Today was my last day as an intern at Postage. In all honesty, I don't think I was really needed today. I came in around 10 to a weekly meeting between Joe, Allen, and Courtland, whom they hired part time to keep him working for them rather than going off to another internship in Philly. I wish someone had told me they were planning on having a meeting, even if I couldn't be of any help in it since until today I was sorta part of the team. Though, throughout this whole internship, I haven't felt like I was included in the "team". I never had many projects that spaned week to week, so each day I went in, I would have to ask for something new. And like today, when I had something needed to work on, I needed new footage or files or something from them and they said they would give it to me, but would forget about it for an hour before I would bring it up and then they'd get around to it.
All that being said (I think I'm just bitter since today wasn't such a great day) this has been good experience in post-production. It has taught me alot and also what I still have to learn. I think if I'd been more included in "team-ness" I would've gotten more out of it, but I think they may've avoided that because I wasn't permanent and because they didn't know my skill set at the onset and that limited me in what they thought I could do or what they would give to me. I don't know, since I can't read minds and I'm too polite to actually ask them about it. I'm not good with confrontation like that. But I do have a bunch of projects that I worked on to show my class next semester.
Look out, World. Adieu.
[Hours 10.15-1.15]
[Total Hours: 164]
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Finishing things up
Popped in to Postage today to work on/finish up the FUBAR Making-of that I started yesterday. Got the extra assets from Joe and incorporated them successfully. Did some color corrections, though sometimes Final Cut decides to show me the correction while it plays and sometimes it doesn't, so it's a little hard to tell if all the colors work well together. Added some supers of names and titles, but didn't really have time to find a proper background paper or grunge swipe, so it's just white text, which I'm not overly fond of. On that note, added some real quick-and-dirty credits at the end which I'm sure will be changed, if only to add proper titles at the very least and to add that I edited the whole thing together at most. Oh, and also to add all the logos and such for FUBAR, AppMobi, and Postage at the least. Maybe that's what I'll be doing next week, who knows at this point.
[Hours: 12.15-3.15]
[Total Hours: 160]
[Hours: 12.15-3.15]
[Total Hours: 160]
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
FUBAR Follies
Had a strange cycle/deja vu moment this morning when Allen decided to have some cleaning time right when I got in. My first day, I think it was, I began mostly by cleaning surfaces with Windex. Rather fitting, since that first time I was nervous about it since I didn't know where anything went, while today I just picked stuff up, moved it, cleaned, moved it back, threw away trash, etc. I also got to help put together a little shelf with big dreams. It was such a cute little shelf, it needs a theme song or something.
After the little cleaning and building binge, I got to work putting together the FUBAR: Kilroy 24-hr game-making-a-thon(?) video. There was alot of footage to go through, but I'd gone through most of it at the end of last week. I knew they wanted it to be short, so I kept most of the clips under 2 seconds (where possible). The only thing I had to go on for the video was that Allen wanted it to give the feel of what it was like. Until I showed it to them half finished and then they gave me more specific directions
They wanted to make sure to say what it was, where it came from, why they were doing it, who was doing, all that within the first 30 seconds or so. Also, change the music since the file I'd chosen was too overpowering of the video (and they'd just used it for another piece). And for notes I think I had to write down the funniest four word combination: "Helaine pencil fire zombie" which made total sense for its context, but take it out and it's pretty damned funny.
Anyway, they liked the overall feel of what I'd put together by the end of the day. There were some extra shots they suggested and that I added and some other footage they wanted in that I didn't have that Joe will hopefully get to me by the next time I work on it. I'm glad I held my tounge about that. How can I put something in if I don't know it exists or where to get ahold of it (since it wasn't in the footage folder)? That aside, I'm going to try and go in tomorrow after class to finish up the basic layout since Allen said they wanted to show it to some folks on Thursday, and to get a few extra hours in before they kick me out next week.
[Hours: 10-6]
[Total Hours: 157]
After the little cleaning and building binge, I got to work putting together the FUBAR: Kilroy 24-hr game-making-a-thon(?) video. There was alot of footage to go through, but I'd gone through most of it at the end of last week. I knew they wanted it to be short, so I kept most of the clips under 2 seconds (where possible). The only thing I had to go on for the video was that Allen wanted it to give the feel of what it was like. Until I showed it to them half finished and then they gave me more specific directions
They wanted to make sure to say what it was, where it came from, why they were doing it, who was doing, all that within the first 30 seconds or so. Also, change the music since the file I'd chosen was too overpowering of the video (and they'd just used it for another piece). And for notes I think I had to write down the funniest four word combination: "Helaine pencil fire zombie" which made total sense for its context, but take it out and it's pretty damned funny.
Anyway, they liked the overall feel of what I'd put together by the end of the day. There were some extra shots they suggested and that I added and some other footage they wanted in that I didn't have that Joe will hopefully get to me by the next time I work on it. I'm glad I held my tounge about that. How can I put something in if I don't know it exists or where to get ahold of it (since it wasn't in the footage folder)? That aside, I'm going to try and go in tomorrow after class to finish up the basic layout since Allen said they wanted to show it to some folks on Thursday, and to get a few extra hours in before they kick me out next week.
[Hours: 10-6]
[Total Hours: 157]
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
My Own Stuff
Mostly just worked on my own stuff today. I don't know if that's because I just started working on it while I was waiting to be assigned something and when Allen saw me working on it he just let me continue or if they really didn't have much need for me today. Either way, I got my commercial for Allen's class done and even got a bit of help on it. I guess I was just really tired today and didn't actually go asking them for work and was quite content to work on my own stuff. Tried to do stuff for my copywriting class too, but had such writers block that I couldn't. Allen tried to help get me in the right frame of mind to do it, but it didn't really help all the same.
A production crew came to interview Allen and me for a new promotional video for PCA&D. We were for the internship part of the reel, go figure, right? I think I rambled a bit, but hopefully they got what they needed. They had to get some B-reel footage of me working in FinalCutPro too, so Allen had given me footage from the 24-hr-Game-Making-a-thon they'd done a few weeks back to do a <2:00 video of "what it was like" for them. I'll be working on that next week and the following week and that'll be it.
I finally remembered to have Allen sign the paper that says he'll be a good internship mentor and it asks when the intership is to be over and he asked me when I wanted that to be. I told him truthfully that I had hoped we'd be done by the end of the semester, so that's when he set the end date for, whether or not I have the full hours or not, he's not going to tattle and I guess I won't either. I'd been good about logging my hours here, but it turns out that that fear was unfounded. I'm also not sure if PCA&D actually asks for a timecard, but I've been going in about once a week for 5 1/2 months and I think alot of interns go in 2-5 times a week for only 3 months. Also, I'm not even sure how acurate I've been with my time log. I usually round to the nearest hour or half-hour rather than quarter-hour and sometimes if I felt I hadn't done much that day yet stayed longer than I'd planned, I'll round down the hour if I've stayed till a :15 or :45.
[Hours: 9.30-5.30]
[Total Hours: 149]
A production crew came to interview Allen and me for a new promotional video for PCA&D. We were for the internship part of the reel, go figure, right? I think I rambled a bit, but hopefully they got what they needed. They had to get some B-reel footage of me working in FinalCutPro too, so Allen had given me footage from the 24-hr-Game-Making-a-thon they'd done a few weeks back to do a <2:00 video of "what it was like" for them. I'll be working on that next week and the following week and that'll be it.
I finally remembered to have Allen sign the paper that says he'll be a good internship mentor and it asks when the intership is to be over and he asked me when I wanted that to be. I told him truthfully that I had hoped we'd be done by the end of the semester, so that's when he set the end date for, whether or not I have the full hours or not, he's not going to tattle and I guess I won't either. I'd been good about logging my hours here, but it turns out that that fear was unfounded. I'm also not sure if PCA&D actually asks for a timecard, but I've been going in about once a week for 5 1/2 months and I think alot of interns go in 2-5 times a week for only 3 months. Also, I'm not even sure how acurate I've been with my time log. I usually round to the nearest hour or half-hour rather than quarter-hour and sometimes if I felt I hadn't done much that day yet stayed longer than I'd planned, I'll round down the hour if I've stayed till a :15 or :45.
[Hours: 9.30-5.30]
[Total Hours: 149]
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Waiting to Wait
Yesterday was not an overly eventful day at Postage. Allen gave me a new Dutch Apple promo to fix up the way the client asked. This client is...difficult in that she doesn't seem to know what she wants and contradicts herself in what she asks for. It can be very frustrating, especially when you can't just come out and tell her she's asking for something oxymoronic. So, did that for a while. Joe asked for a vecorized logo of the salon they're making a website for. Got to work on the Chameleon Club documentary a little bit too, but that was putting in a cut paper animation for bands that we only see pictures or performances of, but aren't talking to the documentary. That took a while since I felt the need to render after I put in each lable, and it took a good 4-10 minutes apiece, depending on how long the paper needed to stay on screen. So I would do something that took one minute, and then wait 4-10 while it rendered. I took the time to do dishes and clean up some stuff around the studio since I shot my product commercial in the evening and I wanted things to look nice. I don't think that counts towards internship hours, though.
[Hours: 10-6]
[Total Hours: 141]
[Hours: 10-6]
[Total Hours: 141]
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
A Lesson in Frustration
So, today was a bunch of little puzzle things that just got frustrating, but in a good way. Not "fun" persay, but "challenging".
My first assignment wasn't a challenge at all, since it was simply to watch the full Chameleon Club documentary all the way through. It was a bit under an hour and it's not all finished yet, but I got to point out certain things to Allen that I may not have been able to otherwise, such as the flashing color bits in the last section to make it look more like old footage rather than new footage, but there was so much of it that it became a distraction.
There was an entire section that had one long clip that didn't need to be so long, and yet, didn't have any others, but needed some. My job was to cut down that one clip and try to find others to fit within that section. This included going through a whole bunch of extra footage looking for something that wasn't there. This was a little frustrating.
The next job I had was to find when interviewees first appeared, write down the time, their name, and their title. This was frustrating because I didn't know who most of these people were and half the clips didn't tell me who they were. Allen said that he was "testing my research skills" to which I replied, tounge-in-cheek, "Well, I was a soc research major for three years and I found that I try to find the easiest way of finding something out" and in this case, that was asking Allen. He laughed at that.
Finally, I had to find the name titles that Jason had made and make one for each of the interviewees. That took me mostly till the end. I came up with a color scheme for everyone. Regular employees get red, artists get orange, managers and owners get gree, Rich Ruoff got blue, since he founded it, and others outside the club scene got yellow. Rendered them all out and that was it.
Also, gave Allen the B-roll that we shot in DC. He found a stock site that has some footage for other places, so he may not use the stuff we shot, but he did say one of my shots looked like a good shot, so even if he doesn't use it, I know it's nice. So yea, that was basically it for today.
[Hours: 10-5]
[Total Hours: 133]
My first assignment wasn't a challenge at all, since it was simply to watch the full Chameleon Club documentary all the way through. It was a bit under an hour and it's not all finished yet, but I got to point out certain things to Allen that I may not have been able to otherwise, such as the flashing color bits in the last section to make it look more like old footage rather than new footage, but there was so much of it that it became a distraction.
There was an entire section that had one long clip that didn't need to be so long, and yet, didn't have any others, but needed some. My job was to cut down that one clip and try to find others to fit within that section. This included going through a whole bunch of extra footage looking for something that wasn't there. This was a little frustrating.
The next job I had was to find when interviewees first appeared, write down the time, their name, and their title. This was frustrating because I didn't know who most of these people were and half the clips didn't tell me who they were. Allen said that he was "testing my research skills" to which I replied, tounge-in-cheek, "Well, I was a soc research major for three years and I found that I try to find the easiest way of finding something out" and in this case, that was asking Allen. He laughed at that.
Finally, I had to find the name titles that Jason had made and make one for each of the interviewees. That took me mostly till the end. I came up with a color scheme for everyone. Regular employees get red, artists get orange, managers and owners get gree, Rich Ruoff got blue, since he founded it, and others outside the club scene got yellow. Rendered them all out and that was it.
Also, gave Allen the B-roll that we shot in DC. He found a stock site that has some footage for other places, so he may not use the stuff we shot, but he did say one of my shots looked like a good shot, so even if he doesn't use it, I know it's nice. So yea, that was basically it for today.
[Hours: 10-5]
[Total Hours: 133]
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Bits of Everything
I forgot again to write about last Tuesday. Oops. I had to come in late anyway because Allen and Joe had some meeting that they can't tell me about yet. Hopefully I'll find out at somepoint, but not yet. Did 4 things on Tuesday:
1. Vecorized icons for Stabb Gunner
2. Researched hair salon web sites for Joe since they'll be making one for a new salon outside of Philly and they wanted to know what good sites were already out there.
3. Rearranging images for theFictory website. That took a bit, measuring out new columns and new rows and resizing images and such to already specified dimentions.
4. Shrunk down 3 new series of images for a new game Joe's working on.
Overall, it was a very relaxing day. I still amuse myself realizing when I'm "Joe's Intern" vs. "Allen's Intern". The assignments are always different. Both are nevery quite out of my ability, but just enough challenge to not be boring.
[Hours: 11.30-4.30]
[Total Hours: 126]
1. Vecorized icons for Stabb Gunner
2. Researched hair salon web sites for Joe since they'll be making one for a new salon outside of Philly and they wanted to know what good sites were already out there.
3. Rearranging images for theFictory website. That took a bit, measuring out new columns and new rows and resizing images and such to already specified dimentions.
4. Shrunk down 3 new series of images for a new game Joe's working on.
Overall, it was a very relaxing day. I still amuse myself realizing when I'm "Joe's Intern" vs. "Allen's Intern". The assignments are always different. Both are nevery quite out of my ability, but just enough challenge to not be boring.
[Hours: 11.30-4.30]
[Total Hours: 126]
Friday, March 4, 2011
Interview and some Vectorizing
Got to tromp over to city hall today and help Allen interview the mayor of Lancaster. He was nice and said some good things about the Chameleon Club that they can use. I also had another adventure with Meridian figures, vectorizing them and their damn gradients. Slow, simple day, but still worth it. Also, Allen taught me how to customize my new video camera and what he needs from me in DC.
[Hours: 12-4]
[Total Hours: 121]
[Hours: 12-4]
[Total Hours: 121]
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Looking for B-Roll
Worked on stuff for the Chameleon Club documentary's B-roll (i.e. the images shown overtop someone speaking about what the images are showing) I actually got to go in to AfterEffects and learn how to zoom in to an area from space. Then I highlighted the city areas of Lancaster, Philadelphia, Baltimore, DC, Harrisburg, and NYC and had them fade in one at a time. It took me about an hour and a half, but it ended up looking pretty cool, simple, and exactly what Allen needed. Then, waited for Allen to get some other stuff done, we went over to Prince St Cafe where others got coffee and Allen got me a chocolate chip muffin for lunch (since I'd forgotten one). After that, waited around a bit for the camera to finish charging and then we left to go out hunting B-roll.
We had a number of stops to make, so we took Allen's Jeep. I'm glad I wasn't driving because we went to a few parts of the city I've never been to. Allen was looking for diversity shots, so we found an Asian market and a Mexican restaurant. We were looking for Puerto Rican flags, but that ended up being fruitless. Next we went in search of an Amish buggy. Not too hard in Lancaster, you think? Wrong. We had to go all the way out 30 to 896 and half way to Strasburg! Then we set up outside the Strasburg Creamery waiting for a buggy to go by so we could show a buggy in a more urban environment. But just our luck, there was one going by right as we parked, but none when we got out, set up and waited for 5 minutes in the cold wind. That's another thing, it was REALLY windy today. Next we headed back to Fruitville Pike and took some wide shots of the shopping center with the Weiss and the PepBoys. Then, Allen needed to go out and get some pictures at a pharmacy out off of Centerville Rd for an entirely different project, so we went all the way out there for that. I helped out by blocking out weird lighting from the windows. Finally, we headed back in to town to the train station (stopping by the comic shop first) for an incoming train and people getting on and off. Allen was scared that we'd be stopped and asked what we were doing and getting in trouble and such, but there was hardly anyone there at all! A needless worry in the end, but since the sun was beginning to set, it turned out to be a great shot! Lastly, we headed back in the city itself and got some shots of the roundabout on King and Queen streets. That turned out really nice too since the sunset made a nice color on the stone. Allen also got to take shots of museums around Market.
After that, we dropped the camera and tripod off at Postage and Allen was nice enough to give me a ride back to the Parking garage. Today was a good day. I don't feel like I did too much, but I feel like I learned a bit. Also, I get to go back on Friday and help Allen get some more footage. This time interviewing the mayor of Lancaster. Should be fun. Joe also has some stuff for me to do, so Friday will be fun like today. Plus, Allen needs more footage not just of Lancaster, but also of DC, Philly, and New York. I told him we were going to DC this weekend and he asked me to get a good 10 second shot of people walking around a metropolitan area of DC. Not too hard, I think, so I even get to help them out when I'm on vacation!
[Hours: 10-5]
[Total Hours: 117]
We had a number of stops to make, so we took Allen's Jeep. I'm glad I wasn't driving because we went to a few parts of the city I've never been to. Allen was looking for diversity shots, so we found an Asian market and a Mexican restaurant. We were looking for Puerto Rican flags, but that ended up being fruitless. Next we went in search of an Amish buggy. Not too hard in Lancaster, you think? Wrong. We had to go all the way out 30 to 896 and half way to Strasburg! Then we set up outside the Strasburg Creamery waiting for a buggy to go by so we could show a buggy in a more urban environment. But just our luck, there was one going by right as we parked, but none when we got out, set up and waited for 5 minutes in the cold wind. That's another thing, it was REALLY windy today. Next we headed back to Fruitville Pike and took some wide shots of the shopping center with the Weiss and the PepBoys. Then, Allen needed to go out and get some pictures at a pharmacy out off of Centerville Rd for an entirely different project, so we went all the way out there for that. I helped out by blocking out weird lighting from the windows. Finally, we headed back in to town to the train station (stopping by the comic shop first) for an incoming train and people getting on and off. Allen was scared that we'd be stopped and asked what we were doing and getting in trouble and such, but there was hardly anyone there at all! A needless worry in the end, but since the sun was beginning to set, it turned out to be a great shot! Lastly, we headed back in the city itself and got some shots of the roundabout on King and Queen streets. That turned out really nice too since the sunset made a nice color on the stone. Allen also got to take shots of museums around Market.
After that, we dropped the camera and tripod off at Postage and Allen was nice enough to give me a ride back to the Parking garage. Today was a good day. I don't feel like I did too much, but I feel like I learned a bit. Also, I get to go back on Friday and help Allen get some more footage. This time interviewing the mayor of Lancaster. Should be fun. Joe also has some stuff for me to do, so Friday will be fun like today. Plus, Allen needs more footage not just of Lancaster, but also of DC, Philly, and New York. I told him we were going to DC this weekend and he asked me to get a good 10 second shot of people walking around a metropolitan area of DC. Not too hard, I think, so I even get to help them out when I'm on vacation!
[Hours: 10-5]
[Total Hours: 117]
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Some People Just Can't Talk on Camera
As promised, I got an editing job today. Allen had taken a bunch of footage for the Rumschpringe Film Festival Promo video and it was my job to create a rough cut of it. Time limit was 60 seconds, 120 was the longest. My end time was 3 min 08 sec when I'd left.
This project was actually really frustrating for me. The main person (IMO) wasn't very good at talking naturally on camera. He would take long pauses and seemingly not think about what he was trying to say before saying it, so alot of it came out somewhat opposite of stuttered. It was very annoying to watch the same line over and over again prompted by Allen and still having it get messed up and befuddled. So half my time was actually spent taking out the "ums" and the pauses. This was true for the other people who were speaking, but none were as frustrating as the person who was giving the primary information.
Also, because of all the cutting of pauses, when the video itself was viewed, the people jump a little since the cuts are sometimes only a second apart so a hand vanishes or a mouth opens or something little that just BUGS me! I know I did somewhat okay with the audio, but when things didn't line up on those layers either I also got frustrated. I think that has something to do with the fact that I'm an auditory learner and I was in Speech and Debate for 3 1/2 years (and even more if you count judging after I graduated). I'm very conscious of the flow of words and those tiny little jumps that most people would ignore jump out to me like a bright red splinter in my thumb.
Now, I know, because Allen told me, that this is only a rough cut and that he himself will go back in and polish it up, but I still help but be frustrated with the fact that I feel like the video and audio is messy and unprofessionally edited.
Random aside: Allen and Joe took me out to Isaac's for lunch as thanks for all the work I've done for them. It was a nice lunch, tasty as all Isaac's meals are, and I told them they need to come over to our place so Caleb can cook them his famous fish curry. They'll like it cause it's spicy and Allen seems to want to put spicy into most things (at least that I've seen him eat).
[Hours: 9.45-5.45]
[Total Hours: 110] (I'm leaving out the hour for lunch)
This project was actually really frustrating for me. The main person (IMO) wasn't very good at talking naturally on camera. He would take long pauses and seemingly not think about what he was trying to say before saying it, so alot of it came out somewhat opposite of stuttered. It was very annoying to watch the same line over and over again prompted by Allen and still having it get messed up and befuddled. So half my time was actually spent taking out the "ums" and the pauses. This was true for the other people who were speaking, but none were as frustrating as the person who was giving the primary information.
Also, because of all the cutting of pauses, when the video itself was viewed, the people jump a little since the cuts are sometimes only a second apart so a hand vanishes or a mouth opens or something little that just BUGS me! I know I did somewhat okay with the audio, but when things didn't line up on those layers either I also got frustrated. I think that has something to do with the fact that I'm an auditory learner and I was in Speech and Debate for 3 1/2 years (and even more if you count judging after I graduated). I'm very conscious of the flow of words and those tiny little jumps that most people would ignore jump out to me like a bright red splinter in my thumb.
Now, I know, because Allen told me, that this is only a rough cut and that he himself will go back in and polish it up, but I still help but be frustrated with the fact that I feel like the video and audio is messy and unprofessionally edited.
Random aside: Allen and Joe took me out to Isaac's for lunch as thanks for all the work I've done for them. It was a nice lunch, tasty as all Isaac's meals are, and I told them they need to come over to our place so Caleb can cook them his famous fish curry. They'll like it cause it's spicy and Allen seems to want to put spicy into most things (at least that I've seen him eat).
[Hours: 9.45-5.45]
[Total Hours: 110] (I'm leaving out the hour for lunch)
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
A Little bit of That
I was Joe's intern on Tuesday. I started out by finishing the vectorizing of the gobos. I also did a bit of photoshopping for Allen of a picture for the Chameleon Club documentary. Then Joe had me rearrange some promo posters for "Atomic Robo" and "Stabb Gunner" to 20x30 so they could print and sell them. All this didn't actually take me the whole time, but I did get some of my homework for Wednesday done.
I think that was really about all. I still find it interesting the difference in tasks I get when I'm Joe's intern vs. Allen's intern.
Also, I am now more than halfway done my internship!
[Hours: 9.30-4.30]
[Total Hours: 103]
I think that was really about all. I still find it interesting the difference in tasks I get when I'm Joe's intern vs. Allen's intern.
Also, I am now more than halfway done my internship!
[Hours: 9.30-4.30]
[Total Hours: 103]
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Slow and Quiet Day
Not alot to do at Postage today. Joe was out, and Allen had a project from Saubles foisted off on him at the last minute, so I mostly worked on the gobos that Joe had given me last week. I only got one done total, but it was a complicated tree. I did get most of the wedding proposal done that we'd started last week since the guy sent in music track. Final Cut also for some reason didn't want to play back my color correction, so that sent me through a loop for a few minutes. Allen had also done his own bit of editing for the "All Shook Up" piece for Dutch Apple and I have no idea what else I could possible do to it, so I went back to the gobo.
So yea, that was really about it today. I asked to leave early because Caleb got out at 2 and if I wasn't going to be doing anything that required Allen's attention at some later point, it was probably best to just go home (and do homework for tomorrow's class too)
[Hours: 10-2]
[Total Hours: 96]
So yea, that was really about it today. I asked to leave early because Caleb got out at 2 and if I wasn't going to be doing anything that required Allen's attention at some later point, it was probably best to just go home (and do homework for tomorrow's class too)
[Hours: 10-2]
[Total Hours: 96]
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Just a Quickie
Allen got a response back from the Dutch Apple lady and she wanted quicker, more energy filled, more "special effects" in the promo, so I popped in for a bit to try and get some of that. I cut it down another :10-:15 or so to 2:15 including the end text. I tried to get some more cuts quicker, but I felt like what I had for about half of it already had lots of cuts in it. I might see about sneaking in tomorrow or Friday after class to see if it's okay or not, or if Allen is just going to do it himself since he knows what the client wants more than I do. I only have previous things and his word to go on, not the client herself. Though, Caleb said that if Allen still trusts me to be able to get it right, then I'm doing fine, even if the first couple drafts aren't what they're looking for.
[Hours: 5-6:30]
[Total Hours: 92]
[Hours: 5-6:30]
[Total Hours: 92]
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Still Shaken it Up
Editing is so much fun!!!
I actually got TWO editing projects from Allen today. One was a flash mob dance into a guy proposing to his girlfriend and the other was a promo video for the "All Shook Up" stuff that I did last week. We got the voice over for the promo and I was to cut up the audio and intermix it with the songs and some video from the show. I wasn't given a time limit at first, so my first cut was about 3:06. Allen told me to try to get it down to 2:30 or 2:00 if I could since shorter tends to be better. It was tricky figuring out what to cut and making sure that it still all flowed together nicely, but I got the video down to 2:16 with end logo and info another :10. He said both the long and short versions looked really good and that made me really happy. It's nice to know that something you find fun and enjoyable is also considered "good work". What it is, really, is just being able to tell a story and I consider myself a pretty good storyteller. I LOVE telling stories. My biggest problem is telling them in the shortest amount of time (I tend to get sidetracked or indulge in too many details).
Anyway, today was just a really good day to get things done and I was super happy that my work was acceptable. I can't wait to graduate and try to get this as a real job. I do wonder how hard it would be to get an editing position somewhere...
[Hours: 9.45-6.15]
[Total Hours: 90.5]
I actually got TWO editing projects from Allen today. One was a flash mob dance into a guy proposing to his girlfriend and the other was a promo video for the "All Shook Up" stuff that I did last week. We got the voice over for the promo and I was to cut up the audio and intermix it with the songs and some video from the show. I wasn't given a time limit at first, so my first cut was about 3:06. Allen told me to try to get it down to 2:30 or 2:00 if I could since shorter tends to be better. It was tricky figuring out what to cut and making sure that it still all flowed together nicely, but I got the video down to 2:16 with end logo and info another :10. He said both the long and short versions looked really good and that made me really happy. It's nice to know that something you find fun and enjoyable is also considered "good work". What it is, really, is just being able to tell a story and I consider myself a pretty good storyteller. I LOVE telling stories. My biggest problem is telling them in the shortest amount of time (I tend to get sidetracked or indulge in too many details).
Anyway, today was just a really good day to get things done and I was super happy that my work was acceptable. I can't wait to graduate and try to get this as a real job. I do wonder how hard it would be to get an editing position somewhere...
[Hours: 9.45-6.15]
[Total Hours: 90.5]
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
HUH!...I'm all Shook Up!
Today at Postage was great! I got there super early, which didn't do me any good because Allen was on time. Joe was at another studio today, so I was Allen's intern and we got to do some awesome amount of editing.
The first two hours or so were dedicated to digitizing Dutch Apple's "All Shook Up" show. About 40 minutes in when I realized that it was a modern musical addaptation of Shakespeare's "12th Night" I stopped taking it seriously and enjoyed it. It got pretty funny at the end with the mix and match love stories, though I was sorta hoping for the tom boy to finally turn around and proclaim love for the geek boy. Then, with three clips, Allen showed me how to mix and match video to audio and levels and such to make a quick, 20-30 second clip of a song. But really, Allen did the first one and I did the second two. It was still fun though. It was all Elivs music, by the way.
Then, using the same footage that Allen had us practicing with in class yesterday, a lady came from ShurFine grocery stores and I got to create a new HD donut commercial for them. I think I'm going in tomorrow too to continue with that. There was some AfterEffects and some FinalCut for that, but it was ver similar to what we'd done in class, and that made it alright. Allen (and the lady) told me that this was really what editing was. There there was an "Editor" and a "Technical Editor". The first tells the second what clips to use, where, etc. and the second does the physical pushing of the buttons. I'd seen some of the behind-the-scenes stuff for LOTR:RotK and they showed that and I was so happy that I got to be the Technical Editor even for this small, local commercial. Allen said to enjoy it while it lasts, because it doesn't always stay fun. I told him that if I'm still actually doing this same kind of thing in 30 years and I'm still having fun, that I've picked the right path.
I hope I'm right.
[Hours: 10-6]
[Total Hours: 82]
The first two hours or so were dedicated to digitizing Dutch Apple's "All Shook Up" show. About 40 minutes in when I realized that it was a modern musical addaptation of Shakespeare's "12th Night" I stopped taking it seriously and enjoyed it. It got pretty funny at the end with the mix and match love stories, though I was sorta hoping for the tom boy to finally turn around and proclaim love for the geek boy. Then, with three clips, Allen showed me how to mix and match video to audio and levels and such to make a quick, 20-30 second clip of a song. But really, Allen did the first one and I did the second two. It was still fun though. It was all Elivs music, by the way.
Then, using the same footage that Allen had us practicing with in class yesterday, a lady came from ShurFine grocery stores and I got to create a new HD donut commercial for them. I think I'm going in tomorrow too to continue with that. There was some AfterEffects and some FinalCut for that, but it was ver similar to what we'd done in class, and that made it alright. Allen (and the lady) told me that this was really what editing was. There there was an "Editor" and a "Technical Editor". The first tells the second what clips to use, where, etc. and the second does the physical pushing of the buttons. I'd seen some of the behind-the-scenes stuff for LOTR:RotK and they showed that and I was so happy that I got to be the Technical Editor even for this small, local commercial. Allen said to enjoy it while it lasts, because it doesn't always stay fun. I told him that if I'm still actually doing this same kind of thing in 30 years and I'm still having fun, that I've picked the right path.
I hope I'm right.
[Hours: 10-6]
[Total Hours: 82]
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Finish Line in Sight
Sorry I didn't post about yesterday, but I got to go in again today and finish up what I was working on, so it's all good.
I finally got to do some animating, but it was only the Greenfield Puppies website that I'd created a few weeks ago. It wasn't alot, but I had to go back in to Illustrator and Photoshop to make it look right, so that took a while. It wasn't perfect, but it was close enough. So I did that, then I got to color in shadows on a keyboard, mouse, and moniters that the puppy is looking for a family with. That took a while because I'm not so good with shapes of colors and gradients in Illustrator; I tend to just use Live Paint Groups. The keyboard was the worst, but the moniters were really easy.
After I got all those done I was given the skin of the Puppy Car to paint so that it could go over the 3D model. That took me to almost the end of the day today and Allen was very pleased with it. I still think there could've been better bits, but if they're happy and it's due Friday and I'm helping, I won't complain.
[Hours: 10-5.30]
[Hours: 2.30-6]
[Total Hours: 74]
I finally got to do some animating, but it was only the Greenfield Puppies website that I'd created a few weeks ago. It wasn't alot, but I had to go back in to Illustrator and Photoshop to make it look right, so that took a while. It wasn't perfect, but it was close enough. So I did that, then I got to color in shadows on a keyboard, mouse, and moniters that the puppy is looking for a family with. That took a while because I'm not so good with shapes of colors and gradients in Illustrator; I tend to just use Live Paint Groups. The keyboard was the worst, but the moniters were really easy.
After I got all those done I was given the skin of the Puppy Car to paint so that it could go over the 3D model. That took me to almost the end of the day today and Allen was very pleased with it. I still think there could've been better bits, but if they're happy and it's due Friday and I'm helping, I won't complain.
[Hours: 10-5.30]
[Hours: 2.30-6]
[Total Hours: 74]
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Little bit at a Time
Went in yesterday after I was deserted on Tuesday. Joe hadn't really drawn anything for me to vectorize yet, so I started with some simple Photoshoping of the Greenfield Puppies car, wheel, and a paw. There was another intern who came in to do some coloring for Atomic Robot and another someone, didn't catch who he was, came in to talk to Joe about his portfolio and getting references for a new job, so I still was sitting around alot not doing anything. It feels like I only did a tiny bit of work and it wasn't overly significant.
I think I should start keeping track of total hourage now, cause I'm up to a quarter of the way done and it will just be a pain to have to keep going back and back and adding up my hours.
[Hours: 1-5]
[Total Hours: 62]
I think I should start keeping track of total hourage now, cause I'm up to a quarter of the way done and it will just be a pain to have to keep going back and back and adding up my hours.
[Hours: 1-5]
[Total Hours: 62]
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
CUPCAKE!!
So, lucky me, I got to come in two days in a row. Get me out of the aparment! Continued to work on the Greenfield puppy thing. My job was to set up few pages of a mock website for a dog to go searching for his family on. I got to use their website as the base and copy some of the elements. The main difference is the first page where, on the real site it just pulls the site up, the puppy will see a screen that asks if you're a puppy or a person. Now, each of those names needed a pretty icon, so I sketched out in Illustrator a dog bone treat and a human silhouette. They were just placeholders until Joe sketch out his version and they decied that a cupcake would be best for the person icon. So then I got to vectorize Joe's drawings. Luckly, for at least the cupcake, he gave me another sketch with where the shadows were to go and I got it all done in a couple hours. It looks so cute!!!! The dog bones, not so much, but I like cupcakes more than bones, myself. I was so concentrated on doing the work too, that I didn't eat lunch until nearly 3. Then afterwards, I didn't really have anything to do, so that was the end of the day.
[Hours: 10-3.30]
[Hours: 10-3.30]
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Smoke Out My Ears
I had off for two weeks or so for Christmas break, but now it's a new year and I'm finally back to work! I was quite happy when I called in yesterday and Allen said I could come in today and that they had alot of things that they were going to be working on. That means there's lots for me to do and I'm not stuck just doing picture moves for Chameleon Club. Though, speaking of which, I had to photoshop a picture of the extension onto the club that Allen took. Actually, I had to cut two and make them in to one whol image. Also, had to paint out some wires that were in front of it. It took me a while, but it wasn't as bad as compositing was for Joe.
Then, there was another set of images for the game that Joe's working on that had an elephant's run cycle. That wasn't too bad because it was only the one cycle and it only had 6 images.
Then, I got to check out some cute puppies pictures looking for possible puppy stars of a commercial that they'll be doing for Greenfield Puppies. Cute puppy pictures are much prefered to depressed women pictures which they still might get that job. They're one of two finalists for it and I think they might find out by the end of January. I actually hope they get that because I'll be able to go on another commercial shoot of it works out on a day I don't have class. Same with the puppy one. I'd REALLY like to go to the puppy one!
Finally, we digitized a revival Christian musical that Dutch Apple put on. I got to watch through the whole thing because I might be helping out with a promotional commercial about it. Honestly, that kind of "Yay, Jesus" music scares me a little. But mostly, it was the southern accents that got to me sooner. I don't know if they did it on purpose or what, but it seemed stereotypical to me. However, I was really impressed taht of all 7 performers, only one of them could only play one instrument, and that was an acordian! All the others could play at least 2, if not 3 or 4. Granted, most of the multiples were strings like guitar and banjo and those kinds of instruments, but the two women could also play piano and they could all sing. Very impressive. I wonder how they cast it.
Don't know if I'm coming in tomorrow, but I'll at least be back on a schedule of coming in on Tuesdays. Hurray and Happy New Year! May it be a good year for us.
[Hours: 10-4.30]
Then, there was another set of images for the game that Joe's working on that had an elephant's run cycle. That wasn't too bad because it was only the one cycle and it only had 6 images.
Then, I got to check out some cute puppies pictures looking for possible puppy stars of a commercial that they'll be doing for Greenfield Puppies. Cute puppy pictures are much prefered to depressed women pictures which they still might get that job. They're one of two finalists for it and I think they might find out by the end of January. I actually hope they get that because I'll be able to go on another commercial shoot of it works out on a day I don't have class. Same with the puppy one. I'd REALLY like to go to the puppy one!
Finally, we digitized a revival Christian musical that Dutch Apple put on. I got to watch through the whole thing because I might be helping out with a promotional commercial about it. Honestly, that kind of "Yay, Jesus" music scares me a little. But mostly, it was the southern accents that got to me sooner. I don't know if they did it on purpose or what, but it seemed stereotypical to me. However, I was really impressed taht of all 7 performers, only one of them could only play one instrument, and that was an acordian! All the others could play at least 2, if not 3 or 4. Granted, most of the multiples were strings like guitar and banjo and those kinds of instruments, but the two women could also play piano and they could all sing. Very impressive. I wonder how they cast it.
Don't know if I'm coming in tomorrow, but I'll at least be back on a schedule of coming in on Tuesdays. Hurray and Happy New Year! May it be a good year for us.
[Hours: 10-4.30]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)