Working Visual Haiku

Sony Ericsson Walkman w600i
Originally uploaded by beatmania.

I traded my old phone for this new spankin' phone, Sony Ericsson w600i. It has only 256 meg memory for mp3s (not upgradable!), but it's good enough for me to take to gym. It also takes good photos with its 1.3 meg pixel camera.

Yes, my butt is getting larger because I edit all day in front of desk. Maybe I should try Mr. Murch's approach of editing while standing.

I'm currently cutting two trailers for TV pilots and I have to say it's more fun than making actual episodes/shows. I can be more creative and have fun with cuts and structure of visuals. And it's short turnaround. No laboring and agonizing for two, three months watching same footage over and over.

I always believed trailers & commercials are visual haiku equivalent of editing. And mastering short forms will strength me to work on long forms. But I guess I'm working backward as the work comes, and goes. As Koreans are fond of saying, you are better off enduring the punishment earlier than later.

Building Blocks

FCPBooks
Originally uploaded by beatmania.

I've been in Las Vegas a week ago with my girlfriend for the Valentine Day since I didn't go anywhere or do nothing for the entire winter because of my last project. (Hence, explains the lack of updates on this blog.)

I'm back with a new project, and catching up with new new technologies and stuff. Basically, I'm not at the level of proficiency or have the expertise to become the editor I want to be, yet. Hence, these books, and more work and study.

Additionally, I'm not at the level where I want to tell my own stories, in my own terms.

And I sure do need to start writing again. Now that I'm working full time, I need to balance my day work, with my creative endeavor. In between those two, there's a thin line to my (own) success.

Deux French Films

The Russian Dolls was a pretty good French romantic movie. I didn't know it was a sequel to The Spanish Apartment which I have yet seen but the story was pretty straight forward. I saw this movie because of Audrey Tautou, and little disappointed that she didn't have bigger presence in this movie. She was not enchanting like Amélie but a girl desperated to love and be loved. (Bien sur, I wish to love those French girls.) With an ensemble of girls Xavier-the protagonist, goes through in the course of two hours, I couldn't help to snicker that the French men have all the fun, but even a playboy needs love that grounds him to the ground. The director kept saying he wants to be real in writing/portraying love and relationships, but I can't help to think the women would beg to differ. Or not. What do I know? The French are considered one of most romantic people yet I haven't seen taut courting moves in this movie except handing off a note! Maybe that's all you need when you are a handsome French man.

Caché is something different, and definitely French. I'll watch any movie Juliette Binoche is in, but from the very first, still frame of the movie, I knew this would be difficult film to digest. I could watch languid pace movie, but this film only had one central idea that could've made into half hour short film instead of feature fillm. That's how MTV/Internet generation of me felt. Oh, the ending was totally unsatisfying. Obviously, there was no easy answer to its theme, but the director should at least answer the plot points so that they don't overwhelm the theme.

Tutorial:High quality at low bit rates

with QuickTime Pro. A useful tutorial for any budding editor to put an online reel. (Yes, my reel will be coming online soon, like the end of this month.)

Super Bowl XL Commercials

On Google Video. So you don't have to actually sit through the disappointing game. (Yeah Steelers won, again. Whoopeedoo.) Is it me or this year's crops is mediocre. (That's what you get for million dollars?)