Tools of the trade

There’s quite a bit of things I do for myself, on my own, and I think it might shed some light on how things actually get done in the world of Angelo-dom.

My background is in Information Technology and so I’m lucky to be fairly ahead of the curve when it comes to using different computer applications to get things done. Basically it helps me manage the tools I need to exploit my talents as a writer, director and filmmaker overall. I’m self-taught on all these applications because I needed them. But, I like technology so I’m sure that makes it easier.

Here are the tools I use.

Microsoft FrontPage 2003 – I build and manage my own websites. Five of them to be precise. FrontPage is like Microsoft Word on HTML steroids.  It makes building a website simple as long as you can properly manipulate tables.

Adobe Photoshop CS2 – Everyone knows Photoshop. I used it to manipulate my photos for use on my webpages.

Fetch and Cyberduck FTP – for a long while I was using the trial version of Fetch FTP software for the Mac. I recently switched to CyberDuck because it’s a freeware, opensource application built on Unix/Linix technology.  Fetch kept asking me to purchase and made me wait like 3 minutes for the trial to be renewed everything I opened it. The primary reason I’m even writing this blog is because I spent 3 days looking for another good FTP program. I found Filezilla but all the downloads for the Mac were crappy

WS_FTP – while my main personal computers are Macs I was brought up in a PC environment. WS_FTP is a sumple FTP solution for Windows PC’s. It totally gets the job done.

QuickTime Pro – on the Mac and PC to encode and export video and audio files into different formats using different codecs.

Roxio Toast Titanium – I used to to burn CDs and DVDs on my mac. I don’t usually burn DVDs on my PC but when I do I use  Roxio Creator Basic. I also use an older version of Nero Burning Rom on my PCs.

(O2M) Outlook to Mac. If you’re ever considering “going Mac” and you need to convert your old email files in Outlook to a Entourage of any email application for a Mac, the $10 price of this program is well worth it. I spenta week trying to export nd import my Outlook 2003 files to Entourage, Thunderbird and Mac Mail. I finally found this application and got it done in one hour.

DVDxDV Pro – I use this application on my Mac to “rip” the video files from DVDs (that play on your player). It’s not a decoder that use can use to pirate DVD, but for home made DVDs that you need to grab the raw video files from, it works great.

VisualHub – this is a cool little tool for the Mac that very quickly codes video and audio files into other formats. I generally use it now to convert quicktime  and mp3 files to Flash files. I choose flash because 90% of commercial sites use Flash and most users already have Flash installed on their machines

Final Draft 6.0 – screenwriting software (I have it for the Mac and PC)

Scriptware – screenwriting software for the PC

Final Cut Studio 2 – this is a suite of post production editing tools for the Mac. It’s second only to Avid (in my mind)

Adobe Production Premium CS3 – a post production editing suite of 10 applications for the PC.

Dreamweaver – I have this application for the Mac and for the PC. But my website is in Frontpage so I can only edit it from my PC. I am not looking forward to redesigning it in Dreamweaver but when I do, I will be able to make changes to my web from my Mac of my PCs

MacBook Pro – this is the laptop I uses in the field to export video from the P2 cards when shooting with Panasonic HD cameras. I also write on it as well.

HP/Compaq nc2400 – this is my small form factor laptop.

Dell Dimension 2400 – this is my PC desktop I am building for use with Adobe Production PRemium CS3

Mac Dual Core PowerPC Tower – my primary editing station. One day I will upgrade to a MacPro but now yet.

All my websites are hosted through WebMasters.com. This allows me to manage my email addresses myself, add/delete email addresses at will, run my blog (using WordPress technology), create my own FTP site,  and so much more. I probably won’t ever change from them because they give me nearly total control of my sites.