Setting up a project

A few minutes of setup before the shoot makes every log faster to write and easier to find. Load the people, places, gear and tags you will log against, and get the timecode right.

Where the settings are#

Open the project and choose Settings in the menu on the left. The page has a tab for each part of the project. Which tabs you see depends on your permissions. Changing the cast, crew, tags, locations and gear needs edit access to the project; see Team and permissions.

The Cast, Crew, Tags, Locations, Gear and Global tabs only appear while the project has an active plan.

Name, support email and logos#

The General tab shows the project's Unique Identifier, which can't be changed. Owners can change the Project Name and the Support Email, the address of the main account holder. Press Save Changes to keep them.

Three logos can be uploaded by dragging an image onto each box:

• Project Logo (Print), for use on a white background.
• Project Logo (Inverse) and Broadcaster Logo, shown on the full-screen timecode display.

Timecode and offset#

Every log is stamped with time-of-day timecode from EVA Story's own clock. The web app syncs to it on every device, so two loggers on two phones stamp within a frame of each other (the Unity capture app follows in its own later update). Three settings make it match your cameras and your location. They are on the timecode screen: choose Broadcast Tools in the menu, then Show Timecode.

How the clock is synced#

Under every clock is a small dot and a number, such as ±12 ms. The number is how far the device's clock could be from EVA Story's. The dot says whether that is good enough at the project's frame rate:

• Green: the clock is within half a frame and was synced recently. Log with confidence.
• Amber: more than half a frame out (up to a frame), or last synced more than 15 minutes ago. Once a sync is over 15 minutes old the label also says how long ago, for example ±12 ms · synced 3 h ago. Usually it clears by itself when the connection is back.
• Red: Not synced, more than a frame out, or last synced over an hour ago. Logs still save, but their timecode may be off by that much.

A device that is offline keeps the last sync and counts on from it, so loggers on location can keep going. It syncs again by itself when it is back online, when you return to the tab, and every few minutes.

Frame rate#

Choose the project's frame rate: 24, 25, 29.97, 30 or 50 fps. The default is 25. Drop-frame timecode switches on by itself at 29.97 and off at every other rate. Timecode shown with a semicolon before the frames (10:00:00;00) is drop-frame.

The sample rate setting beside it (44.1 to 192 kHz, default 48) is only used when this screen plays timecode out as audio. See Broadcast tools.

Time zone#

Timecode is the time of day in the project's time zone, not the device's, so a laptop set to another country or a tablet that has travelled still shows and stamps the same timecode as the cameras. The default is Johannesburg. Anyone who can edit the project can choose another with Time zonebeside the frame rate on the timecode screen; everyone else sees it there. It only changes how times are shown: logs already saved keep their exact moment. When a device is set to a different time zone, a line under the sync status says so, with the project's city on the same line: Project time · Johannesburg.

Offset#

If your cameras' clocks are a little ahead of or behind real time, set an offset so the logs line up with the footage. Use the - and + buttons under the hours, minutes, seconds and frames to move the clock until it matches a camera's timecode, or press Reset to go back to zero. The offset shows above the clock, for example +00:00:05:00.

The offset is added to the start and end time of every log saved after you set it, and to every clock in the project. It changes for everyone at once, so set it before logging starts, and check it again if the cameras are re-jammed.

Tags#

Tags are the labels loggers put on a log: a character, a theme, a kind of moment, anything you will want to find later. Loading them before the shoot keeps them consistent between loggers. New ones can still be added while logging.

1. 1

   On the Tags tab, press New Tag.

2. 2

   Click the new row and fill in the Tag Label and a description. Pick a colour and an emoji to use as its icon.

3. 3

   Press Save.

A tag's colour follows it everywhere: on logs, in History filters, in Tag Watch, and as the marker colour when you export to your editing software. Delete a tag from the menu at the end of its row. There is no confirmation, so check first.

Locations#

1. 1

   On the Locations tab, press New Location.

2. 2

   Give it a Title and a description. Find it on the map with Search Location, drag the marker, or type the latitude and longitude.

3. 3

   Optionally attach the gear that is always used there, and add a photo. Then press Save.

When a logger picks a location that has gear attached, EVA Story offers to replace the log's gear list with it. Schedules use a location's position to fetch the day's weather and sunrise and sunset times.

Gear#

On the Gear tab, press New Gear and fill in the Gear Label, the Operator and a description. The operator list shows team and crew members with a camera, sound, drone or jib operator role, so set up the crew first.

The Visible in logging switch, which is also the eye in the list, decides whether the gear is offered when logging. Turn it off for kit that is in the store rather than on set. New gear starts visible.

The This is a cameraswitch marks gear as a camera, and the Clapper Board's Camera list is built from it. Until you touch it, gear counts as a camera when its name says camera or cam, or its operator has a camera, drone or jib operator role. Turn it on for a camera called something else, or off for gear that only has "cam" in its name.

Crew#

Crew are contacts, not logins: adding someone here does not give them access to EVA Story. That's done under Users. On the Crew tab, press New Crewand fill in the name, mobile number, email, a photo and their roles. Roles decide who can be chosen as a gear operator, and crew appear in a schedule's contact list.

If a crew member's email is the same as someone's on the Users tab, they are the same person. Their roles come from their user account, so the Crew tab shows them locked and you change them under Users, and they appear once in the operator and contact lists.

Cast#

Cast members are the people loggers tag in a log, and the people you can filter History by. On the Cast tab, press New Cast and fill in as much or as little as you need. The cast card has sections for identity and contact details, a media library for photos, video and audio, physical details and wardrobe sizes, professional details and skills, legal releases, representation, travel, availability and logistics.

Use Save Progress to save and keep going, or Save and Close. A red Unsaved changes tag shows while there is something to save.

Settings for every logger#

The Global tab can fix the Scene, Roll, Shot and Take for everyone. Switch one on and enter its value, then press Save Changes. Loggers then find that field already filled in and locked, marked set for all. Use it when every logger is covering the same scene, and switch it off again afterwards. The same switches are on the timecode screen in Broadcast Tools.

Search by meaning#

When no log contains the words someone searched for, EVA Story can still find logs about the same thing. The Semantic search section on the Global tab sets how close a match must be before it is shown. Enter at least three searches that should find something, three that should find nothing, and press Calibrate. EVA Story suggests a threshold, and Apply uses it. Most projects can leave this alone.

Late claps#

A clap made on the Clapper Board can reach EVA Story after the log it belongs to has been saved, for example when the phone was offline. The Late claps setting on the Global tab decides where it goes: The log open at the tap puts it on the log that was open when the clap was made, The log open when it arrives puts it on whichever log is open now, and Don't log late claps drops it. Most projects can leave it on the first.