0446:53 21 March 2008
Well, I watched the movie Chocolat to unwind before sleep, but was so inspired after it finished, that I have finished editing the first bit of my music video. No one will ever know, but I so completely nailed the editing, and video/music sync it rocks my socks. Definitely some of my best work so far. The second bit is not so fine however….my need for sleep is overruling. So, here I go, off to sleep, me hearties!!
0115:38 21 March 2008
All the chopping with the editing is totally done!! Now I just have to do the reconstruction and assembly of all the pieces. The fun part. Soon, it all comes together.
I have managed to reduce almost 9 hours of professional video to a little less than 50 minutes of clips, and that will be further reduced to my 7:15 of final video. Still a ways to go on this wild ride. First….sleep.
later, mateys!
1425:28 20 March 2008
So it begins. All rendering is finished. I start now the editing…
0308:01 20 March 2008
I just finished my “score” for the Pirates video. 7 minutes and 15 seconds of awesomeness. I begin with the moving, voices and drums only “Hoist the Colours” and transition immediately into the wailing guitar of “Parlay” which transitions into the slowly rising and moving “What Shall We Die For?” and that trainwrecks (think momentum) into the first bit of “Wheel of Fortune” and rises steadily into an atomic finish.
What steps the coolness factor up those extra few notches is the fact that the pieces of music move along in exactly the direction I want, the entire track builds, while presenting the different aspect of the Pirates I want to highlight. First, they are despondent, about to be wiped out, then they see that they can fight, they gather their wits and passion and strength, and they wage all out war. Even the song’s names communicate that.
Furthermore, Hans Zimmer himself, the composer of all the music I am using, started as a rock star in Germany, before moving to classical composing, and he still retains much of that rock music undertones to his orchestral scores. Also, Pirates’ director Gore Verbinski, himself an accomplished rock guitarist, performs the guitars in “Parlay.”
I can’t believe this turned out so well.
Rock the house, me mateys!! Arrr!
0234:31 20 March 2008
Still some rendering to be done. Accidentally moved one of the referenced files. Anyhow, while I am waiting to do that, I am mixing the music I want to use. Always helps me to have a framework, a skeleton of music to cut the video to, helps me know what scenes and images to pick and where to put them.
As soon as this final bit of rendering is done, I will do nothing until the cutting is done. Then I will shower, sleep, and put the pieces together. However, one thing at a time.
gotta go.
18 March 2008 1211:29
Well, I had set Final Cut the task of rendering overnight, only to awake to a message stating that there was no more disc space available. So now I am in the process of moving as much material as possible to external drives, hoping to have enough to finish rendering. Other than that, the process is going very smoothly. I have, in fact, rendered At World’s End and have half of Dead Man’s Chest to complete, in addition to Curse of the Black Pearl. As long as the wind stays in my sails, all should be good.
Shipmate’s Log: 17 March 2008 0137:55
Ahoy Mateys!!
This post marks the beginning of my Spring Break project. With few exceptions, my entire body of energy will be geared towards the completion of what may be perhaps my most ambitious video editing task yet: A Pirates of the Caribbean video. This is to fulfill my own creative impulses as well as my Tranquility project for my Romantic Lit class (more on that later).
Basically, I am going to use the Pirates trilogy as my source material, and edit together a video that will present the pirates as revolutionaries fighting for their freedom, in the same vein as those that stormed the gates of the Bastille in hopes of winning freedom.
I will post periodically as to my progress. Thus far I have ripped my dvd’s, and have been working on encoding them and importing them into Final Cut Studio, where I will begin the editing process. Currently, I am re-encoding my copy of Pirates 1 into AVI, and have Pirates 2 and 3 waiting to be rendered for slicing and dicing.
That is all for now.
Hoist the Colours!!
May it be henceforth resolved: I shall never be anywhere without my camera and backup batteries.
Walking up to Boyer Hall today, the setting sun shone magnificently on the steeple of Hostetter Chapel, with a naked winter tree before, and I kicked myself for the four hundred and seventy-first time for not having my camera.
I love photography, and constantly watch for awesome pictures to take, but in blatant hypocritical fashion, rarely have my camera. This is unforgivable, and must be remedied.
Therefore, I need new batteries.
New Pictures To Come…
OK. I don’t know how much you have heard, read, or had experience with the whole idea of “Gender Inclusive Language” but here at Messiah College, where I learn stuff, I have had to account for this phenomena in my writing, with no small amount of perfunctory annoyance.
Simply put, gender inclusive language removes the “he, him” and “MAN-kind, you guys” and all other usually male oriented pronouns or nouns when used in reference to a person of unknown gender, or collective group of mixed gender. For instance, in my last post, I said something like “the Bible has made more men than any other book.” What I should be understood as saying is this, “The Bible has made people better,” which is how I should rewrite that sentence to avoid any semblance of excluding women from this. I actually do not mean that the Bible has made no women, I mean simply that the Bible has a tendency to transform and strengthen the core traits that makes a man a man and a woman a woman.
This then becomes the habit of my writing. Its not that I mind using language that includes women just as much as men, it is more that I was taught in a literary tradition that was just peachy for a long time until someone decided that it was somehow discriminatory. And habits are hard to break.
Personally, I think we could all stand to be way more mature than we are being, and realize a device of literature and move on with our lives, rather than to get offended about it. Seriously, why bother going around outraged because a new person in college, or high school is a freshman when they are in fact a woman? I mean, come on. Excepting the days when women were perhaps barred from institutions of higher learning, I don’t think anyone seriously intended to mean that only men could go to college, or whatever whoever is offended by this thinks.
Furthermore, if we don’t like all this, and we can’t use words like “mankind” anymore, than we need to rename the entire race. Human still has man in it. And so does woman. and women.
Since when did it become so about us that we had to start being offended by everything, and demand that society bend over backward to include, pander to, cease from offense toward, and in any/every other way stop inconveniencing ourselves and whatever little club, group, or minority that we perceive ourselves as belonging to?
in one very real way: Grow up, people.
The day has gone from dark and gloomy to bright and sunny. Metaphorically, too.
Today I had a minor altercation with a professor that led to hurt feelings, anger, and anguish. Fortunately, there is a God.
He provided another prof who is becoming a mother-figure mentor to talk things out with, and to gain emotional support from. I then went back to apologize for the offense given and was able to work things out with the first professor.
What I have learned is this:
1) Somethings get misunderstood.
2) The hardest part is walking through the door. Again.
3) Patience and grace are essential.
4) Fear not that what happens, for all events become teachers.
So, sometimes the most valuable learning comes not from the classroom, but outside it. In fact, burn me as a heretic if you want to, but I believe the classroom is simply a small enhancement to the big business of Learning, and not the core of learning. Sure, read a book if you want to, but the real business of being shaped as a person comes in living life. With the very glaring exception of the BIBLE. That book has shaped more lives and made more men than any other book.
Sigh The other thing I have learned is that hugs are simply invaluable.
Peace and love to all.
Phil
