beginninghere

Many years ago the craft company I worked for decided to make several videos and commercials for their products. For a number of weeks I worked with the CEO on the set and then behind the scenes in the editing room.

We found a great video guy. I enjoyed working with George and learned a variety of things about video production. I had no idea I would be able to reconnect with him after so many years.

The art school periodically hosts mini job fairs and on one occasion I visited the hall where the prospective employers table’s were set up. I saw George’s name and company name on one of the tables so I waited around to see him. Though something prevented him from coming that day I decided to look him up.

A few weeks ago we did reconnect at his new studio and I spent the day watching his team shoot an infomercial. Since then he has invited me to come by at different times to help out and learn whatever I can. His staff has been very helpful, especially a young Swiss fellow who loves to explain everything.

This week I was able to learn a little more about some equipment while helping to put things away after a big shoot. I wrapped XLR cables, and also edited some of the informercial I had seen on the previous visit.

Besides all that I had the benefit of hearing the staff’s opinion on several things video/film/education. A very worthwhile and enjoyable day.

I learned:
• if you have an old, twisted XLR cable to coil up, give it to someone else to wrap.
• that the local college in my town has an excellent course in documentary video for a fraction of the cost of a class at my current school which is also 45 minutes away.
• that degrees are not as important as knowing how to do something and who you know.
• how to edit screen text in Final Cut, very handy.

The greenhouse at Mt. Vernon

Our latest project in Information Design is to develop a social networking site. I am not especially fond of the idea since there are already plenty of those sites out there. I guess I am not the only student who wanted a little leeway. Several of us asked for options.

The upshot, is that we are allow to create a network around a particular subject of our choosing and so I picked gardening in southern California (Sunset zone 23 or USDA zone 9/10). I am focusing on smaller gardens since that is typical for So Cal.

There are lots of garden sites up of course and a gazillion garden blogs but at least it is a subject I am interested in. So I need to find at least five people in southern California who would be willing to frequent my site 🙂 No, really I just need to design it for this class.

The Big Challenge
The main thing is the site is suppose to be an “interaction” site. So, if you had access to a garden website devoted to serving your area—what kinds of interactions would you like to see there? (Organized plant swaps, a forum where people post questions, etc.) also, what kinds of features would you like to see? Think big!!

I could use some ideas. And if you think anyone you know would like to contribute an idea I would be so appreciative.

frames per second, beats per minute, and other measurements

Growing up I learned to use our standard cooking measurements and the trusty inches and yards. Years ago when I was in school I worked as a custom picture framer and became adept at sizing up measurements for matts and frames and could cut moulding to a 16th by sight. And then I came to the new media school. Now we measure in frames per second, beats per minute, and use rectangular pixels for video.

At present I am taking sound design. This means that I am using a variety of programs to generate, edit, and mix sound. All new to me.

(Apple) Garageband is a simple program for arranging loops and pieces of music into original pieces so you can avoid copyright issues.

Adobe Soundbooth is a relatively basic program for editing and sweetening sound by taking out noise or pops or other extraneous stuff and trimming or pasting sound where needed, adding effects, etc. You can do your editing in the green wave file or in the graphic file that displays different frequencies in different colors.

Consonants have higher frequencies where as vowels have a lower pitch. Some sounds such as the ssss sound in “books” has no voice to it so you can cut the “s” from one person’s speech and paste it into another person’s speech if you needed a plural from them instead of a single. Does that make sense?

Adobe Premiere Pro has sound editing tools as well. Music tracks are laid under the video and can be manipulated for volume or effect. I rather like doing everything in one program but sometimes it doesn’t work best that way.

For this film I needed some music I didn’t have. Now I know how to put together some background music for a couple of scenes so I will go back and do that. Thing is, it is harder to put music to video. Better to put video to music so you can cut more easily to the beat.

Adobe After Effects is not a sound editing program but does allow you to animate things to put into your video like titles or graphics or photos. Here you are talking seconds or frames. It is amazing how long it takes to create 30 seconds of finished work!!

Here is a very simple animation learning to use keyframes with the various transform functions. This is one program where you must know what your plan is BEFORE you build.

Okay, enough screen shots. I am supposed to create a presentation on yet another program (DVD Studio Pro) to teach the class how to make interactive menus. The manual for that chapter was 60 pages of tiny type with almost no pictures. Guess what I am doing tonight.

It was overcast today which only made the sea of rose blossoms glow in a fluorescent sort of way. The temperatures were fairly comfortable and I wished to sit on the patio rocking bench with a book on roses, a cup of tea, and Minou at my feet.

Roses are in the forefront of my mind not only because the garden is in its first flush but because I am planning to create a website for Rose Gardening in Southern California for a school project.

However, it was the day for ironing and cleaning the house. Still, all the windows were open, and curtains back, so that I could take in the view whenever I liked.

For some reason, I have always liked domestic chores and find them somewhat therapeutic. Maybe that is because I don’t have to sit at the computer. Still, I also long to sit and read books for hours uninterrupted. My idea of vacation is good views, good food, good conversation, and good books.

Nikki came home and before I knew it a lovely supper was in the making so I slipped out to the garden in waning light and cut a large bunch of Pat Austin (deep tangerine) and Molineux (butter yellow) to put on the yellow table cloth with blue plates. We always like to have a party no matter what meal it is.