The New Nawmal: Good News for "The Barrier"

I used Xtranormal to make "The Barrier", but was unable to properly finish the movie because the company shut down before I could finish it. Now a new company, Nawmal, is releasing software based on Xtranormal. Maybe I can now finished my movie.

Nawmal (http://www.nawmal.com/) sent me an e-mail this week that the official release of their new software, nawmalMAKE, would be September 30, 2015.

Target Market and Cost

So far there isn't very much information on the website. The impression I got was that the initial release, a commercial version, it is aimed at the corporate video market. The applications they list for the software are pretty much limited to that market.

The price they have set for it, $1,000 a year, which I think would be appropriate for the corporate video market. They offer a monthly rate of $100.

Finishing "The Barrier"

I don't consider the version of "The Barrier" I have on YouTube to be final. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATcKnFAwlU0)

My objective for the next version of "The Barrier" is to hire actors to redo the dialogue. With my current personal commitments, I don't think I can devote the time and effort to make that happen for a while yet. There is no real urgency for me to make any kind of decision about how I'd use the software just yet.

The Nawmal website says that they plan to release two more versions of the software. One aimed at the education market, nawmalEDU, and the other for "fun" users, nawmalFUN. I don't really fit into any of the markets they seem to be going after. I would need many of the features that would only be available in the commercial version. But, the price is kind of steep for me.

I thought I might be able to use nawmalFUN to develop the movie, then switch to the commercial version when I want to finish the movie for release. From the description of nawmalFUN, that doesn't look like it would work.

If there are enough movie makers like myself, maybe we could negotiate a different kind of license that would work better for us. Of course it wouldn't work if there were too many.

nawmalMAKE as Script Writing Software

I know that one of the original goals of the software was to help script writers visualize their scripts. Their thought was that writers would transfer their script into the program to generate the movie.

My experience with the software makes me feel that it would work better the other way round.  When I created "The Barrier" I transferred some scenes from the short stories I wrote, while other scenes I created from scratch within Xtranormal. I felt the scenes I wrote within the program worked much better and were easier to write.

A good example of this was the scene between the Mayor and Brandon Baker. My initial idea for the scene was a few short lines that set up the threat to Arthur. But, as I worked on the scene, the personalities of the two characters started to solidify and that changed how they interacted. I started to see how the history between the two characters underlay the scene.

You can watch this scene at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATcKnFAwlU0 starting at 1:36 and running to 3:09.

I think there would need to be some additional features added to make it viable option as a script writing tool. For example it would need to output to a script format. I created a simple process to do this with the old STATE files. (http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/the-barrier-progress-and-file-conversion/) It wasn't very reliable, but I think it shows that it can be done.

I hope Nawmal is successful. I want to use it in the future, but I know they can't make a go of the business if I'm a typical client. The focus on the corporate market, if it works, could ensure their future.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

Xtranormal Rebirth and Facebook Issues

I've devoted most of my time recently to caring for my wife as she recovers from surgery, so I haven't done much about my movie and writing projects. This week I have some thoughts about the return of Xtranormal and problems with Facebook.

Xtranormal Rebirth

I used Xtranormal to make "The Barrier" last year. It was a shock when they suddenly shut down last July. I was barely able to get all the stuff I wanted for the movie done. As it was, I would have liked to make some changes to what I did have.

For the last few months the company who owned the rights to the Xtranormal technology has had it on sale. Just yesterday I learned that they've now sold the technology to a new company called Nawmal (http://www.nawmal.com/). There isn't much information there yet. You can sign up for a news letter.

It looks like they still need to work out just what they have before they can release anything. Hopefully they'll have some kind of product out soon. I just hope it isn't too expensive.

I want to make some changes to "The Barrier". I had hoped that I could redo it as live action, but I don't think that is very likely now. I would like to have a "final" version of the movie though.

Facebook Issues

I've seen a lot of complaints about how changes to Facebook have affected Facebook pages. One example is: http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-facebook_starting_to_circle_the_drain.html. I've have some of the same problems.

My Facebook page has 125 followers, but often as few as 4 or 5 see my posts. I can increase that by paid advertizing. I've done that a few times, and it does help me increase the number of people who see the post. However, since this doesn't generate any revenue, it is hard to justify the expense.

I think that pages must be primarily intended for companies who sell something. While I hope to make money from my movies and stories, the page isn't likely to generate any money.

Some people say they will abandon Facebook, but I don't want to do that. I already have an e-mail list, but I don't have a lot of people on that. I set up Facebook groups in the past and think that may be a better option for me. It seems like I can send out a group e-mail, which doesn't cost anything.

The main problem with a switch to a group is that I'm likely lose some of my followers. On the other hand I do think it is better to have a small group of active followers than a huge number of passive followers, who you can't contact. The best way would be to keep the page, but also add a group.

My to do list gets longer every day. :)

The picture of the cat has nothing to do with the post, but I heard that cat pictures attract people.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog