The big time
Tuesday, July 20, 2010, 10:38 AM
I'm halfway through editing the Lumiere fight and this weekend is the next CCCW fight in Springfield. From a money standpoint, this is turning out to be a pretty good resource for me. I'm definitely considering putting together a plan to take their video production to the next level. I want to put together a package that includes all the things I think would add to the quality of their overall product, yet won't cost them an arm and a leg in the process. It might not even be possible, but until I get some information down on paper, there's no real way of knowing for sure.

I guess Tom may have some doors opening for him. He and his friends have been doing a show called "Fun Guys" and it's pretty good. Well through his connections his ragtag little show might end up turning into a reality show with a national cable network. He's meeting with a producer this weekend and discussing a few things regarding the upcoming redneck fishing tournament, in which the "fun guys" are entered. He's got a lot planned and hopefully this stuff pans out for him.

Today is also a landmark day as it is the day I was finally able to purchase a motorized pan and tilt head for the company. It's been a long time coming so I'm happy as a clam to finally be able to get one. It will make the overall production aspect of future events much easier to manage, especially smooth pans while dollying. God how I have wanted that for a while now! Another cool aspect is that we can finally get our jib back into the mix.

I often think about how I take all of this stuff for granted. It's so easy to buy stuff for the company because it's like I have been given access to a bottomless bank account. I sometimes wonder how different it would be if it were my money going to pay for all of this stuff. Granted if I had the money to spend, I would spend it. Still, there are a lot of things that I have purchased that really didn't need to be purchased. Lessons learned in life, I suppose. I'm actually quite glad I've had the opportunity to learn these things here and now. I've had enough of wasting my own money on trivial equipment purchases. By the time I go out on my own, I'll have more of a refined set of needs based on my experience.

I still want to make a movie, but I haven't gone back to my script in a long, long time. I'm selling a majority of my Xbox games pretty soon so hopefully that will help (hit the road, MW2!). I need to focus on the real and stop escaping into fantasy. It's not doing me any good to just sit around all day long and do nothing. In fact, I think my behavior has rubbed off on Sariah to the point where she's just depressed all the time. That's a whole other can of worms I don't have time to open right now.

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Troxartas
Thursday, July 15, 2010, 09:23 AM
Is it really hard to find or switch jobs? I haven't tried in a couple of years and I'm not currently considering it. I know Payne was struggling, but with his criminal record and the fact that he can't stop doing drugs for one straight month it's a no-brainer why he's having trouble. Hell, for all I know he could already have a job. I doubt it though since he hasn't come to get his stuff yet.

I was summoned for jury duty. This is the first time in my 33 years on this planet that I've had to answer the civil service call and hopefully I'll get pre-screened out. Most people would look at it as a great opportunity to get out of work, but to me it would be more like work than my actual job. I was drinking last night so I don't remember the exact details of it, but I know that I have to contact someone or send off a letter in the next few days.

Sariah is off today. It's 9:18 and Tom still isn't here. No emails or calls either. I know I'm going to catch shit for allowing that to continue, but I'm waiting it out as it doesn't really bother me. Once Laymon starts jumping my ass about it, I'll have to have a talk with him. The weekend is rapidly approaching and once again I have no plans. I share the universal problem of having a lot of ambition to do things, but don't really know what I want to do.

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The dull days
Wednesday, July 14, 2010, 11:29 AM
My beer collection video got some notice recently by another beer reviewer on YouTube. He had a lot of nice things to say. I've been thinking about doing more Talkin' Beer episodes although it's kind of difficult now with all of my beer boxed up. I tried to record some new stuff last week and I'm dumping it into my Mac now to see if any of it can be used.

One thing I'm starting to realize is that I need a editing workstation at home. I could get a lot more done and experiment a hell of a lot more with motion graphics if I did. The only problem with doing that is the notion that I will find it extremely difficult to come into work when I can potentially do my job from home. It's all just crazy talk though as I don't have the money to afford a decent workstation. I mean we're talking about $4000 on hardware alone, plus software which will definitely put it up around $6000 at least.

There are a few things I know I can't live without, one of which is Telestream Episode Pro. It's a damn good encoder and it handles pretty much anything you can throw at it. I use MPEG Streamclip all the time, but I'm starting to believe that there is nothing special about that encoder and that the only reason I think it's great is because it utilizes all the high-end codecs I have on my Mac through FCS and Episode Pro.

Had to go talk to the telephone guys so they could repair our fax line. Before that I was syncing the Lumiere fight footage in FCP. It's been a bitch because the mix video DVD was corrupt and caused a lot of hang-ups in the video and audio which keep throwing off the overall sync. I have to make adjustments here and there and be sure to catch the audio drop outs when they happen so I can cover them up or edit them out if possible. I'm definitely earning my money on this one.

I never heard back from any of the other fight promoters I emailed. I think I need to take a more active approach in contacting these people. Too many people rely on the internet as their sole means of promotion and advertising. I need to get out there and represent. Still....I hate representing that I can do these things I say when it all hinges on Cass. It's an uncomfortable feeling.

I would say that a year from now my situation will be better, but it won't. The Scion will be paid off, but there are so many other bills that we have that still need to be paid off. I'm hoping the extra money from the car payment will help. The hardest part in all of this is dealing with Sariah. She is having a really hard time dealing with not having very much money and I imagine if things don't improve soon she'll start getting really pissed off. I don't want her to be upset, but I don't want her spending us into oblivion either.

I'm just babbling now. I've got to get back to work.

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Sariah and her phones
Monday, July 5, 2010, 10:34 AM
I swear, not a year goes by without something happening to Sariah's phone. This time she loses it at work. What does that mean for us? Well, it means that we've got to run out to Wal-Mart and pick up a new phone for her. I don't understand how she goes through phones so fast.

I thought about giving her my phone and just using my blackberry as my full-time phone, but I don't like the idea of placing and receiving personal calls on a company line. I still need to disassociate my company email account from my facebook page so I stop getting updates and messages sent to it. I'm straying off topic now.

This week we make our first in a series of six $200 payments to CPI. Once completed, our past due medical bills will be fully resolved. It will be nice to have a bill paid off, but at the same time, I would have rather that bill been a credit card or something.

As for the fence...I'm still in a holding pattern waiting on dirt. Beyond that, I don't really know what is going to happen. It's difficult for me to say that something is definitely happening when I don't have any control over the things that make it happen. I thought money was all I needed to get things done, but apparently that's not true.

I haven't heard back from the CCCW guys since my last proposal. I believe Wednesday will make it a full week. I know I'm saying this a lot, but it's really starting to get on my nerves. Then again, I also know that the only reason it's bothering me is because I could really use the money and I don't have anything else going on at the moment. Tom wanted me to help him shoot an episode of his show "Fun Guys", but I didn't have a way to get to Petersburg (or anywhere) this past weekend. Not to mention, I doubt I would have had any fun. I'm not big on spending tons of time around complete strangers.

I've got to send off a bunch of info to Allstate this week so we continue to have car insurance with them. I also need to drop Farmers Union as soon as possible. I hate how you can't do anything over the internet without it resulting in a bunch of snail mail work after the fact. Modern times, indeed! BTW, the new Futurama kicks lots of ass!

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Starfish Prime
Wednesday, June 30, 2010, 11:55 AM
I decided that going forward I might as well legitimize my video production services, especially if I'm going to be doing a lot of work with 28 Productions in the future. I filed for my EIN today as Starfish Prime Productions now the next step is opening an account at our bank. I really want to keep that money separate from our personal funds so it doesn't get spent on stupid shit. I'll probably have to file taxes, but that's inevitable if things keep up the way they are.

I've been sitting here for too long. It's time to get up.

[ 5 comments ] ( 20 views )   |  permalink  |   ( 2.7 / 18 )
Strike three!!!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010, 07:35 AM
Once again, mother nature has fucked me. I tried get the time-lapse images of the ATM last night and everything was going fine, until somewhere around 2-3 AM when the condensation once again wrecked my shoot. This time instead of coating the camera, it coated the Vibe. How the fuck am I supposed to keep a vehicle frame from collecting water?

I realize now that I'm going about this all wrong. There's clearly no way that I will be able to leave this thing shooting all night, but I don't think I need to. Leaving the settings at one shot every 35-40 seconds means the transition from day to night happens in about 40-50 frames; runtime equivalent of 1.5 to 1.75 seconds. That's not enough of a transition. I need day to night/night to day transitions to span something in the order of 10 seconds. With that in mind, all I really need to do is set up the camera to record about 2 hours worth of footage spanning exactly 300 frames. That puts my interval at around 24 sec instead of 35-40.

Implementing that strategy, the camera only needs to be present for the first and last two hours of shooting. I was thinking about setting up our old tripod out at WCB and leaving that overnight, then returning at around 4:45 to start taping again. The only way this can work is if the early morning condensation doesn't build up on the camera during the final 2 hours, which it may very well do considering the amount of moisture at that EXACT spot. I would be extremely frustrated if I went out there at 4 in the morning and couldn't keep the lens from fogging up. I could set up the tripod inside a vehicle, but that would require assistance from others in the form of a ride to and from work. Sariah helped me out yesterday and this morning, but that's just because she was off yesterday and today.

The only alternative left is to stay the night again, but that's stupid considering that I wouldn't be taping anything for a majority of the night. Not to mention, there's nothing left on the PS3 that I really want to play and I nearly beat God of War III last time. I'm probably going to have to go with the whole tripod thing and just see what I can do to keep the condensation under control for the second 2 hour shift. I've been having some difficulty with exposure as well. Trying to keep things consistent through the gradual loss/gain of light is a difficult thing. I figure that since I'm going to shoot the night sky by itself (a whole other can of worms) I might as well just set my exposure high enough to capture the most amount of daylight without being overexposed and then get a shot from the same position, but only with a much longer exposure and try to blend the two together in post. I'm going to be doing it with the sky, so why not do it with the ATM too. It's all trial and error at this point, just more error at the moment.

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Dick with two phones
Tuesday, June 29, 2010, 04:13 PM
I always used to think people with two cell phones were pompous; now I'm one of them. The battery on my phone went dead and as soon as Laymon found out he put in a request for me to get a company blackberry. He's been wanting that for 2 years and finally got the perfect opportunity to strike. It's going to be company use only because I don't like the whole ordeal. At least this way I'll be able to keep work and personal separated....not that I have much going on personally.



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The Lumiere Place Hotel and Casino
Sunday, June 27, 2010, 12:28 PM
Friday night was a complete waste. I was tasked to tape an MMA event at the Montgomery county fair and sure enough after the 4th fight the fair people are telling me I can't do my job. I called Paul and he told me to just shoot it from the ground, but I wasn't getting anything that was worth a damn so I was waiting for the intermission to grab my tripod from the car and find a place to set up when the promoter came up to me with my check for the night. I told him that I was no longer able to tape from above the cage and that the rest of the nights footage would be from the ground. I offered him the choice of having me continue from the ground or having me stop at that point. He opted to have me stop taping. He handed me $40 bucks for my trouble and sent me on my way. That was the last Montgomery county fair I will do.

Last night was the event at the Lumiere Place Casino and Hotel. I had called Tom the night before on the way home to see if one of his friends could fill in for me because I didn't want to go through the same shit as the previous night. He couldn't, so I just decided to go for it one last time. The day started off good. We went to the Iron Barley to eat and man was it good. Had we not drank so much beer our bill wouldn't have been so high, but we had a lot of beer. I highly recommend that place. Anyway, we made our way to McGurk's where I was to meet with Shawn Greene. He was late so again I had another beer while I waited. After meeting up with Shawn and giving him his tickets, Tom and I made our way to the casino. Due to road construction on i70, we ended up stuck in traffic for 30 minutes. Once we got to there and got our equipment in, we were set up in no time flat. So there was a lot of waiting around, but it was cool.

The theater was awesome and the setup they had was truly top notch. I knew immediately that this show was going to be much easier than the previous night. When all was said and done, the night went off without a hitch (on our part). The original plan was that we would be staying at the hotel overnight, but due to my desire to leave that night and Tom having something to shoot the next day, we forfeited our room. After the event, I was going to meet back up with Shawn for a few drinks and to talk, but once we got the equipment back to Tom's car, we decided it was so late already that we should probably just leave; which was our initial plan anyway. We both knew that one drink would lead to many and then we would be fucked. Neither one of us had to stick around to get paid as Paul had cut us our checks on Thursday so we were set.

I had planned to tell Paul that Saturday night's show would be my last as cameraman, but after the event I rethought things. I would definitely do more shows at the Lumiere and next time I would take the offered room most definitely. Both Tom and I had a good time and we know it will be a great deal better the next time. I don't know what intentions the CCCW guys have for this footage, but I guess that's info to come. I'm sure they're going to want to get video up on Facebook ASAP, but I'll have to wait for them to let me know what they want. I would like to continue working with those guys, but at the same time, I'm going to have to really think about things in respect with how much I'm making versus how much I'm spending. Factoring in the money I made this weekend versus them money I spent, I basically broke even. Had I not purchased the tickets for Shawn I would have come out ahead, but that's another thing.

So, what does the future hold in regards to my work with CCCW? I don't know for sure, but after last night I could definitely see doing more shows like that and that's all I know.

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Fuck-A-Doodle-Doo!
Friday, June 25, 2010, 04:16 AM
God damn! Second attempt at shooting the overnight time-lapse stuff for WCB and once again I fail. This time I actually make it out there, get the camera set up, situate myself in the vibe with snacks, water, a PS3 and an HDTV and I'm ready for the marathon session. Everything goes well and some cool spotty clouds move in around the moon that looks really good in camera. Then, I get a call from Sariah around 2:30 checking to see how things are going. At this point, I've spent the past hour and a half playing God of War 3 and hadn't really noticed my surroundings. Sariah made the comment about it not being really hot out and then a funny feeling came over me.

When I got off the phone with Sariah I paused my game and went out to check the camera. Sure enough, it's covered in condensation and the shots it's getting are hazy. I wipe the lens off hoping that at the very least I could just keep shooting and periodically wiping the lens. Unfortunately the moisture was too much and even wiping down the lens didn't correct the problem. I checked the previous shots and sure enough at least 170 of the 350+ pictures that had already been taken were foggy. FUCK!!! I stuck around for a little bit continuing to shoot hoping that I could salvage this thing, but after a while I stopped. What was the point of continuing if I couldn't use a majority of the stuff I had already shot.

So, this puts me in a strange situation. I either scrap the time-lapse idea, which would suck because I've postponed this shoot for several weeks waiting for a clear night; or I go for a third attempt. I've come to realize that forecasts are useless so there's no real guarantee I'll be able to try again anytime soon. Still, I know now the best way to go about doing this. Instead of camping out at the bank, my third attempt will consist of parking the vibe next to the ATM and setting the camera up inside the vibe pointed out the window. From there all I really have to do is lock her up and leave. Still, with a sudden shift in humidity and temperature, the windows on the Vibe could collect condensation and once again ruin the shoot. There's know real way for me to know if it will work, but it's worth one last shot.

Tomorrow I have to go to Butler to shoot an MMA event, then the next day it's on to St. Louis to shoot the Lumiere show. According to Paul, they've got a bunch of shows they're lining up so that's good news for me. I don't know if I'm going to continue shooting them all, but if that's where the money is coming from then that's what I'll do. I guess I really won't know the answer to that until after this weekend. If shooting these two events is going to be a pain in the ass, then I'll know what to do beyond that. I just hope they want to keep doing web videos and possibly DVD's because that's where most of my money through them will come from.

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Stupid weather!!!
Wednesday, June 23, 2010, 11:02 PM
I had it all lined up to shoot the footage I needed to complete the West Central Bank 24 hour banking spot tonight, but thanks to dumb ass flash rain storms, that plan was postponed yet again. Much like my damn fence project, everything is getting fucked up by this goofy-ass weather. When in the fuck is it ever going to stop raining every other day? Fuck the weathermen! They haven't got a clue about what the damn weather is going to do. Right now they're saying tomorrow night will be clear, but I'll bet you anything that by tomorrow night the fucking clouds will gather and rain will dump on us once again, fucking up any plan I may have to actually get this footage. Damn it!! I even rented a couple PS3 games to keep myself occupied overnight. I could technically take the PS3 home tonight and play the games I rented, but what's the point? It's already almost midnight and I have to come into work tomorrow morning. FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!

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