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STORY: First Impressions

Sep 19, 2009 6:03 PM

OK... thought it might be useful to Adobe to gather our first impressions, which can be a bit different than mere wows and moans. This is an opportunity to shape a new productivity tool...

 

I was just a bit surprised to hear all the monetization and product placement talk in the demo. That's big-league studio stuff and could possibly even alienate the other potential market- wannabe screenwriters. The same future metadata advantages would hold for the props, costumes, travel, EFX, permits, union, security and food folks without the negative 'commercial' connotations.

 

I think that dull gray background really needs changing asap. Have one of your guys go out into the world- to a library (ala research), or to a coffeeshop ( ala romance) or a typical clients office (ala puchasing) using one of today's glossy screened laptops under typical lighting with that gray background is really difficult. STORY isn't AVID, if its a match look, remember AVID is usually used in fixed low-light environments, whereas writers are more likely to be on the move and wanting brighter light.

I've been getting more sure the gray isn't neutral, its actually depressing. Perhaps very deep blue, or forest green ? Or give the user a couple color coding options.

 

I see the cloud options and collaboration with ambivalence myself. Adobe might stress the data security more here... multi-million dollar films would seem attractive data theft targets.

 

I really like how STORY is organized, and the simplicity of operation- no talking paperclips or overzealous wizards!

 

I look forward to your fully incorporating rich media; I gather lots of visual stuff when working: floorplans, locations, period costumes, etc, and am kinda tired of spilling coffee on'em!

 

Hope this helps! & I reserve the right to change my mind... more later, T

2309 Views   10 Replies   Latest reply: AnubhavRohatgi, Jun 14, 2010 12:48 AM
 
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  • RedRocketRedRocket
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    1. RedRocketRedRocket,
    Oct 15, 2009 3:38 PM   in reply to aahhaa
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    My first impressions:

     

    • Of course, it was a bit "glitchy," but that's to be expected in Beta. The mouse disappeared sometimes ("submarined") and I had to drag several times to get it to return.
    • Can you make the AIR application come up while respecting the Dock? I think there's a hook in the OS that allows an application to find out where the Dock is, so it can avoid it on load. I repositioned the Story window so it didn't overlap the Dock, and the next time I loaded Story (as an AIR application), it again extended horizontally and vertically over my entire screen, hiding important parts of itself under the Dock.
    • Sadly, Story did not properly format my imported Word scripts, perhaps fooled by the numbered lines of dialog. I don't know how prevalent such scripts are (my test scripts were from the company archives, not created by me), but numbering of lines allows a PA to count how many lines each character has, so voiceover talent can be paid appropriately. This is common practice in Animation, so selecting "Animation" as the script type should prepare Story to understand (or overlook :-) such numbers).
    • I would like to use the double-return shortcut, but I must take my hands off the keyboard to select one of the "paragraph types" from the pop-up menu (Dialog, Character, Action, etc.). May I suggest an initial character shortcut? Thus, the writer would hit Return Return (up pops the menu), then C (and Character is selected, and pop-up menu goes away), and (s)he begins typing the character's name. Or Return Return (menu up), then A (and Action is selected, and menu goes away), and (s)he begins typing the action. Etc.

     

    I'll post more notes as I have more suggestions.

     

    I know that Adobe hates the idea of unbundling their products, but Adobe Story is shaping up to be a very cool application, and should not be kept inside the purple box only! Please also sell it separately (unless it will be part of all the boxes).

     
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  • AnubhavRohatgi
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    2. AnubhavRohatgi,
    Oct 18, 2009 3:23 AM   in reply to RedRocketRedRocket
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    There are plans to sell Story separately.

     

    We have not encountered many scripts with numbered dialogs. Can you send me such a script (Anubhav at adobe dot com)?

     

    Keyboard shortcuts have been improved and should be available for you to use shortly. We are planning to update Adobe Story in two weeks.

     

    Please keep the feedback coming. We'll log a bug for the "dock" issue.

    --Anubhav

     
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  • aahhaa
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    3. aahhaa,
    Oct 18, 2009 5:33 PM   in reply to AnubhavRohatgi
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    Hi Anubhav-

     

    I'm really glad to see more activity here!

     

    I'm a little surprised that there's so little mention of Adobe Story on the screenwriters forums I visit, like Zoetrope and Trigger Street.  Very few of the writers are early adopters of any kind of software, and fiercely defend their older versions of Final Draft or Movie Magic, even Scriptware. I think Adobe should really be aware of their split market for STORY; the students and wannabe Hollywood types at one end, & real studios, newsrooms and commercial outfits at the other, with nobody in between.

     

    An update for ADOBE AIR came in today (Sunday afternoon); on my rural 56K dialup connection machine it took over 30 minutes. Also it didn't identify itself until it completed, leaving me with no choice but letting it roll. Just thought you should know.

     

    I like to come out and ask a question that probably most of your beta users are wondering: will there be a 'special deal' cut for some or all who contribute here?

    I'm OK with either way, but at a personal level, this current cycle of upgrading wireless hardware, Windows 7, Security, digital TV; well I just hope so.

     

    On the numbered scripts, I think that animation production requires the numbering, and also spec level scene and version numbering (hopefully similar to software usage, such as 0.8 or 2.02) could be extremely useful for reviewing. Later production scripts are scene numered as you know.

     

    For example- if a STORY developer signs in at Coppola's American Zoetrope; they could download and check various current scripts in pdf format, and see the titles available with a hovered mouse- but as it stands, not the version. (The versions can change rapidly as writer members are expected to review many scripts.)

    It would be a good place for software reality checks, as it is not affiliated with any particular software. http://www.zoetrope.com/

     

    Hope this helps!

    Tom

     

    Message was edited by: aahhaa -forgot to bold a line

     
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  • typolonyc
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    4. typolonyc,
    Nov 9, 2009 8:15 PM   in reply to aahhaa
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    I think this could be the basis for an incredible creative & production collaboration tool.

    Working in advertising, there are a number of different executions of the same idea. Whether that is long form, tv, live action, animation, online, print.

    To be able to bring collaborate with creatives around the world and include production, directors, photographers, graphics would be an excellent idea.

    Everyone working off the same page.

     

    S.

     
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  • AnubhavRohatgi
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    5. AnubhavRohatgi,
    Nov 9, 2009 10:42 PM   in reply to typolonyc
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    Thanks for the encouraging words.

     

    Have you taken our survey yet?

    http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=GmlrDsH9X6HEnk89LT5nWw_3d_3d

     

    --Anubhav

     
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  • whiskeyriot
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    6. whiskeyriot,
    Nov 11, 2009 11:07 PM   in reply to AnubhavRohatgi
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    I'm very excited with the new adjustments, but I do gotta say that we need the mores for page breaks. I'm sure that's on the docket, but I have to stress that it won't be a complete client until that's done.

     
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  • Srinath(Adobe Story Team)
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    7. Srinath(Adobe Story Team),
    Feb 3, 2010 2:52 AM   in reply to whiskeyriot
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    The mores and continueds are on their way! Keep watching the forum for updates!

     

    - Adobe Story Team

     
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  • derlinds
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    8. derlinds,
    Feb 3, 2010 7:30 PM   in reply to aahhaa
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    Okay, its been a while since I played with Story and it certainly feels like it has come a long way in the last few months.One thing that I did notice was that when I was in the last line, say correcting my spelling, and hit the down key the cursor sat still. I'm used to that popping the cursor to the last active position on the page, to the end of the line. That led me to start typing in the middle of a word. That's a word processing standard that I'm so accustomed to that I don't think twice. I had the cursor disappear once during my session and the only other notable glitch was stranding a character name at the bottom of  a page with the dialogue on the next page.

     

    I didn't mind the grey screen so much this time but I've darkened my After Effects screen so this was more familiar looking now. The character dots are far too small to be uselful as handy roll overs. When typing a character's name the pop-up was inconsistent in appearing, sometimes two characters, sometimes it  would have let me type the full name. But these are small qualms and the progress is encouraging. Once the intuitive issues are smoothed out it will be a fun program. I'll have more notes after I sit with it for a while and I'm going to look at the online/offline functionality as well.

     

    Cheers,

    Lindsay

     
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  • i_prefer_apple
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    9. i_prefer_apple,
    Jun 8, 2010 1:10 AM   in reply to aahhaa
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    I just got back from the Brisbane CS5 Roadshow and they had a lot of stuff about Story, all compacted into about 7 and a half minutes. I like that you can import everything from Story into OnLocation and then into Premiere as metadata. That looks like a very, very cool feature.

     

    I've yet to really jump on the Adobe band-wagon as I prefer Final Cut over Premiere and I don't do much in the way of VFX so don't need to use AE  that much either (except for Keylight, but CS5 has Ultra Key which is BETTER)... but if Story is any good in practice (obvs will test it first) this might be the thing that brings me in Adobe's world. Currently I use CeltX and they have a Studio feature that you can log in and update the script- same as Adobe Live does, so it needs to offer more than the free program does.

     
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  • AnubhavRohatgi
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    10. AnubhavRohatgi,
    Jun 14, 2010 12:48 AM   in reply to i_prefer_apple
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    Happy to have you looking at Story.

     

    What is it that you miss in Celtx? We have lots of cool things planned that will help individual writers and collaborators.

     

    --Anubhav

     
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