Brains ...

Well, brain therapy. A video I did to supplement the print story -- not the best thing out there, but it accomplished what it could. I would change a couple things, of course, but hindsight is hindsight.

Here ye are ...

More video

Oh, yeah -- here's the video from last night. Notice the need for a tripod.

Back to Final Cut

I shot the state trooper recruits doing their driver training at Talladega this afternoon, stills and video. The stills, okay, whatever, got some things that'll probably fly. But it was a situation more open to video. Seeing as this was the second video I've shot for the paper, [here's the first] I should have done a better job with it, but I had a couple issues ...

• didn't use a tripod (it's a Flip camera but that shouldn't make a difference, should it?)
• not enough b-roll (no excuses for that)
• I don't like the audio capabilities
• and I used Final Cut Pro to edit, rather than FCP's simpleton cousin Windows Movie Maker. Which, after spending so much time away from it, is like driving a stick-shift after spending a year in an automatic -- it takes some getting used to.

Thusly are the reasons I'm still at the office at 7:bleeding:30. Waiting for the thing to export and all. Anyway.

Video at AL.com

The photo staff got some of the little Flip video cameras to carry around, mostly in case of spot news stories. There are a couple floating around, and we're supposedly going to get some more in soon. Cool little things, even if they don't have an input for a mike (my major qualm). But I digress.

This morning, coming back from a brief foray to the Barber Motorsports Park, the Ed called me and told me to head for the wreck on I-20. Turns out it was just off my exit. So I stopped, walked up to it, met the reporter, and ran into one of the other photographers, who handed me the Flip and asked me to shoot video.

So here's some video for ya.

Shot on a Flip camera, edited with Windows Movie Maker.

[PS: Here's the article and a shorter version of the video. Sorry about that.]

Why I adore Craig Ferguson

And this is why I like Craig Ferguson. Why have I never seen this before?

More stuff later.

Yawn

Edited my boss's tape from the children's play this morning, as well as shot the pet of the week (I just knew it would be kittens, too), shot the final bit of a tennis camp-thingy, and got chastised for not taking more photos of the special needs kids I'll be shooting tomorrow at the bowling alley. By the lady who runs the place. I can be righteously indignant at her annoyance quietly ... and, if I were mean-spirited, which I am not, I could put unattractive pictures of her in the gallery. But I'm not mean, I'm a nice guy who will indeed finish last but with a clear conscience.

I was considering getting a start on editing the "Day in the Life" that my boss shot of the DNR Conservation Officer, but just looking over the tape makes me queasy. Not just because the shots are everywhere and tilted and jumpy and such, but because there's so bloody much (an hour and six minutes, to be exact). There's not really a good opener, not much of a closer -- bunch of nice stuff for the middle, though, and the threat of a montage of smiling kids is growing quietly in the back of my mind -- and there's not really much in the way of b-roll. Copy and paste, click and drop, rinse and repeat. Such is video editing.

Kittens:

Pet(s) of the week; also posted just in case my professor's reading this because he adores cute animal photos.

Oh, yeah

By the by ...

A video on the New Echota historic site. I have no idea how to work the audio in Adobe Premiere, so the interview is mainly left speaker, and the ambient is both. So, be warned. Also, it's longer than I would want, but then again, it's not really a story. It's ... sigh ... sort of an advertisement. Just something to put up to point people to, because NEHS is just about the biggest thing around here.

And ...

Cute kids playing tennis (or trying). Shot for the sports editor, and I figured I'd make a gallery of it. SnapHappy still, so, again, you've been warned.

Ciao.

Ooofa

My neck is sore, tight and, overall, killing me. I don't know why. It feels like a combination of ear ache, strained muscles, stress and a flesh-eating virus. Sucketh. Anyway, just finished editing my second video for the Calhoun Times, just rendered it, and now I'm exporting it into Windows Media format so we can then send it to Jim Alred in Rome who puts it up on the web for us. Little roundabout, but that's life.

Arrgh, I can't move without it hurting. Sitting down is tolerable, but it hurts to walk.

Sod it all, I'm outta here. I'll send the video tomorrow.

First online video

So it's not really the first video I've done, but it is the first video I've done by myself. Hindsight being 20/20 as it is, I would make a few changes to it, play with the sound a little more, edit it a little tighter, and, of course, I would have gone back and gotten some more shots and maybe an extra interview or two. But I'm working on it.

Awkward ...

I imagine this is what it feels like to run into the girl from a month-and-a-half ago, the one-night stand, after having tried to avoid her and having not returned her phone calls. Sure, there are excuses, but none of them are really worthy of being spoken. Or true, for that matter.

So let me recap the last few months:

-Weekend Workshop: Very cool, lots of fun, very busy, met some really nice folks in the business, including one Walt Stricklin, who offered me an internship with the Birmingham News in Birmingham, Alabama.

-Got a 6-month Internship: Again, very cool. Again, with the B-ham News. I'll start on June 30th, and I'm headed down to 'Bama to check out some possible accommodations tomorrow with Chana. Who is, by the by, quite pissed that I'm "leaving her forever." She knows I'm not actually leaving forever, and that I'll be back in Athens come January, but she's still not too happy.

-Got 2 B's, 2 A's: Big surprise, the same grades I always get.

-Completed a Final Project for JOUR5990 (in 20 hours): I was sick at the beginning of the week, finally felt well enough to get some work done on Thursday morning, spent most of the day dealing with class stuff/bureaucratic BS/gathering materials, and editing and created this between the hours of midnight and 5:30 am Friday morning. I didn't sleep, and the day was long and funny. In the "haha" sense. Everything was amusing.

-Had to Drop Out of the Rome Internship: I really wanted to do both, but Jim Alred at the Rome News-Tribune felt that seven weeks at his wouldn't be enough. Sigh ... I still feel guilty about it, and I got some (seemingly) joking ribbing from Billy Weeks of the Chattanooga Times-Free Press, but most folks have just said, "hey, that's business." Still, sorry Jim.

-Picked up a 3 Week "Internship" at the Calhoun Times: Initially, I was just offering myself and my little camera up for some freelancing, but they called me a week later (as I was about to take Chana hiking) and asked me to come in for a meeting. Before I really knew what was going on, they were hiring me on for at least 20 hours a week with their GPA internship money. So, cool, I'll have another internship for my resume, and they're paying me. Gnarly. So far, I've been to a meet-and-greet with some local officials (shot stills for print), toured the local jail (stills for print and an online gallery), watched high school cheerleaders babysit little girls (stills for print and gallery), met most of the local Kiwanis Club (...uhm, we ate lunch together), and drove to Fairmount to watch them replant the park (stills for print and gallery, and video for the 'net). I'm none too happy about the online gallery the Times uses, but hey, small town newspaper, whatever.

That's been the most of it. Folks got back from Alaska with stories and pictures and whatnot, but I've mostly filled my time with yardwork, reading, running one of the dogs and moving my crap out of Athens.

Whoo -- not so awkward now. So, uh, can I buy you a drink? ...