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Post by Fickle81 on Jul 20, 2006 14:58:17 GMT -5
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Post by Fickle81 on Jul 20, 2006 16:48:05 GMT -5
I've been slacking when it comes to project production updates...
Like I said in my last update,right now I'm in an Advanced Video class and our major video project is making an instructional/corporate video on how to use the digital camera (Panasonic DVX100A) for the Intro students.
This is the first course in which I had to work with a production crew (of 3)...in the prior classes before this,I pretty much WAS the production crew,save for actor(s) and somebody I got to handle boom mic shit (when I wasn't using a shotgun mic or the mic on the camera). I had to play this role ALONG WITH writter,director,and cinematographer. I figured it would be a helleva lot easier to actually work with a crew,but I was actually wrong...not only were things done that would have never happened nearly as much if I were the lone crew member (script pretty much being written on the fly and the shotlist pretty much being thrown out the window),but there was also a day of shooting that my cinematographer was sick,so that day wasn't as productive as I would have liked it to be due to the fact that some of the shots that I had planned to do that day that involved me (yes I play a character AND direct...more on that in a second) and the guy that took over cinematography duties for that day couldn't be done. Besides those minor issues,the crew I have is pretty awsome (the editor of the group is quite good I must say) and the extra time they have taken out of their busy scheduals to help get this shit done is very commendable.
Basically,we approched this in a sense that "yea it's an instructional/educational video,but we also want to make it entertaining." The idea we came up with was to basically make fun of some of the dimwits that come into the program,who constintly screw up even when they've been given the proper instruction as to how NOT to screw up. We named the character Ray Daniel,which is a play on the name of a student whom we heard some stories about involving his constint fuckupery. We were originally gonna have one of the friends of the cinematographer in the role,but apparently that couldn't be arranged...and due to the extremely short schedual we had to work with,we had no time to have a casting call...so basically,I got stuck with having to play said idiot student (while at the same time,serving as the main director the fucking thing). I actually found it a pretty easy part to play. Afterall,it's not like I had to do any research for it as you very well know that I deal with stupid people everyday in one form or another...I just took what I knew from the dealings with these people,and basically exaggerated it for comic effect (I often chewed on a mint with my mouth open like a retard...in fact,I often said "hold on,let me get into character" right before putting a mint in my mouth and started chewing on it on set).
One of the ideas we came up with to further make fun of the Ray Daniel character was to give him a really shitty taste in movies based on his wardrobe. This also happens to be the first film I've worked on that had wardrobe/costume changes. The "wardrobe department" basically consisted of a bunch of t-shirts with covers of shitty movies (and by shitty movies,I'm not talking about movies that I personally find shitty...I'm talkin about bottom of the barrel universally reguarded shitty movies) ironed on them all in a blue plastic grocery bag. I litterally got pretty bad tool chills a few times due to having to wear a Gigli t-shirt,among others...but you do what ya gotta do.
Anyways,shooting wrapped up yesterday and we started post production today by knocking out the voiceover narration and started editing the digitised clips together. I'm a bit worried and have the need to get this thing done ASAP,eventhough we are undoutedly significantly ahead of the other 2 groups,because theres still a dispute on when exactly this shit is supposed to be done by. In both of the other video classes I had,we always viewed the completed works on the Thursday of the week it was due to give as much time to edit as possible. However,I heard one of the students from the other group say that they asked the instructor when it was due by,and he was told that the rough edited cut was to be done by this upcoming Tuesday. This causes a problem because lab time tomorrow is extremely short (8A to 11A),and apparently the lab assistant is taking next Monday off so nobody knows how lab time is gonna work on that day or if the lab is even gonna be open. Another thing I'm concerned about is the fact that my editor has to not only edit this project,but also his project for his music video class at the same time. Dispite all of this,both of the members of my crew assured me that we were in fine shape and that I was stressing/worrying too much. Personally,I think we should be given more time due to the fact that the teacher cancelled class 2 days ago due to being ill,which cost us over 2 hours of time that could have been used to film...plus,it's not like we can't watch the final product of each group and get to some DVD creation lectures (the second half of the course) in the same day.
Speaking of stressing,it seems that I'm the most detail oriented member of the group. I noticed some things that could be considered as continuity issues,and when I ran it by the other 2 guys,they basically said I was worrying too much about little things that didn't really matter and that I should just chill out. My take on it is it's the little things that kill,but I suppose that I'm worrying for nothing seeing as how Ray Daniel is gonna get a continuity director credit during the end credits as a joke. It was also suggested that I should just relax for the rest of the night like they plan to do,but I'm opting not to because the things I plan on doing later tonight really won't take that long.
So,my agenda for the evening is to make 2 image documents of a black backround (to make a custom fade out transition effect that Avid apparently won't let you do),mess around in Photoshop to create the title screens from the pictures I'm gonna get in an email later tonight from one of the crew members,and see if I can create some neat flash converted into GIFs credit screens. Then tomorrow,it's an 0800 rise to be on campus assisting with editing at 0900...an update on how productive the day was will be put up later on tomorrow if I'm up to it (IE how awake/tired I'll be).
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Post by Fickle81 on Jul 21, 2006 10:17:33 GMT -5
Got some editing done. As it stands right now,it's lookin like this thing might be a good 20 minutes. We have a temp score in place,and it is cheesy as all hell...thats kinda what we want,but the score in place right now might be a little TOO cheesy.
Personally though,I don't even know why he had me come in this morning. I barely did anything other than sit and watch him work. I offered up my opinion in a couple places,but in the big scheme he probably could have done without it and made a judgement call.
Still don't know what the situation for Monday lab time is...thats all I can really think of,cause my brain is pretty much mush due to lack of sleep...
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Post by Fickle81 on Jul 25, 2006 15:49:36 GMT -5
Taking a break from overseeing the editing/on the fly graphics creation here on campus to provide a quick update...
We got the week extension that I thought we should have gotten,which pleases me very much so cause if this were to be due in 2 days,we'd be in a world of shit. This also leaves some time to possibly get any reshoots done if they come up.
We have also been able to find a better soundtrack (1920s ish old timely piano music rather than cheesy techno).
Well thats pretty much it...back to work I go...
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Post by Fickle81 on Jul 27, 2006 16:41:19 GMT -5
Was a rather productive day. I'd say we're roughly 60-70% done with editing. Right now it's looking fucking dope. We've got all sorts of flash,pizazz,bling,and any other buzz word for style that you can think of in the form of spiffy transitions,custom graphics (made mostly by me),and even a few of the shots themselves are neat.
Sadly though,it was a group decision (meaning the 2 to 1 vote over ruled me) to nix out the outtakes and just have a normal end credit sequence. I can kinda see where they're coming from in the fact that all of the outtakes were inside jokes that only this particular class would get,but I still thought they were gold. Thankfully we're gonna leave the version of the credits with the outtakes in the system to possibly use for our DVD project for the second half of the course.
As it turns out,our group is actually the only ones with our shit together. One of the groups have been having issues with each other to the point of not having things completely done,and the other group just recently discovered that most of their audio is completely screwed up,with only 2 days left to correct it. It seems as though my "Go,go,go!" and attention to detail leadership has really paid off in this case cause not only are we gonna have a great end product,but we're gonna meet our due date.
Eventhough we're in a significantly better position than everybody else,our stuff isn't COMPLETELY air tight. Apparently we have to do 1 or 2 reshoots,and since I'm not gonna be able to come in tomorrow,it will have to be done on Monday which is the day before the project is due. I'm not sweating it though due to not only how much we have edited already,but because it's only 1 MAYBE 2 messly shots that can be taken within 10 minutes and put it into the system to work with in less than 5.
So thats that on that...we now return to our regularly scheduled program...
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Post by Fickle81 on Jul 31, 2006 12:49:23 GMT -5
Eventhough I only got roughly 2 hours sleep,I woke up this morning feeling great,as if it was the best sleep that I've had in quite awhile. My heart rate was a little fast for just waking up (which I've been keeping a close eye on due to this),but my breathing was some of the best it's been in awhile. My breathing has always been spotty at times,where it would be kinda difficult for me to get in good oxygen intake,but every breath I was taking this morning was pure perfection. Add to that the fact that I had the lyric "I've got sunshine on a cloudy day" from the song My Girl on an endless loop in my head,plus seeing that one of my roomates switched out the toothpaste to this strong orangy tasting paste similar to what you might use at a hotel,and you could say I was in a pretty good optimistic mood,which is extremely rare because I'm usually in such a foul mood when I first wake up from that much lack of sleep that I want to forcefully turn somebody's head and neck a full 360 at a moments notice. It seems not even dipshits on the road who didn't know how to even use their turn signals let alone use them correctly and dumb bitches riding ass couldn't fuck up my good mood. Anyway,now that thats out of the way,the film is officially a wrap...and I must say,I'm absolutly fucking thrilled with how it turned out. The reshoots went quick just like I thought they would,and everything was fined tuned to the best it could get. I'm especially fucking pleased with the "eye shutting" transition at the end. I would have settled for 2 black bars,one coming form the top and the other from the bottom,and meet in the middle to make it look like the eyes were closing...not only did we get that in,but we were actually able to feather the edges a little bit to add more detail and make it look even more like an eyelid. That sequence,combined with the awsome somber piano music with it that fit like a glove,looked like complete money. We even had time to add a couple more inside jokes into the thing. Which brings me to the story I was told,along with others in the room. Apparently this Daniel Ray guy made a short for the Intermediate class called Park Ave.,which is apparently a huge ass Clerks ripoff (some of the shots were apparently identical as well as the black and white format). The guy spent about a grand of his own money to be able to shoot in a library after hours and for other things,but it turned out like complete shit due to his incompetent editing. When he went to color correct,he turned parts of his movie purple. So what we did was for the ending sequence,right after Ray Daniel (me) gets slapped,the screen turns purple...and if you look closely during the eye closing transition,you'll see the words "Park Ave." obscured by the closing eyes,then it disappears right as you could make out what it said. The instructor saw that,and had to contain himself from just busting out laughing. Now,it's onto tomorrow's class presentation/screening...overall,it's been a damn fine day that will be difficult to fuck up...
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Post by Fickle81 on Aug 1, 2006 12:52:33 GMT -5
Presented...got the most laughs of all 3...had a nice reference to my second film in one of the other films...moving onto the DVD editing portion of the class...
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Post by Fickle81 on Aug 17, 2006 13:46:10 GMT -5
Word around the campfire is that my group's camera training video will most definatly be the one thats shown to future Intro students...this pleases me very much as it shows my hard work in these courses is really starting to pay off. It would definatly be nice to have a project thats actually used by a respectable community college in the state capital for their A/V program on my resume. This is especially good since I got word today that certain classes are getting cut in half and the A/V part of the Multimedia degree is starting to become its own program. Apparently both the Intermediate and Advanced classes will be split up...for Intermediate there will be a narrative class and a documentary class rather than having to do both in one class,which take it from me was stressful as hell (it was like 1 class that felt like 3),while the Advanced course will be split up into a Corporate Video class and a DVD Creation class. Speaking of which,I've got a hilarious related story. The cinematographer for the project was in Toronto over the weekend and he took a picture of a certain mall salon... Holy shit! The Ray Daniel phenomenon is spreading! Anyways,right now I'm here working on my DVD Demo Reel. I've got clips digitised for all of my projects in every video course I've taken except for the Intro one due to me not being able to find the DV tape for it. If it can't be located,I'm gonna have to capture the footage from the DVD that it's on. I've also got the very rough cut of my Intermediate narritive trailer almost done. Since I've got roughly 3-4 weeks to get this done,I'm not really in any rush. If I really wanted to buckle down,I could get all 5 of the trailers (one trailer for each project plus an all project montage trailer) done in roughly 2 class days. What I should really start doing though is really laying out my DVD menu designs and get cracking on them. Alrightie then,thats the update...back to work I go... Edit:While I'm on my second break,I forgot to make mention that I'm heavily considering filming and putting in director (that would be me) commentaries for all the films I've done for all video courses. If I do decide to do it,it'll be done next week.
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Post by Fickle81 on Aug 22, 2006 17:48:06 GMT -5
Just a small update...
-I was successful in capturing my Intro Video project off of the DVD I had of it without any problems.
-Got all of the stills I'm gonna use for each film.
-Almost finished with the Intermediate narritive,Intermediate documentary,and overall montage trailers.
-I discovered that I had about 30 minutes left on my last 60 minute DV tape,so now I can record my director commentaries on Thursday without having to buy a brand new tape.
-I finally got the Ray Daniel picture today I was supposed to get days ago. The fellow classmate who was supposed to send it didn't have internet access till yesterday. The picture is in the post above this where it was to be all along.
-Another fellow classmate promissed to bring in Mysterious Skin for me to borrow today and didn't show up...fucker.
Thats it...
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Post by Fickle81 on Sept 7, 2006 15:22:33 GMT -5
I am beyond pissed off...I'm simply fucking numb.
The last few days have been some of the shittiest days I've had in a long time. First of all,as you can tell from my recent Kefka Fact,my printer has decided to fuck me raw in the ass not only due to not working correctly (something to do with the paper feed),but because 30 some dollars that I really didn't have was spent on putting a new color cartridge in it.
And thats just the tip of the pointy iceberg thats been forcefully logged into my rectal cavity. I officially fucking HATE the Avid DVD by Sonic program...hate it with a burning passion...hate it so much that I never want to touch it again,but I may very well have to (more on that later). 2 days ago I was able to get everything working EXCEPT the main menu page,which I figured wouldn't be a problem if the teacher was there. Since I couldn't come in yesterday at all even if I wanted to (work),I decided to come in about an hour early and have the teacher help me out with that problem.
Well it turned out to be a bigger problem than I thought and it took me the entire presentation to fix,which is ok as long as I got it done. So I was finally able to fix it and was relieved that I was finally gonna get it burned off and completed...which is where the second major problem comes in.
For some unknown fucking reason,the computer I was working on flat out refused to burn my project. When I tried moving the files to another computer,it would say that certain files were missing and therefore,the program couldn't open the project. At this point,I litterally brought up where the files were located and screamed "THEY'RE RIGHT FUCKING THERE YOU SON OF A CUNT!",which is course generated some laughter from the other people in the lab (the teacher had left at this point,saying he needed the DVD TONIGHT before lab closed). Eventually I decided to start from scratch on another computer,but before I could even get all the PSD menus linked up (let alone the complicated main menu),the program coordinator came in,kicked everybody out,and closed the lab.
My co-writter/co-director on our corporate project,bless his soul,did everything he could to both help me and to chill me out. He said it's not the end of the world,but I disagree. Now that I can't get this DVD to my teacher,I'm probably gonna end up failing the fucking class seeing as how it was half of the total grade...which means that I'll have to go through EVERYTHING all over again (the corporate video,which took A LOT of time and effort to do,AND the fucking DVD),most likely not until NEXT FUCKING SUMMER. Not only that,but I'll have to shell out about another $350 to take the class again.
This wouldn't be so bad if he was just simply able to simulate the process in the program,which is another thing that pissed me off because the simulation worked perfectly,but it just wouldn't burn...unfortunatly,he can't even do that now because the program only reads the assets of the flash drive I have the assets on is plugged in. I tried moving all these assets to a different place on the computer,but that didn't work either.
I'm damn surprised I haven't snapped and viciously butchered someone...in fact,I'm damn surprised I'm even able to type this...as if I didn't already have enough shit to deal with,now I'm gonna have my first official failure in a year (first failure PERIOD for the A/V classes). It wasn't so bad when I failed any other class,because there were less credit hours (IE less expensive) and far less work to be done...
My classmate is technically right,it's not the end of the world...but as far as I'm concerned,it is...and even if it isn't,it's undoubtedly the worst setback of my entire life...even worse than any failed relationship I've ever had...this failure completely fucks up everything. I'm officially screwed...
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Post by Fickle81 on Nov 7, 2006 22:14:51 GMT -5
Eventhough I've been off Fall quarter,theres still some news to report.
I was able to get my Incomplete removed for my advanced video class and replaced with an A...however,all the video pieces (trailers and montage) turned out pixelated...so I'm gonna try and fix it Winter quarter.
Now for the bigger news...I just got off the phone with my dad who attended a city council meeting tonight where he showed my documentary to everybody...apparently it was such a huge hit that the council president and possibly soon to be mayor wants to see about having it put in the Ohio historical society. Not a bad achievement for a zero budget documentary made by a student film maker...combined with this and the extremely positive feedback on my training video,things are lookin up.
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Post by Fickle81 on Dec 27, 2006 23:33:33 GMT -5
Well I officially have a mere 7 days left till my 3 month long break is over and I have to go back to class...I'm taking an audio recording and voice over class on Mondays and Wednesdays,which means I have to adjust my work schedual and work on Fridays...I'm also gonna try to get my Trojan Horse treatment finished by next Wednesday when classes start so I can get some feedback on it...breaks been fun,but now it's back to the grind...
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Post by Fickle81 on Jan 4, 2007 23:53:25 GMT -5
Started my new class yesterday. It's an audio class which focusses on voice overs,voice acting,and editing sound clips. There are 3 major assignments that include doing voiceovers for animated cartoon scenes and voicing a fairy tale. Also,my Trojan Horse treatment has officially been completed. I've given a copy of it to my teacher and am awaiting his thoughts on it. YOU can read it here: www.freewebs.com/kefkastrojanhorsetreatment/trojan_horse_treatment.htmlAnd give me feedback either in this thread or at my email kefkaisbad@hotmail.com
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Post by Fickle81 on Jan 24, 2007 14:49:01 GMT -5
Well seeing as how we were let out early due to a technical error (computer in the foley lab was fucking up and we were supposed to do cold reads today),I've got some time to kill so I thought I'd update this thread for the hell of it.
As I touched upon in the last Kefka Fact,it seems I paid $350+ to take a class where you say tongue twisters on a regular basis. To exercise our vocal and enuciating techniques,we say specific letter sounds,short phrases that have a tendency to run together,and tongue twisting phrases that also have a tendency to run together. We were also given a mock radio spot that we had to say in 10 seconds or less while having proper enunciation of every word...and let me tell ya,it's not as easy as it looks...and we haven't even gotten to the part about adding emotion or accents to suit certain radio stations and/or in certain areas of the country.
I mentioned on the August 17th entry of this thread that certain classes were getting cut in half to ease the workload. Recently I found out that not only does this fully take effect next quarter,but I also found out that only the advanced students get to use the Panasonic DVX100A Digital Camera. From now on,the intro and intermediate students (both the intermediate classes,one for narrative and one for documentary) get to use a little handheld mini dv digital camera. It seems as though every student in the program from this point on will take gradual baby steps until they reach the end...in other words,they're gonna turn the students in the program into pussies. Myself and my fellow classmates didn't get no damn baby steps. We were given the big hunkin DVX100A,shown a couple of the basic functions,then told to go out and make a movie (in the case of the intermediate class,go out and make 2 movies one after the other). I guess thats the benifit of taking classes in a program thats just starting out. You get the raw workload and you get pushed to your limits and thensome. Some of my fellow students couldn't handle it with their already brutal scheduals,but being the absolute superhero that I am,I handled it just fine for the most part,severe lack of sleep and all. But at the same time I definatly envy all the new students that will be coming in that will be able to have a much lighter schedual and workload.
Well thats about it...I'll update this again the next time something significant happens...
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Post by Fickle81 on Mar 12, 2007 20:39:14 GMT -5
Well the final project is in the bag...for those that didn't read the latest post in the Kefka's Underapreciated Video Games List thread,we had to record 3 nursery rhymes (Humpty Dumpty,This Little Piggy,and Hey Diddle Diddle). This has been the most stress free quarter I've had in ages...not to mention uneventful.
However,tonight I saw something that annoyed me to no end...some fucktwig brought their goddamn baby to the lab. Seriously,how fucking stupid can you be to bring a baby to a college lab while you work? Do you not think that perhaps the noises it makes is ANNOYING AND DISTRACTING to those trying to work? Seriously,what is so fucking hard about finding somebody reliable to watch the kid? Does it have a mother? Does it have grandparents? Does it have trusted neighbors? What about other close family members? Seriously,there are so many fucking options at your disposal that it's not even funny...and if there aren't,then what the fuck are you doing going to school? Wouldn't it be better to wait till the kid could look after themself more before going to school? Fucking Christ,some people are just so goddamn stupid...
Anyways,now that I'm done with that rant,all I have to do is present my completed project on Wednesday and my week and a half long vacation can begin before going back to take 2 classes (Music Video and Foley Studio/Design)...whooptee fuckin doo...eventhough it's not really a vacation because I have to think of what my first music video is gonna be,work on a website I've been asked to make for the city,and not to mention going to work on top of all this...sometimes...just sometimes,it sucks to be me...being so good at nearly everything to the point that others go to you is kind of a curse...
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