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SCRIPTtoMOVIE – All-in-one solution for film professionals

Biography

Born in Zurich in 1972, Florian Froschmayer was involved in production at the Zürich Child Theater as a young boy. It was there that he was identified as a future director by the theater pedagogue Rosmarie Metzenthin - just at the age of seven. On February 28, 1985, at the age of thirteen, he made the decision of his life. In Berlin, the motivated young filmmaker filmed several episodes for TV series such as "Coast guard / Küstenwache" or "Vice Squad" before he ventured across the pond. In the USA, Froschmayer realized his second feature film, "L. A. X.". Back in Berlin, Froschmayer got the offer to film several episodes of the German success "CRIME SCENE".

SCRIPTtoMOVIE has emerged from Froschmayer's frustration over cumbersome sequences during filming. The sophisticated computer program facilitates the communication between director, production team, cast and crew and eliminates hours of administrative work.

Interview with director Florian Froschmayer:

Frustrating workflows in day-to-day business and no tool that can deal with it? We know that - we've all been in this situation. So some of us decide to change this, and we start with a project. This is what Florian Froschmayer did, a director who took up SCRIPTtoMOVIE, to transform the industry. We used the premiere of the teaser of the all-in-one software solution for filmmakers as an occasion to speak with Froschmayer about his motivations for the development of SCRIPTtoMOVIE. The result is a personal insight into the background of a flashy industry.

Developer magazine (Entwickler Magazin, EM): Mr. Froschmayer, the announcement of your software SCRIPTtoMOVIE states that you were frustrated about the cumbersome sequences during filming. What are the cumbersome processes you mean?

Florian Froschmayer: In the film, there are always big teams. You start small - with a writer, a producer and maybe another director. When you get to the point of filming, 40 to 60 people are involved. Keeping them constantly updated can be very hard, because they also work individually, and a balance must be found.

EM: On the SCRIPTtoMOVIE website it says that you can buy a set card for 20 euros a year. What does this mean?

Froschmayer: The set card is just a by-product. The product itself is not yet online, as we are in the process of completion. The actual product is that a team in a closed network can prepare a film and then actually film it, so that basically all departments, whether costume designers or actors, work in the same data pool. The set card is a supplement for actors, so that you have a quick overview of persons and market positions in the casting or team finding process.

EM: Is this like a company-internal social network?

Froschmayer: Exactly, I would call it branch-internal, since there are several companies. The digital set card has the advantage that everyone can use one depending on what their function is, as a director or even an actor. When I, as a director, work with SCRIPTOMOVIE to prepare my film, I have a casting module within this software, with which I have access to the digital set cards. I can then copy these into my project, complete with my own information - maybe I have a casting video or recent photos, maybe I would like to have a different profile photo on my channel - there is great flexibility. At the same time, however, everything is very close.

EM: What inspired you for this project?

Froschmayer: My own needs as a director. Casting networks already exist, but for me as a director it is always a huge effort to gather the information from many different networks. The set card is designed in such a way that it is, in principle, a collection of links. At a central point, I can collect all the information through the Internet.

EM: That is, you also have an API that aggregates the data automatically once the link is specified?

Froschmayer: No, the actor himself has to put the set card together and link his website, his agent page, his show reel. If there were constant links, he would never need to maintain anything ever again.

EM: Let's start with the technical implementation. How did you implement the project?

Froschmayer: It all goes back to me being a technology freak. I have always liked playing on computers. My first computer was a C 64. I could not afford the floppy drive and I had to program the games, so the computer could not be switched off. When I started working as a director, I quickly built a database with FileMaker that fits my needs. This has grown over the years and has become more complex. Eventually the need to connect a cameraman came, and then everything became even more complex. When my assistant joined, my programming skills weren't enough anymore. This was the point when I thought I'd have to continue working with my database for the rest of my life, or I'd have to do it over completely - have it redone people who really can.

EM: How big is the team that "really can"?

Froschmayer: Pretty small. This is a small company in Berlin, Cap & More Solutions GmbH. I chose it because it is market leader in Germany with art management software (agen.do). My agency, which works with this software, recommended this company to me. And as it sometimes happens in life, they were only three minutes away from my apartment. I went to see them, presented my idea and we got together. There are three programmers there in total.

EM: ... and you as the director.

Froschmayer: Exactly, I designed the complete user interface. We then had eternally long discussions, because the programmers of course wanted to understand the film workflow. This was the big challenge: to adapt a completely analog, somewhat peculiar workflow to the digital IT world, the workflow of filmmakers so that an artist, who has some respect for technology, has no fear of touch and can work with it quickly.

EM: When you were designing the user interface, was it according to your own ideas or did you do research on the user experience? What is the logical sequence?

Froschmayer: Both of them. I am a big fan of Apple and really admire what they do with their products in terms of ease of use. When I just look at how my parents work with the Mac ... That's the big goal, and the inspiration is definitely to create something similar. I cannot and will not compare with Apple, but the attempt was to create an interface, which is logical for film-minded people and thus facilitates the sequences. Since I am an aesthetic person, I also decided to make it look pretty in many places. We then realized that this was not enough; the tool must be pretty AND user-friendly. This is also an important issue because we are a visual industry. A lot of the filming software out there does not look really nice. It was important to me from the start that you would enjoy looking at it, because you will spend a lot of time with it. It must be simply inviting and cannot look like a 1982 FileMaker database, because that's scary.

EM: You are talking about an "analog workflow". How does the workflow on the set differ from what is usually depicted in a program?

Froschmayer: A film stands on two legs. The first leg is the script; Everything is based on it. At one point the second leg emerges: the filming plan. This plan basically depends on the script, because everything in the script will be included in this plan. Anyone who is involved in the preparations for the film - whether the caterer or costume designer - stands on these two legs. They must provide the logical sequence. The script is relatively constant; there is a new version at regular intervals of two to three weeks. The filming plan, however, is totally flexible - it can change several times a day. The closer you get to the shoot, the more complex the changes will be. And so it becomes more complex for each department to communicate the changes, for example, we'll be shooting scene 17 on Monday instead of Friday. With IT, I have learned that everything is and must be clear. When there are several interconnected factors - for example, an actor is in (associated with) several scenes, then there is a costume that is connected to the actor, but this costume can also be worn by someone else, who is also somehow connected. Meanwhile, a really complex logic emerged behind it, which I had underestimated.

EM: You say that there may be many new versions of the script. Is version management integrated in the tool?

Froschmayer: Yes, we can't do without that. We were preparing script versions even in the analog age. Let's imagine: We have a scene in the meeting room. There are two female trainees and you, and we are talking. In the script, this scene has two motifs: the place where I am and your meeting room. We have three actors who need to be dressed, there are props, the recording device, etc. And now someone suddenly comes up with the idea of turning a trainee into a man. Then a lot changes - and that is the new version of the script. This is read into the system; someone must manually record that Petra has become Peter and then everything connected to this needs to be adjusted. Then maybe there is a new filming schedule because the actor who plays Peter cannot work today, only tomorrow ... you see, it is extremely complicated. We considered a versioning and logging system to this end.

EM: What happens to the data when the film is shot? Is there a summary where you can see, for example, that you were three days behind schedule or the budget was exceeded?

Froschmayer: When the film is shot, the data become completely irrelevant. When it's over, it's over. Everything is valid only while the film is being shot. But the data is retained in the system - you can access it again next year. There are many moments when you think: "We were filming in a pub last year - what was the name again?" You can get facts out very quickly by looking through the archive.

EM: Are there any plans to put everything in a compendium, so you get a large database?

Froschmayer: If you are thinking ahead, it is possible. It's hard because it started much smaller. In the end, I am solely responsible, I have my three developers who are programming it. Every idea takes time and costs money. We have so many ideas on how to expand the program and let ideas flow in, that we said, we get to point x, at which you can prepare a movie. Everything that could come after that - like the desired networked archive - has been created, but not developed. This is in the exciting future.

EM: You already mentioned the costs. I am assuming that you paid for the program?

Froschmayer: I organized a crowdfunding initiative for two years and received a grant from the Media board of Berlin-Brandenburg. The rest I paid for.

EM: Is the tool being used?

Froschmayer: Yes, I did three films with my team last year. In the first movie it was still in development, but for the last film, which we made in December, it was already quite far along. That's what's so exciting about it: When it comes to life, it feels quite different from how you imagined. When it started to work, I found that there were a few concept loopholes. We changed something in the basic navigation, which was very complex, because we had to adjust the basic structure. The cameraman, with whom I made a film last year, is now preparing a film with it.

EM: Is there any interest outside of Germany?

Froschmayer: There is, actually, in the USA. Until now there hasn't been anything like this. There are a few web-based collaboration tools that work moderately well, but they are limited to the schedule. Creativity does not matter.
Our software, on the other hand, tries to combine everything - the creative and content interests of a director, cameraman or actor, as well as the logistic of a production manager or producer and all other departments.

EM: Be honest. If you could make a name for yourself as a director or as the creator of this tool - what would you prefer?

Froschmayer: Two years ago I would have said as a director. Today, I realize I have put so much work into the tool and am already a bit proud of it, so I would be happy if it were appreciated. But at the end of the day, directing is my passion. I have always said, if the business model ends up not working, at least I have a good tool to make my films with. Still, the focus is on directing.

EM: That sounds promising. Are there any other thoughts that you would like to share with us?

Froschmayer: The first question was whether I should protect the tool. However, you cannot protect software itself. I could protect the display if I had the money for it, but that does not bring me anything. Because I don't care if the button is rectangular or round. My developer told me early on that he has no great concern that there will be imitators, because the tool is very complex and the approach to it is very unusual. Normally, IT companies consider where there is a need for software and then they ask people from the respective industry what can be programmed for them. That's probably why many of the film tools that exist today were created to begin with. It is already extraordinary that it took a director two years to develop software in these areas. The question was always asked, "Why don't we have this yet?" And I think that's the answer.

Oroginal text by Tom Wiesseckel

Outlet: ENTWICKLER (Germany)
Date: August 12th, 2015
Circulation: 10.000 (monthly magazine for IT-developers)

Entwickler Magazin (Developer Magazine) offers software developers insight and orientation in a market of development technologies, tools and approaches, which is becoming ever more complex. With its expertise in a wide range of programming languages, platforms and engineering techniques, it provides a sound market overview and technical decision-making support for developers, project leaders and managers. Software developers and technology decision makers in all industries trust Developer Magazine because of its many years of experience and the valuable knowledge about current and future development trends that it provides.