by benga » Fri May 29, 2009 10:51 am
layer locking would in my opinion add a lot to the software as it would give it more appeal to people working in theatre / dance stage settings where one is actually following a precise, fixed scene per scene setup.
which is a basic way of working, with light or sound.
i'm currently doing this for a dance piece for a young audience, and the potential to mess up during performance is giving me nightmares.
by messing up, I mean accidently moving a layer, clicking in the wrong place. I'm interacting for 40 minutes with a dancer using a graphic tablet and a BCF2000, moving elements which a fixed background movie plays; nothing fancy, but i have to concentrate on the stage action, and hop between layers.
the fact that there is no way to set up the show and lock it is, in this specific case, quite frightening.
I remember reading a post by someone who used modul8 in a opera, and i think these directions are great because modul8 has the capacity to do great things with an reactivity that i've rarely seen.
It's great for working on stage because settings take very little time.
but it's also really not adaptated to such work without an option to lock at least the layers once the work is done. this is simply not possible. I'm doing it now, but it's incredibly dangerous.
and also it doesn't feel very professional to have a great tool, but one which is also so insecure to use in a precise setting.
it's just basic security, to secure a show. this layer will not move up or down if i click it wrong. The layer will display this media with these settings.
how many times, in such situations, have I ended up with the wrong layer selected while setting up- not while playing.
in high concentration live moments, this could be catastrophic, and no matter how great modul8 is, not having an option to lock things down, or secure settings, makes unsuited for precise stage work.
which is only, in my opinion, a lock / secure layer, secure media to layer, secure settings function away.
as of now, modul8 is simply too dangerous to use in contexts requiring precision, not because of a software incapacity, but simply because of the inability to lock things down once one's happy with them, thus making sure nothing will move, and things will be there when they should.
i understand this use is more specific to people using modul8 on stage with fixed shows rather than performances.
A specific need, sure, but also one of the most basic, necessary, common requirements of working on stage in a non improvised setting....
but with simple lock functions modul8 could easily become a common tool in main stage pieces, theatre, dance, opera, you name it. it works. it's just not adapted because of the lack of set security.
as of now using modul8 in such settings is really living on the edge.
b
Last edited by
benga on Sat May 30, 2009 12:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
cie sisyphe heureux