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Short and sweet...and hot?
2008-05-11 21:48:42
XII
Pre-edit: 13
Hot sauce: 4
Ow, it BURNS. Sauce = special graphics and related torture devices that aren't really pre-edit nor video editing tasks. It took me about an hour before I figured out why I was working so slowly on the hot sauce today: I had my mouse set up for my left hand.
Yes, that's right, I'm ambimoustrous! At work I use my right hand/Wacom tablet, at home - to cut down on my carpal (carpel?) tunnel situation - I typically use my left hand/mouse. I'm quite good, too. I've been doing this for years and (as happened today) I usually don't even notice the switch...except when I'm doing graphics, because it slows me down BIG time, particularly because all the keyboard shortcuts I normally use become dysfunctional/a pain in the butt when I've got to swap hands. Ever tried hit Select All with just your right hand? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about, now try a keyboard shortcut that requires four fingers on the same hand!!
:|
Meds are working. -
Because it's just not Drift's AMV project if everything goes smoothly...
2008-05-11 12:50:40
But before that: Ari's thesis on AvP is quite amazing. Nice job!! Have I ever made a journal entry that long? I don't know...I must have. I COULD have, certainly...no doubt if I came close, the entry itself was a condensed version of what otherwise would have been posted. Believe it or not, I do try to pare things down sometimes.
XII
Pre-edit: 12
The Good: Only one more disc to rip footage from. Then...*drumroll* let the editing begin!! Which will likely only happen on days when the weather is unpleasant. I made an executive decision this morning to keep AMVs way down at the bottom of my extracurricular activities, which means - during the summer - if I get 20 hours of work in a month I'll be doing good. I'm not your typical geek - I'd far rather be outdoors than indoors on a nice day, so no editing is going to get done unless rainy weekends show up between now and November.
The Bad: I had a debate with myself last night over how to handle the footage aspect of this AMV, which is the first project I've ever gotten myself into where I don't know right from the start what scenes I want/need. I'm therefore stockpiling an excessive number of clips in an attempt to cover all the bases, however it's been bugging me big time that - unlike with Advent Children for instance - it's quite possible there will end up being a clip that is exactly what I need that I never ripped. Right now this process is kind of locking me into a certain approach and I'm very nervous about getting down to business and finding out I don't have the clips I need. WORSE...one of the tactics/gimmicks/sauce (I can't call it funny sauce anymore, since this AMV is anything but funny, but what other kinds of sauce are there? Duck? Hot? Fudge? Soy??) I am going to toy around with requires an enormous amount of footage. Even worse, that footage need not be on target, it can be the garbage footage I deliberately did NOT rip - the stuff that's not really useful for any other aspect of my AMV. So basically, if I wind up going with that kind of hot sauce, I'm going to possibly have to go through all the discs again and re-rip scenes I missed the first time just to avoid using up my GOOD footage. :|
The Ugly: Projects just don't feel real until something goes wrong. First it was my footage going bad, now it's Vista acting up. There's a system file Vista doesn't come with that prevents BeSweet (and who knows what else) from functioning properly. Theoretically I can resolve the situation, but I've learned the hard way not to assume what should work, will work.
XTRA: Fun Gankutsuou discoveries abound! There's a scene where the Count smiles and his eyes change color. I thought I was seeing things until I went back and looked at the footage frame by frame - yeap, there it was. When he was looking evil his eyes were highly saturated (red and green), but when the animators shifted him into a kindlier, friendlier state his eyes desaturated so they weren't so noticeably weird. Now I've got to see if they did that consistently - which would be cool, but possibly offer complications to my own plans which call for switching quickly from Count closeup to closeup - his eyes cannot be changing color the whole time! -
My new doctor is nice :)
2008-05-09 15:17:04
XII
Pre-edit: 9
Trying to rip clips for two entirely separate, incredibly different AMVs is quite a challenge. I think I'm going to have to go back through each disc and do it all over again, because I'm definitely missing stuff.
Goal with this AMV: Um... (that's a bad sign) see if I can make a strong drama AMV? My music is a win/win situation, my source footage is a win/win situation...I'm the only lose/lose factor. Talk about pressure. @_@ I am, however, really looking forward to what I come up with, because this project has a lot of potential and it's up to me to coax that potential into being. This is literally all about me seeing how badly I'll fail, because I don't really expect to win.
There was something else I was going to say. Oh yeah: got my new meds. I have no idea how great an effect they'll have, it's always kind of a balancing act getting just the right dosage. Here's hoping I won't start having tremors and heart palpitations. *cheers*
lol oh yes, and this new doctor of mine was deeply concerned by my horrific tales of memory loss and recommended neurological exams and whatnot up the wazoo. I got the distinct impression he was thinking "Finally, a patient with some uber-mysterious brain condition that I could heroically save her from!" Unfortunately for him, I'm not currently suffering from those memory problems. Doesn't make a lot of sense to test someone for that sort of thing if they insist they're fine.
Unless I'm forgetting that I can't remember things.
Nahh.... :P -
I actually had to remind myself to post this...
2008-05-06 21:49:58
XII
Pre-edit: 8
Tonight I - lucky person that I am - got to do some AMV research and had to watch The Golden Compass from start to finish. Far more violent than I anticipated, a lot of the acting made me cringe...and it remains to be seen whether it's going to do me any good to swipe footage from it. -_-
It's a good thing I like experimentation, because this AMV is starting out as 100% unscripted, uncoordinated, un-storyboarded mayhem. Completely the opposite of how I've approached all previous AMVs (except those that have failed, hrmmm). I don't do well with unplanned projects, so if four months from now I'm complaining bitterly about spending hundreds of hours on something that came out like garbage...it's not like I didn't see it coming. I intend to try and storyboard things at least somewhat, of course, but I also know that my plans can and do change very fast once I start actually putting things together in Premiere.
Plus, this time I am REALLY in way over my head. heh, but that's the main reason I'm making it - I want to see if I can. There's no other rational explanation for why I inflict this kind of torture on myself. ^_^ -
Will my doctor accept the past few days' goings on as proof I need to be more heavily medicated? Gosh I hope so.
2008-05-04 18:18:40
ahaha..."do you take yourself too seriously online"...yeah, sometimes. Then I remember the horrors that go on in the world - thanks a lot animal abuse shows @_@ - and I hug my dog and am glad I have my priorities straight. ^_^
Then I also remember I have a certain health problem that is notorious for sneaking up on people and causing all kinds of hell in their lives before they realize what's really going on...and I'm like...ohhh. OH.
It's looking like my thyroid really is deteriorating again. What did I say a few weeks back about my mental stability getting...bad, among other things? Yeap. It's hard living alone when this kind of thing happens, no one's there to say "Uh, Lauren? You're not acting like yourself...don't you think you should figure out why?" No, I have to wander around and trip over myself a few times before I get hard evidence that something's definitely screwing with my head. Hehe, although a few people around here did say, in so many words, I was acting out of character and I shouldn't be so upset. Guess they were right (sort of, I'm still ticked off, but in less of a "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" kind of way.).
So that inevitable visit to the doctor with my hand out for a new and improved prescription will probably take place this coming week. *sigh* Theoretically I'll be back to normal sometime soon. Kinda sorta. What can I say? I'm one sick puppy.
JOURNAL: DriftRoot (Lauren C.)
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