After a week of getting the Linux system tippity toppity and testing, I found out that my friend has a copy of Avid Xpress Pro on a decent PC we can use. D’oh!

So last night it was back to Microsoft Windows land again – I desperately wanted to keep Fedora running as I really like it and it runs so much better on my PC. But it failed at the last hurdle when I got all my Windows software running neatly through the Wine interface, except Movie Magic Screenwriter which it didn’t like at all.

Ho hum…

I also saved myself a packet by buying a tape head cleaning kit for my Canon XM1 – hey presto, camera problems solved! (It was getting kinda fuzzy and I thought it was a hardware issue).

I stumbled across a most excellent web site – dvinfo.net – which is packed with great information. I like the way they force people to use their real names on the forum, it adds a great deal of kudos to the site.

Armed with information I gleaned from there, I’ve been able to create some very ‘film’ like images with the XM1 using the normal (interlaced) movie mode and tweaking some of the settings. Fabulous! And there’s quite a few more tricks in post that will enhance the effect even more.

We’ve gone for lock down on the screenplay now (more to save my sanity than anything else), and I’ve started drafting out some storyboard ideas. I’m gonna try to arrange a meeting with people next week to start the ball rolling properly.