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they set the stage
2003-10-17 08:13:55
Video is done; next should be done by Wednesday. Damn Anime USA for making me encode bumpers. I should have started post-production last night, but didn't, so it's currently churning in VDub. Post for various versions will eat all my time Saturday (have to be at the office by 3 to set up for the showing). This bites.
Current video: Metallica, "So What" to Excel Saga. Progress check: 75%. Expected catalog number: #83. I was thinking about doing the timing chart for this last night, but decided to go to sleep instead. Good decision. This video is currently planned to debut in the What The Hell room at Con Ja Nai X -- there's almost nowhere else that'd show it.
The recently completed video will get listed on the .org early next week, so that I can back-to-back these vids as intended. Then, I can get on with my life, kick the butt of the 478 exam, and rip out the Early Reins and Munto vids by the end of the month (hopefully). It'll be so good to finish projects and still remember around when I started them.
--Kai out
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my systems overload
2003-10-16 08:16:53
Work is going about as average, couldn't get the TV all the way fixed (have to try again over tomorrow), and the first video is fully drafted.
Current videos: Hypocrisy, "Evil Invaders" and Metallica, "So What" to Excel Saga. Progress check: 90%, 75%. Expected catalog numbers: #82, #83. The video is looking a little chaotic, but the effects will pick up the pace some, and cut a little into the randomness. This is Vic's secret: it's *easy* to do a drama video to Excel Saga, because the dramatic components are consistent. It's also easy to do comedy, because comedy doesn't have to be consistent. It's hard to do an action video to Excel Saga, though, because the parts that work videographically are never consistent enough across a large enough volume of source to do a consistent video. Hopefully, the randomness will be played down enough that the connections and thematic divisions can carry the video.
What the fuck am I talking about, it's a two-clip-in-three-seconds neckwrecker with more strobes and frame-mangling MEIMI work than I've done ever. It doesn't HAVE to make sense.
--Kai out
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just a speck in the spectrum
2003-10-15 07:49:35
Half done editing one, will finish today and get into effects, possibly finalization, tonight. Not too much work to do, but I need to stay on the ball, since I'm getting a little behind on my 481 responsibilities. If it ain't one thing, it's another.
Current videos: Hypocrisy, "Evil Invaders" and Metallica, "So What" to Excel Saga. Progress check: 85%, 75%. Expected catalog numbers: #82, #83. I've got 128 of about 230 seconds done, and it's looking decent if a little chaotic. Of course, the *song*'s a little chaotic, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem. It's still staying roughly 'on theme'; I'm lyric-synching the parts where the lyrics are intelligible to the best of my ability, riff-matching the instrumental sections, and just letting the video get all crazy in the admittedly unintelligible (even to me, an experienced death metal listener looking at the lyric transcription) verses. Got the lock-in, 2 solos, and another verse-pre-chorus block to get through before I hit the coda. Effects are minimal so far, but I might throw in a cube-in-cube or some frame-spinning a la 'Try Again' somewhere in the remaining footage.
I got a new TV last night. Someone in my building was throwing it out because it "was broken". I took a look at it and decided they were a dumbass, because it just looked like the co-ax jack had broken off. I took it inside before it got rained on too much and checked it out. The tube was fine, and the picture quality was great, provided that the jack was held in the right position. If my brother was out here, this would have been a ten-second, five-cent repair job, but unfortunately him and his soldering iron are back in the armpit of New York. Two bucks for some Krazy Glue (if I don't still have a functional bottle) and a minute or so holding the connection with pliers should answer fine. I've put RPG minis together with this glue and had no problems; this case ought to be even easier as the surfaces are rougher and more or less fitted. If all else fails I can jury-rig something and glue the jack to the plastic case. Of course, then I can't sell it, but that's pretty much immaterial.
I shoulda done this with all those nukers and such that were being thrown out early in the semester. Most of them I probably wouldn't even have had to fix, just take off the curb and sell for $50. That's the moral: if you know what you're doing, you can get free appliances from dumb people.
--Kai out
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whispering tunes in the wind
2003-10-14 09:37:57
Lessee....bunch of stuff to read and work on today and tonight, but I should be able to get some timing charts done, and probably tomorrow, edit one of the vids.
Current videos: Hypocrisy, "Evil Invaders" and Metallica, "So What" to Excel Saga. Progress check: 75%. Expected catalog numbers: #82, #83. I'm amazed that not only has this combo not been done, but that "So What" has never been used before. Speechless. I've got in the neigborhood of 13 minutes of footage to cover about 7 minutes of music, so it's most likely going to work out. #83 will involve a lot of the same kind of lipsynch as found on #71, #82 will be a straightup action thrasher. If I can finish one of these and keep the disgusting parts down by the end of the week, it'll be going to Anime USA; otherwise, they get #75.
There are already plans for a heavy custom treatment of #83 including an intro and a special remix. Look for that as omake on some future con release. It will NOT repeat NOT get posted on the Donut. The language alone is enough to break the rules. And that's before I even start with the 'framefucking'.
--Kai out
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to reach the point i've attained
2003-10-13 08:31:01
The weekend isn't quite over yet; I've still got a good bit of work to do on both school and video projects, even considering how much I've gotten done so far.
Current video: Hypocrisy, "Evil Invaders" to Excel Saga. Progress check: 65%. Expected catalog number: #82. Disc 6 is capped, and will probably be processed to term sometime before the end of the week. I probably should announce that other video, since I have more than enough good source now to do both, but it still won't feel 100% until I clip all the way through 26.
I made a video almost by accident Saturday night....I was clipping ep 19 and listening to _The Sound of Perseverance_, and "Voice of the Soul" just lined up perfectly with this stretch. Opening, closing, internal points...it's difficult to say no. It won't ever be listed on the .org, but like 'homebound' it'll probably turn into omake for somewhere, probably AniBo '04, which I still need to register for.
Meimi is working again, which is a nonstop Good Thing. Look for at least one Meimiblast in the current video, and a few more over the next spate of projects, which should be of the wrap-up-in-a-week variety. It's good to get experience with longer projects, but I'm already sick of clipping this one Sword-cursed series, and there's a lot of new one-shots that have just been blowing me away lately.
I've already mentioned Early Reins (probably a Seatbelts song), and everyone knows about Cat Soup (got some Bix Beiderbecke for this), but there's also been Munto (probably "Voice of the Soul", maybe with some hardcore editing and manipulation, maybe a certain Sentenced song if there's enough footage), and stuff that hasn't intruded into the todo list yet, like The White Snake (saw Friday night, will never be able to get a print, even though the full-animation is amazing) and Yokohama Shopping Log (cool, but too quiet...hmm...maybe "Springrain"?...whatever, second OAV is rendering now). This was a good weekend for obscure, cool, anime. And amazingly, I managed to get some work done too.
Right. Back on task. Gotta enter my AI assignment and try to dig up that SRS -- then finish my part of the SDS in time to clip up some more eps.
--Kai out
JOURNAL: Kai Stromler (Kai Stromler)
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