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Because I'm allowed to make one-liner journal entries too! Not.
2008-06-18 19:58:13
Honey Moon Summer Ale...new favorite beer. @_@ I love Blue Moon anyways, but OMG...with honey and orange zest?!
Bah...I can't make a one-line journal entry.
I'm starting to wish I was going to AX. Not just because my AMV will be shown for the last time there, but because I recently spent a few days traveling and it made me realize how badly I need to get AWAY from home. Yeah, ok, I'm vacationing in another state in a week and a half...but I refer to my exodus from that state as being an"escape," so that's obviously not my ideal vacation spot.
Why does my family have to live in Rhode Island? Why can't they live someplace fun like...Los Angeles, Baltimore or Atlanta? I've got Boston covered, fortunately. Next year at AB should be QUITE cheaper thanks to that handy place to crash. *please don't let sister break up with her Boston-based b/f*
ARGH...I need to make another good AMV before the end of the year or else I'm going to be really irritated at my lack of progress. It doesn't make me as depressed to think I can't make another good AMV as I used to feel thinking I couldn't make an AMV at all...but it's definitely runner up. Takeout is not fantastic, nor is it intended to be...I think that's a very, very important thing to keep in mind when evaluating AMVs. Some are clearly meant to make your jaw drop, others aren't. Condemning the latter for not doing the former doesn't make a lot of sense, in that regard.
I have a feeling people are getting better about this, if for no other reason than the bar has been raised so high in terms of skill level that a videos without massive quantities of professional-quality stuff (for lack of a better term) aren't necessarily competing in the same ring as their eye candy cousins. People are willing to appreciate the distinct qualities of each and acknowledge it's quite possible to do both perfectly and produce equally fantastic videos. Yes, there's still the crowd that gets all spastic over eye candy, but it's definitely not the be-all and end-all of what most people consider great AMVs.
Ha - I was going to say it's like a film critic comparing "Indiana Jones" to "Capote" in deciding which is the best...you just don't DO that - and then I remembered there's things like the Academy Awards. :( We've got that too...they're called the VCAs, sans red carpet, overdressed stars and paparazzi.
You know what would be cool? A special VCA AMV made every year containing clips from all the winners' videos. Oh YES!!! It could be posted along with the official winners announcement. It would be an interesting way for people to get a little glimpse at all the winners, in case they didn't actually watch every single video in the contest. Slap some chapters in and a menu so it's easy to flip to different categories and VOILA. I'd watch it. -
Things are getting bad, I don't want to post in my journal
2008-06-18 08:00:57
Takeout:
Pre-edit: At least 12 hours
Edit: 21
Photographed some chopsticks last night under less than ideal conditions. Can't tell yet whether this particular type of sauce is going to fly. Experimentation with heavy-duty masking proved THAT wasn't going to fly (and I'm rather relieved, who wants to rotoscope if they don't have to?).
Now I'm concerned what I HAVE isn't going to fly...I have a very difficult time rationalizing extremely quick cuts - though in this case it's a must (did that rhyme?) - and it just seems like I'm cutting it too close.
I will try to create some kind of mini beta by the end of next week so kind individuals can help me refine my sauce. I will be on vacation through July 6 and have at my fingertips a cable modem for the entire time *drools* so I can definitely upload files and things (not to mention DOWNLOAD). This beta is going to have gaping holes in it, but there's only so much I can do. It'll be enough to demonstrate what's in the works and get help on the parts I want help with. I may, for the first time, ask for help from people I think have the necessary mindset to give me constructive, creative criticism...kind of scary, but I value their input so I guess I should suck it up and go for it. Hopefully they don't think I'm being a pest. :( -
I forgot, twice now, to call my Father due to Father's Day. Hey, he forgot which month my birthday was...let's call it even? Or maybe not, at least I KNEW Sunday was Father's Day.
2008-06-16 23:02:01
Book of the Week Part II: "When True Night Falls" by C.S. Friedman
I should be on the third book by Wednesday. I'm even trying to take my time and I'm still reading 300 pages in about two hours. Not bad. The weather helps. I can't do anything BUT read when there's all these thunderstorms knocking out the power.
BAD taste sensation: Lemonade and mint, specifically Crystal Light "lemonade" and those Listerine breath freshener things. OMG...ranks right up there with the time I accidentally ate wet cat food (I dug into the can instead of my Wheaties, I never did figure out how the heck I did that). GAHHH!!!
There was something I was going to say about AMVs...oh yes. I've noticed a disturbing trend recently, and while I have to assume a good part of the blame falls on me, it can't be ALL me: I find myself getting bored with relatively short AMVs. Like, a decent 2-minute AMV makes me start checking my watch around the 1-minute mark. What's up with that?? The only thing these AMVs have in common (which makes it sound minor, though it's not) is their utter lack of any kind of storyline. It's that "throw random, well-synched, punchy scenes [and maybe add effects] on the timeline and call it an AMV" syndrome that seems to be popping up all over the place of late. Sorry...but I can only think of one AMV I've ever watched that was random AND kept me transfixed AND got really high marks from me. Storyline is just too important - if an AMV doesn't have it and can't make up for that gaping hole in some other way, then right there major, MAJOR points are being deducted.
Or maybe I've just watched too many AMVs? Nah...in the grand scheme of things I haven't watched all that many AMVs, not enough to make me bitter and jaded, anyways. Books, on the other hand...suffice to say that by the age of 14 I had read my (large) library's entire collection of books about horses, plus all the science fiction and fantasy novels on the shelves at least six times...in addition to anything else that caught my eye. My parents both swore I'd read more books by that age than they both had combined, and they are frequent readers. I remember going to the library with my book bag, racing through the aisles collecting a stack so high I couldn't see over it, tottering to the circulation desk and then being forced to reconsider my choices because I couldn't get them all in the bag. I'd be back a week later for another batch. The librarians would see me coming and make me hand them the books, because inevitably I'd clog up the return box slot trying to stuff them all in. I used to go to school with at least two books in my backpack at all times, because it was a sure thing I'd finish one and need to have something ready to replace it.
I miss that library. I haven't had a decent library to rape and pillage for a long, long time. It's rather interesting, for several years after college I hardly read a thing - if I went through one or two books a year that was doing good - which given my track record was absolutely bizarre. I think I got burned out on the written word, because I didn't write anything for a long time, either. Makes me wonder what would happen if I picked up my writing again. :| Highly unlikely. -
Hey Hey I Hate Monkees!!
2008-06-15 19:00:38
I'm bored.
Book of the Week: "Black Sun Rising" by C.S. Friedman
NEXT!!
In one corner we have Answerman, who has stated that he doesn't really think AMV editors deserve much respect (if any) for what they do. In the other corner (note we actually need at least three corners to get away with saying that) we've got 99% of AMV editors who would love to throw rotten vegetables at anyone who pronounces their work unworthy of respect.
Since I've been excessively fond of analogy since the age of eight, when I learned what an analogy was, I scrounged around and came up with the following:
AMVs editors are to the original artists as The Monkees are to The Beatles. If you don't know who/what The Monkees are...go watch more reruns.
AMVs are to anime/music as remixes are to top 40 hits. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it's quite possible for the former to turn out way better than the latter.
....
I'm not really in the mood to debate the creative validity of AMVs, so I'll stop now. As far as I'm concerned, if someone makes something which didn't previously exist and I am entertained by it, then they get the credit for that something.
Takeout:
Pre-edit: At least 12 hours
Edit: 23
Ok, I might actually be able to make this AMV. Unfortunately it's not going to look like what I originally had in mind and it's really not that great of a video...but the chances of it actually existing someday are definitely on the upswing. I haven't figured out yet whether it helps that I have a crystal-clear goal in mind which, if I don't reach, makes the entire AMV a flop. I keep getting distracted by experimentations designed not to reach that goal, but to make the rest of the video more interesting. The last 2 seconds of the video could easily wind up being the only reason it's worth watching...which is depressing. -
2008-06-14 17:39:43
Takeout:
Pre-edit: At least 12 hours
Edit: 20
The Good: Got my fourth MOHS DVD squared away, ripped the footage, blah blah blah. Along the way I discovered scenes that might just enable me to complete Takeout, which would be really, really good because I'm sick of being unable to make AMVs due to lack of footage.
The Bad: VDM blazed through its job control list in a suspiciously fast fashion, however thus far I haven't found anything wrong with the clips.
The Ugly: Takeout isn't going to be as streamlined as I'd like (I have a distaste of AMVs which are random collections of clips and it shows in the videos I make). Now I've got to figure out what to do about it. :|
XII might come off the shelf after this. Maybe. It's going to take a hell of a long time to make and will be quite an unpleasant experience. Two seconds of it could easily take me 20 hours and yes, maybe that does mean it's custom animatio, but, depending on how you look at it, if you're painstakingly controlling every frame of a still image, that IS custom animation. To me it's just a scene I want to create...which is why I have a hard time imagining myself as someone who does spectacular special effects, because to me they're not special or effects, they're just me manipulating still images.
I think tonight I'll fire up AE and see how this new computer handles high-end special effects. In a way, it's kind of unfortunate that now I have a PC which can do the things I want to do - I can't get away with saying "I would have done [blank] except my computer isn't up to the task" anymore. Now it's all MY fault. lol
JOURNAL: DriftRoot (Lauren C.)
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