by Robin Rowe 11/23/05
Getting Started
Go to the Software page at http://www.LinuxMovies.org and look at all the FOSS tools and non-FOSS tools listed there. Follow the links and skim through all their web pages. Give yourself a chance to get acclimated, gain an overall picture of available Linux filmmaker tools (FOSS and commercial).
Install Tools
Do not install everything together all at once. There's a good chance installing something will break something else. Do the first one on the list, master it, then go on to installing the next.
- Xine
- Kino
- Audacity
- Ardour
- Sweep
- CinePaint
- Shotcut
- Cuisine
Operating system: SuSE? 10.0
Robin, thanks for your support and guidance. I'm Christian Einfeldt, and I'm pleased to be working on this project with Robin and the rest of the folks at the Linux Movies project. After several email exchanges with Robin Rowe, I have decided to go with SuSE? 10.0 as the operating system for editing this film, at least at the beginning. It will certainly be some type of Linux. I chose SuSE? 10.0 for several reasons. One, my local hardware and software guru, Holden Aust, has a fondness for SuSE?. He started me out on SuSE? 7.3 in late 2000. Since that time, I have used primarily SuSE? as my operating system of choice for all of my work and home systems. I have tried and liked Mepis, Xandros, Linspire, Knoppix, and Damn Small, but I seem to continually come back to SuSE? for most of my heavy duty stuff. I'm not entirely sure why. Two, I think that Novell has made some substantial commitments to staying with Linux and open source. Three, I have interviewed Jack Messman, Christian Schlaeger, and Markus Rex for this film, and I personally like and respect these guys. Four, I am familiar with YAST. For newbies reading this wiki, YAST is the SuSE? applications installer. If you are going to experiment with Linux, pay attention to the installer for whatever Linux distro you choose. YAST is a solid, powerful installer. Five, Robin has told me that SuSE? is certainly no stranger to the film industry, and so I will not be writing on a blank slate with my choice of SuSE? for film. Of course, I'm assuming that the bigger the film house, the more that they will tweak whatever Linux distro they use. But you get my point. SuSE? is a good point of departure overall. Christian Einfeldt einfel at yahoo dot com.
How to install RPMs? on SuSE? 10.0 , AND a few tips on using the command line
If you are a newbie to the SuSE? Linux, or if you are an more experienced Debian user who would like to get a brief refresher on how to install RPM packages with SuSE?, please go to FossMovieSoftwareRPMsInstall for the details. The directions there are somewhat repetitive of the Audacity install mentioned in the next section below, but installing applications under Linux has been one of the hardest challenges for me (also a relative newbie) to master, and so I wanted to help the other newbies out there by highlighting this RPM install guideline by repeating it in its own section. Newbies wouldn't necessarily think to look for instructions for RPM package installation under Audacity, and so I'm highlighting those steps here. Also, newbies will find a few basic tips there on how to navigate using the command line.
How to install Audacity on SuSE? 10.0
If you would like to use Audacity for audio editing in conjunction with your open source film, please go to FossMovieSoftwareAudacity for the details. The directions there are for newbies as well as more experienced Debian users who maybe are a little rusty on installing packages with SuSE?'s RPM system.
How to burn video to DVDs? with SuSE? 10.0
This tip will give you step-by-step instructions for burning video to DVDs? with SuSE? Linux 10.0 . I'll show you how to install the tovid scripts to SuSE? Linux 10.0. Please go to FossMovieSoftwareDVDs for the details. The directions there are not quite total newbie level, and they also assume that you have already installed as many multimedia packages as you could grab from your SuSE? Linux 10.0 CD set with YAST. If you have not done that, please do so now.
How to make a flash "movie" of screen shots under Linux with Wink.0
If you have been wanting to make a quick little flash movie of screen activity under Linux, this little hack will tell you everything that I know for doing that. I have just figured a bit of it out tonight, April 10, 2006, and so this documentation will still be a little bit rough. Please go to FossMovieSoftwareWink for the details. Christian Einfeldt einfel at yahoo dot com.
How to install Avidemux under MepisLite? (Debian)
We all occasionally have a need to use a different distro for side tasks pertinent to our projects. In the case of the Digital Tipping Point film, I needed to be able to teach 11, 12, and 13 year-old public middle school students how to edit video on old Dell Optiplex GX110 boxes that the school received in a donation for a multimedia lab that we are building. Since those boxes only had 256 MB of RAM and chips running at 700 to 800 MHz?, we had to use light-weight editors, or at least we think we did, and so we chose Avidemux under MepisLite?. If you would like to a detailed explanation of how I installed Avidemux under MepisLite?, please go to FossMovieSoftwareAvidemuxLong for the details. If you would like a shorter explanation, please go to FossMovieSoftwareAvidemuxShort for that info. Thanks. Christian Einfeldt einfeldt at gmail dot com.
Capturing Audio and Video with dvgrab
We have been experimenting with dvgrab to capture audio and video from our mini-DV tapes to our SuSE? 10.0 boxes. We are going to be creating a separate page here for the purpose of documenting our work: