Omnifocus - How I love thee.

GTD - Getting Things Done.

I rely on Omnifocus by the Omnigroup to manage pretty much everything I do. From the weekly shop to financial tracking. Within a work context however it has become almost indispensable. Large portions of my job require repeating processes over and over using multiple programs, processes and often computers. Omnifocus keeps me on track. 

Turnovers

I keep a set of actions in an on-hold project called Utility. This has a fairly averasge set of actions that I perform over and over regardless of what project I might be on. Turnover Utility Actions

As basic as this action set is without it I’d frequently forget to do the Fx conform of Reel 4. 

Some of the actions are not relevant to every project. For example, on most projects the codec that is requested from a picture department is what we actually receive. So the picture convert part is irrelevant. 

For the record when doing picture conversions the only tool I now trust is MPEG Streamclip it is fast, can deal with batches and reliably outputs the correct codec at the correct frame-rate. QuickTime player on the other hand refuses to output a 23.976fps picture from H264.

Contexts 

Still get really get a handle on these but kind of make it work. The best thing about Omnifocus for iphone (you knew it would have one) is within the contexts you can perform Business Searches. So for example my shopping list has a context of Groceries; within that context it searches for supermarkets. If I ave some time I can check to see what actions are available and as part of it I get a map of the area with all the supermarkets highlighted, pretty neat. I think so anyway. 

All of the mix stages we use also have contetxs so if I need to move files or setup a mix session then I assign that to the action and it searches for Goldcrest/Pepper and tells me what needs to be done. 

It’s my memory Cap’n she can nay take it

Progress bars tend to be a constant part of my day. I set this encoding, that downloading, another thing uploading to a playback system or the server, titan conforming or fixing. Without my beloved omnifocus I’d quickly lose track of where I was at. Did I put the final PB session for Reel 5 onto the FX machine? Quick check, Yes I did. Phew. 

So there it is, my ode to omnifocus. It’s more than I ever need it to be but for what I need it to do it excels. Omnigroup also make some other wonderful programs such as Omniplan (Project Management), Omniweb (where my love for the company started but I’ve had to leave behind :( ) and many others that I can’t really place in my workflows. Thank you Omni!

 

Weekend Working: Mix Prep

So, it’s Saturday and I’m in work.

Dealt with the 1 reel of new material that came in the morning and now waiting on maybe 2 more before the end of the day. Read all the forums I follow these days, fixed a session issue for Lon, updated mix documentation (twice)….and now more waiting.

Spent some time in the theatre yesterday building some template sessions ready for importing the master sessions into. This way you don’t risk losing automation by changing the outputs on tracks after import and you don’t end up duplicating paths in the I/O setup window.

Only problem I have now though is that my Pro Tools rig doesn’t have the necessary plug-ins or processing cards available to build the sessions for the stage. Not really sure how to get around that at the moment but I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

Got a couple of hours to kill today and a whole heap more tomorrow. Might end up waiting to build the playback sessions till tomorrow when there may be a system available which has the requisite cards/plugs available.

Keeping track of the various machines media copies using Omnigroup’s marvellous OmniFocus application. Great for GTD management, and has an iphone app that updates via MobileMe.

Have fun.

Ceri