24 hr short in 1 minute 50 seconds

Still annoyed at color differences from hdmi out to .mov to vimeo .mp4 to playback with "Standard" setting. It doesn't matter how much calibration is used. Every monitor looks different.

Meaning, this looks a bit less saturated than the way it was graded to look on the "calibrated" monitor. At least when played back in either the "Standard" or the "Movie" settings on an older Dell monitor.

Not that anybody cares...

a maxim you can't use

Apropos what I've been working on for a large educational conglomerate, this is the rule of middlemen everywhere:

minimize financial commitment to/maximize intellectual commitment from Content Creators

maximize financial return from/minimize intellectual content to End Users

= FEC&G (Fuck 'Em Coming & Going)

In fact, it could probably be generalized to all human interaction.

back to the beginning

Continuing my complaints with the bolted together components of EOL'ed Final Cut Studio 7, now I'm on to Color 1.5. Some time has been spent with this opaque interface previously. But it took me probably another 8 - 10 hours to finally uncover the undocumented means to zoom in on the image you're working with in the geometry window so that you can magnify the edges of a vignette being applied. BTW, Vignette = PS layer = PP lens. But the controls are nowhere near as diverse as they are in those two still image manipulation packages.

Work proceeded on a shot that's on screen for 5 sec. 23 frames. There were five Secondary Vignettes applied, using five different shapes, four of which changed as actors move through the shot. About 15 hours was spent on this 6 second shot, learning the software, how to apply shapes, how to move shapes, trying to fine tune the edges.

Finally, after sending the sequence back to FCP so that I could watch the six seconds that had been modified, I'm deciding to start over again and abandon the 15 hours of work. Some of it was software learning curve, so I'll be able to use it again. But the edge detection/drawing around a moving object is a serious challenge. On a still image this is not that much of a problem with these simple tools. But for moving images, where occasionally the edges of an adjustment need to be redrawn every frame, those edges flicker and waver mercilessly, totally unacceptably when all the frames are viewed together. No doubt it's a combination of tools and technique. I'm lacking in both.

Which leads me to realize that if I'm going to use Color - which those who use it seem to feel is a fabulous piece of software - it's going to have to be in a more general manner. If I'm going to pick objects out of a scene for specific adjustment, either they need to be small, or they don't move, or they don't change shape.

I was thinking I'd figured out how this video was done, with some elements colored while everything else in the image is b&w. But after watching it again, I can see that they're using something way more sophisticated than the Vignettes in Color 1.5.

Update on Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 02:15PM by KMW

Turns out the zoom control in the geometry image preview in Color 1.5 is documented. I've moments ago found it in the online help, as the first topic under the Geometry Room heading. Guess I should have looked a little closer at the results when I searched the help files. Probably could have saved myself some time & agony.

Might As Well

get up and work on something, rather than lying in bed awake considering all the possibilities. Which leaves me sitting at a keyboard wondering which direction to take instead of reclining on a mattress. The last, likely alternative prior to becoming vertical, was a revisitation of the last topic of anguish immediately below: the barrier to entry into the software known as Soundtrack Pro.

Nearly a month after my last rant on the subject, during which I've chipped away at that wall, I think it can be reported that some progress has been made. Nonetheless, the functionality still appears erratic, limited, and mostly opaque.

A month ago, the primary frustration was not being able to uncover the means to utilize envelopes a.k.a. keyframes a.k.a. automation in the File Editor module. It's buried somewhere in the Help files, but that source didn't yield the information. Merely poking around the interface finally revealed the minute button that controls the envelope graph. But then it was another 8 - 10 hours of poking and probing that uncovered the logical necessity that Effects cannot be automated without first creating points on the envelopes. It was an hour or more before it became obvious that when automating five to eight variables at a time, all to coincide with one another, all the points on those different envelopes needed to be in line with one another. And the only way to do that is to zoom way in and then turn on the snap feature.

Apply a stored, user preset from one of the EQ effects? Oh yeh. It can be done. But it's going to take several hours to figure it out. Because I doubt I could explain it.

So my complaint? That the software gets in the way all too frequently.

"Man from Harlem" remix

In my attempts to learn Soundtrack Pro, part of the  Final Cut Studio package that Apple used to sell for sound editing, I've gone back to this video with friend Gary Lettan - who can really put on a performance. Some fun, basic effects have been added.

Oh my. STP as it's known on the message boards. What an annoying POS. Even after reading the Apple published "Sound Editing in Final Cut Studio", I still can barely find my way around. The only commands that it shares with Final Cut are use of the J, K, & L keys and the space bar. It's not even obvious where the focus is while working in various panes. Selection works nothing like it does in FCP. The functionality of the File Editor pane at the bottom of the screen is completely counter intuitive. As far as I can tell, envelopes cannot be applied to single files, but work only in the multi track window. Roundtripping to/from FCP works as it should, but the file saving process is about as obtuse as could be imagined. I'm only hanging on with this application because of the huge variety of effects that it has that cannot be done directly in FCP. Perhaps a few hundred more hours and I'll make it far enough up the curve to be able to do something productive. It's frustrating enough that the Adobe alternative begins to look like a wise choice, especially since Apple has abandoned the entire Final Cut suite.

But then it's starting all over again at the bottom of the hill.

the contrarian

When I can't, that's when I want to. When I can, that's when I want to procrastinate.

nothing's changed

Being rather out of the loop musically, it's only last night that I first heard this song by James McMurtry. It dates from 2004, some years before the current problems of the world were quite so obvious. Of course it's a simplistic analysis of what was going on at the time. It's only a song. But the raw pain, and complexity of the situation presented is something that few writers of music seem willing to go anywhere near.

An English version, of sorts, is here. Thanks to Dave Leeke for the reference.

CAN'T MAKE IT HERE ANYMORE

Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
Flag on the wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing, both hands free
No one's paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget's stretched so thin
And there's more comin' home from the Mideast war
We can't make it here anymore

That big ol' building was the textile mill
It fed our kids and it paid our bills
But they turned us out and they closed the doors
We can't make it here anymore

See all those pallets piled up on the loading dock
They're just gonna set there till they rot
'Cause there's nothing to ship, nothing to pack
Just busted concrete and rusted tracks
Empty storefronts around the square
There's a needle in the gutter and glass everywhere
You don't come down here 'less you're looking to score
We can't make it here anymore

The bar's still open but man it's slow
The tip jar's light and the register's low
The bartender don't have much to say
The regular crowd gets thinner each day

Some have maxed out all their credit cards
Some are working two jobs and living in cars
Minimum wage won't pay for a roof, won't pay for a drink
If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr. CEO
See how far 5.15 an hour will go
Take a part time job at one of your stores
Bet you can't make it here anymore

High school girl with a bourgeois dream
Just like the pictures in the magazine
She found on the floor of the laundromat
A woman with kids can forget all that
If she comes up pregnant what'll she do
Forget the career, forget about school
Can she live on faith? live on hope?
High on Jesus or hooked on dope
When it's way too late to just say no
You can't make it here anymore

Now I'm stocking shirts in the Wal-Mart store
Just like the ones we made before
'Cept this one came from Singapore
I guess we can't make it here anymore

Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin
Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I'm in
Should I hate 'em for having our jobs today
No I hate the men sent the jobs away
I can see them all now, they haunt my dreams
All lily white and squeaky clean
They've never known want, they'll never know need
Their shit don't stink and their kids won't bleed
Their kids won't bleed in the damn little war
And we can't make it here anymore

Will work for food
Will die for oil
Will kill for power and to us the spoils
The billionaires get to pay less tax
The working poor get to fall through the cracks
Let 'em eat jellybeans let 'em eat cake
Let 'em eat shit, whatever it takes
They can join the Air Force, or join the Corps
If they can't make it here anymore

And that's how it is
That's what we got
If the president wants to admit it or not
You can read it in the paper
Read it on the wall
Hear it on the wind
If you're listening at all
Get out of that limo
Look us in the eye
Call us on the cell phone
Tell us all why

In Dayton, Ohio
Or Portland, Maine
Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains
That's done closed down along with the school
And the hospital and the swimming pool
Dust devils dance in the noonday heat
There's rats in the alley
And trash in the street
Gang graffiti on a boxcar door
We can't make it here anymore

Music and lyrics © 2004 by James McMurtry

insurance regs to the rescue

 

Once again, I've been busted for entering and carrying a camera around "private" property. The question that I am asked most frequently: "Who are you with?" I find it increasingly difficult to not look around me, throw up my hands, and give my questioner a look of incomprehension, wondering if their senses are fully functional. Instead, I answer in the manner I know is expected. My response might not be what they expect, since I am always alone. This curious assumption, that an individual with a camera could not possibly be simply an individual with a camera, leaves me wondering. What are the expectations for picture taking? Does it (the picture taking) always have some ulterior profit seeking motivation involved?

The next question tends to be, "What are you doing?" An explanation of the aesthetics of New Topographics and its relationship to the ManMadeWilderness in twenty-five words or less is not what they are looking for. Nor would they expect me to ask what they are doing to the land we are standing on. Even the slightest objection to their authority is not usually necessary to hear the rationale for exclusion, the inevitable "If/when you fall down and break your head open, you're going to sue for damages."

It is interesting that the camera - the cause for the exploration of the private property - is not a contested item.  It is mere bodily presence that constitutes offence. Land owners don't object to photographs of whatever they are doing to the land. They are concerned that trespassers will injure themselves and come after them (the owners) for damages. We have become a nation of litigious land owners looking out for our individual rights to exploit that land however we desire. The guy who got there first(?) or has the biggest pile of cash gets to control access. We've reached the point that there are no common areas, other than park lands owned by the State, and small tracts along roadways and around water features that are owned jointly by neighborhood associations, all courtesy of our common law heritage of land tenureship.

 

welcome to NJ pt. 2

click 'er for biggerApparently it was a slow day. Or more likely the officer was new to the job and needed some experience. Details of my encounter with the CSX police can be found here. I was warned because I was supposedly within 24 feet of a railroad track. This photo is pretty good evidence that I was on the edge of the road, probably about 25 feet away from the track that runs down the middle of a public road. But who's quibbling? Believe it or not, the railroad was not what I was photographing. I probably won't be returning to South Kearny, N.J. any time soon.

welcome to northern NJ

The offcers didn't seem to believe they were in paradise. "I've seen better." said one. When I suggested that perhaps his elsewhere was merely different, he insisted "No. Better." South Kearny didn't seem to fit acceptable notions of beauty. I continued the discussion by elaborating upon the concept of finding beauty in unlikely places. He may have been curious, but he was far from convinced, other than possibly to think I was yet another looney citizen.

Sematic differences aside,  his uniformed associate was only moderately intent on issuing me a warning for so called tresspassing on railroad property - which happened to be the middle of a public thoroughfare. He had driven past me while I was standing about with my viewfinder in hand, trying to find the composition. We waved at one another. He was curious, but didn't stop, so I didn't realize that he was police. He didn't even see me with the camera set up.

Some time later when leaving the area, collecting snaps of pollution abatement signs, he passed again and decided he needed to talk to me. Under the impression that I was taking pictures of the railroad, I tried to make it clear that this was not the case. Alas, cops can't talk to citizens without turning it into official documented business. So at least half an hour after the "infraction" came the written warning. More evidence to support my theory that there are more police on payroll in New Jersey than anywhere else in the known universe. I never would have thought to include the CSX railroad police in the list. Now I know for certain that they exist.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the third cleanup site sign. Or the officers.

the jersey shore, too

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I guess you get used to it, if you spend some time on the island. Not sure I want to. Maybe through the winter. And there is of course the sand to deal with. And the sun. And the swelling population during the summer. Being the well known grouch that I am, I got out of there about as fast as I could.

What's the Story? or... Today's Rant

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From an unexpected source, I would imagine. This time I'm going to blame Apple, Inc.

If it hadn't been for the new laptop we purchased back in December, I wouldn't have found out about the ease of use of components such as iMovie and Garageband, bundled with the machine and which turn out to be more than merely functional. They are amazingly sophisticated tools that allow for a remarkable amount of user intervention. To the point that iMovie has rekindled the long dormant desire to make "movies," which back when I was still attempting such things we called "films" because they actually used long strands of film as the components in the final product. I gave up on that dream about the time Avid entered the marketplace with their high priced video editing paraphernalia.

Twenty + years later, "non linear editing" software combined with a simple laptop computer have become ubiquitous enough that without looking over my shoulder, I've gotten run over by the "video movement." Which is that everyone wants to make movies. In reality, the software/hardware manufacturers want us to make movies and succumb to our desires to tell stories. Look at the sales literature of the three 800 pound gorillas in the field of NLE software - Apple, Adobe, Avid - and then again at the literature of the dominant hardware lions - Sony, Canon, Nikon - and what they steadfastly insist is the reason for the dispersal of their tools is the need to tell stories.

I say fuck the storytellers, excuse my "French." Many of us are image makers who have refined the ability to tell a story with a single image, or evoke emotions or intellectual curiosity that don't rely upon the repetition of clichéd elements. I won't deny that stories are what captivate us, but as still photographers we've learned to show subtle qualities in a more economical manner than is possible with motion pictures. Movies are incredibly seductive. Given the opportunities, everyone would work on or make them. But the power of the still photograph is still immense. We read and experience them in a different part of the mind and soul. Perhaps it's a place of greater abstraction, one that requires less clarification. But it also empowers the sheer joy of seeing the world - which doesn't require a story or a moving documentary to explain.

Despite this tirade, no doubt I will continue to investigate the hardware/software knockout that has brought incredibly sophisticated motion picture capture tools within the reach of many of us in the comfortable, developed world.

Oh - and BTW, there is a man-made quality to this image: it's ice on a man made pond in a nearby development where we walk nearly every other day.

"it's only a shed"

So we were told. I can hardly wait until the painter gets done with this baby!

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For those who care about the process: there are approximately 30 cuts per section of two square panels. Two of us spent at least a day to get all the way around this thing with all the x-es. (It looked better without them.)

The other notable condition about this structure is the material(s) that comprises the outer layer: Hardi-Plank siding in 4 x 10 sheets, and Azek polyvinyl chloride trim in various sizes. Both materials are intended to last forever. This intent appears to have been achieved. The problem is the waste. Azek is fairly obnoxious stuff to work with - we didn't become carpenters in order to be plumbers, which is what it feels like now that we're building with PVC - and the sawdust will eventually get into the ground and the water system to everyone's detriment. PVC is made from guess what? Imported petroleum, of course. Wikipedia says worldwide production is expected to reach 40 million tons by 2016. The off cuts go to the landfill, and will eventually decay, breaking into small particles that will leach into the water system. One hundred years from now, they're not going to appreciate our desire for "convenient longevity."

But it appears to fit right in with the "Post Modern Condition" of the original structure, which I originally wrote about here, when we started this project.

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Chris Jordan

In writing the recent entry on Edward Burtynsky, I was inspired to look at Chris Jordan's work again. It's definitely worth a look, and especially his newest work Midway, from a recent journey to the North Pacific island that is located at the apex of the Pacific garbage gyre. This is more bad news about how we are poisoning ourselves, and everything around us. In this case it's thousands of young albatross birds that have died of starvation because they are being fed a diet of plastic garbage by their unknowing parents. Jordan has photographed hundreds of decayed corpses to show the contents of their body cavities. This is amazing and powerfully disturbing stuff. But obviously only through awareness can we hope to do anything to change the problem.

Which leads one to wonder, if you care enough to look at the photographs and be affected by them, what are you going to do to change your lifestyle so that you don't contribute to the problem? Our lives are full of conveniences that have unintended but powerfully negative consequences. How do we become aware of them?

Look at the photos and change your life.

seasonal greetings

What's with this "holiday" anyway?

widespread murder

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This landscape has been noticed over the years, if not daily, certainly frequently. What's with all the dead trees? There must be 30 - 50 mature sized trees that are standing dead. Where there's curiosity, there's a photograph - or three. Little was I prepared for what I found.

What I found is clear in the last four photos, but may not be apparent without some words. All the trees have been intentionally killed - by the hand of some tool wielding human with a plan. Since I was trespassing on the land, I have no idea who the owner is, or what their intention for it is. One can only imagine scenarios for what was in the mind of the perpetrator, and whether he was indeed the land owner or some wronged party seeking revenge.

As a member of a society that takes great stock in individual rights, and especially the rights of land owners, I can't really dispute what an owner does with the resources on his land. Although as a civil society we do indeed regulate with a high degree what land owners are permitted to build on their property. But in this instance, whether this land owner kills his trees over a period of several years, or chooses to rip them out and mulch them in a matter of days in the course of "improving" his land, I really have no place to say much.

Nonetheless, it makes me wonder what was going on in the mind of the hatchet man while he systematically went around this piece of property and cut a ring in the periderm of all the mature trees, a simple but surefire way to terminate the organisms.

stupid signs

Was this sign put up before or after there were some skaters? It makes one wonder what the adult world thinks about. Who would want to skate here? No one is this desperate. The sign says: "NO Skateboarding"

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Any one out there got some other good dumb signs to share?