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Ok, my life just got a little better
2008-03-06 10:32:13
I made it into SakuraCon's AMV competition with 'Bustin. Which is odd, because I thought I clearly stated I did not want to be in the competition...but whatever. I'll take what I can get!!!!!! Maybe I'm reading the results page wrong. @_@
Maybe there is hope for AB...my MPEG-2 apparently got the green flag at one con, despite it's enormous, gigantic, one-of-the-worlds-seven-great-mysteries damage to my AMV. My goal this weekend is to further experiment and try to identify the problem, because it's something that's happening TO the video before TMPGenc ever gets ahold of it. But what? Maybe I should have warned SakuraCon organizers that something's wrong with it on a very primitive level...wouldn't it be...funny(?) if my AMV somehow infected all the rest? Not funny. But interesting. I'll bet THEN someone would figure out what's wrong.
I will sacrifice one of my dog's unborn puppies if I can make it to the finals at AB. She will never have puppies, she's been fixed, but that doesn't stop every corgi breeder I've ever met from asking if she's an available bitch. I always say no, she's not a bitch anymore, but she's darn feisty sometimes. -
@_0
2008-03-04 12:41:23
Wow, I never thought 'Bustin would get me accused of...cheating. Plagiarism? I've got my own Web site, I can prove I have the skill/resources to make those tabloids if I have to! lol hopefully I've cleared the situation up, but still, quite unnerving. I guess I should have tried a little harder to tone down the graphics...I'm starting to think that's a big part of what's wrong with 'Bustin: the graphics aren't bad enough. I need to really work on my AMV skills so they measure up. The feedback - forum, QCs, ops - I'm getting on 'Bustin are a huge, huge help in identifying areas in need of improvement.
On to the main topic:
Due to an e-mail glitch, I never received notification that my Anime Boston entry arrived safely. Apparently my AMV did, however it turns out that something is truly, seriously wrong with it. Even the contest coordinator couldn’t get the uncompressed file converted properly to MPEG-2. Consequently, there was a deafening CLANG as the Final-O-Meter for ‘Bustin dropped to a position slightly above 0%, as far as calculating my chances for getting into the competition goes. I am trying not to think about the fact that probably all my collected AMV footage, all 75 GB or so, is similarly corrupted, aka unusable for anything MPEG-2 destined, aka Anime Boston, aka the only con I attend and therefore am interested in submitting an AMV to. *sniffle*
I KNEW SOMETHING WAS WRONG. MY MPEG-2 IS NOT SUPPOSED TO LOOK WORSE THAN MY MP4!!!
*sniffle sniffle*
*sniffle* I tried so hard. *sniffle*
The worst part is …*sniff*…if my AMV does NOT make it into the finals, *sniffle sniff* I will probably never know whether it was because it just wasn’t good enough or because it doesn’t play nice with MPEG-2.
I have a lot of choice curse words, phrases…entire paragraphs running through my head right now.
Isn’t it great that I’ve got this journal to vent in. Otherwise I’d have to do what one of my friends used to do when tensions and tempers were running high: get out a six-piece dinner set from Wal-Mart and break each and every dish in the driveway. I’m not kidding. That was one of the most awesome things I’ve ever been allowed to do. Didn’t save our friendship, but it was a definitely a memorable experience. Although the neighbors were horrified…
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2008-03-03 12:50:22
@ben - I should have added that I'm sitting in a hair salon about to get my hair chopped off when I see scissors and get profoundly nervous.
-_-: Part of me doesn't want to say this...but since no matter what I say it will be taken the wrong way by someone, which has the potential to cause a chain reaction of unpleasantness, but what the heck.
'Bustin is not all that great. It's just not. Ok, so I have a reputation for being extremely critical of my own stuff (this applies to everything I do, not just AMVs, so just trust me on this) nevermind of other people's stuff, but that doesn't mean I'm not being honest about what kind of value it has. It was an enormous personal achievement and that's pretty much the end-all and be-all of where I stand on the matter. Eight months ago I'd convinced myself that I was just not cut out to make AMVs, now I know that's not the case...I can make a halfway decent AMV. This is so completely awesome to me that, again, it must be stated that - at the end of the day - I don't make AMVs for anyone but myself. Rather selfish, I know, but that's the long and short of it. I make AMVs to see if I can make them. When they're done, I move on. There's no third party in this equation. I'm pitting myself against myself, I'm out to see if I can do things I don't know if I can do, not to do things other people don't know I can do.
That said, it's frustrating when the opinions of certain people are turned around by other people and aimed back at me - as if I am somehow responsible for what someone else says about my AMV. In fact, I have absolutely nothing to do with how anyone feels about my AMV. It's THEIR opinion, not mine, and unless I tell someone my opinion, there's absolutely no one who has any right to tell me how I feel about something or how I should feel about something. Yah, I am darned proud of 'Bustin, but not because I think it's Fantastic or Brilliant or Two Thumbs Way Up or Flawless. I am also darned disappointed in 'Bustin, but not because I think it Sucks or is Stupid or Bizarre or A Mess.
Yeesh. The most I've ever wanted 'Bustin to do for me, recognition-wise, is get me into the finals at Anime Boston. And if I don't manage it this year with 'Bustin, then I'm going to try again next year with something else!
*yells down to Boston* COME ON ADAM, AT LEAST TELL ME YOU'VE RECEIVED MY ENTRY!! YOU'RE KILLING ME, HERE!! -
QC fun time
2008-03-02 07:51:35
I've never gotten many QCs on Sephiration Anxiety, so getting a bunch now on 'Bustin ("a bunch" in comparison to how few I got before) is a lot of fun. This one made me smile:
"You're way underemployed here...you REALLY should get paid for this stuff."
If this individual is not being sarcastic, then I can laugh and say assure them that I DO get paid for this stuff. At least the stuff that's got to do with graphic design, copy writing, etc. If I'm going to make an AMV that stands out from the crowd, I need to draw on my non-AMV (per se) talents, since my AMV talents aren't anything to write home about. Hence 'Bustin's obvious tabloid gimmick. I probably should have mentioned in the 'Bustin comments that I am a graphic designer, just so when people wonder how the heck I came up with those tabloids, a little light goes off in their heads.
What kills me is that I could easily put together all the graphics in 'Bustin within about ...oh...three or four hours (assuming all the pieces parts were assembled and ready to go). But no, that whole business wound up taking me about 50 hours since everything had to be redone many, many times for many, many reasons. -_-
I have sneaky AMV plans to further exploit being a professional graphic designer...sort of like my orange analogy, if you're good at something, you're kind of shooting yourself in the foot by not making the best of your abilities. -
I will put my tax rebate to good economic use
2008-02-29 19:52:44
...if I get one. I'm not going to get $600 dropped in my lap anywhere else, unless maybe I take up stripping, which I probably would do for $1 million, but not $600. That tax rebate may just nicely help finance a new, custom-built computer. Maybe. I need to flutter my eyelashes and see if I can convince the local PC gurus to build something using the the parts I provide. Not sure if they'll go for that...
*makes note to buy extra voluminous mascara*
I hate not knowing how to build my own computer. This is far worse than not knowing how to change a tire. Far FAR worse. I don't care about being tire ignorant (well, I probably would if I got a flat and couldn't get AAA to bail me out), I DO care about being motherboard ignorant! I could probably build a PC if I sat down and tried, but I'd much rather someone taught me how.
I got a hair cut last night. It's amazing how loosing 2" of hair you'd been complaining about suddenly makes you feel like everyone is giving you weird looks. I HATE getting my hair cut. I get a hair cut twice a year, which is the reason I freak out when six months worth of growing my hair vanishes within the space of an hour. It's just not natural. It's also not natural for a hair dresser to say "oops" while cutting a 16-year-old girl's hair...you can tell there's major post-traumatic stress disorder going on when, 15 years later, that's all I can think about when I see someone behind me holding scissors. @_@
JOURNAL: DriftRoot (Lauren C.)
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