Yesterday was a really crap day - I had to do a little work on a Flash animation - and it took almost all day.

Flash is such a rubbish program - everything is counter intuative and they keep changing the rules of syntax for the programming every time they release a new version so if you search for a solution online the chances are it won't work on your version!


Anyway, that's now solved and out of my way.

I was also contacted by a debt collection agency yesterday about a TV I rented from Forbes Direct years ago - I cancelled the contract 2 years ago and they've suddenly decided I owe them money - it's crazy and quite rubbish behaviour from what claims to be a reputable company...

anyway, I’ve decided that if Forbes are going to be difficult about this TV rental nonsense, I’m going to offer to donate the money to charity if they drop their claim – if they refuse then I’m certain they’ll loose far more in lost business when people hear about their behaviour than they gain from pursuing me…

In the end it’s too small an amount for them to take me to court over it – there’s just no justification- likewise, it’s too small an amount for me to concern myself too much with arguing with them over it. I have, after all, plenty of better things to do.

TV AD
The benefits of adding to my advertising on Google started to appear today. I got contacted by a company from Malta who want me to do some graphics for a TV add for them… sounds interesting and I’ll keep you posted as it develops.

DVDs
I rendered out a DVD of the semi-completed documentary and made copies to send to some of my contributors – just to make sure I haven’t messed up on any of my facts.

It looks like I’ve missed the boat for the documentary market – but it doesn’t matter – they’ll still be able to sell at the next one and the thing will be placed on the website as soon as it’s finished.

I also sent off a little edit of a 5 minute mini-doc based on some of the documentary to a company called CurrentTV. They’re a company set up by Al Gore for young people and they broadcast 5-7 minute documentaries… I thought it might be good to see if they’re interested in a small part of the project as it’s not that tough to produce a 5 minute edit when most of the shots are in place already.

The two minute rule
In rendering out the project I hit a problem that annoyed the hell out of me on the last project. Premiere Pro seems incapable of handling a 50 minute documentary all in one go and crashes constantly during rendering.

Now, OK I’m pushing it hard – There’s lots of effects filters and transitions. I combine different types of footage on the timeline and want an HD master and half of my doc is made up of HD rendered 3d footage – which is very nearly uncompressed – so I can see it’s problem.

My solution is to render the entire project 2 minutes at a time, load those sections into another Premier Project and re-assemble them. It’s a major hassle, but I’m not as annoyed with it this time round because I know it will eventually work.

I did get annoyed enough to decide to double my computer’s memory - (my system’s only got 2gb – and that’s pushing it for HD at the best of times). However, when I phoned the company who made the PC world (I know, a geek like me should build their own editing PC, and up to now, I have, but when my last machine got sick, I needed to replace it fast and it’s just so much easier to walk in and know that when you get it home, it will work the moment you turn it on – with an operating system and anti-virus stuff…)

Anyway – they told me the motherboard wouldn’t take more than 2gb… swings and roundabouts. I know if I replace the motherboard (which is what I eventually did to my other PC) all the software won’t work and it’ll be a major pain.

At last, today I finished the first fine-cut.
OK – what I really mean by that is that all the shots are in. they’re all in the right order, the commentary is there and the voiceover is in. I still need to tidy things up, balance the sound, do colour correction, check a few facts, alter a little narration, get a couple of clips in, check everything works, put in the captions and do the credits properly. I don’t think these things are that huge or time consuming– but we’ll see.

However, I’ve now got a programme I can show people and they won’t be asking “what’s supposed to happen there?”

I now have to find out if the distributors can use the version I’ve got for the big market next month (I can’t remember what it’s called).

In the meantime, I need to render a DVD and check it to see what needs changing.

I also need to have a think about other projects. Writing the book is my next job, but I’ve realised it’s one thing I can do on the train between interviews (there are very few kinds of work I can effectively do in that way) – so it would be good if I can schedule some of the interviews for my next projects in the next few weeks.

Maybe I will. Maybe I won’t.

fine editing
I hoped to get the first propper edit finished by the end of today, but it’s not going to happen. It’s slow work putting in the music, sound effects and narration and you tend to be so focussed on the minutiae of the project – how one shot follows the last – how loud each sound should be – where music is appropriate and where it just gets in the way – that you loose track of the wider themes and start to wonder whether the project actually says what you originally wanted it to say.

That’s not a bad thing – On any large project, this happens eventually. You loose the initial naivity and excitement about the project as you do the fine details, so you just end up having to trust yourself. Trust that when you planned out the story and worked out the basic shape of the thing that it was right… and that once you’re finished, that shape will return.

That’s not to say I don’t like this process. In fact it’s probably my favourite part of the edit. You finally get to see the “moments” in your film. The pacing and the pauses that make one point stick out more than another. The way the visuals and the sound track work together. The actual style of the piece starts to emerge fully formed from the raw material.

It’s slow, hard work, but it’s great to see the programme emerging.

I’m coming to the view, however, that editing – especially fine editing is such concentrated work that I can only do it for a certain length of time before I have to stop and do something else.

My productivity drops off in the afternoon and I find I’m getting less and less done. I find it harder and harder to concentrate and I start loosing enthusiasm for the finer details.

I wonder if the optimum editing time is half a day… I’m wondering if in future I should schedule to only spend about 4 hours at a time editing and switch to other more relaxint (or just different) projects in the afternoon. Maybe do a little 3d texture painting or writing work….

Anyway, that won’t happen with this project as I’ve got to get a finished version by the end of the month… Just 10 days away….I’ve sent off a copy of the first few minutes to my distributor and to the voiceover artist… it’ll be good to hear what they think.

I’m really getting annoyed with premiere Pro. It crashes every couple of hours, so I have to keep saving my work. I’ve just lost about 15 minutes of work. I guess it’s not too much – because I’ve made the editing decisions – it’s just that it’s fiddly work putting in sound effects…. Anyway, what can you do? I guess buying more memory might sort it… is 2gb enough for HD editing? I don’t know.

I suppose I’m asking quite a lot of the package, combining HD, SD and computer animation on the same timeline whilst animating 3000 pixel stills over several layers. Still….

This week I’m busy….again. I want to get the documentary finished by the end of the month and that’s just about possible if I really go for it.

Unfortunately I can’t really go for it because there are so many other things demanding my time. I’ve paused on the book for the moment – because the deadline for that isn’t quite so tight. However, I’ve still got this company who want to produce a Mexican Wrestling game (no, I’m not kidding). They want me to create graphics for characters in this videogame, but their timescales are horrendous – they keep asking me if things can be done quicker, but they also keep adding to and changing the brief so I never quite know what they’re after and when they need it.

I’m doing my best to keep them happy, but it’s a tricky job.

Still, I’ve managed to get the first part of the documentary more or less finished….

Rendering blackberries
The last few days have been busy. Horrendously busy. I had to do the two animations I thought I was doing (Nature luckily turned out not to want the illustration they thought they were going to need) – the first went very well. The second needed a couple of alterations – nothing too difficult, but it did mean I had to do more work and start the rendering from scratch.

This was OK – I expect people to want a certain number of changes to any project and the changes will make the animation better in the long run. I’m still rendering the changes, so we’re cutting the deadline very tight.

Both the deadlines were tight – just a few days - However, I also got an email from someone in the states trying to do a videogame based on Mexican Wrestling….

This originally started out as 2 illustrations of 9 figures each with their own costume… however the deadline was tight (one day) and unfortunately, the guy talking to me was using a blackberry – so could only communicate in one line text type messages.

Trying to get a complex brief (as it turned out to be) across using only a keypad an inch across while trying to do four other things at once is kind of tricky.

Anyway, the images worked out well, but it turned out that what he was actually after was a set of animations and pictures he could use to create a videogame (or at least a Flash pitch for one). The project started to spiral – suddenly there were 8 animations to do, and 9 more pictures… then there were another 8 animations…

But the deadline didn’t shift and it was still hard to find out just what was needed.

Eventually, I think we’ve got it (after a little re-negotiation on deadlines and fees) and the result is going to look great.

However, I’ve still got the deadline for the other animation looming – and I’m now trying to render two sets of animations at once on the same machine. It’s a bit of a nightmare and a bit of a panic. I’m having to be very firm about exactly when I do each part and how much time I allow for every element of the work.

It’s a bit annoying when you can’t be as fussy about the project as you’d like to because of time constraints, but I think I’ve still exceeded the expectations of all the people giving me these commissions, so I guess that’s a plus.

The thing is, when you’ve got deadlines like these you need to make sure the brief is clear and doesn’t change. If it does, you end up having to be less fussy about the finished result because there’s no time to change things if they’re wrong.

I was thinking of getting a Blackberry, but having seen how difficult it is to communicate properly through them, I’m not so sure…


I’ve now got the commentary through for “how to colonise the stars” – it’s sounding great – if only I had time to fit it into the edit… maybe this afternoon… but then I’ve also got a book to write….

I just got told that Digital Video magazine is closing. There was a lot of talk about this happening since before Christmas, but the closure kept being postponed. It was going to be replaced by a higher-end title aimed more at semi-professional videomakers – which would have suited me just fine – but it now seems that this has been abandoned and there’s not going to be a replacement.

Apparently although there was a good readership for the magazine, advertising revenue wasn’t justifying it, so it’s been cut.

It strikes me that there will be a lot of people that miss this mag – it’s been going for a long time (under different titles) – and there are lots of people who want to hear about digital video making and how to do it. Since Future brought up Highbury, there isn’t really much competition for the magazine out there, so there will be a bit of a gap in the market.

This is probably part of the economic slowdown, and part of the general turning off of magazines that most people in the industry have been predicting for some time (as more and more people get their information online).

The problem here is that online publications don’t tend to be as authoritative – reviews are often written by PR companies, features are shorter and therefore less detailed and information isn’t quite as well researched (primarily because the authors aren’t paid or commissioned in quite the same way)….

I’m sure something will turn up to replace digital video, but I don’t know what it will be. Highbury – one of Future’s biggest rivals collapsed a couple of years ago (I ended up suing them to get paid for my work) and Future ended up with many of their mags (including Digital Video. So now, if Future aren’t replacing Digital Video, that means there’s only a couple of other publishers who could replace it.

Hmm… I think I have an idea…

On top of that, Raoul just phoned saying he has a meeting with some people at the Natural History Museum tomorrow… one of them is looking to expand their audio-visual side and wants a producer. I don’t want to do this as a job, but maybe I could do it freelance… unfortunately, this means getting a CV or something like it together today.

I haven’t had a CV since 1998….

Work is suddenly flooding in – as it always does when you’ve got tight deadlines already. Somebody who’s seen one of my animations on istockphoto wants me to make a logo animation for a corporate event. Someone else who’s seen another animation there wants (possibly) another job done. In addition, it sounds as though Nature want me to do an illustration.

The thing is, they’re all tight deadlines (two of them are for Monday!)… and given that I’m already writing the book and now have to try to get publicity for the new documentary out in the next couple of weeks – it’s looking like next week will be a bit tight.

Still, a little pressure’s good….


I spent today designing a dinosaur (or more specifically a pre-dinosaur reptile) for another project. It’s going well, but I may have to avoid the feet during rendering….

voiceovers distribution and trying to hold the camera straight

Having spent the last day trying to get the script ready for the voiceover artist, it turns out his equipment has been borrowed by his girl-friend, so he can’t do the work until next week… it doesn’t matter – I wouldn’t be able to use it until then anyway and the pressure of the deadline made me work harder on getting the script finished, so it’s a good thing.

I also got a call from my distributors today – they want to sell the previous documentary as part of a package of other shark-documentaries at an upcoming market (mip something or other). Anyway, that’s fine with me. Except that if this big market is coming up in April, that means I really need to have something of the new documentary ready for them to show there.

In other words, I’ve had my deadline of writing the script relaxed even though I’ve now met it, and had it replaced by a much bigger and scarier deadline of getting a finished programme ready for them to start pre-publicity in a couple of weeks.

Will I have it done? Not sure… I do have a book to write, you know.

In any case, it’s not a hard deadline – if I can’t do it then so be it. It will have to wait for the next market.

Maybe I ought to be more in tune with when these events take place, but I can’t be up on everything! Anyway when the distributors called, they were also able to tell me of a couple more sales for Shark Story, bringing the total now to 3.

One is in Spain – and given that the end of the documentary is very critical of Spainish fishermen’s shark fishing techniques, I’m quite surprised (and pleased) that they’re showing it.

Anyway, again, the payments aren’t huge (one will be £500 and one will be £1,100) , but it all adds up and with each sale, I become more confident that I can make money doing this.


I also managed to write another chapter of the new book today. The basics of shooting. Keep in mind that this is a book aimed at those who are new to the whole video revolution. I’ve been trying to take them from how to find the record button right up to what an MCU is and how to shoot video for a later edit. It’s quite a stretch in a 3,000 word chapter, but I think I’m doing OK…..

Oh – and I’ve come up with a title for the new doc… instead of “going to Gliese” which has become less and less relevant as new science has revealed the planet to be pretty much incapable of supporting life, I’m calling it a much more catchy title: “how to colonise the stars”.

That should get people’s attention a bit more easily.

voiceovers
Today the voiceover artist got back to me saying he’s got some time in the next couple of days to do the commentary. I’ve got a rough, but not a finished script, but it’s good to have a tight deadline, I think, so I’ve been trying to get a more polished version for him done today.

I’ve now sent about half the script to him. There will probably be pick-ups to do, but it will be much easier working with the real commentary than trying to do it with my voice as a stand in.

Once the real commentary is in place I can start thinking about pace and music – and it will really come together.


Beautiful rubbish
Last night, Horizon – the UK’s premiere science documentary strand – did a programme covering some of the same issues my documentary is about.

It was beautifully shot – using cinematography and visual metaphors that are way outside anything I can afford to do for my documentary. They took a scientist to the middle of a desert just to have her draw circles in the sand representing the habitable zone of a star… everything looked great.

However, the content (as I’ve seen Horizon doing quite often) was poor and the pace seemed to me dreadfully slow. Not trying to blow my own trumpet, but I think there’s more content in the first 5 minutes of my documentary (the clip I posted a couple of weeks ago) than in the whole of the horizon programme. Perhaps I’m doing something wrong.

Yesterday I started on the new book – managed to write a draft of a chapter on simple editing with Windows Movie Maker. It’s a limited program, but if you really want to you can produce good results with it.

In fact, it’s a good deal more powerful than the editing systems used to make some classic films. Up to about 10 years ago, holywood feature films were all edited using nothing more sophisticated than a razor blade and sticky tape.

The fantastic new editing tools available ought to mean that films are much better now than they ever were – being able to cut and paste and alter edits to your heart’s content should mean editors can produce much better work.

Last night was the 10x10 documentary evening organised by the DFG – where documentary makers meet to show 10 minutes of their work and get 10 minutes of criticism from the audience… It’s a great environment to try out your work’s in progress in a way that doesn’t just involve showing it to friends.

The films shown last night were of a really high standard and were interesting in terms of their style and content. Everyone seems to have clever and quirky ideas about how to put their productions together. Watching them makes me feel as though I’m not being arty enough in my programmes – but at the same time, I’m not sure. I think a traditionally told story isn’t a bad thing….

Anyway, there were some really promising movies last night – one very unfinished about a German airman re-tracing his World War II bombing campaign over England… One about the killing fields of Cambodia which has such strong material in it that it’s bound to succeed…. One about a 10 minute journey to drop a child off at nursery – in which the mother and child were ignored while various interviewees discussed aspects of the journey… and one in which an unseen interviewer revealed to each of her ex-lovers and crushes the exact dates between which she thought she was in love with them.

With this last film, the genuinely unprepared responses from her exes revealed little, but the whole film cleverly asked strong questions about the filmmaker and her attitude to love…

Science reporting
I’m including here a video clip from a TV interview which I’ve been pointed at by the paleontological mailing list I’m part of.

It’s an amazing piece of television – showing just how low it’s possible to sink in terms of insulting the intelligence of yourself, your interviewees and your audience. It’s also a great lesson about the dangers of allowing yourself to be lead by the pictures you’ve got access to rather than the theme of the story you’re trying to tell.

I challenge anyone to learn, understand or be interested in the subject matter from watching this:

stills into movies

I had to write a feature for Digital Video today about turning still images into moving shots. The idea being to do something with a still other than just pan and zoom over it in the traditional rostrum camera way.

I’ve been doing this a little for my latest documentary, but I think the shot I did today really worked, so I’m posting it here.

I created this in After Effects using three stills bought on a stock image site.