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)

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]

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]

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]

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]