I finally got around to cataloging all the video we shot so far for the new project. I’m averaging about a 2:1 ratio (2 hours to catalog every 1 hour of footage), which isn’t all that bad. I put together a short sample video for Millard, who stopped by last night, for the sole purpose of inspiring us. It helped me, and I think Millard was psyched too. I spent most of the day Saturday vegging out, as I was exhausted, and that night watching a couple hockey games. Yesterday was spent cataloging the video, and then Millard and I watched Van Helsing and Zoolander. I’ve decided to create daily Suncoast Studios goals for myself, which will help me get some things off my plate. Sick Thought of the Day: Monkey bone in the hole.
Category: Studio
Elves, Screens, and a Spyder
Yesterday I hooked up the new broadcast monitor, digital to analog converter, and camera. I got an ultra-accurate picture on the monitor and decided that the cabling I have was good, but not good enough. I ordered a really rare, 1990’s industry cable to hook the converter up to the monitor. Other than the fact the picture could have been crisper, the monitor was dead-on for color and chroma/hue. Tonight I calibrated both of my LCD monitors on my main editing workstation with my new Spyder2. I'll calibrate the monitor on the servers and Shauna’s LCD tomorrow or Saturday. I spent some time playing Dungeons & Dragons Online tonight. All I can say is that this game is absolutely beautiful and I really enjoy playing it. However, I got really tired (yawn) and had to stop. So, I figured I’d blog and go to bed. Goodnight. Sick Thought of the...
Cabling
For some crazy-assed reason I decided to re-cable all the audio and video stuff in the studio. I did it for three reasons: First, the cables were a complete mess and needed to be cleanup and organized a lot better. Second, nothing was labeled, and with all the power, USB, audio, and video cables under the desk, it got to be difficult to know what I was unplugging. Lastly, I needed to fix a problem with the audio. I tracked down the audio problem to an adapter and replaced it. Tonight, I’ll finish tying all the cables and will be finished. Ah. I got new barndoors and gels for the tungsten lights. I’ve put one light together and it makes all the difference. I’ve also got a monitor/television calibrator coming this week along with a digital to analog audio/video converter. My BNC cables will also be in late this week...
Getting Organized
I've decided today to start getting some things organized. I'm going to dedicate most of the day tomorrow for that. The studio needs to be cleaned up, I have several new tapes to log, and I have a bunch of bills to pay. I'm going to focus on all that plus get a haircut and go out and run a couple of errands all before 5:00pm. After that, it's the beginning of the Friday night deflate. The Pitts scenes went extremely well. I was very pleased. Sick Thought of the Day: Baby spiders in the bed.
Pitts
I'm getting ready to go down to Tvaarksanianica in about 30 minutes to shoot some scenes with James Pitts. I also ordered a broadcast monitor last night for monitoring the camera during shoots. Sick Thought of the Day: Sushi
Post X-Mas
Well, Christmas is now behind us by a couple of days, and I'm reeling over the fact that I gained four pounds. That's probably from all the candy, since I only really had about one and a half plates of dinner on Sunday. I've been eating a lot of salt the last few days too. Maybe that's it. I dunno. Maybe I just need to hit the gym and shut up. Ok. I'll do that. I'm going to spend some time today cataloging the tapes from the shoot last week and trying some samples out. Millard gave me the raw audio tracks, and I'm going to spend some time syncing things up to see how they sound. Sick Thought of the Day: Worms in the ear.
Chewbode.com is Back!
The site's back up and running! Chewbode.com is now hosted with 3essentials. A big thanks to Doug, Stacy and Russ for their help in getting the site transferred! In other news, Will's in town and we all congregated this past Tuesday to shoot several scenes from the new production. The day's shooting went very well and we got a lot of coverage. Afterward, we all went out and had a bite to eat at the 24/7 Restaurant. I've got the day off today and will be finishing up some Christmas chores and getting the bottom of the tree filled-out. Shauna’s going out with my mom tonight to finish up some last-minute shopping and Millard and I will probably get together and hang out and do the weekly deflate. Sick Thought of the Day: Razorblade chew.
Makin’ and Watchin’
The script is coming along well. I'm still in the brainstorming stages of it, but should actually be writing the full-version shortly. I meditated for four hours on Sunday to try to spark the ol' creative juices. I'm at an impasse right now in that I can't decide how to end the story. Hopefully this block will clear and I'll dive into the first draft in the next few days. I saw War of the Worlds finally last night. I have to say that I'm really wondering about Spielberg. The last several movies he's made he's made he's decided to go with that washed-out, grey-tinted look. I'm not sure if it's me, but it seems like he's been overdoing that a bit lately. That was really my only gripe about it, though. I also saw Elephant and Batman Begins and I also watched Anchorman again. I also set up one...
The Aftermath
Thanksgiving was a belly-busting success. We ate about a third of the food, send anther third home with people, and had about half of the final third left over in the fridge. Mmm, mmm. The whole day yesterday was about deflating mentally, eating tons of leftovers, watching movies, and sleeping. It was great. However, today I'm gonna be more productive. I've got my Mountain Dew and bananas (heh...), and am ready to jump back into script writing. Will is coming down here around Christmas time and he's agreed to collaborate on a project with me and Millard. I'm also going to be doing a second small script for this, and we'll see where it goes. I'm not sure if I'd like to do something structured with Will or maybe go more improve. I think I'll take the structured approach and see where it goes. Sick Thought of the Day: Cajun...
Organizing
Today I added a project management area to the website for anyone who works on a project with me. It allows us to add tasks, files, and related information to a project outline with due dates and the like. This should really help me get stuff in order and finish some things. Everything in the "Projects" area of the site has been added in and will be managed through the new system. I got the motherboard for the new server back yesterday and have been working on getting it up and running again. After a shitload of grief with it last night, I finally found out that there were two problems with it (no, the motherboard was fine): The power supply was bad (it was second-hand) and the IDE cable that connected the CD-ROM drive to the motherboard was bad. I've since replaced both and the system is now (finally!)...
