There really is no way out of here

[gwyn]

I've had the worst migraine in years since last night, and couldn't even call in sick though I was blind in my right eye, because two other copyeditors called in sick and we had a publish list as long as my freaking arm. Bitches beat me to it because they are on east coast time and neither one of them was in as bad a shape as I was, so I had to slog through the day. It is very hard to proofread with one eye when you usually use two.

And the headache still stays. Don't know what I'm going to do about tonight but I can't go another night without sleep.

But I finished the digital remaster of There's No Way Out of Here tonight. I've discovered I seem to have a real problem with editing music... I can't see where the audio keyframes go, and I end up with this scallop shape of lines when I'm trying to fade out music. After a while I had to give up and leave the song longer than I would like, just because I can't get the fadeout to work well. It was easier in iMovie just because it was so limited -- there is a lot to be said for moron-simple programming. I may try again tomorrow but I'm not sure I'm that much of a glutton for punishment.

If I never hear this song again, it will be too soon. I've loved this song since it came out in like 1977 or '78 or something, and that's a damn long time to love a song -- it would be one of my desert island songs. But now I hate it. It has been such a struggle to get this vid to match the original. Tape stretch and interlaced video are not my friends. There is such a difference working tape to tape, and digital media are just... tighter, so you end up not being able to use all of a clip, for instance, or you get a flash of interlaced frames during edit points that you wouldn't get on tape. Timing was a bitch, and I could not remember the vid even after watching it, so I had to keep playing it over and over to realize that yes, goddammit, that clip really was that achingly long and now I have to stretch it out. I want to use tighter edits, more clips. Then the super long clps on the "never was there an answer" and "not without listening" lines would have such punch... but alas, I am remastering, and I have to keep my tinkering to a minimum or everyone whines. If I had my druthers? I would so remake this puppy. This vid would bear nearly no resemblance to the lumbering behemoth it is now. And if Witchblade was on DVD? Pez would so be in it.

Just call me George Lucas Juniorette.

Anyways, I will spend the weekend doing the encoding for web and see what I can come up with, and then post it. Not that anyone cares, but there it will be, and at least I can point to it as done. I've asked other Cannibals about getting full quality dvd files for making up a disc of all the digitally remastered vids as we go along, there would be four vids so far, but alas they have not responded. Let's use public humiliation as a motivating tool! Nag them! We have the technology, we can rebuild them.

Comments

[kirbyfest.livejournal.com]

(Love your icon.)

Hope your migraine goes away. Sheesh. Do you have any prescription meds? I had a friend who swore by Imitrex. I think it was Imitrex, anyway.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Sis_r used to take that sometimes. My migraines are a lot rarer these days with the wonderful birth control pills my doc gave me that seemed to lessen them tremendously, but sometimes they still pop up and when they do, they're doozies. I'll have to talk to her this spring. Fortunately I brought home a stash of my sister's other meds so I could at least force a few hours of sleep.

[lapillus]

I'm sorry for the hassles (It's one of the things that have made me keep put off my own remastering), but I'm delighted that there will be a pretty, shiny version of the vid to show to people. It's one I've always liked and having a clean copy would be a delight :)

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

You know, I'm all full of love for Firefly after seeing Serenity again, so I'm considering redoing Beautiful Reward, but... man, the remastering, I'm not sure she's for me. It's excrutiating, in my book. And then when you compress for the web, it doesn't seem all that shinier, and in fact, seems like there's little point to it at all. People never ask for dvds, so I'm not sure what I've gained!

[lapillus]

I suspect that for me just playing with the images again would be fun, that and getting to do/fix things I couldn't do before and which have bugged me for years. But I know that you're drive on these things is much more external than mine and I suspect that makes a huge difference for whether remastering is worth it. On the upside, Vividcon is ALWAYS delighted to have nice shiny versions of vids to show, even if we don't always have a special showcase for them.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I really am not at all motivated to do this "for myself" as the saying goes. If there's no audience (either perceived or understood as fact) for a vid, then I kind of feel like, well, screw it... there are way too many new vids to make to waste time redoing something that just ends up being incredibly frustrating and physically painful. I'd rather just increase my RSI for a new vid. And I suppose it makes me a bad person, but the things that I never liked, or the errors I couldn't fix, they don't exactly keep me up nights, so just wanting to tinker for the sake of fixing... blah. That said, I'm still contemplating redoing Fall in the Light, even though only a small handful of people ever liked that vid, just because it's my own favorite and I'd love to see what I can do. But who knows.

Maybe if there was massive clamor, I could see it, but without any clamor at all, I'd rather do the new stuff. Not that there's clamor for that, either, but hey, it's more interesting!

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

I went through the same thing remastering Full of Grace and Data's Dream (altough GF wanted to make real changes to that vid). But when I tried for frame by frame - I discovered the magic of streeeeeetching tape had changed the timing on the clips. So I had to be...flexible in my edits.

[mlyn.livejournal.com]

Oh, migraine sucky. How about you come up and sleep in my car this weekend? There will be a keg and barbecue.

College-style camping in the rain...just what you wanted, eh?

I hope you feel better and that your vids give you some relief soon. Stupid vids, they're supposed to make things better...

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

I will be very glad to see a remastered version of this vid, one of my all-time favorites. I know what you mean, though, about the temptation to change things: it's a temptation I gave in to on a couple of my remasters. Keep it subtle and nobody will notice. (:

If I'm around tomorrow, I might be able to help you with your music fade-outs. What you're seeing there is called a bezier curve, and the only reason I can deal with them is because they have 'em in Adobe Illustrator as well. They are annoying in the abstract but easy to deal with from a practical point of view.

I'm so sorry about your migraine. That sounds awful.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I went back and used the magical pen tool on the timeline itself (the pen tool! You have opened up whole new worlds by showing me the pen tool) and it fades a tiny bit better, but... wow, I'm not getting how to just drag it down so it's like a horizontal descending line. But I have never played with Bezier curves, just seen them in programs, and me and spatial relationships are unmixy things. I keep trying, though, just not succeeding very well!

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry about your headache. That sounds horrible.

And YAY "There's No Way Out Of Here"! I am so downloading that the second yout put it online. That was one of my first favorite vids and I still love it. (Indeed, I love it more now, because in my first days of fandom I only know XF and TS; now that I'm a Buffy fan the vid's twice as good. I suppose by that theory I ought to watch LFN now, eh? :)

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Yes! Yes! You should totally watch LFN. Sometmes I feel like I should pay people to watch it, just to try to get some new fans for it. It's really good! And stuff!

[morganna3.livejournal.com]

I get those kinds of migraines. They are *not* fun. The pain, nausea and sensitivity to light make it almost immposible to function. If you can get a doctor's appointment I suggest asking for Imitrex. (They may even have a shot for more immediate relief.) I usually use Imitrex and a Benadryl Allergy Sinus Headache combo and then take a nap. I hope you get to feeling better.

*hugs*

[aukestrel.livejournal.com]

OMG - you poor thing. I'va had these two-three day migraines where I too had to go to work and I can't tell you how badly I feel for you.

Do you have any Rx medication? Imitrex didn't work for me but finally last winter I got tired of being in pain every weekend (I get hormone and stress migraines, and was getting a stress migraine almost every weekend) and so I found a doctor and went to the doctor and got an Rx for Maxalt. It works great for me and I think one reason I've been able to be *around* more is just 6 months' absence from pain (more or less).

{{{hugs}}}

[morganna3.livejournal.com]

Did Imitrex work for you at all? Every little thing seems to set off my migraines (allergies, pressure fronts, stress, hormones etc.) and the Imitrex doesn't help in all cases. My doctor prescribed a preventative called Topamax in addition to the Imitrex which has worked wonders but I still get the occasional 'three day bender' (usually hormone or pressure front induced). Do you happen to know the difference in the way Maxalt and Imitrex work? I would love to find something that works on the 'hormone headaches'. I'll definitely be asking my doctor about it the next time I go in for a checkup.

[aukestrel.livejournal.com]

It worked at first but then it started getting less effective.

http://www.loftusmd.com/Articles/Migraine/Migraineattack.html

He says, "Patients should use the triptan that works best for them. In my practice, if a fast acting triptan is being prescribed, I give the patient 2 tablets of each of the 5 medications to try on different headaches. I am not sure how well this sorts out the one that is best for a particular patient, but it seems to be more reasonable than any other method I can think of."

Definitely Maxalt is working faster, and is keeping the migraine away/relieving it altogether, than Imitrex. (He says the "The faster acting group includes Axert®, Imitrex®, Maxalt®, Relpax® and Zomig®.")

[keiko-kirin.livejournal.com]

I am really excited that you remastered "There's No Way Out of Here". It's one of my favorite vids, ever. Yay!

But I'm really sorry to hear about the migraine and one-eye-blindness -- I hope that goes away soon!

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not, it's still here, in and out, but your note, which I just replied to, really made this horrid week so much better.

[gattagrigia.livejournal.com]

Wish I could wave the pain away for you! But I'll wave hooray for the remastered vid instead (that's the one I voted for). One of my favorites - it always makes me cry. Thank you!

[tinyblondeone.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry about your migraine! You don't know me from Adam but I emailed you a while back asking for your vid password and finally got around to seeing some of your stuff. I just wanted to comment on your Buffy vid to Polaroid Millenium... SO BEAUTIFUL. You captured the wonderfully dreamy/angsty mood of the song and provided me with so many moments that I'll remember. I've loved that song since forever so I was so happy to see it vidded! I particularly loved the last "these four walls are lost forever" with the base 4 members of the Scoobies - that really rang true for me. So sad! I'd forgotten how goddamn sad BTVS could get - thank you for reminding me - I'll be off crying in a corner now.:(
Seriously though! Beautiful vid. Loved the stills and the wonderful steadiness of the whole thing. And I'm sorry it's taken me so long to say so.:)
-Rebecca

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! It's great to hear that someone else even knew the song, and that the vid worked for them on that level as well. I think this vid is always going to be one of those kind of special ones, for me, and so it's really nice to know that it resonates with others, as well. I really appreciate you letting me know -- it's never late when you get feedback!