It’s been a long time coming, and it still amazes me that there’s not anything else on the market quite like it. With productions increasingly moving towards digital acquisition (and with companies becoming focussed more on environmental impact), it seems that the time is right to end the use of paper-based annotation and logging. Synaesthesia helps you to do that, and more besides.

Starting out as a way for me to work a bit more efficiently on complex productions such as Earth, it soon became apparent that the same tools would be just as useful on a low-budget, independent production, so we gave it a test-drive on an in-house project.

Three years ago we decided the time was right to make it available to others, so work began on adapting the system to make it user-friendly. Then 2 years ago to the day, we announced the availability of the software as part of a beta programme. Initially we thought it was reasonably close to what the final product would be like, but then 2 years went by.

In that time, we’ve listened to feedback, and implemented a bunch of new stuff. We added integration with third-party products like Final Cut Pro (7), Shotgun, Assimilate Scratch, and Final Draft. We added the ability to export everything to CSV files, and created a format that can be used to share data between Synaesthesia systems. We added other features like file checksumming and automatic updates based on feedback, and improved the performance and usability as we went along.

All this, and it still runs on PowerPC macs (running OS 10.5). I wonder how many other applications released this year will be able to make that claim.

If you haven’t yet had a look at Synaesthesia, now is the time to do so. There is a free 30-day trial available on the product website, and you can check out our overview video below.

Synaesthesia demonstration from Surreal Road on Vimeo.

You’ll now see this button in the Reel Breakdown and throughout the Asset Manager. The purpose of this button is one of the reasons I created Synaesthesia in the first place, and it’s a considerable milestone for it to be included.

Here’s the scenario: during the lifetime of a production, reels (and other assets) that are created will be sent out to post facilities, loaned out to people, and so on. How do you keep track of all of this? Until now, you could do this by simply changing the reel’s (or asset’s) location. The problem is, that doesn’t tell you where the item belongs.

With the check-out system, you still have the original location stored, but there’s a record of who it was checked out to, and when. Nothing earth-shattering, but useful when you later try to track down that reel that’s gone missing. And it’s as easy as going to the reel breakdown and clicking a button (or via the Asset Manager).

Also, Apple today released Final Cut Pro 10.0.1 which has a brand-new XML format. So expect support for that in the next version of Synaesthesia (maybe…).

Current Synaesthesia users will be notified of the new version when running the application during the next few days, otherwise it can be downloaded as usual.

Synaesthesia has been in beta now for almost 2 years, and I believe, is almost production-ready.

…Um no. I was thinking of something else there.

This is just a very minor update to fix some bugs and tidy up some loose ends. It also extends the trial period through the end of September.

Read about the changes here.

Download the new version.

Speaking of everyone’s favourite editing system, Apple have officially announced that there will be APIs made available soon. Hopefully this will allow a future version of Synaesthesia tie directly in to Final Cut Pro, and thus restore some of the missing functionality.

As usual, there’s a bunch of stuff added and fixed. This release focuses particularly on making editing a little bit easier, with some “real-world” tools added.

What do I mean by “real-world”? Well, they were put in specifically to address a problem during some post-production I was involved with. A problem I’ve had to deal with many times in fact, and that I’ve never been able to address with any software at all.

The problem is this: let’s say you have an EDL from somewhere. For whatever reason, you need to swap the source and record timecodes (or copy one to the other). How can you do it? The low-tech solution (editing the EDL with Notepad) works, but due to the way EDLs are formatted, you have to edit them line by line. Yes, it works, but it is painful. I defy anyone to look at an EDL with more than 100 events and not wince at the prospect.

Enter Synaesthesia. Or more specifically, enter the new Transpose Time feature. Choose Modify > Transpose Time… from the Sequence Breakdown, and you’ll get this shiny new dialog:

Transpose Time Dialog

This dialog allows you to set any timecode of an event to any other timecode. You can swap timecodes, set them all to be the same, set them to zero, and so on. You can choose whether to affect the entire sequence, or just selected events. Import an EDL, transpose it, and then export it. Very handy (and fast). And while we’re at it, you can now also add handles to sequences from within Synaesthesia.

As if that wasn’t enough, there are also a couple of other new features and some more bugs fixed. See the release notes for more information.

Download Synaesthesia Beta 10

Just a minor update this time, Beta 9 improves performance and reliability of Google Maps integration.

View the release notes

Download

Final Draft is without a doubt the premier screenplay-writing software on the market, so it has always made sense for us to support their document format.After a number of requests from our users, we raised the priority of adding Final Draft document import, and with the help of the Final Draft team, we now have what we consider to be a very powerful way to get pre-production data into Synaesthesia. Building on our previous text-only screenplay import, Final Draft document import provides a number of added benefits.

When you import a Final Draft 8 document, Synaesthesia will break down the text into scenes. With the plain text screenplay import, this could be a bit hit-and-miss, as it relied on correct capitalization of scene headings, amongst other things. However, due to the way Final Draft documents are structured, this works, dare I say it– perfectly. But wait, there’s more. Synaesthesia will also break down shots, characters and sets that it finds in the document. It will also include any script-notes it finds in the document, as well as scene titles and summaries (if you’ve used them).

Excerpt from Final Draft 8 document

The imported scene in Synaesthesia

Synaesthesia doesn’t hold a candle to Final Draft’s capabilities (nor should it), and as such, there are still some elements, such as dual dialog that do not get imported. You can read more about the technical details of Final Draft import, if you’re so inclined.

Now, on to the other big new feature. I first came into contact with Shotgun at Framestore CFC about a year or so ago, where it used for project managment, tracking the high volume of visual effects shots that they create for features such as Avatar.. After a couple of people requested some sort of integration with Shotgun projects, and after a few months of development effort, and a lot of great support from the Shotgun team, we are now happy to reveal the result of all that work:

Sync with Shotgun button

It may not look like much, but it’s an incredibly powerful little thing. Click that button, and all the scenes, shots and takes (and their thumbnails, tags, and notes) are synchronised with the relevant project on Shotgun. Yes that word was synchronised*, as in, any changes you make to anything in Shotgun are then replicated in Synaesthesia, and vice-versa. Add a note to a shot in Synaesthesia, and it will appear in Shotgun. Delete a version in Shotgun, and… I think you get the idea.

(*In British spelling at least.)

Here's that same scene in Shotgun

As with the new Final Draft support, there are some limitations and caveats to what data can be sent and received, and you can read up on the technical details of Shotgun integration to find out more.

Synaesthesia beta 8 is available for download now. Enjoy it, and let us know what you think.

This update doesn’t really add anything new, but instead focuses on improving the nuts and bolts of the software. We’ve improved some of the codebase, which for you means that we’ll be able to roll out more integrations and add functionality faster and more reliably than before.

We’ve also made big gains in terms of performance. We’ve identified a few areas that were noticeably slow (namely, displaying lists of items on breakdowns), run tests, taken it apart and rebuilt it again to see what we can do to make it faster. That’s led to an increase in speed of about 5 times.

That’s right, displaying lists of items now happens 5 times faster. What that means is that you’ll rarely even notice that you’re waiting for the list to be displayed. And to be honest, that’s the way it should be. Of course, you’ll only really notice the difference if you’re working with huge lists anyway. But given that there are 200-300 scenes on average per production, it won’t be long before you appreciate the difference. Oh and speaking of lists, we also added the ability to filter them by free-typing (in addition to using tags), which will make it much easier to find items when looking through those long (speedy) lists.

There’s the usual bunch of fixes, and other minor changes, and you can read all the gory details in the beta 5 release notes, if you’re so inclined.

The next release is going to incorporate user feedback so far, so keep that feedback coming. As usual, everyone in the beta programme will be emailed soon with a new download link.

Beta 4 comprises some new features and fixes, largely based on feedback from people at NAB last month.

Of particular note is the inclusion (finally) of a preferences dialog. It’s a bit sparse right now, but expect it to get filled up with all sorts of customisable features in the future. One of the noteworthy preferences in there is certainly going to make the DITs and data wranglers amongst you happy: Synaesthesia now has a setting to automatically capture MD5 (read: bulletproof!) checksums for any file you attach to anything. That means you get a checksum for the R3D file you’ve linked to a clip, as well as for the spreadsheet you’ve added to a scene.

Ok so that’s only half the picture, because the real use of having checksums is when you can verify them. Well, Synaesthesia will do that too! Any time you open an attachment in Synaesthesia, it will automatically verify the file for you and flag any differences. This means you don’t have to rely on third-party tools for verifying file integrity any more, which is typically more of a problem over longer periods of time (and ironically when verification is more important). Of course, Synaesthesia can’t fix your broken files, but it can at least give you fair warning of potential problems (you are doing backups, right?).

There’s a few other fixes and other changes in this release, we’ve increased the contrast of text labels so they’re easier to read– I guess not everyone does data entry in the dark (like I do). You should also notice some performance improvements too. As we move towards final release, expect performance to get some serious attention. For all the other changes, check out the release notes for this version.

On another note, after repeated issues with corrupted downloads, we’ve moved to a new server for downloading. Hopefully this will prove more successful, saving you guys frustration, and allowing us to spend more time packing great stuff into the next release.

As always, your feedback is much appreciated. Everyone enrolled on the beta programme will get an email soon, those that aren’t can still sign up.

With this latest addition, Final Cut Pro becomes another, extremely convenient source for capturing metadata and linking it into Synaesthesia. For example, you can shoot some footage, ingest it into FCP, and then save off the XML file. You can then import this XML file into Synaesthesia, which will then create reels, clips and attach their linked files for you. You then have all your footage inside Synaesthesia to use in the usual way, and if you make any changes, you can always export the clips as FCPXML and load that back into Final Cut.

The other bit of news is that we’re extending the beta programme, to include a greater number of users. Anyone interested in downloading the new beta version can do so for free at http://synaesthesia.surrealroad.com/beta

There’s been a lot of talk about shooting 3D at NAB this year. Let me jump on that bandwagon too. Synaesthesia can be used 3D productions, by setting up two recorders- one for the left eye and one for the right eye. You can then use shooting mode as you would normally.

As always, if you’ve already been accepted into the beta programme, you will receive an email soon with the download link.

What’s new in this release? Well, according to our statistics, 89% of you use Final Cut Pro, so integration with Synaesthesia is a big priority for us. In this version, you can export clips to Final Cut Pro XML. (To do this, go to the clips tab of a breakdown, select the clips to export, and click export). When you import the XML into FCP, the exported clips will be added to a new bin, along with all the metadata Synaesthesia has for that clip, such as the scene, take, editing format and so on. And speaking of exports, it’s now possible to export screenplays (as text) and sequences (as EDLs).

FCP development is still ongoing, so expect a lot more in that area in future releases. Also new in this version is tighter RED camera integration. Whereas beta 1 would only retrieve RED metadata from files with RED’s software installed, beta 2 eliminates that restriction entirely. So when linking a clip to a file (via Clip Breakdown > Digital > Linked File), just point it at the R3D file and let Synaesthesia do the rest.

Some processes in Synaesthesia can be quite complex (and therefore lengthy), and so the latest version also includes feedback in the form of progress bars, so you can be confident that it is doing something, rather than just hoping it hasn’t crashed.

You can check out the release notes for more details on the other improvements and fixes. As always, the best way to send us feedback is from the software itself (Help > Send Feedback).

If you have already been accepted into the beta programme, you should be receiving an email soon with a link to download the latest version. If you have not yet enrolled in the beta programme, you can still apply to take part now.