Wow, I can't believe it's been almost three years since I posted anything on my blog. I guess it's because I didn't feel there was anything going on in my life worth posting, but most likely I don't like blogging when nobody is posting comments on them.
So much has happened during the last three years. I've worked on three feature film projects, I made my first overseas trip to London since the 9/11 terrorist attacks (both that and Iraq have made me afraid to travel overseas for a long time), I bought a new iMac last November and now have Avid, the editing system that Hollywood uses (in addition to Final Cut Pro) and I'm almost done with film school. Assuming I don't screw up with the last two courses I'm taking this semester (and no disagreements over my fulfilling the general course requirements), I should graduate next month.
Up until several months ago, I seriously considered traveling to Beijing to attend the Summer Olympics, but that was only if I was able to snag tickets for the Opening Ceremonies event. I was not able to obtain those and I also wasn't able to obtain tickets for gymnastics and swimming, so I am passing on the Olympics. I already have set my sights on visiting South Africa in the summer of 2010 to watch World Cup games. Two cities I definitely want to visit are Johannesburg and Cape Town.
After I'm done with school, I'm thinking about rewarding myself with a well-deserved vacation in late May. I'd like to visit two cities I've never visited before. They are Anchorage, Alaska and Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada.
My mother earned a free round trip ticket from JetBlue airlines for using her JetBlue credit card and she is giving it to me. I'm undecided as to whether I should visit Puerto Rico or Bermuda. I'd like to visit Mexico, but it only goes to Cancun and the only city I want to visit is Mexico City. Two summers ago, I drove with friends to Puerto Penasco (aka Rocky Point).
So that's my life in a nutshell. At least for the last three years.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Friday, November 18, 2005
Film almost ready.
For the first time since I shot the film last Spring, I have all the scenes put together in order on the timeline. There is still a lot of tweaking that needs to be done, but it's getting there. I was able to find the right kind of Spanish music I needed, plus other types of music and sounds.
Although I have a December 7 deadline, the first preview of my rough cut will take place next Wednesday, November 23. I'm really, really nervous as this will be the first time other people will see my work. They will be critiquing it and offering constructive criticism of it as well. This is a day I'm dreading, just like when filmmakers get their films released and the critics come out with movie reviews in which they either like it or hate it.
Although I have a December 7 deadline, the first preview of my rough cut will take place next Wednesday, November 23. I'm really, really nervous as this will be the first time other people will see my work. They will be critiquing it and offering constructive criticism of it as well. This is a day I'm dreading, just like when filmmakers get their films released and the critics come out with movie reviews in which they either like it or hate it.
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Pictures from The Joshua Tree.
Last May during a return trip from Los Angeles, I took a detour and stopped over at The Joshua Tree Park in Twentyninepalms, California. I took several pictures, here are a few:
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
December 7, 2005 is the date.
The deadline for getting my film ready for exhibition is December 7.
This, of course, assumes that there will be no further problems or technical issues along the way between now and December 7. As of now, I have a rough edit of the telephone conversation scene between the lead character and the girl he asks out on a date. Right now, that scene just goes back and forth when each of the characters is talking. However, with a little help from my technical adviser, there will be some tweaking of that scene in which I will get reaction shots from the girl while the guy is talking to her, meaning that I will need to create a "telephone voice" for the guy.
I also did a rough edit of the cafeteria scene in which while the girl is talking with her friends, the guy manages to get a hold of her cell phone so he could punch up her number and then call her. There are cutaways in which first you see the gang talking, then a cut to the guy sneaking up on them and snaring the girl's cell phone.
Finally, I put English subtitles on the classroom scene where the instructor is reading a Spanish poem and the English translation is at the bottom of the screen.
There will be one review of the film on November 23 in which I will receive feedback/constructive criticism from my classmates as to how they think I should edit the film. I will either accept or reject their advice and put the finishing touches on it by December 7. The film will be shown either on December 7 or December 14 depending on how many other films are ahead of mine.
So far, so good!
This, of course, assumes that there will be no further problems or technical issues along the way between now and December 7. As of now, I have a rough edit of the telephone conversation scene between the lead character and the girl he asks out on a date. Right now, that scene just goes back and forth when each of the characters is talking. However, with a little help from my technical adviser, there will be some tweaking of that scene in which I will get reaction shots from the girl while the guy is talking to her, meaning that I will need to create a "telephone voice" for the guy.
I also did a rough edit of the cafeteria scene in which while the girl is talking with her friends, the guy manages to get a hold of her cell phone so he could punch up her number and then call her. There are cutaways in which first you see the gang talking, then a cut to the guy sneaking up on them and snaring the girl's cell phone.
Finally, I put English subtitles on the classroom scene where the instructor is reading a Spanish poem and the English translation is at the bottom of the screen.
There will be one review of the film on November 23 in which I will receive feedback/constructive criticism from my classmates as to how they think I should edit the film. I will either accept or reject their advice and put the finishing touches on it by December 7. The film will be shown either on December 7 or December 14 depending on how many other films are ahead of mine.
So far, so good!
Monday, October 24, 2005
Latest on editing film/Volunteered at film festival.
Thought I'd let you all know that despite the glitches I've experienced about a month ago, editing on my upcoming short film (for now at least) is going smoothly. Over the last couple of weeks, I ran into more trouble trying to get a separate project done. That project was a 60-second montage of still shots I took at the Joshua Tree Park at Twentyninepalms, California last summer with the Alanis Morissette song “Ironic” in the background. Whenever I outputted it from the Avid editing system to a JVC deck, I get a lot of noise on both the video and audio portions of it. I then tried to output it on a Panasonic camcorder instead, again, no luck. With all the problems I had, I was starting to wonder (in jest of course!) if I had some sort of supernatural infection in which anything I touch goes haywire!
The following week, I found out that I was not alone. EVERYBODY was having the same trouble. It turned out that there was some sort of compatibility issue with the latest release of Avid Xpress Pro and the Mac OS X Panther operating system. One editor who has worked with Avid for years suggested that Avid be put on the Mac OS X Tiger system instead. Anyway, I don't know what both the tech and IT people did, but they did manage to fix it in a way so that any outputting from the Avid system to mini-DV would not produce audio and/or visual noise.
Anyway, we had our class presentation with our montage stills. I saw quite a few from my classmates that I thought was very good and that they really put a lot of work in them. Our job was to critique the montages, discuss what we liked, what we didn't like and what we could have done to make them better.
As far as work on the short film which I still hope for a Christmas release, that is going more smoothy. I have my first draft ready, but I have only another week to get my second draft ready in which it should be mostly finished. The deadlines are fast approaching!!! I have also been working on my film at home using the Final Cut Pro system I have in which I need to edit the phone conversation scene between "Steve" and "Tina" in which the shots cuts back and forth to both people talking to each other on the phone. I also worked on the cafeteria scene in which while "Tina" is talking to her friends, "Steve" notices she leaves her cell phone unattended, so he sneaks up to her cell phone and quickly pulls up her phone number, so he could call her in the phone conversation scene.
Finally, over the weekend, I did some volunteer work at the inaugural International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival held in Tempe, Arizona.
It is put out by the same people that put out the annual Phoenix Film Festival (the next one is scheduled for March 23-30, 2006). I volunteered to work on floor operations where I guide people as to which line they need to stand in for the right movie, manning one of the booths in which I sold DVD's and books and ticketing in which I sell movie tickets to the public. I worked on this so that I could see their movies for free (!!!) and to introduce myself to the directors and board members of the festival to get some recognition, so that hopefully I could improve my chances of getting the Phoenix Film Festival to exhibit the film I'm working on. The deadline for getting my film in for next year's festival is December 16. Right now, I feel that it's pretty close and I'm not sure I will be able to get it ready in time for next March's festival, but there will be other festivals I will enter my film in. Plus, it would give me ample opportunity to put together a winning press kit that should get festival judges' attention. At worst, I could try to enter the Phoenix Film Festival for 2007.
At the Horror and Sci-Fi Festival, I got to see some horror films, including "The Dark Hours" from Canada and the film that was just made on the "Project Greenlight" series run by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon called "Feast".
So that's what's going on. I'll keep you all up-to-date on the work in progress.
The following week, I found out that I was not alone. EVERYBODY was having the same trouble. It turned out that there was some sort of compatibility issue with the latest release of Avid Xpress Pro and the Mac OS X Panther operating system. One editor who has worked with Avid for years suggested that Avid be put on the Mac OS X Tiger system instead. Anyway, I don't know what both the tech and IT people did, but they did manage to fix it in a way so that any outputting from the Avid system to mini-DV would not produce audio and/or visual noise.
Anyway, we had our class presentation with our montage stills. I saw quite a few from my classmates that I thought was very good and that they really put a lot of work in them. Our job was to critique the montages, discuss what we liked, what we didn't like and what we could have done to make them better.
As far as work on the short film which I still hope for a Christmas release, that is going more smoothy. I have my first draft ready, but I have only another week to get my second draft ready in which it should be mostly finished. The deadlines are fast approaching!!! I have also been working on my film at home using the Final Cut Pro system I have in which I need to edit the phone conversation scene between "Steve" and "Tina" in which the shots cuts back and forth to both people talking to each other on the phone. I also worked on the cafeteria scene in which while "Tina" is talking to her friends, "Steve" notices she leaves her cell phone unattended, so he sneaks up to her cell phone and quickly pulls up her phone number, so he could call her in the phone conversation scene.
Finally, over the weekend, I did some volunteer work at the inaugural International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival held in Tempe, Arizona.
It is put out by the same people that put out the annual Phoenix Film Festival (the next one is scheduled for March 23-30, 2006). I volunteered to work on floor operations where I guide people as to which line they need to stand in for the right movie, manning one of the booths in which I sold DVD's and books and ticketing in which I sell movie tickets to the public. I worked on this so that I could see their movies for free (!!!) and to introduce myself to the directors and board members of the festival to get some recognition, so that hopefully I could improve my chances of getting the Phoenix Film Festival to exhibit the film I'm working on. The deadline for getting my film in for next year's festival is December 16. Right now, I feel that it's pretty close and I'm not sure I will be able to get it ready in time for next March's festival, but there will be other festivals I will enter my film in. Plus, it would give me ample opportunity to put together a winning press kit that should get festival judges' attention. At worst, I could try to enter the Phoenix Film Festival for 2007.
At the Horror and Sci-Fi Festival, I got to see some horror films, including "The Dark Hours" from Canada and the film that was just made on the "Project Greenlight" series run by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon called "Feast".
So that's what's going on. I'll keep you all up-to-date on the work in progress.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
The drama of film editing continues.
(sigh) The drama of post-production film editing just never ends! Maybe one day I'll shoot my next movie about my experience!
Since I'm having trouble bringing my footage from my home computer to the school computer using the Final Cut Pro editing system, I decided to use the Avid Xpress Pro editing system. Avid is the one that is generally used by Hollywood, although some tell me that Final Cut Pro is making inroads now. I have already taken courses in both editing systems, but Avid is a bit more of a challenge than Final Cut Pro.
Here's a link to Avid Xpress Pro:
http://www.avid.com/products/xpressprohd
And here's a link to a picture of the Avid interface:
http://www.avid.com/community/mac/images/Script_lg.gif
So what I decided to do is output the footage that I've worked on so far on my home computer to mini-DV tape on my Canon XL1 camcorder and that I would bring the tape to school so that I could recapture it on the Avid system. I went through two JVC tape decks and two Panasonic camcorders to transfer the footage to the PowerMac with no luck! In all four cases, there was tons of noise on both the video and audio portions of the playback. However, I just outputted the footage yesterday and played it back on my Canon and it was fine! I returned home and played that tape again and like last night, it was perfect with no noise. Anyway, I decided to output that whole footage again on a new mini-DV cassette tape and this time I would bring my Canon to school to capture it on the computers there. Before I went ahead, someone told me that it was possible that anything recorded on my Canon camera may be incompatible on other camcorders due to a tracking issue which can only be fixed through servicing. Anyway, I tried using my Canon to capture my footage and, believe it or not, the Avid system was rejecting my camera! I would later find out searching on the Internet that evening that there are tons of issues between Avid and Canon.
So a couple of techs came by and concluded the only way to do this would be to convert my mini-DV copy of my footage onto a JVC tape deck, in which the tape deck would record directly from my Canon. Then we took that tape and used the JVC deck to capture my footage on Avid and it worked! Finally! After almost a week of headaches, I finally began working on editing my film at school.
I promised many people that I will have my film out by Christmas, but after all these technical glitches, I'm not so sure that will happen, but I try to be hopeful.
Since I'm having trouble bringing my footage from my home computer to the school computer using the Final Cut Pro editing system, I decided to use the Avid Xpress Pro editing system. Avid is the one that is generally used by Hollywood, although some tell me that Final Cut Pro is making inroads now. I have already taken courses in both editing systems, but Avid is a bit more of a challenge than Final Cut Pro.
Here's a link to Avid Xpress Pro:
http://www.avid.com/products/xpressprohd
And here's a link to a picture of the Avid interface:
http://www.avid.com/community/mac/images/Script_lg.gif
So what I decided to do is output the footage that I've worked on so far on my home computer to mini-DV tape on my Canon XL1 camcorder and that I would bring the tape to school so that I could recapture it on the Avid system. I went through two JVC tape decks and two Panasonic camcorders to transfer the footage to the PowerMac with no luck! In all four cases, there was tons of noise on both the video and audio portions of the playback. However, I just outputted the footage yesterday and played it back on my Canon and it was fine! I returned home and played that tape again and like last night, it was perfect with no noise. Anyway, I decided to output that whole footage again on a new mini-DV cassette tape and this time I would bring my Canon to school to capture it on the computers there. Before I went ahead, someone told me that it was possible that anything recorded on my Canon camera may be incompatible on other camcorders due to a tracking issue which can only be fixed through servicing. Anyway, I tried using my Canon to capture my footage and, believe it or not, the Avid system was rejecting my camera! I would later find out searching on the Internet that evening that there are tons of issues between Avid and Canon.
So a couple of techs came by and concluded the only way to do this would be to convert my mini-DV copy of my footage onto a JVC tape deck, in which the tape deck would record directly from my Canon. Then we took that tape and used the JVC deck to capture my footage on Avid and it worked! Finally! After almost a week of headaches, I finally began working on editing my film at school.
I promised many people that I will have my film out by Christmas, but after all these technical glitches, I'm not so sure that will happen, but I try to be hopeful.
Monday, September 26, 2005
WHAT A FREAKIN' 24 HOURS!
I suppose if I am to continue to pursue filmmaking, I have to expect some glitches along the way.
One thing I learned about Final Cut Pro as an online editing system is that anytime you save your work, you automatically create media files onto your hard drive.
Sunday night, I finished lining up all the film shots with the audio and room tone in the background (room tone is when you record silence in the same room where you did your film shoots to "get the sound of the room" added to your audio). The six media files are:
Audio Render files
Autosave Vault
Render files
Thumbnail Cache files
Waveform Cache files
and! the most important media file:
Capture Scratch
These files are needed in order for your shots to run perfectly on your editing system and when you eventually output them to tape, DVD or whatever. Without them, your files go "offline" and you cannot work on them. What happened was I was working on a separate project in which I will do a video montage of my recent visit to the Joshua Tree Park in Twentynine Palms, California with Alanis Morissette in the background singing "Ironic". I had saved that project, along with my media files, on my LaCie external FireWire hard drive. I transferred that project and the media files on my desktop, however, I found out that it wasn't necessary to transfer media files on my desktop as long as the external hard drive was still connected to my computer. Plus, someone told me it's never a good idea to have media files on your desktop anyway as it could confuse the editing system.
So I deleted all the media files on my desktop and then tried to resume on my regular project, only to discover in horror that all of my room tone audio files, as well as extra shots I just captured days earlier have disappeared and went offline! Initially, I had no idea how this happened. Fortunately, I was able to hook up with a person here in Phoenix who works as a videographer for the State of Arizona the following Monday morning and he was able to explain how to restore my missing files. First, I had to check the System Settings in my editing system and I noticed it had saved all my media files to my desktop and not my documents folder in my hard drive. I reset the system settings and I was able to retrieve and recapture all of my missing files with my Canon XL1 digital video camcorder and everything I'm happy to say is back to where it was!
However, I still had one more glitch to overcome. As I was almost finished recapturing all of my lost footage, my camcorder started going crazy on me. When I played back the tape on my camcorder, I was getting all these Mosaic split-screen images and pixels dotted all over the picture. I was concerned that the camera I plunked down a lot of money on was becoming worthless, however, it turned out that the video heads were dirty and just needed cleaning with a dry-cleaning Mini-DV cassette. Only $10. That did the trick.
So everything is back to way it was before, but this is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy! Since the school is using a more advanced version of my editing system, I will play it safe and do all my editing at school and not at home. One thing I'm going to try to do is output what I have worked on so far on Mini-DV tape and capture that on a computer at school.
Over the weekend, I shot three "establishment shots" on my camcorder that I will add to my film to give the viewers an idea as to where specific scenes take place (a high school and two houses, including my own).
Hope I didn't lose any of you with all this technical stuff! :)
One thing I learned about Final Cut Pro as an online editing system is that anytime you save your work, you automatically create media files onto your hard drive.
Sunday night, I finished lining up all the film shots with the audio and room tone in the background (room tone is when you record silence in the same room where you did your film shoots to "get the sound of the room" added to your audio). The six media files are:
Audio Render files
Autosave Vault
Render files
Thumbnail Cache files
Waveform Cache files
and! the most important media file:
Capture Scratch
These files are needed in order for your shots to run perfectly on your editing system and when you eventually output them to tape, DVD or whatever. Without them, your files go "offline" and you cannot work on them. What happened was I was working on a separate project in which I will do a video montage of my recent visit to the Joshua Tree Park in Twentynine Palms, California with Alanis Morissette in the background singing "Ironic". I had saved that project, along with my media files, on my LaCie external FireWire hard drive. I transferred that project and the media files on my desktop, however, I found out that it wasn't necessary to transfer media files on my desktop as long as the external hard drive was still connected to my computer. Plus, someone told me it's never a good idea to have media files on your desktop anyway as it could confuse the editing system.
So I deleted all the media files on my desktop and then tried to resume on my regular project, only to discover in horror that all of my room tone audio files, as well as extra shots I just captured days earlier have disappeared and went offline! Initially, I had no idea how this happened. Fortunately, I was able to hook up with a person here in Phoenix who works as a videographer for the State of Arizona the following Monday morning and he was able to explain how to restore my missing files. First, I had to check the System Settings in my editing system and I noticed it had saved all my media files to my desktop and not my documents folder in my hard drive. I reset the system settings and I was able to retrieve and recapture all of my missing files with my Canon XL1 digital video camcorder and everything I'm happy to say is back to where it was!
However, I still had one more glitch to overcome. As I was almost finished recapturing all of my lost footage, my camcorder started going crazy on me. When I played back the tape on my camcorder, I was getting all these Mosaic split-screen images and pixels dotted all over the picture. I was concerned that the camera I plunked down a lot of money on was becoming worthless, however, it turned out that the video heads were dirty and just needed cleaning with a dry-cleaning Mini-DV cassette. Only $10. That did the trick.
So everything is back to way it was before, but this is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy! Since the school is using a more advanced version of my editing system, I will play it safe and do all my editing at school and not at home. One thing I'm going to try to do is output what I have worked on so far on Mini-DV tape and capture that on a computer at school.
Over the weekend, I shot three "establishment shots" on my camcorder that I will add to my film to give the viewers an idea as to where specific scenes take place (a high school and two houses, including my own).
Hope I didn't lose any of you with all this technical stuff! :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
