Scrolldown
Scrolldown is prototype software for quickly visualizing credit rolls using a plain-text format inspired by Markdown.
Here is a sample credit roll and the corresponding text file used to create it.
Table of Contents
Creating a Roll
- Create a plain-text file (not rich text/RTF) using the formatting codes below.
- Upload the text file by dragging it the drop zone above, or clicking "Choose a file." After a few seconds, the animated roll should appear in your browser.
- To make changes to the text, modify the text file on your computer and repeat the process above.
- Formatting can be adjusted using Cascading Style Sheets.
Scrolldown Syntax
A credit roll is a [usually] vertically scrolling list of roles—job titles or character names (e.g. Director, Travis Bickle) and names—the people or company people who fulfilled that role (e.g., Martin Scorsese, Robert DeNiro). A role and its corresponding names may be formatted in several ways.
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Headings
There are two kinds of headings in Scrolldown: role headings (e.g. Director, Producer, Travis Bickle) and block headings (e.g. Cast, Second Unit, etc.).
Here is one kind of role heading, indicated by a series of dashes (---) between role and name (role headings can be specified in other ways, described further below).
Director -------- Martin Scorsese
Director Martin Scorsese
Block headings are indicated by a series of equals signs (===).
Cast ========== Travis Bickle ::> Robert DeNiro
Cast Travis Bickle Robert DeNiro
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Role + Name, Vertical
Director -------- Martin Scorsese
Director Martin Scorsese
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Role + Name, Paired (Horizontal)
A role and name can be paired horizontally in two ways. The first method uses the vertical syntax (retaining the "---" separator) and simply adds two bars "||" to the end of the role. This is convenient if you want to experiment quickly with changing vertical to horizontal formatting.
Composer|| -------- Jóhann Jóhannsson
The second method, which is usually used for long lists of roles and names (such as the cast).
Composer ::> Jóhann Jóhannsson
Composer Jóhann Jóhannsson
When more than one name is paired with a role in a horizontal layout, simply add the next name on a new line but without a preceding role, like this:
Composer ::> Jóhann Jóhannsson ::> Hans Zimmer
Composer Jóhann Jóhannsson Hans Zimmer -
Series and Separator (followed by Heading)
To reduce long lists of names, you can join several names in series on a single row, separated by a character of your choice. Aligned columns of names are not currently supported.
This example arrange names in rows of three people, each separated by a bullet (•).
Digital Artists|3• =========== Larry Burgess Shelly Ackinson Vera DeLance Maya Liat Xochi Rodríguez Meredith Suitlan Peter Jolie
Digital Artists Larry Burgess • Shelly Ackinson • Vera DeLance Maya Liat • Xochi Rodríguez • Meredith Suitlan Peter Jolie
This example arrange names in rows of two people, each separated by a pipe (|).
Digital Artists|2| =========== Larry Burgess Shelly Ackinson Vera DeLance Maya Liat Xochi Rodríguez Meredith Suitlan Peter Jolie
Digital Artists Larry Burgess | Shelly Ackinson Vera DeLance | Maya Liat Xochi Rodríguez | Meredith Suitlan Peter Jolie
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Spacing
Each Role + Name pair must have one newline character (carriage return) to separate them.
Director -------- Martin Scorsese Catering -------- Apples and Oranges Legal Services -------- Laney and Delaney
Director Martin Scorsese Catering Apples and Oranges Legal Services Laney and Delaney
The following example is missing a newline character between each Role + Name, yielding unexpected results. For example, both "Martin Scorsese" and "Catering" might be listed under the Director heading. Other roles or names may be missing.
Director -------- Martin Scorsese Catering -------- Apples and Oranges Legal Services -------- Laney and Delaney
Director Martin Scorsese Catering Apples and Oranges Legal Services Laney and Delaney
Additional space can be added using dollar ($) symbols. The number of dollar symbols specifies how much spacing to add between lines.
Director -------- Martin Scorsese $$$$ Catering -------- Apples and Oranges $$ Legal Services -------- Laney and Delaney
Director Martin Scorsese Catering Apples and Oranges Legal Services Laney and Delaney
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Images
Images are specified in a format similar to Markdown: an exclamation point followed by the relative or absolute path to an image file, in parentheses. Obviously, the images files must be at the designated location in order for them to appear.
!(http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/goanimate/images/7/7e/IATSE_LOGO_3.jpg) !(http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/logopedia/images/6/60/Mpaa-logo.jpg)
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Unsupported Layout Options
A few typical credit roll layout options are not currently supported, but probably should be:
- Series of names in multiple columns: Breaking a list of names into rows and aligned columns. The syntax for this should be similar to Series and Separator above. Also, there should be "sort" styles: names fill in by row; names fill in by column.
- Role + series of names with separator, paired: Similar to the Role + Name (paired) above, but multiple names should fill one row to save space.
Digital Artists Larry Burgess • Shelly Ackinson • Vera DeLance Maya Liat • Xochi Rodríguez • Meredith Suitlan Peter Jolie - Licensed music and film clips: These are arranged in columns in several styles.
Additional Features
Within the scrolling credits, you can control a few aspects of playback:
- Start/stop: Press the spacebar to start and stop the scrolling animation
- Speed: Press number keys 1–9 to play faster or slower, respectively
- Direction: Press left or right arrow keys to change direction of the scroll backward and forward, respectively
- Reset: Refresh your browser or press Command-R (Macintosh) / Control-R (Windows).
Technical Details
Scrolldown was developed to reduce some of the tedium typically encountered when creating credit rolls for feature films. Unlike services like Endcrawl (which seem fantastic, though I have not yet used it), Scrolldown is aimed at an earlier phase of credit rolls when filmmakers are creating an initial list and want to have some sense of what the roll will look like. It is loosely inspired by software such as Markdown and Fountain.
Currently, Scrolldown uses Python to transform the plain-text "markdown" format to a structured XML document which is then converted to HTML via XSLT and styled with CSS. Some rudimentary Javascript code handles the scrolling animation.
Web technologies make credit rolls easily shareable and the data required is minimal compared to rendered video files. CSS is a well-known layout standard, opening up design to anyone with sufficient skills in that area.
The intermediate step to XML at first seems unwieldy (why not convert the text file directly to HTML?), but it opens up potential interchange possibilities with other software, such as After Effects, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X (perhaps even EndCrawl?)
Prior to Scrolldown, we experimented with more structured authoring via databases (FileMaker Pro, etc.) and spreadsheets, but these felt too heavy for the task at hand. Ultimately, I believe a structured approach may be better than a plain-text "markdown" syntax, but this would a more significant undertaking.