I’ve had half a dozen projects to do for the last ten weeks… and they all need to be done this tuesday. So I’m spending even more time then usual in front of an editor trying to get everything done.
The assignments are worth it, most will go directly on to my reel and what won’t is at least teaching me something.
This is an example of the sort of shot I’m working on. It’s just a generic piece of video shot a few years back, it would go on my reel if not for the dozens of other students that have done the same shot.
The first step is to key the screens, which isn’t too hard. There are places where you can’t exactly just do a one click key however, and a few small spots where you have to go in frame by frame and rotoscope. Secondly you have to track the shot, whatever goes into the monitors has to move with the camera. Third you have to make the video in the screens look like it’s on a TV and lastly I add some color correction so it doesn’t look so plain. None of those steps are really that hard, but they all are time consuming and tedious.
What I’ve got so far looks like this, it’s not done but it’s getting closer.
Some of you might have heard about a promising interview I had week before last, I’ve got a follow up this thursday so we’ll see how it goes.
I might get to go to LA this next weekend. A friend of a friend is shooting something has invited him to be the FX supervisor. A few of us are going along and should be able to see our friends who are now working LA. I’ll post some pictures if it happens, hopefully I can find the money to make it work.
There is one thing I know about my life, and that is that it changes.
I’m on a high about something one moment and lost about something else the next. I try to keep a pretty even keel but lately it’s been difficult.
I’ve got an interview… there is a lack of communication.
I’ve got time to work on projects… I have absolutely no motivation.
I make a decision… I talk myself out of it.
I feel so sure about something… I look around and have no idea what I’m feeling.
I don’t like it when my life resembles a roller coaster, I wish I could just sit everyone and everything down and just set things straight, but I can’t do that. Situations depend on more then just my whims… people don’t just do what I think is best… I can’t just tell her what to think.
I’m not trying to emo, I just want you to know that I’m feeling more unbalanced then I have in a long time. Not since I decided to get back in school have I been this conflicted, this diluted, this ineffective.
Despite my procrastination, work is getting done in my classes. I’m doing a lot of good work that should fill out the new demo reel I’ll be cutting this winter. So look out for that, I’ll have some stuff to post in the next couple of weeks.
I am looking at my travel plans for this Christmas but nothing is set in stone yet. I know I’ll be seeing my parents in Vegas but I don’t know if I’ll actually make it back to Boise this year. That’d be a very scary first.
This post’s soundtrack (facebook people don’t get that because notes are lame) doesn’t have a lot to do with anything, it’s just a song I love. Music always puts me in a better mood. Also, those Pedro fans out there will notice that this is the version from the Progress EP… the full title wouldn’t fit on the page.
David Hildreth
It’s not too hard for my own thoughts to get the best of me. Lately I’ve been thinking more about the upcoming changes in my life and in some ways it’s getting a little silly.
I’m back into nocturnal mode, I had that 9 to 5 thing going for a while but I’ve been doing some other work recently and that means I can stay up as late as I want. I can work on projects at night, I can stay up and watch movies or read. When I lay down to sleep there is no rush to get rest and wake up… and that just leaves me alone with my own thoughts. You can only analyze a situation so many times, you can only weight your options for so long, until you just start twisting things to bits in your mind.
I get to finally be free of college in February and then the world is my oyster. Where I go and what I do is completely up to me… and therein lies the problem.
A good friend gave me some worthy advice, that the decision on where I go and what I do when I graduate should be completely about what is best for me. It is good advice because there is truth to it, but I’m not sure it’s the whole story. It’s great to think that a decision like that should be made for one’s self. It obviously effects me the most, but at a certain point the mature way of making a decision like this is to consider those around you.
I’d love to be closer to Boise, my family and friends are closer to there and I’d be great to be able to drop in on Boise for a weekend whenever I wanted. Portland has some good opportunities, it’s a more favorable climate and the drive between there and B Town is no big deal, I also happen to adore Portland. A city like Austin would be fun, there is a lot of good work and it’s a very unique and hip city. Vancouver looks better every time McCain moves up in the polls… plus I’ve always thought that expatriate has a nice ring to it (Yes Dad I’m mostly kidding). LA provides an almost certainty of work, and I do know some people there now. Working on features in LA also does your resume a lot of good, even if you swept the studio floor for a big budget movie people elsewhere go nuts when they see it on your resume. PHX is the easiest and most complicated option. I’ve done the whole, move a city where you know no one thing and honestly I’m not cut out for it. I’m lucky to have the friends and roommates I have here, going to a completely new city again doesn’t sound so great. There is some work here, but it’s not great and especially the way the economy is going, it’s not steady. There are some great people here though, and one special one in particular. It’s not smart to make a decision based completely on those around you, but it’s silly to think that you can make it based solely on yourself. No man is an island.
At the moment it looks like I’ll be staying here for a while after I graduate. My VFX Reel could use more work then I currently have time for, and I guess if I can’t make it here I can’t make it anywhere. I’m not living in LA for the rest of my life so I’d better get use to corporate videos and local spots before I get too ahead of myself.
Today’s soundtrack is obviously not Colin Hay, but it is his song (If you’re reading this on Facebook try the “view original post” button). Evidently a few tours ago Dashboard Confessional put out an EP of covers and it’s simply amazing. Feel free to download it here, it’s basically out of print so I’m calling it fair use… though it’s not like I’ve ever really respected copyright laws anyway.
Take it easy and wish me luck on sleeping :)
David Hildreth
