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.
Monday, October 24, 2005
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! :)
Saturday, August 27, 2005
A new semester begins/Marking 10 years in Phoenix.
It's back to film school! This semester I'm taking non-linear portfolio editing and sound design. The first class will be where I'm editing the short film that I shot last Spring. Hopefully it will be done by Christmas. The second class will be about shooting and editing sound. I believe that in addition to working on the Nagra analog sound recorder that I used for my film shoot, I will also learn how to use the DAT recorder (digital audio tape). I'll also be working on Pro Tools.
You can learn more about Pro Tools right here at:
http://www.digidesign.com/products/le
During my sound class, my instructor played a clip from the film "Unbreakable" (2000) with Bruce Willis. She played the scene in which Bruce Willis walks into a terminal and anyone who bumps into him, he gets a glimpse into their lives. There were flashback scenes of a young guy walking into the bedroom where a drunk girl is sleeping on the bed and you could hear a party in the background. There was also a very strange scene where a man answers his door at home and a stranger is at the door saying "I love your house, can I come in?" and when one person in a party of three on the street is sucker punched with a bottle. My instructor played three versions of that scene. The first one is where you only hear the music and nothing else. The second is where you only hear the natural background sounds in that scene without music and the final version is the final cut in the movie in which you get everything, the music, the natural background sounds and ADR dialogue (automated dialogue replacement). We were to analyze the kinds of sounds that we hear in that scene. She also showed us a scene from "What Lies Beneath" (2000) in which Michelle Pfiffer steps on a piece of broken glass and removes that piece from her foot, both of which made a sound.
For both the portfolio editing and sound design class, I would need to purchase a LaCie d2 triple interface hard drive.
You could find it right here at:
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10058
Think of it as a large-scale floppy disk or a portable hard drive in which you could save your video work in that drive and carry it with you to class to do your presentation. It is 160GB big and each hour of digital video footage takes up 13GB. It's also good for computer back-up in the event your computer crashes and loses all your information. I was told that the Apple Store sells them for $150-$200, but I got a good price for it by ordering it direct from LaCie at $130 plus $10 shipping.
I will be doing a class presentation in my sound class on Wednesday in which I'm supposed to pick a four-minute clip from any movie and write a 4-5 page essay on it with regards to its use of sound. Geez! I'm not so sure I can even write one page about it! My instructor told me it could also be an example of bad use of sound like those Bruce Lee Kung Fu movies or Godzilla movies with the bad English dubbing or something good like the scene from "Unbreakable" and "What Lies Beneath". Right now I'm trying to decide on either the concluding scenes from "The Grudge" where Sarah Michelle Gellar confronts the ghost in the haunted house or "The Ring" in which that evil little girl climbs out of the television set. Another possible is the fight scene between Uma Thurman and the Japanese girl in "Kill Bill Vol. 1" or I might pick a fight scene from a Bruce Lee movie that I have! ("Fists of Fury", aka "The Big Boss")
With regards to my recent trip to Los Angeles, I attended a taping of CBS' "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" and ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!". The leading guest for "Late Late" was supposed to be actress Sharon Stone promoting the new Jim Jarmusch film "Broken Flowers" (also stars Bill Murray), however, she had a scheduling conflict, so she taped her interview the night before and I never got to see her! Bummer! I had to be content with an interview with Mo'Nique. On "Jimmy Kimmel", the guest was Johnny Knoxville of "Jackass" fame, promoting his film "The Dukes of Hazzard".
Finally, just last Thursday, August 25, marked ten years ago to this date that I arrived in Phoenix from San Francisco.
You can learn more about Pro Tools right here at:
http://www.digidesign.com/products/le
During my sound class, my instructor played a clip from the film "Unbreakable" (2000) with Bruce Willis. She played the scene in which Bruce Willis walks into a terminal and anyone who bumps into him, he gets a glimpse into their lives. There were flashback scenes of a young guy walking into the bedroom where a drunk girl is sleeping on the bed and you could hear a party in the background. There was also a very strange scene where a man answers his door at home and a stranger is at the door saying "I love your house, can I come in?" and when one person in a party of three on the street is sucker punched with a bottle. My instructor played three versions of that scene. The first one is where you only hear the music and nothing else. The second is where you only hear the natural background sounds in that scene without music and the final version is the final cut in the movie in which you get everything, the music, the natural background sounds and ADR dialogue (automated dialogue replacement). We were to analyze the kinds of sounds that we hear in that scene. She also showed us a scene from "What Lies Beneath" (2000) in which Michelle Pfiffer steps on a piece of broken glass and removes that piece from her foot, both of which made a sound.
For both the portfolio editing and sound design class, I would need to purchase a LaCie d2 triple interface hard drive.
You could find it right here at:
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10058
Think of it as a large-scale floppy disk or a portable hard drive in which you could save your video work in that drive and carry it with you to class to do your presentation. It is 160GB big and each hour of digital video footage takes up 13GB. It's also good for computer back-up in the event your computer crashes and loses all your information. I was told that the Apple Store sells them for $150-$200, but I got a good price for it by ordering it direct from LaCie at $130 plus $10 shipping.
I will be doing a class presentation in my sound class on Wednesday in which I'm supposed to pick a four-minute clip from any movie and write a 4-5 page essay on it with regards to its use of sound. Geez! I'm not so sure I can even write one page about it! My instructor told me it could also be an example of bad use of sound like those Bruce Lee Kung Fu movies or Godzilla movies with the bad English dubbing or something good like the scene from "Unbreakable" and "What Lies Beneath". Right now I'm trying to decide on either the concluding scenes from "The Grudge" where Sarah Michelle Gellar confronts the ghost in the haunted house or "The Ring" in which that evil little girl climbs out of the television set. Another possible is the fight scene between Uma Thurman and the Japanese girl in "Kill Bill Vol. 1" or I might pick a fight scene from a Bruce Lee movie that I have! ("Fists of Fury", aka "The Big Boss")
With regards to my recent trip to Los Angeles, I attended a taping of CBS' "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" and ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!". The leading guest for "Late Late" was supposed to be actress Sharon Stone promoting the new Jim Jarmusch film "Broken Flowers" (also stars Bill Murray), however, she had a scheduling conflict, so she taped her interview the night before and I never got to see her! Bummer! I had to be content with an interview with Mo'Nique. On "Jimmy Kimmel", the guest was Johnny Knoxville of "Jackass" fame, promoting his film "The Dukes of Hazzard".
Finally, just last Thursday, August 25, marked ten years ago to this date that I arrived in Phoenix from San Francisco.
Friday, August 05, 2005
Spending a week in Tustin, California with a friend.
I enjoyed my last visit to Southern California in late May so much I decided to make a return visit. I am staying over at a friend's house in a gated community in Tustin in Orange County, California. It's close to Irvine and Newport Beach and about a hour's drive south of Los Angeles. I'll be here for a week. This afternoon, I plan to attend a taping of "The Late Late Show" with Craig Ferguson at CBS and next Tuesday at ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!". Anything else I do here will be decided at the spur of the moment.
Friday, July 29, 2005
America Online classic blast from the past.
I'm just bored and I was surfing through the archives and came across this article from my hometown newspaper, The Arizona Republic.
In November 1996, America Online announced, for the first time, that they would charge a flat rate for unlimited usage. Once that went into effect the following month, the results were disastrous!
You may notice that this article ran before high-speed Internet was available. If my memory is right, I don't think 56K modems existed back then either!
Also there is a reference to USWest, a Denver-based phone company which served mostly the western part of the United States (except California and Nevada). A couple of years later, it would be taken over by Qwest.
Anyway, here's the article on AOL's first public relations nightmare, which ran on December 11, 1996. Enjoy!
<< HUGE JUMP IN AOL USAGE KEEPS MANY OFF LINE
By DAVID HOYE, Staff writer, The Arizona Republic
America Online's success is spelling major headaches for customers, including many in the Phoenix area.
Since announcing a flat-rate pricing plan, which became effective Dec. 1, the world's largest commercial online service has added customers by the hundreds of thousands.
All those callers, coupled with the fact that customers are staying logged on longer, are swamping AOL's electronic network, which provides local dial-up numbers in major cities across the country.
In Phoenix and other cities, including Denver and Los Angeles, customers report constant busy signals or "all circuits busy" messages when they use the 28.8 kilobit-per-second lines to connect with AOL.
Callers using slower dial-up lines, such as those that provide service at 14.4 kbps, report fewer problems connecting with AOL.
"The surge in demand has been beyond belief," said Ann Brackbill, a spokeswoman for AOL's Network Division.
Brackbill would not provide specific membership totals, but said the company added about 275,000 new members in October alone, which helped push AOL's total membership to more than 7 million.
She attributed the spike in demand to AOL's unlimited $19.95-a-month pricing plan. Under the plan, a customer could remain online virtually all day and never pay more than $19.95.
AOL's old pricing plan, which is still available to existing customers, cost $9.95 a month, but included only five hours of online time. Each hour over that was billed at $2.95, which left heavy users with monthly bills of $30, $40 or more.
Brackbill sympathized with customers unable to connect, but said AOL is doing all it can to meet the increased demand.
Brackbill said AOL now handles 8.5 million online sessions each day, up from 3.8 million daily sessions a year ago. Additionally, she said, average call lengths have increased by 15 minutes.
She pointed out that AOL is in the midst of a $250 million upgrade, which should double the system's capacity by next summer.
The plan, announced Dec. 2 by AOL Network division President Robert Pittman, includes adding modems and other computer hardware and increasing the number of customer service centers around the country to five.
"We've been working around the clock. We've been adding tens of thousands of modems," she said. "We want people to use the system and continue to have a good experience."
That hasn't been happening in Phoenix, where AOL customers have had problems connecting with the system for up to a week.
For example, callers using one of AOL's 28.8 kbps lines serving Phoenix, 602-241-7800, report almost constant "all circuits are busy" messages. Other high-speed numbers appear to always be busy.
Jim Roof, spokesman for USWest in Phoenix, said the 602-241-7800 line gets so many calls that automatic safety measures have been kicking in to turn excess callers away.
Without such controls, he said, the AOL callers would overwhelm the telephone company office that handles the 602-241-7800 line, and would begin affecting non-AOL related telephone service in other parts of the Phoenix area.
"They've created a tremendous demand for their product," Roof said of AOL.
The situation has proved frustrating to many computer enthusiasts and businesses, which have come to rely on E-mail and other services provided by AOL.
Rich Motzer, who operates a computer consulting business in the Valley, said he was particularly upset because he has helped many of his customers go online using AOL.
Now, he says, they can't connect with AOL and they're turning to him for answers.
"I just don't think AOL was prepared," he said. "They should have foreseen the increase in people."
Brackbill called the situation temporary, but added that AOL customers should expect difficulties in connecting with the service to continue for at least two months.
Meanwhile, she urged customers to try logging on at off-peak times, avoiding the most popular period of 7PM to 11PM.
Brackbill also suggested that those able to get online check out the AOL Insider, using keyword: insider. The area provides tips on improving online sessions, and addresses the problems customers have had with busy signals.
Copyright 1996 Phoenix Newspapers Inc. >>
In November 1996, America Online announced, for the first time, that they would charge a flat rate for unlimited usage. Once that went into effect the following month, the results were disastrous!
You may notice that this article ran before high-speed Internet was available. If my memory is right, I don't think 56K modems existed back then either!
Also there is a reference to USWest, a Denver-based phone company which served mostly the western part of the United States (except California and Nevada). A couple of years later, it would be taken over by Qwest.
Anyway, here's the article on AOL's first public relations nightmare, which ran on December 11, 1996. Enjoy!
<< HUGE JUMP IN AOL USAGE KEEPS MANY OFF LINE
By DAVID HOYE, Staff writer, The Arizona Republic
America Online's success is spelling major headaches for customers, including many in the Phoenix area.
Since announcing a flat-rate pricing plan, which became effective Dec. 1, the world's largest commercial online service has added customers by the hundreds of thousands.
All those callers, coupled with the fact that customers are staying logged on longer, are swamping AOL's electronic network, which provides local dial-up numbers in major cities across the country.
In Phoenix and other cities, including Denver and Los Angeles, customers report constant busy signals or "all circuits busy" messages when they use the 28.8 kilobit-per-second lines to connect with AOL.
Callers using slower dial-up lines, such as those that provide service at 14.4 kbps, report fewer problems connecting with AOL.
"The surge in demand has been beyond belief," said Ann Brackbill, a spokeswoman for AOL's Network Division.
Brackbill would not provide specific membership totals, but said the company added about 275,000 new members in October alone, which helped push AOL's total membership to more than 7 million.
She attributed the spike in demand to AOL's unlimited $19.95-a-month pricing plan. Under the plan, a customer could remain online virtually all day and never pay more than $19.95.
AOL's old pricing plan, which is still available to existing customers, cost $9.95 a month, but included only five hours of online time. Each hour over that was billed at $2.95, which left heavy users with monthly bills of $30, $40 or more.
Brackbill sympathized with customers unable to connect, but said AOL is doing all it can to meet the increased demand.
Brackbill said AOL now handles 8.5 million online sessions each day, up from 3.8 million daily sessions a year ago. Additionally, she said, average call lengths have increased by 15 minutes.
She pointed out that AOL is in the midst of a $250 million upgrade, which should double the system's capacity by next summer.
The plan, announced Dec. 2 by AOL Network division President Robert Pittman, includes adding modems and other computer hardware and increasing the number of customer service centers around the country to five.
"We've been working around the clock. We've been adding tens of thousands of modems," she said. "We want people to use the system and continue to have a good experience."
That hasn't been happening in Phoenix, where AOL customers have had problems connecting with the system for up to a week.
For example, callers using one of AOL's 28.8 kbps lines serving Phoenix, 602-241-7800, report almost constant "all circuits are busy" messages. Other high-speed numbers appear to always be busy.
Jim Roof, spokesman for USWest in Phoenix, said the 602-241-7800 line gets so many calls that automatic safety measures have been kicking in to turn excess callers away.
Without such controls, he said, the AOL callers would overwhelm the telephone company office that handles the 602-241-7800 line, and would begin affecting non-AOL related telephone service in other parts of the Phoenix area.
"They've created a tremendous demand for their product," Roof said of AOL.
The situation has proved frustrating to many computer enthusiasts and businesses, which have come to rely on E-mail and other services provided by AOL.
Rich Motzer, who operates a computer consulting business in the Valley, said he was particularly upset because he has helped many of his customers go online using AOL.
Now, he says, they can't connect with AOL and they're turning to him for answers.
"I just don't think AOL was prepared," he said. "They should have foreseen the increase in people."
Brackbill called the situation temporary, but added that AOL customers should expect difficulties in connecting with the service to continue for at least two months.
Meanwhile, she urged customers to try logging on at off-peak times, avoiding the most popular period of 7PM to 11PM.
Brackbill also suggested that those able to get online check out the AOL Insider, using keyword: insider. The area provides tips on improving online sessions, and addresses the problems customers have had with busy signals.
Copyright 1996 Phoenix Newspapers Inc. >>
Review of new John Singleton movie "Four Brothers", starring Mark Wahlberg.
("Four Brothers" is an action/crime film from Paramount Pictures, starring Mark Wahlberg and directed by John Singleton. The film is rated R for strong violence, pervasive language and some sexual content and is 1 hour and 50 minutes long. It will open in the U.S. August 12.)
Link to "Four Brothers" site: http://www.fourbrothersmovie.com
Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/four_brothers/large.html
This critic was never a fan of any film John Singleton has directed. The only quality film he has made was 1991’s “Boyz n the Hood”. Since then, all his other films had been mediocre at best. “Four Brothers”, which is scheduled for release in the U.S. on August 12, has been one of his better efforts, although not perfect.
The film focuses on four adopted brothers in Detroit: Bobby (Mark Wahlberg), Angel (Tyrese Gibson) Jeremiah (Andre Benjamin) and Jack (Garrett Hedlund), abandoned and raised in foster care as children. At some point in their childhood, they meet Evelyn (Fionnula Flanagan), a woman who had a big heart for inner-city youth who decided to take them under her arm. She is the only mother the four brothers have ever had.
Late one night, Evelyn is murdered by armed robbers at a convenience store. After the funeral, the four get together at her house where they spend the night. A detective from the Detroit Police meets up with them to investigate the shooting, but they are not helpful as they have absolutely no faith in law enforcement to get to the bottom of this crime. Later, all of the brothers, except Jeremiah, decide that revenge is the only justice they’ll accept and take it upon themselves to find the perpetrators. They return to the scene of the crime where they view a surveillance video of their mother’s last moments and find out from the store owner what the detective didn’t tell them, that someone else from law enforcement had already interviewed a witness for a lengthy period of time. At that point, Bobby concludes that there was a cover-up and suspects that their mother was not the victim of a random shooting, but was actually set up.
Throughout the film, the brothers (without Jeremiah’s blessing) go on an armed rampage at a house party, a basketball game, a housing project and at a restaurant casino looking for the killers. At one point, an insurance claims analyst shows up unexpected at the house. There, it’s discovered that Jeremiah had been helping their mother pay premiums on a life insurance policy neither Bobby, Angel and Jack were aware of, adding to their suspicions. To add to the confusion, the lead detective investigating the case discovers that a separate police report of the murder was made without his knowledge. As the brothers try to learn the identity of the killers, they eventually get caught up in a net of corruption that involves gangsters. Toward the end, the film takes a bit of a stretch when there is an explosive event that would have one think that the police would have reasonable suspicions to make arrests, but they don’t which will have the viewer asking why.
Mr. Wahlberg is superb in the role of Bobby. One would think that Mr. Singleton selected him for the part as it was 15 years ago that he was better known as Marky Mark the rapper. His past reputation as an urban street tough makes him right for this role.
Like all of Mr. Singleton’s films, “Four Brothers” will not be liked by everybody as this film is made from the point of view that institutionalized racism is a fact of life, that authority is rife with corruption and that no one really cares about improving the quality of life in the inner city. Filmgoers may not agree with the message, but at the least, they would need to approach this film with an open mind on Mr. Singleton’s perspective on life in general.
Link to "Four Brothers" site: http://www.fourbrothersmovie.com
Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/four_brothers/large.html
This critic was never a fan of any film John Singleton has directed. The only quality film he has made was 1991’s “Boyz n the Hood”. Since then, all his other films had been mediocre at best. “Four Brothers”, which is scheduled for release in the U.S. on August 12, has been one of his better efforts, although not perfect.
The film focuses on four adopted brothers in Detroit: Bobby (Mark Wahlberg), Angel (Tyrese Gibson) Jeremiah (Andre Benjamin) and Jack (Garrett Hedlund), abandoned and raised in foster care as children. At some point in their childhood, they meet Evelyn (Fionnula Flanagan), a woman who had a big heart for inner-city youth who decided to take them under her arm. She is the only mother the four brothers have ever had.
Late one night, Evelyn is murdered by armed robbers at a convenience store. After the funeral, the four get together at her house where they spend the night. A detective from the Detroit Police meets up with them to investigate the shooting, but they are not helpful as they have absolutely no faith in law enforcement to get to the bottom of this crime. Later, all of the brothers, except Jeremiah, decide that revenge is the only justice they’ll accept and take it upon themselves to find the perpetrators. They return to the scene of the crime where they view a surveillance video of their mother’s last moments and find out from the store owner what the detective didn’t tell them, that someone else from law enforcement had already interviewed a witness for a lengthy period of time. At that point, Bobby concludes that there was a cover-up and suspects that their mother was not the victim of a random shooting, but was actually set up.
Throughout the film, the brothers (without Jeremiah’s blessing) go on an armed rampage at a house party, a basketball game, a housing project and at a restaurant casino looking for the killers. At one point, an insurance claims analyst shows up unexpected at the house. There, it’s discovered that Jeremiah had been helping their mother pay premiums on a life insurance policy neither Bobby, Angel and Jack were aware of, adding to their suspicions. To add to the confusion, the lead detective investigating the case discovers that a separate police report of the murder was made without his knowledge. As the brothers try to learn the identity of the killers, they eventually get caught up in a net of corruption that involves gangsters. Toward the end, the film takes a bit of a stretch when there is an explosive event that would have one think that the police would have reasonable suspicions to make arrests, but they don’t which will have the viewer asking why.
Mr. Wahlberg is superb in the role of Bobby. One would think that Mr. Singleton selected him for the part as it was 15 years ago that he was better known as Marky Mark the rapper. His past reputation as an urban street tough makes him right for this role.
Like all of Mr. Singleton’s films, “Four Brothers” will not be liked by everybody as this film is made from the point of view that institutionalized racism is a fact of life, that authority is rife with corruption and that no one really cares about improving the quality of life in the inner city. Filmgoers may not agree with the message, but at the least, they would need to approach this film with an open mind on Mr. Singleton’s perspective on life in general.
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