post-production party

A few days ago I finished production on the video I have been working on. I plunged headlong into the post-production phase on Wednesday. It's definitely bringing back some memories. I'm really excited about digging in with a digital razor.

Thus far I have encountered the requisite issues inherent in using cracked software to accomplish a task I haven't attempted in almost 2 years. I was admittedly nervous about working in Final Cut Pro for the first time in a goodly while. But once I was able to open and update the app, the controls quickly started feeling comfortable again.

I have about 3 hours of HD video between the live action stuff shot by my friends at HNP and the screen captures I have done over the past few weeks. The goal is to cut it down to around 3 minutes. The more I look at it, the longer I think it will take to fit everything in coherently. I have developed a plan of attack for the early stages of the editing process. But I'm really nervous about pulling off the split screen narrative thing. The narrative will be driven primarily by the "dialog" portrayed in the screen capture portion, and the video will depict me acting as something of a Greek Chorus, gaping at the strange goings-on.

Let's call it an experiment in my ability to depict a Human Computer Interaction...quite literally.

Waxing politic

Last night I caught a glimpse of an email from a friend of Tammy's. The email was primarily a response to a question Tammy posed about Barack Obama's qualifications and potential as a presidential candidate.

Her insightful compatriot offered a sound diatribe on the dangers of democrats backing a possibly un-electable candidate. Most interestingly, the friend offered these words about the democrats' collective inability to support a centrist candidate like John Kerry:

"So we ended up with Kerry: tepid water, milk toast, vanilla, Republican-lite."

Longstoryshort, the statement got me thinking. First, about the poetics of the line, then about the blinding truth it represents.

I can't come up with any witty snippets of knowledge to expound upon this line of political poetry. All I can come up with are questions:

Is there a possibility for true progressivism in our modern landscape?
Are we chained to our adopted consumptive collective mindset?
Is there a foreseeable alternative?

/hmmmm

the nerdiest thing i have ever seen

more mental video churnings

For the past few days I have been helping out my old partners at High Noon Pictures work on a narrative short. Getting to run the boom and work as a production assistant again has really got things rolling in my mental map of the video I plan to put together in the next couple of weeks.

I am devising a skeleton script and planning all the "scenes." I don't really know if my ideas can be considered scenes, but that's neither here nor there. The working title is 'Information: the new Ritalin.' I'm happy with the way my ideas are starting to take shape. I was having trouble figuring out how to work dialogic interaction between a person and a computer. Then I realized there is a constant dialogue inherent in Human Computer Interaction, represented by none other than ye ol' blinking cursor. The computer's "thoughts" could easily be represented by typing in text fields in any number of applications.

Within hours of my realization I found the following video on YouTube. I have to admit I was a bit disheartened that it's already been done. But I think I have a slightly different application of this narrative device.

Massive Multi-Developer Online RPGs

I found this article pretty interesting. It describes an effort to develop an MMORPG using the input of the actual players. All of them, if possible.

A couple of game developers and Acclaim put their heads together to tap the aggregate creative energy of MMO players and developers in a collaboration intent on releasing a new title in less time than any legitimate studio could hope to take. The initial response to the call was huge: something to the tune of 20,000 eager little beavers.

Dave Perry, the puppeteer who holds all the strings, describes the project as a serious business venture. "I hope it will prove to us that consumers are useful, " says Dave.

I hope so too, Dave.

film for thought

My mind hasn't been abuzz with intersecting plot lines and narrative celluloid twists for a while now. But I have a video project to put together for my Society, Technology, and Culture class. The project (along with a little liminal free time) has given me a little inspiration.

I have been thinking a lot about bio-technology and cognitive changes over time. Plenty of literature and studies have been done looking in to how our cognitive mapping and synaptic connections can be modified. For my little movie, I want to look in to how we are re-wiring our synapses on a daily basis.

Computers and the web are giving us infinite possibilities for knowledge acquisition and retrieval. I have to wonder whether our bodies are ready for the intellectual hyperactivity navigating the web enables within us. Or are we going to reach a system overload somewhere down the line?

I will be adding links to relevant literature soon, but for now, here's a PhotoShop thought of what I have in mind.