Category Archives: Uncategorized

Grrr… I’m a Video Producer, part II

Posted on by

So, when I in school for Film & Video, we were often given projects that were just a bunch of random footage and told to put them together into something, maybe even a story.

At the time, I thought it was a somewhat pointless exercise because unless you were going to be doing music videos, generally the footage made sense. Either you shot it with an order and story in mind, or it was something that was shot live and already had a “story” naturally.

Turns out, that exercise is almost equivalent to putting together these little trailer things for Georgia Shakespeare. For the Shakespeare pieces, it’s not an easy task to pull out the soundbites… Those people just go on and on. Plus, we lack the audio equipment to get good sound, so really all we have are visuals.

It’s the same with Metamorphoses… the sound is pretty much unusable, so all we’ve got is a seemingly random bunch of images to pull together to show a mood, or something. Plus, the footage is taken of a dress rehearsal, so it’s improvisational camera work on a cheap tripod. Plus, it’s a really dark (in terms of lumination) show.

The other thing that irritates me is that there seems to be some sort of unwritten rule about length of clips and dissolves. Sometimes the dissolves work, sometimes they don’t. I don’t know if that’s a software glitch with Roxio VideoWave, or some rule I’m violating that prevents smooth dissolve.

Anyway, it’s been kinda fun to dabble in this stuff again.

Would that there were enough hours in the day to do all the things I wished.

Metamorphoses Trailer (MPG – 0:37)

Time Machines

Posted on by

For years, I’ve wanted a watch that ran backwards. I saw one in a catalog when I was 12, and then never saw another one again (with the exception of those lame Goofy watches). I couldn’t pass a watch shop or a kiosk without asking if they had one. All I ever got was funny looks.

A friend gave me a wall clock that ran backwards, and that was a nice substitute.

I’ve sort of given up in recent time, as my obsession naturally faded.

But now I have a new obsession, thanks to my brother, who linked me to this odd watches page:

Legend:

The See Touch watch… the link to the manufacturer is dead… (www.seetouchwatch.ch). Harumph.

Smile! Or rather, don’t.

Posted on by

I went to Wolf Photo to get some passport photos taken just now.

I was unaware, but the woman who took my photo1 said you’re not allowed to smile in a passport photo. I tend not to smile for posed photos anyway because I just have trouble doing it.

I wonder why that rule exists.

Afterwards (and because apparently I hate myself), I stopped by a fast food chain to grab a quick lunch. Both the person who took my money and the person who gave me my food said “See you tomorrow!”

Presumptuous!

————-
1 who, for no reason I can put my finger on, reminded me of .

Childish

Posted on by

3.5 year olds… are assertive. It’s important for their development as confident individuals… but…

But once in a great while his contrary attitude wears on my last nerve.

Does everything have to be such an ordeal? Can we not walk a block home from the pool without making a big production number out of it? Literally? Because he was actually trying to put on a 30 minute show? That was largely the ABC song over and over? On the neighbor’s driveway?

Ordinarily, it’s very charming. Whimsically creative, even. But after two straight hours of indecisiveness, lollygagging, tantrums, whining and general annoyingness that’s really just a continuation of this mood he’s been in this week, I’m just about done.

So now we’re finally home, and finally eating dinner at 9:15pm.

Anyway. It was a good first week at work. My boss is a great guy, and a lot of the other folks seem very friendly. And I’m told I’ll never have to pay for a DVD burner or high-density hard drive again, as there are always plenty of extra samples lying around.

Ahhh. Okay. I’ve vented. I’ve relaxed. Now I’m refreshed, and ready to read The Cat in the Hat.

The Cat in the Hat. Now he was assertive.

Travellight Loves Me

Posted on by

Top Commenters on ‘s LiveJournal
(Self and anonymous comments excluded from rankings)

1 468 468
2 289 289
3 236 236
4 216 216
5 119 119
6 118 118
7 100 100
8 98 98
9 84 84
10 77 77
11 54 54
12 44 44
13 34 34
14 21 21
15 21 21
16 13 13
17 11 11
18 9 9
19 9 9
20 8 8
21 7 7
22 7 7
23 6 6
24 6 6
25 5 5
26 4 4
27 2 2
28 2 2
29 2 2
30 2 2
31 1 1
32 1 1
33 1 1
34 1 1
35 1 1

Total Commenters: 37 (2 not shown)
Total Comments: 3098
Report generated 7/20/2006 7:19:16 PM by ‘s LJ Comment Stats Wizard 1.7

Grrr… I’m a Video Director

Posted on by

I organized my basement lab this week, and got a VCR hooked up to my computer so that I may dub the multitude of videos I was either in or directed in college.

I dubbed one of them this morning, and thusly, you can view the web premiere of Flight of Imagination, a piece I did during my stint as an R/TV/F minor in 1992, back in the days of 3/4″ tape and really expensive linear editing systems.

Neither of the stars were actors persay… Perry (The Pilot), a star journalism student at Northwestern, went on to be an editor of a Virginia newspaper and then to teach journalism at a university in Michigan. M.H. (the Lego Tank guy), an R/TV/F major, went on to be the manager of a ginormous convention center in Virginia. So, I guess this wasn’t their big break. But still, I thought they did a good job. The two actors’ future wives were my GodLike Crew.

Grrr… I’m A Dinosaur Productions
Flight of Imagination
Time: 4:14, Size: 13.1MB, Flash Video

Behind Closed Doors…

Posted on by

… is where we’d like our stuff to be.

We live in a 1959 house, and I believe all the closets have the original metal bifold doors.

I have always hated bifold doors. We had them in the house I grew up in, and they never, ever, EVER worked right. They always came off the track, or got jammed, or fell out of the frame completely.

I hate bifold doors. And the ones in our current house are no exception.

Basically, if I have a closet with bifold doors, it simply won’t get used for everyday storage. Anything put in there is likely to stay in there, because I haven’t the gumption to try to open the door, get it out, and close them again because of the sheer volume of effort and cursing involved. I’m more likely to go out and buy a new whatever-it-was. Which is probably why we have three camcorder tripods and one camcorder.

One of the laundry room doors broke completely a while back, and I replaced it with the one from our bedroom closet. I like this scenario, because now I can use the closet. But someday, I’m going to have to replace it.

The point of this rant, aside from expressing my hatred of bifold doors1, is to ask if anyone knows of a good place to get odd-size closet doors, either online or off. We’ve been to Lowes, and they do not have 93″ high closet doors. They can’t even special order them; They’re not in their catalog. The best the man could suggest was to go to a lumber yard and have some custom made, which we may yet try.

All my websearches have turned up are high-end custom-carved hardwood doors or other expensive-as-hell options. We just need some 93″ high, hollow, wood, cheap-o doors of the non-bifold variety, of various widths.

Alternatively, I wouldn’t mind holographic doors, or perhaps force fields.

1which is intense, I assure you.