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.

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.

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.

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…

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.

First up, Adobe. Of course they launched CS5, upgrading their entire product line. In total, there are dozens of improvements across the line, but one, seemingly innocuous new bit of technology dubbed “content-aware”. This was first demonstrated to me in the form of a “roto brush” in After Effects. The idea being that you draw a loose selection around a foreground object, and After Effects then determines exactly what it is you are trying to isolate. After a few seconds delay, it automatically redefines your selection to create a very convincing roto matte. And best of all, it does it for all frames in the sequence, not just the current one. There are also controls for fine-tuning, such as to account for soft edges, motion blur and so on. Not sure how feasible this would be for feature visual effects work, but certainly for everyone else it will be a real time-saver.

The most jaw-dropping moment of NAB for me was the demonstration of the content-aware deletion in Photoshop. There was in image of a horse in a field. A selection was drawn around the horse, and the content-aware deletion was applied. The horse was removed from the scene. Let me back that up a bit. The horse was deleted precisely, which is kind of impressive. But more amazing is that rather than leaving an empty space in the image, the “hole” was filled in by interpolating the content (not just the pixels) of the image. By which I mean the fence behind the horse was automatically generated. Even as I think about it now, I still think it must have been some kind of trick. Wow.

Another talking point has been BlackMagicDesign (who recently acquired DaVinci) porting the Resolve grading system for the Mac, and then practically giving it away for under $1000 (although if you want the control surface, that will still cost you an additional $30,000 or so). The technology looks a little dated when compared to some of the heavy-hitters out there, but come on, at this price it’s competing with Apple’s (almost unusable) Color.

Arri was showing off its new Alexa camera, which seems to be taking on the Red One, although at a higher price point (and I’ll skip comparing the picture quality of the two to more knowledgeable people, personally I think they produced quite similar results when all is said and done). And speaking of Red, there were a few glimpses of the new Epic camera at some of the events.

The FCP user group, although a fun night out, was desperately lacking any talk of Final Cut Pro (with more time devoted to talking about Avid than Apple!), however there was an interesting concept presented, which was the notion of using the iPad as a control surface for grading (or anything really), which I completely agree is an excellent application (of an otherwise questionable product).

Finally I want to thank everyone I spoke to about Synaesthesia. Based on those conversations, I’ve got a couple of new short-term plans for new features. I’m not going to reveal too much now, but one area I will be focussing on is methods for verifying data transfer, and the other is to do with different workflows. Demoing the software on a rusty old laptop also revealed that I need to spend some time looking at speeding up certain processes, so there will be a big push on that too.

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.