I received an email the other day from Brussels based editor and colorist Michael Cinquin. The email pointed to a number of web-based tools the he has available for all to use free of charge. They are all browser based and address a number of very specific tasks.

They include:

A timecode and keycode (or keykode) calculator: add or substract timecodes to/from timecodes with results in timecode or images; add or substract images to a keycode; compute the number of images between two keycodes.

Tools for Final Cut Pro: use the ability to import / export xml to list effects in a timeline – useful before grading or to make sure there are no unwanted effects, to rename shots having illegal characters in their name – can avoid problems with xml round trips, to delete the audio tracks of clips – useful when one has to relink clips with audio tracks to media without audio tracks; and to list every clip in a bin and calculate the uncaptured holes between every clip – useful to verify a batch capture

RED : pass a Red timeline from FCP to RedCine, by generating a directory containing all the r3d files used in the timeline and a RedCine project

Subtitles: a complete toolset to subtitle and translate subtitles - allows the moving of subtitles from Final Cut Pro to Excel, from Excel to Final Cut Pro, from Final Cut Pro to DVD Studio Pro, from Belle-Nuit Subtitler to Final Cut Pro

EDL repair: to repair, transform, modify, conform, reformat a cmx3600 edl

Tools for Apple Color: add missing functionalities to Color – batch transfer the grades from one Color project to the other, batch modify one parameter of the geometry room for every shot, batch modify one parameter of settings for every shot, solve the crash on save bug of Color

Tools for Cinema Tools: Generate an EDL for the Northlight scanner by Filmlight; synchronize Final Cut Pro clips with CinemaTools clips

A number of these tools are very specific to particular tasks. My guess is that a number of the problems that these tools solve came up specifically in Michael’s workflow so he created these tool to solve his own obstacles. It’s great that he is sharing them with the community. I haven’t tried them as of yet but I will definitely bookmark his tools page for reference. Keep an eye to Michael’s site as I bet there will be more of these types of tools added in the future as the need arises.