It may not fit in your pocket as you sit next to the camera, but the iPad is slowly finding itself on more and more film sets between slating scenes, monitoring takes, and watching dailies — not to mention killing time between long setups.
So even though the iPad isn’t as portable as its phone-call-making brethren, you may find it proves useful to have in your toolkit armed with these five apps for filmmakers.
Lighting Designer
Price: $24.99
Lighting Designer at iTunes App Store
Very few cinematographers I’ve worked with have walked onto a film set without a plan. Maybe their plan isn’t yet fully-formed, but they at least have some idea of what they want to do.
And in terms of planning, many cinematographers (and gaffers) like to make lighting diagrams — maps of a location with characters loosely blocked and equipment labeled on it.
Lighting Designer hopes to enable that in the digital age. Now more than ever, we are ditching tasks thought better left to a pen and paper to an iPad. And the beauty in Lighting Designer isn’t just that it translates a paper diagram into a digital one, but that it does it even better.
If you have poor drawing skills or you simply prefer the cleanliness of thick, solid lines, Lighting Designer makes diagrams more colorful (used for labeling different kinds of lights) and easier to understand. Once you have a diagram finished, you can email it out to your respective crew.
Not only will this help cinematographers wrap their heads around complex scenes during pre-production, but it will help best boys, gaffers, and AC’s get an idea of where a shoot is going.
And it’s amazing how much time a production can save when grips, electrics, and the camera department all know exactly what needs to happen equipment wise to get the camera rolling.
Note: Lighting Designer is now a universal app that works on iPhone/iPod as well.
VisualDOF
Price: $4.99
VisualDOF at iTunes App Store
Part of the reason you may struggle with focus pulling and depth of field is because visualizing and conceptualizing the numbers and math is tough. After all, can you really tell the difference between 42 feet and 52 feet without seeing it?
That’s the idea behind VisualDOF — to illustrate the effect your exposure has on depth of field through clean, crisp graphics in a highly visual format.
You input the usual data — format, distance, focal length — and the app gives you a rundown of depth of field at various stops of exposure from f 1.0 to f 22.0. The only downside is that, at this point, the app only compiles data for 16mm and 35mm film. Also, it does not display metric system data.
While the scope of the app is limited, its usefulness manifests itself in ways that are a bit understated. For instance, you can:
- Use it to determine exposure when trying to split-focus
- Make multiple DOF calculations at once if your exposure is constantly in flux
- Instinctively get a feel for DOF in regards to exposure
Overall, the app could certainly do more, but that’s the price paid for an interface that cuts the clutter away and allows you to focus on the visual aspect of depth of field in regards to distance.
F65Remote
Price: Free
F65 Remote at iTunes App Store
Sony’s F65 made a big splash when it was announced at NAB in 2011, mainly for two reasons:
- 8K resolution
- The ASC deemed it to have a latitude greater than film
Fast forward to now and the F65 has received a lot of praise, even if it has yet to pierce the digital cinema market in the same way as RED Epic or ARRI Alexa.
But one of the cooler, lesser-known features of the F65 is the ability to control the camera wirelessly via iPad + the F65 Remote app.
While I haven’t tested it alongside the camera, I did download the app and was amazed at how much you can control. You’re given access to nearly everything from the main settings of the camera down to the nitty gritty menus and sub-menus — you can even re-assign functions to the user keys!
Having the ability to manipulate those things from the iPad tablet just feels so… futuristic.
And if, like me, you’re stuck without the $65,000 camera to play with, you can still use the app to muck around with — useful in its own right as a menu simulator much like the ARRI Alexa one.
Is this app essential? No — not even if you’re using the F65.
But is it cool and functional? Absolutely.
Shot Lister
Price: $13.99
Shot Lister at iTunes App Store
Shot Lister claims to be the “only professional shot listing app.”
Those are some big words considering the proliferation of shot list apps available. And as the new kid on the block, Shot Lister has a lot to prove.
I had seen Shot Lister mentioned in some filmmaking circles, but I didn’t really look into it until I saw an article on Slashfilm, a film news website that had assistant director Reza Lackey share his opinion. In the article, Lackey refers to Shot Lister as “the new cargo pants”:
I am so happy that there is finally a great way to schedule and manage shoots. Before now, it has been a very cumbersome experience. I can finally retire my cargo pants as I won’t need as many pockets to stuff paper work into.
There is no doubt that Shot Lister will help film crews of all sizes and experience levels make the most of their days on set. Assistant Directing a film is a game of constant course correction, looking for the north star on an overcast night.
Shot Lister is like finally having a compass.
It’s true Shot Lister is more an app for producers and those in production, but the fact that the app’s core project files can be shared means any crew member can take advantage of Shot Lister’s feature set which includes a “live view” that gives you real-time data on your current status.
(Don’t tell me a DP has never stressed how they’re doing on time.)
It could also be a time-saver if you work on small, skeleton crew shoots or when you’re in the unenviable position of being a one-man-band filmmaker.
In terms of interface, Shot Lister contains a lot of information, but in a logical format. It’s like reading a well-organized chart or infographic: yes there’s a lot to digest, but it’s segmented in ways that make sense and that allow you to focus on what you need.
In short, Shot Lister is doing a good job so far of living up to its self-proclaimed “professional” title.
Note: Shot Lister is a universal app that works on iPhone/iPod as well.
OnSet
Price: Free
OnSet at iTunes App Store
DIT’s (Digital Imaging Technicians) tend to be a fickle bunch. That’s because they’re generally pixel peepers — paid to keep a keen eye on every single bit of data that comes out of a camera and onto a hard drive. Usually they’re working on pimped out workstations with custom made workflows and a whole lot of computer know-how to make it run smoothly.
That’s what OnSet is up against when it claims to be “the intelligent way to manage digital dailies on your film set.”
What OnSet does is allow you to compile, review, and aggregate clips, camera data, and script data into a digestible form. In plain English: you can watch dailies with all the important information about them at your fingertips.
OnSet doesn’t do any H.264 encoding (that’s still up to the DIT), but it does allow directors, cinematographers, or producers to review and circle good takes, then send that information on to an editor or post-house.
But OnSet’s real power comes in its ability to pair documents such as call sheets, camera reports, sound reports, scripts, and continuity reports with video clips.
While viewing dailies, OnSet also allows you to:
- Circle Good Takes
- View the documents mentioned above
- “Quick-edit” sequences together
- Sort by scene and take number
OnSet’s design is very utilitarian — rarely straying from the Apple stock designs we’re accustomed to — but that’s OK given most of the attention should be on your dailies, not the app.
And if you are able to work this into your workflow, OnSet has the potential to streamline the review process and accelerate the pipeline between production and post.
Filmmaking Made Easier, Faster, Better
With the iPhone, you’re able to put tons of power in your pocket and rid yourself of tools like depth of field calculators, levels, and insert slates — all because they were replaced with one gadget.
And while you can’t put the iPad into your pocket (if you can, get some new pants), it is portable, lightweight, and turning into a potentially powerful on set device. Already we’ve seen it used for tasks like slating scenes to monitoring them.
The future is only going to continue to show innovations on the iPad, especially as digital cinema begins to take advantage of the ecosystem of wireless devices we all carry with us to set each day — whether that’s in our pockets or in our backpacks.
So while an iPad isn’t a required piece of kit for any camera assistant, cinematographer, or filmmaker, it is quickly becoming a useful piece of kit that makes life on set easier, faster, and better.