Like a kid with ADD, I found it helpful to have a laptop out and running Word so I could type my thinking process and simultaneously create a blog. Thus, this blog was born… lucky you.
Rebekah (Rebekah’s blog / work here) came by to take a look at my setup and my Adobe CS2. She’s getting into that picture takin’ stuff so we talked a bit about Photoshop Elements 7 versus CS2 (updated consumer versus outdated professional is a rough choice, sometimes). It was a welcomed distraction as I was on a writing break and hadn’t made the dive back into the editing yet.
Took the earbuds out for a little while. Inevitably, when editing a highlight, certain phrases will repeat over and over again, given. So... downsides to Phil Collins on repeat:
With the earbuds out and the music repeating phrases, Dad not knowing that I am working, might become concerned about his son’s a)choice in music b)well being – since that chosen music is 80’s pop about love and what mamma said. Additionally, Mom will want you to know that it is a MoTown cover, and NOT written by Genesis.
Downsides to Phil Collins on repeat: Inevitable “what-ifs” about a world with Genesis and not Phil solo. Which most certainly leads to questions about Mr. Collins’ acting career had he not been overexposed and allowed to build a career from his role in “Oliver Twist”.
Downsides to the setup: Laundry strewn about might cover just how short the bed is, and little nieces might try to scoot down a little to get a better view over her mother’s shoulder. Of course this will result in disappearing under a mound of sweaters and a Pack-and-Play with a resounding THUD! But not to worry, she’s learned well from her Uncle Jacob, with one foot out of the mound and one arm up in the air grabbing for help she’ll not miss a beat to play it off, “Momma pushed me off the bed! Momma pushed me off the bed!”
Downside to being stationed at the “empty farm cabin”, Dad will insist I eat a block of cheese he can’t finish and apparently doesn’t believe in putting it back into the fridge. “Are you hungry?” “No.” “Peanutbutter and Jelly Sandwiches.” “No.” “Where are you going?” “Back to work, just passing through.” “Want this cheese?” “Not hungry.” “I didn’t bite off of it.” “Not hungry Dad.” “Here, I can’t finish it.” “No.” “Here take this cheese and eat it.” “No.” “I can’t eat it all.” Mom says, “What are you talking about, Larry?” “Cheese, Margie, stay out of it.” “I don’t want cheese.” “Jacob! Needs to take the cheese.” “No, Dad."
New Term: Editor’s Block. (Writer’s Block. Editing is a higher form of writing. Therefore that wall happens, and it’s made with a heavier sheetrock and more studs).
Found IT! My sledge hammer of editing that is. Just took out the wall, I’ve got my spin on this video and the block is busted. 6 hours from now I should be refining.
UPDATE: It’ll be 12 hours – should have known to multiply by two.
The more I cut this thing together the happier I am with it looking raw, and no layers. After spending a year on this thing I don’t think I could be allowed to not layer it though. I’m going to try something with the clips using Motion so really there is no telling how long that will take. At least maybe I’ll have it cut raw, it’ll look good, and then I can have a rough draft of the DVD menu highlight to show the two on their anniversary on Sunday.
I skipped Motion. And boy am I glad. I was able to pull off what I wanted to do rather easily with keyframes. It took about three and a half hours itself. Of course 45 minutes of that was getting the ending right, the only part of the highlight that would turn red every time something was tweaked. So if I wanted to actually watch it I had to render. And this highlight was the king of important frames. I’m amazed every time I edit at how much a single frame changes the entire shot and then highlight. This one particularly hinged on precise frames because of the driving beat (if you cut off beat it’s extra visible) and because of the way Ashley and I shot it as well as the wedding itself. Single frames would change the shot from fun and upbeat to elegant, classy, and gorgeous – a bad thing for this highlight.
I spent another 45 minutes editing the leftover footage to “You and I”, and I was pretty grateful for not having that one as my main highlight. It might have been easier in some ways but there’s not a whole lot of impact and “rising action” to it, so I don’t get that nice build to the big moments. It was, however, quite the piece of cake – wedding cake that is… haha… what, I do puns, that's what I do – to edit the menu because, just like I said, we shot the wedding how it felt and what the space and flow demanded and all the shots just sunk right in like I’m about to do on this memory foam mattress.
I was falling over tired while setting the highlights to go through Compressor. And my “ergonomic” “desk” had become anything but. My butt had sank completely into the memory foam that lays across the bed – my back was killing me, my neck still feels like I’m straining it (although that could be outside forces, it’s certainly not helping anything sitting in the style of Indian AND Hunchback of Notre Dame.)
Thankfully I figured out how to watch the playback in full screen, that helped a ton… it’s Apple+F12.
Momma should have told Phil Collins not to cater love either. You don’t want to be catering love. That’s illegal... except in Las Vegas.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Blogging While Editing
If you’ve ever wanted to tell Phil Collins to “shut the hell up”, this is not the wedding video for you to edit. Fortunately, I’ll groove to some smooth Phil, and I grew up on MoTown, so I enjoyed myself here. With plenty of coffee and an empty room, I was allowed to plug in the earbuds and rock out to “You Can’t Hurry Love” over and over and over…. and over again. Though the song is classic goodtimes bubble gum, it certainly didn’t make it easy to cut a wedding video to. You see, with the beat of the song so fast, it’s important to keep the shots moving. And frankly, Leah did WAY too much to make her wedding elegant and classy. Mr. Collins’ cover feels like summer with a lot of jump, jive, and wailing. And the real challenge, the song is a full 2 minutes and 56 seconds!
What I got from Leah and Daniel? Over 25 minutes of some of the best shots Ashley and I have caught on tape. I’m talking, love, smiles, watery eyes, mirror shots, fall flowers and candle light, and a teary groom. And if only the GL2 would have had a faster AutoFocus, the BEST shot EVER captured from our weddings: Ashley shot over the shoulder of Leah waiting outside the chapel, and slowly zoomed to the doors where a small enough crack just wide enough to view Daniel was there. He was twitching with anticipation to see his bride – but the wood grain on the door just seemed to be more interesting to the iris and thus Daniel is kept to a blurry blob between the crevice (that doesn’t sound right).
Anyway, with a plethora of loving awesome captured on our tapes, I knew it was going to be hard. We won’t get into specifics on just how hard or what kind of timeframe that might constitute *eyeroll* Since it’s 80’s pop, and this was the main highlight, there is way too much happening in the sound to allow you to throw together quick clips into the timeline as I can with the “flick-a-flick-a-cloonk-clunk” sounds of a modern upbeat song I often get by Jack Johnson or John Mare. Those acoustic guitars are raw, and light, and so the highlight is allowed more freedom, you can drop a shot in pretty much anywhere and it just works (see Jae and Dustin’s wedding). This song has layers and layers and begs for the same from the visuals. Even Phil Collins himself couldn’t deny the audile phenomena when he shot the music video (see “You Can’t Hurry Love” on YouTube.com). I mean THERE ARE THREE PHIL COLLINS ON STAGE AT ONCE!!!!
Anyway, armed with coffee, time, an empty farm cabin with plenty of space (okay, not plenty of space – my parents were kind enough to allow me to highjack a room in their house to edit and spread my piles of laundry out – so not empty either) a surprisingly ergonomic workspace (seated on the bed, the monitor on an ironing board, and pillows under my elbows – it’s so comfortable it’s weird (see video from phone)) and a little bit of hope, I set out on a real artistic journey. First, I had to buy some time, even with layering the visuals, I had WAY too much to work with. So I got to cut up Phil Collins’ song – and this is where the “wanting to tell Phil to shut up” part comes in. I wanted him to go on and on and on and I’m glad I did or I would not have survived. So I had to find places where I could extend the song. Thanks to the Beatles, songs don’t have much of a build up, they tend to jump right in to the awesome. So that’s usually where I find a place to extend the song – since I don’t want to spoil the chorus too soon. It works nicely and helps me build up to something. It also buys time for any lead ins and/or titles.
Update: About two hours of work bought me about 30 extra seconds – yikes!
What I got from Leah and Daniel? Over 25 minutes of some of the best shots Ashley and I have caught on tape. I’m talking, love, smiles, watery eyes, mirror shots, fall flowers and candle light, and a teary groom. And if only the GL2 would have had a faster AutoFocus, the BEST shot EVER captured from our weddings: Ashley shot over the shoulder of Leah waiting outside the chapel, and slowly zoomed to the doors where a small enough crack just wide enough to view Daniel was there. He was twitching with anticipation to see his bride – but the wood grain on the door just seemed to be more interesting to the iris and thus Daniel is kept to a blurry blob between the crevice (that doesn’t sound right).
Anyway, with a plethora of loving awesome captured on our tapes, I knew it was going to be hard. We won’t get into specifics on just how hard or what kind of timeframe that might constitute *eyeroll* Since it’s 80’s pop, and this was the main highlight, there is way too much happening in the sound to allow you to throw together quick clips into the timeline as I can with the “flick-a-flick-a-cloonk-clunk” sounds of a modern upbeat song I often get by Jack Johnson or John Mare. Those acoustic guitars are raw, and light, and so the highlight is allowed more freedom, you can drop a shot in pretty much anywhere and it just works (see Jae and Dustin’s wedding). This song has layers and layers and begs for the same from the visuals. Even Phil Collins himself couldn’t deny the audile phenomena when he shot the music video (see “You Can’t Hurry Love” on YouTube.com). I mean THERE ARE THREE PHIL COLLINS ON STAGE AT ONCE!!!!
Anyway, armed with coffee, time, an empty farm cabin with plenty of space (okay, not plenty of space – my parents were kind enough to allow me to highjack a room in their house to edit and spread my piles of laundry out – so not empty either) a surprisingly ergonomic workspace (seated on the bed, the monitor on an ironing board, and pillows under my elbows – it’s so comfortable it’s weird (see video from phone)) and a little bit of hope, I set out on a real artistic journey. First, I had to buy some time, even with layering the visuals, I had WAY too much to work with. So I got to cut up Phil Collins’ song – and this is where the “wanting to tell Phil to shut up” part comes in. I wanted him to go on and on and on and I’m glad I did or I would not have survived. So I had to find places where I could extend the song. Thanks to the Beatles, songs don’t have much of a build up, they tend to jump right in to the awesome. So that’s usually where I find a place to extend the song – since I don’t want to spoil the chorus too soon. It works nicely and helps me build up to something. It also buys time for any lead ins and/or titles.
Update: About two hours of work bought me about 30 extra seconds – yikes!
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