Have you ever felt like you were missing a clip? Wondering if you accidentally deleted it or forgot to upload a CF card only to spend hours searching for the clip and finding it right under your nose? AV3 has found a way to make us feel smart again, giving us that sense of relief knowing we have the files we need, and putting them at our fingertips. "Get" is a new phonetic search tool that will help you find the files you need based on the words that are spoken within the clip.
Here's an actual scenario that I have run into. Editing a documentary can be daunting to say the least, with countless hours of footage sometimes mislabeled or unlabeled because of the speed at which the production team was shooting. Given the task of putting together a trailer which featured several different clips from the documentary along with news footage of people saying "Street racing…" I would have had to watch every single clip from start to finish in order to find every instance of useable content for that bumper. With Get, it took me 1 minute.
Exporting the correct file is as simple as one click!
Ease of Use
The term 'ease of use' is what Get is all about. You are able to search so quickly it almost feels like you are doing something wrong. You can easily change the layout of the search table to show the date last modified, or focus on the range of results. Exporting what you have selected is as simple as clicking the FCP icon in the upper right corner of the Get screen.
The one thing that I think could be simpler (and honestly this is splitting hairs) is the indexing process. I know, I'm so lazy that I hate the extra step of having to index the files in FCP or select watched folders. But I just want it to automatically search for all video files and index everything upon the first time it opens. Currently you must tell it where to search, and part of me feels like if I knew where to search for something I wouldn't need as much help from Get. But like I said, I'm asking for the moon here. After a month of owning Get, everything new you put into FCP will automatically be indexed.
Depth of Options
This is a one trick wonder, but a wonder nonetheless. It is not dependent upon a dictionary, so your spelling need not be correct in order to bring back the best results. This is great when dealing with slang or even other languages. Typing in the word "Mercedes" won't bring is as many hits as "Mer-Say-Dees" since it's more about the way the words sound. It's a perfect system in a world of many dialects and languages, dependent only on phonetics instead of actual words which can be updated and changed throughout time.
Importing projects and folders is simple.
Performance
As a phonetic search tool, there is no other competition. It's true that Adobe CS5 has a similar ability to follow the spoken word, but it requires the uploading of the script. This is the first program which can index and search without any input! It's truly amazing, and makes many types of projects very easy, finding just the clips you need for specific sections.
Value
$250 for a search tool may seem a little high for microfilmmakers, but it depends upon your workflow and project types. If you are only making web series and short films, you may not need this tool. But if you are doing long form projects, documentaries, commercials or trailers, this is a 'must have' tool. For $250, you will save countless hours searching footage for just the right clips, moments, etc. In filmmaking, time is money, and this is a great value.
Final Comments Like many great products, I found myself saying, "Damn, I wish I had this two weeks ago." That's certainly a good sign that this program is going to last. After speaking with Peter Ramsay, the Managing Director of AV3, I can tell you that this product is here to stay and will only get better.
Ease
of Use
8.0
Depth
of Options
9.0
Performance
10.0
Value
vs. Cost
9.0
Overall Score
9.0
A.J. Wedding is a graduate of Western Michigan University and has won festival awards for his first feature film, "Pop Fiction". As a writer/director, he has won several awards for his short films, and recently garnered worldwide distribution for a feature film titled “The Disappearance of Jenna Matheson” releasing this year. His hit web series, “Infamous” created an instant fanbase, and spawned interest from networks to create a tv series based on it. A.J. currently works with The Production Green, directing and editing commercials as well as developing his next feature film, "Junior Crew."
Have you ever felt like you were missing a clip? Wondering if you accidentally deleted it or forgot to upload a CF card only to spend hours searching for the clip and finding it right under your nose? AV3 has found a way to make us feel smart again, giving us that sense of relief knowing we have the files we need, and putting them at our fingertips. "Get" is a new phonetic search tool that will help you find the files you need based on the words that are spoken within the clip.
