[LAD] I believe in cinelerra

[Richard Spindler]

From: Leo germani <leogermani at gmail.com>:
> What
>
> Develop cinelerra as a professional free/libre video editing tool.

Hi,

I've read your proposal, and I do largely agree, even if I do have a
different Vision about how to turn certain ideas into reality.

However, I am very interested in getting together and forming some
kind of "Task-Force" to make a Linux an even _better_ Video Editing
Platform than it is today, I have a lot of ideas, and I am willing to
do my share of the work. :-)

Just for who I am:
I am the Developer of the Open Movie Editor, which somehow puts me
into a position where I "compete" with Cinelerra, but since this is
Open Source, competition doesn't really matter. ;-) Especially because
some important components in Open Movie Editor, actually originated
from Cinelerra.

Additionally, I am currently the "maintainer" of the frei0r video
plugins collection, Frei0r being the video plugin specification that
you mention later in your proposal.I wasn't involved in the creation
of the specification and I only wrote a very small number of the
available plugins.

Anyways, what I believe is the following:
Cinelerra is a to BIG "problem" to be solved by a single team. There
are however a number of interesting technologies in cinelerra and in
video editing in general that might be useful for communities outside
of the core interest group. Therefore I think a viable way would be to
break the big "cinelerra" problem down into a number of smaller
problems, that can then be tackled by smaller teams, which can then
work more efficiently.

While this "breaking up" of the problem is vital, it is also vital
IMHO that there remains a group or individual that keeps an overview
about the splinter groups and keeps the "big picture" in mind, because
there certainly is a lot of stuff happening in the linux and floss
video development space, which is not very accessible and reusable for
apps and devs outside of a core group.

> The Plan
>
> 1. Get the community together
>
> The community of developers today is very small and spread, and
> cinelerra has no road map.

It would be nice to have an overview about WHO actually does write
code for cinelerra, and who is interested in the "Big Picture" of
cinelerra.
I am for sure interested, but I mostly work outside of cinelerra,
because I simple have no idea about how to "get" into cinelerra?

> First thing to do is gather this people to discuss about the future of
> cinelerra, identify the main flaws and its solution, make a plan to
> organize the place and set up for new features.

I've actually started working on a "Linux Video Editing" Task-List:
https://init.linpro.no/pipermail/skolelinux.no/cinelerra/2007-November/012331.html


> Cinelerra needs a project leader, an interface designer, and more
> people with defined roles that should be choosen on this meeting.

People who have a clue and who write code are needed.

> Developers of other softwares are also welcome. Cinelerra is, so far,
> the only video free editing video editing software with professional
> approach, but it could share a lot of things with other software, such
> as effects, for example, that shoul be usable in any video software,
> just like we have LADSPA for audio. There is already a video effect
> standar called Frei0r that cinelerra does not support.

Frei0r is very limited in its focus, BUT this makes it so easy to work with. :-)


So, Anyways, I am VERY interested in making all this happen, and in
being part of a "core" team to get things done. Everyone else who is
interested is invited to get into contact with me. :-)

Cheers
-Richard