ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

11 years ago - Marcos Villasenor

This is a fantastic idea. Please make it real!

11 years ago - Marlom Tander

Cath - the key to effective searching on large databases of "mildly curated" material (such as shooting people) is to understand taxonomies, and how to best apply them to content items.

A combination of structured tags and free tagging works best.

DRUPAL is worth reading about in this regard as it was built ground up on this basis, but any decent coders can write for your own platform, if there aren't good modules.

https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/taxonomy

If you want a face to face - and I have views on how good taxonomies would help SP, I'm a cheap date :-)

10 years, 11 months ago - Philip Carr

How are we doing here shooting people? I am compiling a list of locations/ resources ready to go on the database. Did you know the Red Arrows will give you a fee fly past if you ask the RAF nicely for instance?

11 years ago - Philip Carr

Come on shooting people build this feature into your website. There's no doubt it would be extremely useful.

10 years, 12 months ago - Daniel Johnson

It's kinda like 'trash nothing/freecycle' right? Except instead of giving away your old toaster you're giving away your prop gun and expecting it back come the end of the week.

I don't think it's the kind of idea you need to prove demand for, because the demand is obvious - every indie filmmaker would cry out for this!

11 years ago - cath le couteur

Hey all, thanks. Dan - love the indie prodn wall. Propcycle! We'll add a directory to our list of devs for the future.
Chrs
Cath

10 years, 12 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Probably best to be arranged between the parties involved, and the tool just a way to get in touch. For instance some people may want to arrange deposits whilst others might want to bring their props to supervise on site etc. Trying to get proscriptive at this stage might be more trouble than its worth!

11 years ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Vision Mixer curiously is the term for both the piece of equipment and the operator! I like the term 'gallery' over 'control room' too - galleries have loads of pictures on the wall - as does a control room with all those feeds!

11 years ago - cath le couteur

Thanks for this. As marlom says, we'd also definitely consider if there is demand. How do you think it should best work? (just so you know - we're currently developing way better search)
Chrs
Cath

10 years, 12 months ago - Ned Hussain

What is the case if someone is not able to find what they want when they need a prop but their "gun" is always out being used?

Then when one persons prop is so popular that it gets worn and tarnished?

Or it breaks or is lost?

10 years, 12 months ago - Jason Bradbury

I agree, this would be a very helpful function. Especially for props!

10 years, 10 months ago - cath le couteur

ok cool. thanks. we'll include pics - and have it optional.

10 years, 10 months ago - Philip Carr

Great this is moving forward. Cheap location database needed too with pix. How many times do you hear of an empty warehouse or grotty basement needed for example? Not only do I see the project as time saving and incredibly useful tool but will inspire ideas too.

11 years ago - Marlom Tander

http://auturesunited.com/au2/drupal/ - quick and dirty demo of how to do this.

DO NOT invest your time actually adding real stuff, it's demo only. I hope that SP will take this up, and note that exactly the same process can be used for bringing people and skills together as well :-)

10 years, 10 months ago - Marlom Tander

Absolutely need pics. Note the plural - main pic used in thumbs and optional gallery visible once on the page.

11 years ago - Dan Selakovich

Great idea. This reminds me of ultra low budget production's "prop list". You post a list of props you need in the production office. If any of the cast or crew has an item needed, they bring it in and sign their name opposite the prop.

So often, it's these little common props the eat away at the budget. Forget "gun". I need a garden hose!

Paddy, I freakin' love the British term for "switcher": Vision Mixer. Beautiful!

10 years, 10 months ago - cath le couteur

RED ARROWS?!! You're kidding me. Wow.

We totally have this on our list, most likely the build will be early 2015. We're slammed with our list at the moment -- much better search, improved messaging, porting to all tablets, speeding up production workflow. But it's top of list for new stuff and will be pretty simple to implement. As Paddy says, tech team prefer us starting v.simple - a tool for listing/searching, then people get in contact direct.

Also Dan's stuff - makes me think we need a field for 'notes'. You know.. indicating guns need an armourer etc.

But other qn - do we need pics? Probably we do right? Tho will that stop people listing lots of things because they don't have images/or takes time..

?

More soon - thanks a lot for all thoughts.

11 years ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Bunch of old professional beta SP tape decks, various flight cases, old prop shoulder-mounted video camera, vision mixer console, outdoor high volume smoke machine (gas powered), pop-out reflecmedia 'green' screen with green litering), 1960's wall-mounted gaming machines, severed life-like forearm, mummified forearm plus various other side-show/eccentric collectors pieces (fairy and mermaid mummies, Egyptian-style mummified cat and falcon, disturbingly modified dolls, conjoined shrunken head) largely left over from previous projects, inexpensive hire from Bath. Location-wise, I can help people arrange to shoot in a cinema with a balcony and stage (doubles well as small theatre), inexpensive if flexible with timing and small unit.

11 years ago - Marlom Tander

Show me there's demand for it and I'll build it. It's fairly simple, and I have a server.

If 50 people said "we have locations/props" I'll do it.

11 years ago - cath le couteur

Just a list? Searchable, Categorised and members contact each other direct..? (need help with categories...)

10 years, 10 months ago - John Lubran

This is a great project. It also suggests a different and more targeted form of networking through specific project contexts. One of the issues I find less appealing than it ought to be is when the membership got so big that simple lists of names and job titles became too vague and tedious to be very helpful.

By the way, as an aside to the issue of armourers. The definitive qualifications and statues, well at least those that are 'Lawful' are not as specific as one might presume. The legal stuff is mostly about health and safety and ensuring that the public don't get alarmed and call the police etc. These are more akin to Common Law requirements than any effecting statutes. Real guns must be in the control of the person certified to posses that particular gun or a certificate that allows the possession of any non specific guns for particular purposes, such as dealers and armourers, which may be as basic as a simple Shotgun or Firearms certificate holder.

Now to pitch a spoiler to conditioned conventionalists and ignorant Home Secretaries; replica guns and bladed weapons with a cutting edge greater than three inches etc., are entirely lawful to have in ones possession, even in a public place, "with and for a reasonable and Lawful purpose", however the Offensive Weapons Acts have somewhat muddied the water by seeming to assert that such blades and replicas, being offensive weapons per se, require the possessor (only in a public place) to prove that reasonable Lawfulness, thereby appearing to contradict that cornerstone of English criminal Common Law that demands that the burden of proof is with the prosecution and not the accused. That corner stone has not been and can not be overturned by any statute. ANY reasonable explanation must stand as the Lawful truth unless dis-proven. Nevertheless this confusion has allowed legal fictions and quasi legal (bogus) regulatory assertions and spurious enforcements to emerge. The same laws that affect bladed weapons and replica guns in any other context apply to film making. Whether or not this has to do with insurance issues is entirely a matter outside of Law. Whilst being right is always best, fending off the disagreeable hassle of overbearing policemen and lower court administrators is best and easily avoided.

I have had to prove my point by winning a Crown Court Case in this matter. I also have both Shotgun and Firearms certificates and also replica guns for film production and indeed any Lawful application and can serve as an armourer for most purposes.

Let Common Law and Common Sense prevail!

11 years ago - Philip Carr

Yes I think photos, particularly of locations would be a must, in regional sections . But why restrict it, why not a directory of all facilities useful to shooters - rehearsal rooms, studios, film courses etc?

10 years, 12 months ago - cath le couteur

Yep. We'll get something basic up post our new search work/build.

10 years, 10 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

The option to add pictures would be a bonus for sure, but don't let it hold things up - people can always swap pictures offline whilst they're discussing rates, terms, deposits, etc.

Speaking of which, I've just added a lovely reflective glass DSLR teleprompter to my list of rentables - perfect for anyone doing corporates as they save ***SO MUCH TIME*** compared with the flippin' CEO swearing blind he can remember his 10' blah to camera, then insisting on resetting and restarting each time he fluffs it at the 2,3,5,7 and 8' marks! It also creates a great impression for them to see unfamilar kit and for people to see them using it. We are in showbiz after all, and that extends to making corporates seem sexy.

10 years, 11 months ago - Dan Styles

My company Independent Drama (www.independentdrama.com) offer gun and weapon hire and armoury services. We would be happy to include our 'props' should a database such as this exist.
A note on guns however, by law a production must have an armourer whenever guns are used/held on set. This includes toys, airsoft and anything that looks like a gun, whether it actually fires anything or not.

10 years, 10 months ago - Dan Selakovich

Photos would definitely be a time saver, for the person looking AND the person loaning out. Can you imagine the number of emails you'd get for a popular item only to discover it was not how the filmmaker pictured it? A big time suck. As Paddy says, I wouldn't let that be something that slows you down, but it also might take less time adding it now than rewriting the system to take it later.