Final Cut Pro project:

1. Create a new sequence at the desired resolution and open it in the timeline
2. For each still you want to output:
   1. Open the clip or sequence in the viewer
   2. Cue to the frame to export
   3. Mark in/out (type “IO”) on the frame
   4. Cut it into the timeline (press F9)
3. Select all the clips in the timeline
4. Add a “de-interlace” filter to them
5. From the File menu, choose “Export > Using QuickTime Conversion”
6. Change the format to “Image sequence”
7. Click options
8. Choose the desired file format
9. Make sure the frame rate matches the frame rate of the sequence
10. Click ok

Strange that there isn’t really a more convenient way, but there you go.

(For more tips and tricks, see my book Fix It In Post)

It’s a little bit late now, but American Cinematographer ran an article on Synaesthesia in their July 2010 issue:

Surreal Road Maps Production Data

Surreal Road has released a beta version of its flagship software product, Synaesthesia. The new version adds the capability to read-in clip information from Final Cut Pro XML files. The new feature adds to an already rich toolset, including support for Red camera footage and Google Maps integration.

Synaesthesia is a database-driven application for Max OSX, targeted at filmmakers who need to track data across the lifetime of a production. From loading in screenplays and storyboards during preproduction, through logging action during a shoot, to creating sequences during post, it forms intelligent links out of all the data and allows filmmakers to annotate and use modern data management techniques such as tagging to keep everything organized and accessible.

Synaesthesia was created to fulfill a need to organize the massive amounts of data and metadata that can be generated on a shoot.

Synaesthesia Beta 7 has been released today. There are a few fixes and some minor changes, but the most important thing is the addition of new context-dependent menus and keyboard shortcuts.

What does this mean? Well it’s much quicker to do the most common actions on any breakdown. For example, to add a new shot to a scene from the Scene Breakdown, you now have 3 ways to do it:

1. Go to the “Shots” tab, then click on the add button at the bottom (previously this was the only way to do it)
2. From the “Attach” menu, choose “Shot”
3. Press Command-Option-O

With the addition of keyboard shortcuts, navigation becomes much less of a chore. For example, to quickly move between different clips on the same reel, from the Clip Breakdown, you can now use the keyboard shortcuts Command-Left Arrow and Command-Right Arrow to go to the previous and next clips respectively. Add the shift key to either of those, and you’ll quickly go to the first or the last clips in the set. Browse the complete list of keyboard shortcuts to see more time-savers.

We’ve also fixed a bunch more issues and made some minor adjustments. You can see the full list of changes in the release notes.

If you’re currently using beta 6, you should be prompted to download and install the new version within the next few days. Otherwise, you can download it here.

It’s been 6 months since the first beta release of Synaesthesia. In that time, the application has grown, and improved, particularly thanks to the feedback received from a number of people. There are still one or two holes to be plugged, but overall, we feel that we are rapidly approaching a stable, useful product, one that will be usable by filmmakers everywhere.

With that in mind, we’ve decided to open our doors wider. So now anyone can download the Synaesthesia beta without needing to apply to be in the programme. No email, job title or preferences required. Just go to the download page, give it a spin, and tell us what you think.

First bit of news for today: Synaesthesia beta 6 is ready for download.

This release adds functionality never seen before in a FileMaker database: you will now be notified of any new updates and prompted to install them automatically. It took an awful lot of experimentation and some digital sleight-of-hand, but the end result works wonderfully (as it should do):

Aside from that, this release focuses on asset management. If your Asset Manager is packed full of cast, crew and equipment, it can be tricky to find exactly what you want when adding them to a production. Therefore, we’ve added two new features to help you out.

First of all, there are now additional (built-in) filters for different crew departments, making a specific DOP or costume designer easier to find. Secondly, you can choose between seeing all assets from the Asset Manager, or just those in the current production:

Finally, companies now have their own roles. As soon as you designate a contact as a company in the Asset Manager, you can choose an appropriate default role for it.

You can see the full list of changes in the Beta 6 Release Notes.

Anyone who has previously enrolled on the beta programme will get an email soon with the download link. Anyone else can download it directly from here. Which brings me neatly to the second bit of news of the day…