Video catalog software?

[Walter Biscardi]

You can do pretty much all of this in Filemaker Pro but you’ll need someone to create the database for you.

How much are you looking to spend? Last year at NAB I looked at a few database / library management systems that were in the $5,000 – $50,000 range. And that was just the software.

I went with Filemaker Pro for our video database and hired someone I found through the Cow to design the actual working database for us.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Brian Tetamore]

$5,000 is way over our budget. I’ve heard lots of good things about Filemaker Pro.

Have you ever heard of Microsoft Expression Media? It has a free trial period. Maybe I’ll give it a whirl too.

thanks
Brian

The Visual Rabbi

[Walter Biscardi]

[Brian Tetamore] “$5,000 is way over our budget. I’ve heard lots of good things about Filemaker Pro.”

Way over ours too. Let’s just say it was sticker shock for me as I could not believe how much these folks were charging. Maybe for a broadcast network, but we don’t need that kind of catalog.

We have our database now hosted at http://www.pointinspace.com which allows the clients for that library to access the database from anywhere. Our designer also set up the Internet functionality so nobody even needs Filemaker Pro except our Production Assistant who is doing all the entries. Everyone else can login using any web browser so that makes it really easy.

We’re not loading video and audio clips at this time, though Filemaker can easily do that.

[Brian Tetamore] “Have you ever heard of Microsoft Expression Media? It has a free trial period. Maybe I’ll give it a whirl too.”

Hey Free is good! Always great to try before you buy.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR
The new Color Training DVD now available from the Creative Cow!

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[Rick Dolishny]

First off, whoever Walter hired would probably do it again. It sounds like a keeper, especially the part about remote access. Very nice.

Eventually you will google across Media Filer.

https://mediafiler.com/

I’ve used it in a couple of locations and it’s good. Certainly not great, and sometimes it’s a bit infuriatingly closed (ie you can’t even resize the app’s window. They hope you do all your work at 640×480). However, for a facility that may have nothing, it’s better than that.

I’ve also used Filemaker and it’s just amazing. You may want to hire someone though there are a lot of options.

—
Rick Dolishny
Discrete Editors COW Leader
http://www.thecreativeprocess.ca

[Walter Biscardi]

[Rick Dolishny] “First off, whoever Walter hired would probably do it again. It sounds like a keeper, especially the part about remote access. Very nice.”

I’ve actually encouraged him to develop stock databases for other folks after seeing the success Marco Solario has had with Media Batch. By the way I LOVE Media Batch and our clients do too.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR
The new Color Training DVD now available from the Creative Cow!

Read my Blog!

[Bob Cole]

Imagine Products may have something of interest.

Please report what you have found works best for you.

Bob C

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
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HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650

[Brendan Coots]

I agree with Walter, Filemaker Pro is a great option provided you can handle building out a database or are willing to pay someone who can. It is very flexible, in fact you can (with a good programmer) even log and capture video right into a Filemaker database. You can integrate it directly with Avid. You can tie scripts to frames of video and storyboards, so that everything is synced up and easy to find. Needless to say, all of this requires extensive development but Filemaker developers can be found all over the world, and at fairly reasonable rates. You can start out with your basic, initial needs and add on as you grow.

Another option might even be Adobe Web Premium. It has Adobe Premiere which could be used for editing/manipulating media. It has Dreamweaver, Flash and Contribute which can be used to encode and upload videos, and it has Adobe Bridge which can be used for local management of videos stills and project media in a visual, keyword-based way.

Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com

[Kevin Reiner]

Hey Walter,

First of all, I just want to say I’m a big fan of Good Eats. Both because of the host and because of the editor.

Anyway, I was looking into Media Batch myself, and was happy to read that you liked the program. I know you’re a busy man, but can you expand on what features you liked the most?

I am an in-house video editor for an advertising agency, and I would love to streamline the client approval process.

Thanks in advance,
Kevin

System Setup (for a more detailed list, see my profile)

HARDWARE
Mac Pro 2 x 3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
9GB Memory
Two 16x SuperDrives
Dual-channel 2Gb Fibre Channel PCI Express card
Apple Cinema HD Display (23″ flat panel)
ATI Radeon X1900 XT Graphics Card
AJA Kona LHe SD/HD capture card
Apple Xserve Raid 5.6TB

SOFTWARE
Mac OS X 10.4.10
Final Cut Pro Studio
After Effects CS3
Photoshop CS3
Illustrator CS3
Boris Continuum
Sapphire Plug Ins
Roxio Toast
Digital Anarchy Anarchist Suite
ParticleIllusion 3.0
Trapcode
Zaxwerks

[Kevin Reiner]

I got sidetracked by asking Walter’s advise on Media Batch.

I also wanted to say that I use Filemaker Pro to keep track of all my media and digital assets. It was actually pretty easy to learn the basics, and it saves me a ton of time in searching for files. I wasn’t sure it was an app that I wanted to spend time learning, but I have found that I turn to it quite often in both my professional and private life. The only thing I really haven’t learned is how to post it online, so I would probably outsource that.

just my 2 cents.

PS a really good feature I came up with is a script that reads the content of an inserted disc and inserting it into a “contents” field. So if I reload an old project and a message comes up saying a file is missing, I can do a quick search that leads me to the right disc. Neato.

System Setup (for a more detailed list, see my profile)

HARDWARE
Mac Pro 2 x 3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
9GB Memory
Two 16x SuperDrives
Dual-channel 2Gb Fibre Channel PCI Express card
Apple Cinema HD Display (23″ flat panel)
ATI Radeon X1900 XT Graphics Card
AJA Kona LHe SD/HD capture card
Apple Xserve Raid 5.6TB

SOFTWARE
Mac OS X 10.4.10
Final Cut Pro Studio
After Effects CS3
Photoshop CS3
Illustrator CS3
Boris Continuum
Sapphire Plug Ins
Roxio Toast
Digital Anarchy Anarchist Suite
ParticleIllusion 3.0
Trapcode
Zaxwerks

[Nick Griffin]

[Kevin Reiner] “can you expand on what features you liked the most?”

For a lot of discussion, check out the “Game Changer” string starting on October 28, 2007.

MediaBatch is like email in that once you start using it you quickly find it hard to imagine not having it and wonder how you lived without it. In addition to video we use MediaBatch for making very large PDF files available internationally when they’re too big for email. Although similar in principal, it’s a big improvement over FTP for downloading. On videos the ability to mark-up, annotate and create a virtual approval environment is like nothing I’ve seen before.