Monday, August 16

Greetings,

First,

Alien vs. Predator did suck.

Second,

If you ignore Alien 3, Alien: resurrection and Predator 2 you have two very neat concepts that one would think would go great together and here are links to some trailers;

• Alien: http://www.movie-list.com/trailers.php?id=alien
• Aliens: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1000617-aliens/trailers.php
• Predator: http://www.movie-list.com/trailers.php?id=predator

Third,

I believe that one should go back to the source to see just how bad Alien vs. Predator did suck;

• http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=91-044

Fourth,

Why is he writing about Alien(s) and Predator on a blog devoted to his documentary? Well, the reason is that this weekend I decided to take a break away from working, spend time with my nephew who is visiting from California and go with my brother-in-law to see a movie. However, although they it did suck I cannot say that I was disappointed. In fact, it was exactly what I needed. Sometimes you need to see a bad film just because. It got me out of the rut of spending all of my time at the lab, or working at home on something that I can tweak after it gets signed off. I guess what I'm trying to say is this;

Never take your work too seriously
and
take a break when given a chance.

That said, I did figure out a way to help streamline some of the work I've been doing and I'm feeling confident that I will have something good to show this Friday.

Now I've just got to work on the intro and develop some form of narration...

Peace,

Jon

A brief reprieve

Greetings,

I found out late this week that a trip I was supposed to go to Indiana for the latest gencon convention, http://www.gencon.com was cancelled. Now, normally I might get somewhat upset especially since it was a free trip but low and behold I'm not. Why you might ask? Well the reason is this. Because I was scheduled to leave on Wednesday August 18th and returning on the following Friday I had to schedule my final screening of my piece for my committee to sign off on Tuesday but because of the trip being cancelled, I was able to petition my committee to see if we could reschedule it for Friday. My committee agreed and that gave me three extra days. Also, a job opportunity has opened for my that weekend, which will help lessen the burden of having no liquid cash in order to well, go see Jet Li in Hero the following weekend. What can I say, I like action movies. I'm even going to see the Alien vs. Predator movie although I know it will, for lack of a better word, suck.

Peace,

Jon

Some archival research links

Greetings,

For the past few days Clark and I have been scrounging the net and local archives for materials for the video. And while there has been some progress, transferring this material to a medium that I can use is well, time consuming. A site that Clark found quite some time ago but never really looked at has provided us with a lot of promising material. The site's URL is, http://www.archive.org. This site has numerous public domain motion pictures however there is very little regarding Indians, Native Americans, American Indians, etc. However, it does have a few westerns which are in the public domain and many are cross listed in the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) URL http://www.imdb.com. However, if anyone who is reading this has any interest in doing something with cold war footage, in particular atomic war, civil defense and even bioweapons, then this site is definitely for you.

Peace,

Jon

Image and video collecting, among other things

Greetings,

Yesterday I was able to meet with Deborah, one of the people in Half of Anything mainly to visit and also to show her the rough cut of the movie so that she could give feedback on the movie as a whole and comment on her section in particular. I am pleased to say that she liked it and of course Deborah did state that there were some choppy areas, in particular in Christina's section and I explained to Deborah that Christina brings up several notions that the general viewing office might not be familiar with. And that the choppiness is there so that I know where I am going to put in some narrative construction that briefly explains what she's just brought up. The problem is, I need to figure out what to say that is a good abstract on it, but then shows the complexities behind each definition and doesn't disrupt the narrative flow.

Fortunately tomorrow Christina is available to see the movie and comment on her section and provide guidance and even help structure the definitions to the notions she brings up during her section.

Perhaps the biggest help has been that Deborah has agreed to share some family images, in particular her grandfather who she brings up quite a bit in her section to help enrich her section of her interview. And I'm hoping that my meeting with Christina will also provide me with images. I'm also going out with the HDCAM and shooting cutaways. Mainly cityscapes, skylines, and hopefully some more intimate shots.

Peace,

Jon

The gear that this documentary is shot and edited on

Greetings,

Here is some information on what gear was used to shoot this project:

Camera:

• Sony HDW750 HDCAM
• Fujinon HDTV Lens

Tripod:

• Cartoni ENG Tripod
• Cartoni Camma Fluid Head

Sound Gear:

• Sennheiser ME 66 Shotgun Mic
• Sennheiser MZS 20-1 Pistol Grip
• Sennheiser MZW 60-1 Windscreen
• Shure FP24 Portable Mixer
• Sony MDR-7506 Headphones
• Sony ECM-77B Microphone
• Gitzo Carbon Fibre Fishpole

Lighting:

• Natural light with reflector or silk and stand depending on the lighting conditions

Tape:

• Sony BCT-40HD HDCAM

Digital Still Camera:

• Nikon CoolPix 5700

Editing System:

• AVID DS/HD
• Apple G4 with Adobe After Affects
• Compaq Presario R3000 with Adobe Photoshop
• IBM PC Clone with an Athlon 900 Thunderbird Processor (retired)

Peace,

Jon

A weekend off but not unproductive

Greetings,

Although this weekend I took a little break from working in the editing lab I didn't take a break from working on this documentary. Instead, I decided that I needed to develop material for the web site and to work on finishing my pickup shot and archive sheet so that Clark, who is helping me with the project, can go scout locations and find the images I need. I also realized after talking at length with my friend Terreane, that I need to start thinking of what type of musical score the movie needs. Right now, I cannot even think specifically of what type of music I want (genre(s)) but I do know that I really want to avoid the pitfalls of using any native music that consists of what western civilization has deemed the type of music we are supposed to play and that usually consists of drumming and flutes.

Today will be a busy day as I am meeting with Clark to go over a few dozen things he needs to find by Wednesday. Also, I've just realized that I have 16 days in which to finish a good rough cut that can be signed off and I can be awarded my degree!

Peace,

Jon