I'm a noob to this list, I've just recently become aware of Cinelerra, and the development, the new version, and the names being discussed. I've been looking around at the editing options out there and am very impressed with the Cinelerra, and the open source community that supports it. So impressed in fact, that I'm going to take the plunge and switch XP and go Ubuntu Studio.
My coding skills are limited to: 10 print Hello, 20 goto 10. I have NLE experience on Media100, Discreet Edit, Avid Adrenaline, and FCP. I am a commercial producer and I have experience in branding and brand development. Having said that, while I cannot contribute on the coding side, I can offer my advice on branding. Choosing a name for a product is a very long, detailed and important process. For commercial products and businesses, it can be the most important decision. Big businesses (smart ones) spend millions of dollars researching and selecting the right name, and many, many more millions promoting that name. A good name promotes not only product, but creates positive feelings of interest and loyalty from customers. The right product name creates a synergistic buzz that can elevate a product to a social icon that needs no promotion. So why then does an open-source free product need a marketable name? If anything, it needs a marketable name even more because it is a collaborative community based product. Without any budget to spend on promotion, it will rely exclusively on buzz factor alone. A name that is obscure, uninspiring, or carbon-copy sounding will only help to bury any buzz potential for the new Cinelerra. Name creation is not something that should be taken lightly. I recently shared my enthusiasm for Cinelerra with some peers, and told them of some of the potential names being discussed. A lot of the names sound as if they were developed by programmers without regards to marketing concerns. To put it succinctly, one of them said: why not just call it Ubergeek-editing-platform? So what then are the considerations for coming up with a new brand name? Some have been addressed before, but to put the four major ones in a list, here goes: Differentiation. Inspirational. Easy to pronounce. Easy on the Ears. Differentiation. Separate yourself from the marketplace. You are different, your name should reflect that. This is where positioning comes in. To choose correctly, you must understand not only your strengths, but your competitions as well. What is Cinelerra? Cinelerra is Free (now and forever) Cinelerra is Powerful (built on Unix, the choice of high-end industry production houses in Hollywood) Cinelerra is Smart, Created by Users for Users (This should be the tag line...) Who is the competition? Media100/Premiere/Vegas/et al: Not much of a concern. They really are nothing special, you have to pay for them, and no real professional post house use them. Avid: ~%80 of the top industry use Avid, but their numbers are declining. They are respected, but expensive. You need to buy Avid hardware, and the support sucks. It does. On the way of the dinosaur. (Too bad, I like Avid) FCP: This is the chief rival. FCP is considered the most powerful system for the dollar. The classic case of the underdog being fast and clever and taking over. Cinelerra is a much better value for the buck, but nobody knows this. That's where proper branding comes in. Inspirational. A name should invoke positive emotions, neutrality is almost as bad as negativity. Hopefully the name will work on multiple levels. Amazon, not Powell's books (although a great brick and mortar store) Google or Yahoo, not MSN. Chocolate, not V3, Jolt, not Royal Crown (although I love RC...) Smart, not Corolla. Easy to pronounce. This may seem obvious, but... Google, Avid, Jet Blue, Land Rover, etc. Easy on the Ears. This is the marketing hook that will help with the buzz. Google, Avid, Pepsi, Jello, Gatorade (just plain fun to say), etc. Having said that, let's look at the top suggestions on the list: Cinchrony CinNG StCinner Freecine Video Edith VeriteCV CineCV Free Cut Pro CiNLEss cinleia CineTris LerraCine Most of the names have cryptic or non-evocative meanings, and most are difficult to spell or pronounce. There are a couple that stand out as having marketing potential: Cinchrony I like this because it has a positive association, and it works on several levels. Obviously synchronization is many elements coming together at the right time, analogous to the open community. It starts to fall apart in the visual, Cinchrony just doesn't look right. I understand the desire to include the cine reference, but the spelling is a little weird to remember. Perhaps Synchrony or Synchronicity would work better, but those are both a mouthful. Freecine This is good. It sounds and looks good. Carefree. Easy. Fun and cine! The one downfall as mentioned by someone else is the inclusion of the word free. People are skeptical of anything free, and it doesn't position the product as being better or more powerful than the competition. (Which it is! 64Bit 1080p render farm capability for the price point - holey cow!) VeriteCV- I'd leave off the CV. Nobody outside the open community knows what the hell a CV is, and at the first impression, it's way too much effort to educate them. By the time you have, you've lost them. You should have been educating them about the product positioning. As for Verite. It's good and evocative. It's a little weird to spell for Americans, but it's got a good sound to it. It ties into the film community and has instant meaning to anyone who has been to film school. Side note... I'd want to focus group test this one, because for myself Cinema Verite has a negative connotation. For me it usually means a wanna-be film maker who is too lazy to use a tripod and proper lighting. Cinema Verite is why God invented Garret Brown. Just my personal opinion... Free Cut Pro This name could be dangerous. While I see it positioning itself as a free version of FCP, It could be seen as an imitator rather than an innovator. This does not differentiate the product from the competition, rather it mimics it. This also references the word free, which carries negative baggage as mentioned above. I will admit that it's not easy to come up with names that work, all the obvious ones are taken, so you do have to dig, and keep an open mind. Here are some suggestions: Cineplex. This looks and sounds good, although I'm not sure if it has positive or negative connotation. It's ok. Razor Razor Wire Both of these look and sound good. They also carry connotations of edginess They also work on several levels. One word or caution, do not dismiss the word based on association to the toy razor scooter. When considering branding, one thing to think about is context, and when used in context of packaging, advertising, or word of mouth discussion, the context will nullify any association. Focus testing will bear this out. Purely evocative names can be powerful. Think of the new Chocolate cell phone, or the Discrete's Smoke, or the SGI Oxygen machine. Try to picture these names in context pictured on the start screen, or referenced in discussion of a recent feature film. Here they are: Saturn Orion Iridium Tritium. Each of those carry positive connotations. They are vaguely inspirational. For purely evocative names, I like these. Some of my colleagues suggested Next Edit or X Edit, both of which are taken. One is a video editor, the other is a Unix editor. One idea is to simply call it X NLE, but brand it as X. It's bold, evocative, simple and really stands out. It clearly meets the 4 branding considerations very well. Sorry for the length of my rant, but the development of Cinelerra is at a critical point, and branding is something that deserves great consideration. It needs to have a buzz worthy name, if the product itself is going to take off. My recommendation is to narrow the selection list down and do focus testing, then using the results, choose the strongest name. I'd also recommend not to make too quick of a decision, a working project name will suffice until the release just remember to change it (Video Toaster...ugh!) Sorry for the length of this rant, promise it won't happen again! For more info online about branding, check out: Organic Naming and 8 Naming Mistakes by Phillip Davis at: http://www.ideamarketers.com/experts/branding_and_naming.cfm Also, you can read up on branding and naming by the top firm Igor. They have an excellent pamphlet (100 pages!) online at: http://www.igorinternational.com/process/naming-guide-product-company-names.php ____________________________________________________ Jay Truesdale Northern California e-mail: cinejay(at)emrl.com _______________________________________________ Cinelerra mailing list [email protected] https://init.linpro.no/mailman/skolelinux.no/listinfo/cinelerra
