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Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) computers' reputation as a favorite of "creatives" in filmmaking is well known, but they've also captured the hearts of those dealing with the more prosaic tasks of making a movie, thanks to programs like Gorilla from Jungle Software.
Gorilla computerizes the nitty gritty of shooting a film -- creating shooting schedules, managing budgets, working up storyboards and shot lists and juggling shot locations.
Gorilla has three price points. The Pro edition (unlimited shooting days) sells for US$399; the standard edition (up to 48 shooting days) for $299; and the student edition (14 shooting days) for $199.
Late last month, Jungle released the latest revision of Gorilla -- a name inspired by its target audience, Independent, or guerrilla, filmmakers.
Cosmetic Changes
Many of the changes in the new edition of the seven-year-old software are cosmetic, according to Jungle President Aaton Cohen-Sitt. "We made it easier for users to get from one module to another," he told MacNewsWorld.
The application for Macs and PCs has six modules.
The scheduling module, which accepts files from Final Draft and Movie Magic Screenwriter, will link elements of a script to a timetable and create "moving strips." The strips are used to organize the shooting schedule for a movie.
The budget module will track global and fringe expenses, change currencies used in items, track expenses against a budget, export to a payroll and link to an optional ratebook database ($49) with some 3,000 pay scales.
"We really pride ourselves on our ratebook," Cohen-Sitt observed. "No other software has such a great integration between labor rates and the budget module."
Improved QuickBooks, Excel Support
The cast and crew module permits a producer to keep tabs on actors and technicians with a database, schedule rehearsals and manage emails to the production company.
The location management module provides a place to store location photos and track locations in a database and link locations to sets.
With the storyboard and shot list module, a filmmaker can cache storyboard photos, attach shots to scenes and equipment needs to shots, as well as manage continuity.
With the miscellaneous items module, distribution of profits can be viewed, a database of film festivals consulted, security settings customized and scenes tagged with comments.
In its latest Gorilla offering, Jungle has also beefed up its support 
of financial mainstays like Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Excel and QuickBooks.
More Than Data Dump
Excel exports in prior releases of Gorilla, according to Cohen-Sitt, were "flat"-- essentially a data dump in tab-delimited format. This cut of the program has three new export levels from the software's budget categories. The exports appear in Excel as formatted text.
"They make it really easy to pop [data] into Excel and format it any way you want," he maintained.
In addition to better Excel support, users clamored for Intuit (Nasdaq: INTU) QuickBooks compatibility.
"QuickBooks has, unfortunately, a very limited import ability," Cohen-Sitt asserted, "so there's not much we could export, but whatever it allows, we allowed Gorilla users to export."
Data exportable into QuickBooks include crew and cast information for doing payroll and budget line items.
Great Divide Disappearing
Jungle's president estimated that the customer base for Gorilla is evenly split between Mac and PC users, which belies the popular belief that number crunchers prefer Windows systems over those running OS X.
"I think that old feeling isn't around anymore because you can do the same things on both machines right now," he opined. "So many programs are cross-platform that it's really not an issue."
Dennis E. Meyer, a principal in Monkey Ltd., of Cincinnati, Ohio, reviewed Gorilla's PC version when scouting for production software for his horror film "The Legend of Grassman."
"It's a very robust application," he told MacNewsWorld.
"It's got everything you could want as far as the reports you'd expect to have to put a production together," he said.
The software was so detailed, though, that Meyer found it daunting.
"The learning curve seemed a bit high," he contended. "The user interface isn't as intuitive as applications tend to be nowadays."
"It looks like it was designed in the late '90s and they kept that look all this time," he added.
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