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@Bashar You lucky bastard, I wish I had a glorious project to die from!
2013-04-12 20:14:10
As was recently pointed out, I seem to get sick in the spring a lot (thanks Drew). True, or at least, I rarely get sick, but when I do it seems indeed to be spring. Some sort of horrible flu virus is sweeping through my office, and before I even knew sweeping was going on, I got caught in it and have spent the past three days more or less flat on my back.
Better now than next week when I'm off to Florida for the annual Photoshop World Convention! Woooo!! Weather looks nice, 85 and sunny, though I'll be cooped up in the convention center during daylight hours. That's ok, actually. I am not the tanning type and 15 minutes in the Florida sun would definitely burn me, right now.
Oh right, my AMV that I did not finish in time for AB (like that had a chance in hell of happening):
In the Key of D
Edit: 32 hours
Post-Production/Special Effects: 0
Completed: 25%
The Good: Um...I spent seven hours sweating over a rather minor bit of the AMV so that I could discover none of it works at all?
The Bad: Its like, the intro first minute or so is up here *waves hand above head* and the rest of the AMV is down here somewhere *waves hand around waist*. That's not going to work. It's all got to be up here *waves hand around head*. Ya know?
The Ugly: But how to get it there.... I don't want to sink into eyecandyland. Perhaps sink isn't the best word, certainly the song just about screams for SOMETHING to visually shift, but I need to find something - some style perhaps - that I'm comfortable with and can pull off. Both tricky propositions.
Oh well, off to Florida! I'll worry about it when I get back. -
*kicks over table*
2013-04-06 09:47:23
In the Key of D
Edit: 25 hours
Post-Production/Special Effects: 0
Percent Completion: ????%
Being mightily displeased with Eugenie's Song and feeling like there must be something I can submit to Anime Boston that is better than that (or, more importantly, that I think is better than that), I grabbed my old Vampire Hunter D AMV and rewatched what I had done some months ago before abandoning it.
Hey. This is pretty good. This is...REALLY good! It's doing exactly what I wanted it to do (my standard for whether an AMV is acceptable - control freak, much?). I should see if I can finish this for AB!
Let's just ignore the fact that the 25 hours I have thus far spent on it were almost exclusively the intro sequence which I always had a clear vision for, and that there is still 3/4 of the song left to deal with that I never knew how to handle. IGNORE IGNORE IGNORE. The point is to be excited and motivated. Which I am.
Oh, and this past week I took a 10-hour crash course in filming and video production. We used Final Cut Pro in the studio, which was very interesting since I use Premiere. I didn't learn much technically, but last night there was literally a moment as we worked on editing a scene and dialogue when I sat back in my chair and went, "OMG, THIS is how people make AMVs. THIS is what I have been doing WRONG for 10 years." I suppose I will be testing this theory over the course of this weekend, as I attempt to edit faster and more efficiently and effectively than I ever have before. *crosses fingers* -
Weeeeelll...I guess I could finish this.
2013-03-31 19:22:52
Eugenie's Song
Pre-Edit: 7 hours
Edit: 24 hours
The Good: I rewatched my footage today and was relieved to discover it wasn't as bad as I'd remembered. I've captured the mood I was going for (in some scenes) and it's suitably edited.
The Bad: Notice how I'm a glass-is-half-empty type of person. There is only one "Good" and then there's a "Bad" and an "Ugly." Technically speaking, this also is a reflection of my AMV editing trials and tribulations. Today's "Bad" is that my relief was mixed with distress, because I'd thrown this AMV down onto the pavement like a wet t-shirt - *SLAP* - and walked away trying to dry my hands of any residue. The t-shirt is now dry, and Anime Boston is looming just around the corner. I doubt very much this video will be done by then. I've had a ton of stuff to get done this weekend, this coming week is completely consumed by a video production class after work, and then next weekend's IT.
The Ugly: There is this funny phenomenon with AMVs. Sometimes you are cursing because the song is too long, and other times because it's too short. When you ricochet back and forth between those two sentiments, life gets hard.
So! VCAs are over. Can't say I was on the edge of my seat this year, but I was happy to watch a lot of good videos and enjoyed the warm fuzzies from being nominated in a few different categories for last year's labor of love. Thank you to everyone who cast a vote for L.F.S. and congratulations to all of this year's winners! -
2013-03-23 18:39:15
I didn't actually get any editing done today. Oh sure, I got some tea, sat down at my desk and opened up my Premiere project, ready to settle in for some hardcore efforts. I figured I'd better watch what I had the full way through first, though, so I did, and saw quite plainly that the direction I've been steering this AMV in is completely wrong. There is not enough time to tell the story in the way I want to tell it.
Then my sister called and said "SURPRISE!" she, her husband and my four-month-old niece are going to be making a very unexpected visit tomorrow. My sister hasn't visited me for more than three years and she lives 150 miles away, so this has kind of thrown a wrench into my weekend plans. She's also a neat nick and I haven't really finished moving into my apartment yet, so my quick cleanup this afternoon took four hours. Now it's 6:30 p.m., and I'd rather watch the VCA finalists than edit.
Speaking of which, I have to admit surprised that L.F.S. made the finals in the parody category. What did I say way back about that, though? Something like L.F.S. not being an AMV trailer as much as a parody OF a trailer? Maybe it's in the AMV description...anyways, guess I hit that mark on the multiple levels I was shooting for! :D
To bring this back to my current endeavor, what I also saw today was that it's not coming together as something I'm pleased with or proud of. It's meh, and I'm fundamentally indisposed to doing a "meh" job on this sort of creative endeavor. Back to the drawing board! -
Ugh
2013-03-17 19:47:12
Eugenie's Song
Pre-Edit: 7 hours
Edit: 23 hours
Look at me go! Four-minute song, and I've technically got 3 minutes of it done: the first minute and the last two. The first minute has to stay pretty much as is, but the end is sort of waving in the breeze. It could stay as is, or I could delete all of it and start all over again. Kind of a toss up right now, here's why:
After an unusually minor bit of experimentation (only eight hours or so), I settled on a particular direction for the ending and went at it with gusto. Unfortunately, for all that attention it looks like a hack effort and - worse - dictates what must occur in the middle of the AMV, which isn't really something I've thought much about. For the first time ever in 10+ years of AMVing, I find myself wishing the song was longer because I don't have enough time to do what needs to be done!
One other big concern is that this is turning into a drama video, simply because it's so depressing. How much does a romance AMV have to fail at warm fuzzies to get shoveled into the drama category? We may find out...
Worst part about all this is that I've got some really beautiful scenes crafted look and feel exactly the way I want them to, but I need to move the story along far faster than the languid pace of the song is allowing. *chews leather* I intend to keep at it, though. If I don't make the Anime Boston deadline, I'll shoot for Otakon.
Kitten update: She walked on my keyboard this morning and pressed come kind of combination of keys wherein Premiere stopped responding to my keystrokes in the expected manner. It was truly bizarre. I had to restart the program to get things back to normal.
JOURNAL: DriftRoot (Lauren C.)
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