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Stay on target...stay on target!
2011-11-23 19:05:34
The Kingdom of L.F.S.
Pre-edit: 3 hours
Edit: 75 hours
Post-Production/Special Effects: 54 hours
The Good: Light, tunnel. End is nigh and all that jazz. I have sort of accepted (actually, there's no sort of about it) that certain things just are the way they are in this video and that's just the way it is. I could conceivably work on this for many more months, but I've pretty much accomplished my goal already and pouring more "stuff" into it won't change that.
The Bad: I just can't resist adding more stuff. Some of it is definitely Easter Eggish, but that's mostly because of how fast a given scene goes by. If it stayed on screen for five seconds, most everyone would notice what I've done, but there's just not time for that, so unfortunately it slides into E.E. territory. This is a very good example of what I mentioned about ceasing and desisting, despite ample opportunity to do the exact opposite: Easter Eggs are not the point of this AMV and they're not in there just to be in there (ok, well one is, but so far that's it).
The Ugly: I just know if I wrap this AMV up and release it, then submit it to cons several months later, I will be kicking myself for not taking the time to do a better job. *sigh* But this is just a hobby, after all, and I'm only at my best when suitably inspired, not to mention skilled. These two things don't typically synch up well enough for me to turn out anything, hence my scanty AMV portfolio.
Happy Thanksgiving to all! One of my coworkers said it best today, during a discussion of the various Thanksgiving dishes he planned on eating: "I am so thankful for Thanksgiving, for all the awesome stuff it lets me eat!" Perhaps not the most P.C. of statements, but it was quite heartfelt and I'm sure the Pilgrims felt similarly about the food available to them. -
This is looking better and better
2011-11-20 18:38:04
The Kingdom of L.F.S.
Pre-edit: 3 hours
Edit: 75 hours
Post-Production/Special Effects: 52 hours
There is a light at the end of the tunnel...I think! I cleared one big headache sequence of effects today and fixed a few other minor items, allowing me to (literally) cross things off my lengthy to-do list. I am calling it quits today in the midst of one sequence I sort of thought would be easy, but is turning out to be anything but. -
Rotoscoping is my life, now.
2011-11-19 18:01:36
The Kingdom of L.F.S.
Pre-edit: 3 hours
Edit: 75 hours
Post-Production/Special Effects: 45 hours
It bothers me tremendously when I think all this rotoscoping in AE would probably have taken me the same amount of time in Photoshop AND come out better. Not all my masking is AE, I'm definitely avoiding it for some of the more labor-intensive effects, but still...this is the main reason I am racking up so many hours on the special effects. It just takes awhile, particularly when one's source footage is just about the most horrific thing anyone in the AMV business could ever be asked to mask.
The other day I had the worrisome thought that perhaps the audio for this AMV is not PG-13. There are two bad words in it, one of which is not allowed on cable T.V., the other which I just heard used over and over on T.V. Thursday night, so I assume it's actually not considered quite so bad anymore, even in mass quantities. :|
In non AMV-news, my dog had shoulder surgery this week and is mightily depressed because she's basically confined indoors. She doesn't know this is going to go on for another two weeks yet, either. She won't even look at me when I say her name, and I think she's got a flea biting her because she keeps jumping up from the floor for no good reason...
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My next video isn't going to have special effects, I swear. The one after this one, I mean.
2011-11-13 17:46:01
The Kingdom of L.F.S.
Pre-edit: 3 hours
Edit: 75 hours
Post-Production/Special Effects: 40 hours
This is the first time I've done special effects and less than pleased with the results. Some of it looks great, like it's part of the original footage (which is the goal), but some of it looks very fake...which, from a certain point of view, completely undermines their entire reason for existing in the first place. This isn't supposed to be a "oh, look what the editor did to the footage!" AMV.
I will continue to mull this over. Fortunately the effects are easy to undo, I just delete them. What's not easy to reclaim is the dozens of hours wasted on creating them. -
I may wind up with as many/more hours into special effects as I did the actual editing. Ugh...not what I wanted.
2011-11-12 18:45:34
The Kingdom of L.F.S.
Pre-edit: 3 hours
Edit: 75 hours
Post-Production/Special Effects: 32 hours
The Good: I tackled some of the semi-unpleasant tasks on my very long list today, namely dealing with frame-by-frame color Photoshop work and then eye-gouging After Effects work on top of that. The results look both better and worse than I expected. Somehow. :|
The Bad: While I'm getting the effects done, slowly but surely, they're not all being done as good as they should be, which means I will have to go back and fix them. In some ways this is deliberate - I don't spend tons of time on something unless I know it's going to work, so there's lots of testing going on. Doesn't mean I won't spend 8 hours "testing" something, though. -_-
The Ugly: I am deliberately avoiding the unpleasant truth that I am not technically done editing this video. There are sequences which still don't work right or I really don't like, but I'm kind of pretending they don't exist right now. Not really that ugly, more like par for the course...ok...well, Premiere imploded four times today, taking down my project files and forcing emergency recovering tactics. AMV Gods are still out there, obviously. I get the sense that they're a little tired of putting up with me, though.
Worst part of the situation at the moment is that my back/neck are killing me, so I can't work on this as much as I need/want to. Not sure that this thing will be done by the end of the year.
JOURNAL: DriftRoot (Lauren C.)
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