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standing before the raventhrone
2002-08-13 08:26:03
Unfair clue. The Kanon clipping is progressing so well (despite the utter lack of appropriate footage in ep 10) that I may do two videos with such source instead of one, though both on the same theme, and both sure to get me lynched if fans of either the music or the anime used got wind of the combination without having the opportunity to see it. At least things are moving again.
Silence from MTAC means no win, which is OK. This was a heavy field, and I sent a long, heavy, bloody video from a paradigm diametrically opposed to much of the current scene. Hopefully it was shown, and hopefully I influenced someone to pick up a BG album. That's the whole point, in the end; "to show metal to the people, and light the fire of metal in their souls", to paraphrase Varg Vikernes. I'm not in this for personal fame or self-gratification, or to carry out any alleged "artistic vision" (I have musical projects enough for that), but to champion and advance the cause of true music. Not to hang up a shingle but to throw down a gauntlet.
Current video: *** ***'* *****, "*** ********** ****" (edit) to Kanon. Progress Check: 63% complete. Expected catalog number: #47. This one should be complete by Friday, but may end up pushed back to the weekend if certain events intervene. Once it's done, I'll tell y'all what went into it (and prepare for war).
--Kai out
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they absorb each other's lives
2002-08-12 08:25:09
I'm finally back on track with video #47 after a whole weekend on hacking (more or less). Of course, there were also breaks to play a ruinous 8 hours of AD&D at one stretch, and to drop in on MIT's Saturday night anime showing.
Before getting to the main event (a Kenshin/Kodocha double bill), they set up a bunch of AMVs, including some that were tremendously cool (Tim Park's stellar "This Video Sucks" and AbsoluteDestiny's special-effects clearinghouse, "Shameless Rock Video") and some that were not, including a FMP video ("Ikuze", I think) that looked as though its creator hadn't really been paying attention in the editing process, and a take by VicBond on the Ah! My Goddess movie that could have been great, but wasn't.
The main problems with this video were overuse of footage acceleration, which is easily explained, and "tail disjunct", which is not, but absolutely destroys videos that it happens to. The problem with speeding up footage too much is that it's tougher to sync with the pace of the music, and it crams in more story than the audience may be prepared to deal with. However, nothing kills a video faster or deader than having the anime and music move independently of each other. Since this usually happens in the last quarter to fifth of videos with a strong sense of story, as the creator needs to tie things up irrespective of the way the music is going, it gets called tail disjunct.
Seeing this happening in a video, from a creator standpoint, is like watching a train lurch off its tracks and into the embankment. It's horrible but unavoidable, and you can see with frightful clarity that it just had to happen. With real-time drafting, I have an extra edge in being vigilant about this, but even I'm not innocent; videos #31 and #37 both suffer to some degree from this phenomenon.
However, avoiding tail disjunct is going to be the least of VicBond's problems if he doesn't get his head lanced. Self-referential intros topping 20 seconds are not self-promotion but solipsism. Yes, he's good, probably better than I am at this point, but nobody who lets a case of tail disjunct like that one go out for competition has any place to shout themselves up like that.
Ah, hatred and vendettas, the meat and drink of fandom. CRAFT NOT ART. EDIT IS LAW.
Current video: *** ***'* *****, "*** ********** ****" (edit) to Kanon. Progress Check: 53% complete. Expected catalog number: #47. This one is headed for Nekocon, replacing #18, which got re-slotted to NDK, to replace #11, which had to get bumped off the schedule because I ddin't compete with it last year when I made the damn thing. "It's in the fishbowl, Bert!"
Con news: MTAC was this weekend, no idea how things went with my entry. Anyone have a post-op? "Mah boys! Ah can't see what's happenin' to mah boys!"
--Kai out. -
so now it is the only way
2002-08-09 08:36:12
I am so behind on video #47 now that it's not funny. I'm supposed to have clipped through four eps by now of the eight I've rendered so far, at least, but between builds and rebuilds on #46 Wednesday and being sick last night, I've gotten through exactly ZERO. And this weekend isn't exactly looking productive either; I'm otherwise occupied tonight and most of Saturday. I'm still looking at a position to finish clipping and make the video by the middle of next week, but it would be good if I didn't have to kill myself to do this.
Other stuff I've been meaning to clear out: if you haven't read this month's installment of Ryan Matthews' Last Exit Before Toll at the 'Pike (www.anipike.com for the few who don't know) yet, you should. His points are technically about fanfiction, but really can be applied to any area of fan creation, including this hobby. On a more positive note, this fall's gonna be great for tours, with both Sentenced/Dark Tranquility and Destruction/Kreator coming to the US. I think the local dates for both of those are in September where I'm at -- kick fuckin' ass!
The site I was thinking of contacting to host video #46 is apparently down, which sucks. Y'all won't be able to see it unless it goes to Ohayocon and is not fux0red.
Current video: *** ***'* *****, "*** ********** ****" (edit) to Kanon. Progress Check: 18% complete. Expected catalog number: #47. This one'll be done by this time next week, Sword willing and the crick don't rise.
Con news: MTAC is this weekend, including the pro debut of Shin Hatsubai Prod. "Puro videoka ni naritai!" </ippojoke>
--Kai out -
empty words
2002-08-08 11:44:52
Edsger Dijkstra, 1930-2002. The world loses another genius. R. I. P.
If you use a multi-tasking operating system (and nearly everyone does) or have to read other people's code (and most people working with computers do), say a prayer to your god(s) for this man, or remember him in your thoughts is you don't believe in religion. He made it all possible.
life will never be the same
death will never be explained
life is just a series of goodbyes
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worldwide foolproof cage
2002-08-08 10:13:25
Another unproductive night last night, as I had to rebuild the functioning HQ version of #46, and was unable to get a lower-bitrate HQ version to render correctly. The problems with playback in #46 are probably system-dependent, and may be from oddities with video memory leaks and such in WMP. My other MPEG-player, bplay, absolutely hates on MPEG2 files, so i can't check it in that direction.
I finished The Morning of the Magicians last night. Astounding. If you haven't read it yet, you ought to, it'll change your whole perspective on the natural world and the notion of scientific progress. "The humbug is not the man who dives into mystery, but he who refuses to surface." "When Reason sleeps, she dreams monsters." I also finished re-reading The Ultimate Evil, but this time with a more informed perspective. I don't doubt the efficacy of Terry's research, but after exposure to David Lifton's Best Evidence, the most essential volume ever published on the Kennedy assassination, I find fault with soem of his procedures. Terry relies heavily on eyewitness and anecdotal testimony, even though his analysis of the Moskowitz shooting does pass the "best-evidence" test by establishing definite and empirical chronological borders.
However, this is excusable; the NYPD ignored the "best evidence" in the case, namely the inconclusive ballistics and presence of shell casings (indicating a semi-automatic pistol) at only one of the crime scenes, in their construction of the shootings as the work of one man with one revolver. In arresting Berkowitz, they ignored the conditions of his apartment that suggested a setup, and they accepted his "confessions" without auditing them against the facts, allowing him to claim to have shot one victim from the driver's side when the physical evidence had already established that every Son of Sam victim had been shot from the passenger side. Terry did an excellent job with his investigation, but it clearly shows that he's a journalist by trade rather than an engineer as in Lifton's case. A little more empirical analysis and a little less misidentification of copied Iron Maiden lyrics as satanic invocations would have served this book much better.
Damn that was off-topic. Next up on the reading list are Moby-Dick and the next volume of Mishima's Sea of Fertility. I gave up on Lorna Doone after realizing that there were so many more enjoyable things I could be doing with my time, such as banging my head repeatedly against an iron post. It's not boring so much as *deadening*; one wonders how the nineteenth century managed to advance so much while reading such bone-headed, obscurantist, novels as this.
Current video: *** ***'* *****, "*** ********** ****" (edit) to Kanon. Progress Check: 16% complete. Expected catalog number: #47. Slowly creeping along. This video may go into this "solos project" I'm currently mulling over, but for right now it's standing on its own. And seeing what is real. ^_-
Con news: had to send some corrections to the AWA Pro people, but it's understandable; many of these people are not old-style hackers and don't believe in using the shortest possible intelligible names for computer files. Just making sure they had the right titles logged. If you're going to be at AWA, you may want to pick up Red Wolf's comp CD, which is one of the more generous projects I've yet heard of. And also it's got Shin Hats video #5, "Opposed" (with Hypocrisy and X), on it. "Heaven/Hell/God/Satan/Would not be without the other"!
--Kai out
JOURNAL: Kai Stromler (Kai Stromler)
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