in the saddle

i never left, but i feel like i'm back in it. does this make sense? i decided to change this blog to being more specific because i have other places that cater to other subjects. and, please be sure to check those out. i need some support! plus, i think you'll find them all entertaining too...

so now i'm finishing up my last experimental, 'august experimental'. it's one of 3, all from 'DOC1:the shenandoah house' footage from the summer. the june & july experimentals are already finished, but this one is the monster of the crop. it's 5 times as long, and i'm seeing the challenges with a project this big. i want to do a lot more with it, but the software i've usually been editing with isn't capable of what i'd like to do. and there's SO much to edit, it's crazy. there's a light at the end of every film tunnel, and some of the new techniques i wanted to try were my light. but now i have to work a little harder for it because in order for that light to exist, i have to learn another program (after effects) in order to supplement my usual editing software (movie maker). so, i'll be doing some tedious kind of work for a while. editing a massive project while watching (sometimes very boring) tutorials. not so fun, but it will be, and right now this stuff is just part of the process.

after this last experimental, i'll be cashing in my avid trial. it's for a month, and that's cool, it's a good amount of time to finish editing my next projects. 3 shorts ('american geisha', 'hermaphrodite', & 'different styles of royalty'; all short stores from a book ('the short (stories)') that i'm working on/finishing up now. so i'll shoot those first, then start the editing. shooting is going to be exciting because i'm also switching up equipment. i'm going from an olympus digital, to a sony film camcorder. the camcorder is from '97 & has a broken battery. it has to be plugged in because the battery area is bunk somewhere, so i'll be restricted to always having to be by an outlet. but it's totally ok, because this is a real camera. the olympus is too, but the zoom on this camcorder and the sound are totally in a different league. it's just meant to be a filming camera. the digital is a camera with video function. which is good too, it's a beautiful camera, i've been really happy with it. but the look of this sony is just fantastic. it's really grainy. and i also bought the adapter for it so i can convert the footage to digital so i can edit on my laptop. but all the ends were female and i had to wait a little while to score the couplers. so in the meanwhile i did the experimentals. i wanted to do something with the DOC1 footage while it's in a semi-hiatus. and all of my tapes were almost full and i didn't want to do too much footage-mixing because there's still old footage to do something with in there. i'll probably just add it to DOC1. it's from 2005 when my sister & i cam to LA for the first time. it's still LA DOC footage, so maybe it'll just add-to the finished product.

ok, i'm off for more cheetos and to do some journaling. even though straight journaling hasn't been that satisfying, i'll be doing comic-style/storyboard-style journaling. and maybe the writing will be in a haiku style? i don't know. i've also got some japanese to study. major breakthroughs have been going down lately, so i've gotta do my part to keep the momentum up.






here's a link to my youtube page. the june & july experimentals are there:
http://www.youtube.com/user/jtwilliams1920