Not a virgin anymore

[gwyn]

At least with Final Cut Express: finished my La Femme Nikita vid last night. Or at least, finished in the sense of "I put enough clips to get from the beginning of the song to the end of the song." But it's not finished in terms of looking like what I thought it would look like or fixing the problem spots. There is still an entire segment in the middle that I don't understand how to make look like what I want it to (especially since, I suspect, it involves mathy things and that falls under the category of Never Gonna Happen), and I can't understand how to fade out the final clip to black (I do not get why such a sophisticated program doesn't have a simple fade in/ fade out effect, the way stupid little iMovie does -- it's a perfectly useful and valid thing to have, yet the only thing you can get close to it with is the fade in and out transition, but this isn't a transition). sdwolfpup, that pewling whiny sound you hear under all the wind and rain is me going, "I don't geeeet it."

I doubt I will ever be able to do much with this program, not the kinds of things I see my friends do. But I found at least one thing I liked -- I can mess around with clips in the different levels of video timelines, and match them up to the space where I already had a clip I wasn't sure about, and see which one I like better. That's cool. I just haven't figured out how to make everything not go wonky in timing when I swap things around, though. The worst part is the generators -- I am completely stumped by the text generators for making a title. I'm obviously missing something, I keep reading and re-reading it, but I don't understand and I can't seem to make even a simple title over black work.

Overall I like the vid. It's not great, but it's very bleak (no! the people who've seen most of my vids say) in some ways, darker than I was expecting it to be -- but I think it would be perceived that way mostly by people who know a little of the show. I will have to test it out on people to see if the story makes any kind of sense, though. I just wish I could figure out how to make a decent copy -- so far the copies of QT movies I've made have looked abysmal. (morgandawn, get ready for that phone call.) I haven't figured out yet whether I want to stick with FCE for making the next vid, which would be a very simple, perky Wonderfalls vid that wouldn't necessarily require the abilities of FCE. It's hard to say. I suppose like most people after their first times, I'm not sure yet what I think of the whole experience. It's been a change of pace being able to be pissed and miserable over something besides my sister's death, but I'm not sure if I want to be confronted with my stupidity and inabilities on a constant basis. And it's been easier to vid, for some reason, than it has been to write, something I can't seem to make myself do.

I feel a HUGE rant coming on about the enormous tech proficiencies being demanded of vidders these days, but I'm pretty sure no one would want to hear it, especially from an old-timer like me who has never quite fitted herself into the computer vidding world.

It hasn't helped that work has been rotten this week -- first there was the fixation and morbid one-upmanship at coming up with death headlines for Terri Schiavo's case, and then now it's the pope death-o-rama. Wed nights are just really hard, too -- I keep thinking of my sister waking up and asking me "Is it nine o'clock?" when she saw that Alias was on. So when I watch Alias now I have a tough time dissociating it from her. (Though, last week's, I think it was, with the guy who used to work with Nadia -- where has Cesar's actor been my whole life? Does anyone know anything about him? Phwoar!) And a co-worker has been really snotty to me all week, challenging and belitting and quibbling. I'm not used to it, she's normally really kind, so something else must be going on, but it's wearing me down a lot.

I guess that's always the good thing about doing La Femme Nikita vids: Nikita and Michael's lives were just infinitely more miserable than yours could ever be, so you are always reminded that things could be worse. You could work for Section One.

Comments

[sdwolfpup.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on finishing! That's an important first step. And I actually couldn't hear you over the rain and wind because of all the *thunder*. We have blue skies up here right now but I'm expecting those to disappear any second.

I suppose like most people after their first times, I'm not sure yet what I think of the whole experience.

Heh. So true.