On a roll

[gwyn]

Today turned out to be a surprisingly productive day, all things considered. I didn't think it was going to turn out well when I went to the pharmacy to renew my prescriptions and they told me that I was no longer insured, even though I paid the astronomical premiums for COBRA coverage so I wouldn't run into the dreaded pre-existing conditions crap if I get re-employed. So I wasted entirely too much energy being upset that I'd had to pay another $100+ for medicine that should be covered by the gajillion dollars I just paid to the (*%#@* benefits company. Then I decided since I couldn't do anything about it till Monday (as if I didn't have enough to stress over, when I have that test for Dream Freelance Job on Monday morning), I'd tackle the housework, and got a lot done there (though, feochadn, the lawn mower wouldn't stay running after about ten starts, and I finally gave up and put it back).

Then, miracle of miracles, I wrote. Actual writing. Not writing exercise writing, or creative non-fiction or journalistic writing, and most decidedly not fanfic. An actual short (very short!) story, that I didn't abandon after a few paragraphs because it sucks, or because I think I'm crap. I actually wrote the whole thing down, and touched it up a bit, and put it away for a while. It's terrible and needs a lot of work, but I got the bones down, as they say. It couldn't be less interesting nor more poseurish (can you get any more twee than writing in a second person narrative voice? I ask you), but I wrote a whole honest to god short story for the first time in I don't know how many years, without letting my inner devil beat me down.

And then I poked around on Dream Freelance Job's website, cooked a real dinner, played with Photoshop Elements some more (not that I am making any progress in how to use it, but I can pretend), tried to figure out how to network the laptop and the iMac together unsuccessfully, and then... finished my Firefly vid. Which is total crap, but at least I have a finished draft. In my head it was a gorgeous vid, very sad and beautiful. Somehow translating what was in my head to reality was a harder row to hoe this time. I need to get a plugin for better slo-mo, but the mechanical part is finished, anyway. Why do I always finish vids when there's no one around for days and days to give me a beta? Curse my strange circadian rhythm and hermit-like lifestyle!

Comments

[luminosity]

Well, sorry that my hints weren't useful to you, but you never know who'll be cruising through here, right? :)

I'm working on something so very obvious, but I had never heard this song get any airplay when I first decided to make the vid. Now? I heard it four times yesterday. (I'm cringing about this) Anyway, I'm doing Godsmack's "Serenity." You know how it is--trying to twist to my will. I hope. I'm at steps 10-12 of my vidding cycle ("I suck!"), and I've been spinning my wheels there for about three days now. I hope that this forced reprieve from vidding in the form of work will shake me out of it.

Thanks about the icon! It had to be said.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

No, really, the tips were actually useful to me -- just because when I'm all growed up, I'm hoping to have at least Final Cut Express to work with, so now I know a trick once I get it. Sometimes I feel so hopeless with iMovie in that there's so much it *can't* do, and I'm making vids that are really not much different from my VCR vids. I'm limited to dissolves and fades and such, but at the same time, I'm so damn happy to be able to do even those, and vid digitally at all that I can't bemoan my fate too much. Even a crappy slo-mo is better than none -- and this vid looks so much nicer than than My Beautiful Reward that it feels like light years' difference.

I heard Serenity twice yesterday! And I never even made the connection, d'oh! It's such a bitch when you find a song and then suddenly it's a hit, isn't it? Then you're looking around going, okay, who's going to jump on the bandwagon? But your stamp on it will be the gold standard. i can't *wait* to see it -- this is your first Firefly vid, isn't it? I hope you can get to stept 13 -- I will be very excited to see it.

[luminosity]

I heard Serenity twice yesterday! ... It's such a bitch when you find a song and then suddenly it's a hit, isn't it?

I cringed when I heard it on the radio for the first time. This has happened to me several times now. Mad World, The Other Side, and Evil Angel have all had a lot of airplay months after I vidded them. I had been "hoarding" There, There ever since I ripped the bootleg of it back in the fall of 2002, and it became the big hit from Radiohead's "Hail to the Thief" album. FWIW, I'm *still* hoarding it. Maybe everyone will have forgotten it when I finally vid it. heh

this is your first Firefly vid, isn't it? I hope you can get to step 13

Yes, this is my first attempt at Firefly. Totally NOT my palette, and that makes me question every clip choice even more than I usually do. I just want it to work, you know? Thanks for the vote of confidence, though. I appreciate it. I've seen three FF vids--yours, bonibaru's and Laura Shapiro's. I know that it's not like any of those, but who can say what the collective vidding unconscious is doing? LOL