pyMovieMaker: A New Free Movie-Making App, Feedback Wanted

[Papy]

Hi all,

I'm Papy, an (old) French software developer seeking for film makers to give me feedback on my latest app: pyMovieMaker, the Pythonic part of the Movie Maker Project.

To better understand what it's all about, take a look at this video:

This software is totally FREE (free to use, share, modify, and free of charge, no cost, gratis) and will always be so.
It's my benevolent contribution to the movie world I love for decades, by now.
No hassle, no virus, no scam. Nothing.

I only need your feedback.

Please, try this app out and tell me on the bug tracker / issues board what is OK and what should be modified to better fit movie professionals' needs.
Some craft terminology may sound incorrect: I'm translating from French to English without actually knowing what terms you really use.
So, help me improve this app and this project will also become yours.

Download page:

Project's page:

Bug tracker/issues board:

You may also find an official link at kinocast.fr

Thanks a lot for your feedback, guys.
Regards. Papy.

 

[Kim Welch]

Welcome, Papy, and thank you for building a free, open tool for filmmakers. That's generous. To help people jump in, could you tell us which operating systems it runs on, what kind of project it's best for (shorts, edits, storyboards?), and what kind of feedback you need most? Anyone here comfortable with Python or open-source editing tools, please give it a try and share your notes in this thread.

 

[Papy]

Hi Kim, as this app is made in Python3 with Tkinter GUI interface, it should work on Windows, MacOS and any Linux distro (cross-platform).
In many ways, each of these platforms have Python3 language already installed by default.
If not, take a look at Python's official website to get the best installing procedure for your platform.
Official site: https://www.python.org/
The software is made on a Linux Debian distro, with the goal of being as simplest as possible, as cross-platform as possible.
The look'n'feel is a bit "old fashioned", but I made it this way to keep the software simple and robust.
This app manages storyline nodes, movie notes, movie characters, scenes, scripts and storyboards for the movie tools part and staff members, teams, schedules and budgets for the staff management part.
I think it suits well for shorts or experimentals and, in fact, that's the feedback I'm looking for:
* which use is the best?
* are there any heavy bugs? where? which platform?
* are there any small bugs? same thing: where? platform?
* is it easy to use or to understand at first glance?
* what are craft's incorrect words I use (bad terminology)? Tell me, it's important.
* are there any features you'd like to get yet missing in this app?

In fact, I need feedback to make the software evolve to a better tool suite.

Users are always the best testers, because they find things you don't even think of as a developer.

 

[Papy]

I forgot to precise: this software is NOT a video editor.
It is mainly a text tool suite to help writing things and organizing a movie project.
Each subject (storylines, nodes, characters, ...) has a data exportation tools that allows you to print out your data on paper.
It's useful for your drafts and working documents.