Cueing projections / AV media for a theatre production

[hellisforheroes]

Hello people

I am making projections for a theatre production - which i will need to cue during the production (from my Macbook Pro) - I will be using Final Cut Pro to create the video which will be quite complex (i.e. I might need to pause a image, resume, move to the next set etc.) I have used Keynote in the past, exported the movies to Quicktime and placed them on slides; however, this can be very limiting with gaps, time-lapses etc between them.
Does anyone have any experience in this field and are there any specific programs or techniques that are best.
(Also bear in mind that as the images are projected from computer to projector to screen, so anything you do on the computer is seen by the audience -- unless projectors can work in extended desktop mode?????

Thanks in advance for your responses.

 

[Experiment13]

Just what you need

I use Livid's "Union" for real-time video effects, but they now make the software "Cell" for playing video clips easily. You can also use, but it is not required, Livid's "Ohm" hardware controller to trigger the video "cell" that you want to play. It works very well.

Go to http://www.lividinstruments.com/software_cell.php.

Good luck and have fun,

Bob

 

[samscammin]

Try this!

You should try ProPresenter from Renewed Vision. It's not cheap but it's rock solid an full of features.

 

[hellisforheroes]

Sorted!

Thanks for the great suggestions - had a look around and saw that Qlab has just done a major update that now incorporates video -- I have used Qlab for quing sound and highly recommend it to any readers who need to Q for live performances. You can get it (it's free) at: http://figure53.com/qlab/
thanks again for your help.

 

[notjustjay]

You should try ProPresenter from Renewed Vision. It's not cheap but it's rock solid an full of features.

Glad the OP found something that worked!

I second the recommendation of ProPresenter. It's ostensibly for church worship lyric projection -- this is what it is designed for -- but it is useful for all kinds of other live situations, whether they are concerts, rallies, etc. I even used it to drive the slides for training presentations. There is a free demo available from their site which is fully-featured except for a massive watermark, but you'll get the idea whether it works for you.

I find its major weakness is the inability to play PowerPoint or Keynote shows directly -- you need to run the respective app and switch between them -- but it works fine with JPEG images exported from those programs, as well as sound, music, video, picture clips, etc.