Great. As if the sac spiders weren't enough, now there seems to be a group of fairly large carpenter ants infiltrating the upstairs bathroom.
Why do there have to be so many weird crawly infesty things on this planet? Aren't humans bad enough?
Bah.
To make up for having that lame Sevendust cover at the top for the last couple days, here's a song that I spent a lot more time on.
Today's cover is "Deny" by Default. The band Default, I mean. It's not like I...picked the song...by default...or something. Anyway...
I'm looking after Ryan's amp (a Line 6 Spider 212) for the next few days, and I figured I'd try making a recording with it. Mission accomplished.
Specifically, I used the "clean" setting for the clean guitar (which makes sense). For the distorted guitars, I recorded one center track with the treble emphasized, then recorded a second track with more low end and duplicated it, then panned one copy to the left and one to the right for a nice stereo effect. All three distorted tracks use the "insane" setting.
I used GarageBand for the drums, as usual. I was going to record them myself, but it's a bit late for drumming, and I don't know if I have any mics. I'll try to get something with 100% real drums recorded in the near future. However, I am pretty satisfied with the track I made for this one. It's all about tweaking the loops.
Once again, the crappiness of my guitar prevents this from sounding too great, but it's a bit heavier than some of the other stuff. Check it out:
This is a bit different. I somehow managed to get my crappy guitar down to drop-B tuning without totally spaghettifying the strings. This is the tuning used most often by Sevendust, and I've been wanting to play some of their songs for a long time, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I made two interesting discoveries:
1. Without a baritone guitar or a 7-string, this amount of downtuning is really awkward.
2. Sevendust songs are frickin' hard.
I settled on one of the only 7D riffs I can actually play, the rhythm guitar from "Praise," and did a rather incomplete cover of that song. Let me stress that this is not the same quality as the other songs I've posted (I only spent about half an hour on it). I just think the guitar sounds kind of cool tuned this low...although it's not too hard to hear it going out of tune in certain parts.
On another note, I had to craft a completely new custom tone in GarageBand to make this sound more authentic, and I ended up distorting the hell out of it with the "British Gain" amp model. It sounds pretty sweet.
Anyway, in case you're interested for some reason:
Spoilers...
I'm still digesting everything, so this will be very stream of consciousness. Anyway...
Well, my prediction about Jack killing Henderson was right, although I'm disappointed that he didn't use the "I said I'd help you disappear" line. It was just:
"That's the way it works HOLY CRAP YOU'RE SHOOTING ME!!!"
Still a pretty cool death, although you'd think someone as cunning as Henderson would use his alone time to maybe make sure the gun was loaded. You know.
On a related note, Petty Officer Whatshisface is a badass. Bring that dude to CTU along with Wayne Palmer, and you've got a new season. Especially since they seem to be the only people in the CTUniverse who can help Jack Bauer and live.
Speaking of which...
SON OF A BITCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I knew they would bring the Chinese back, but I thought it would be, you know, THIS SEASON. I'm going to have to buy a couple of the DVD sets to get my fix until next year.
By the way, did anyone not know that Jack was going to be ambushed when he went to answer the phone?
"Hey, Jack, your daughter who hates you called. Just walk unarmed into that empty building and pick up the phone. I'll stay out here and hope nobody notices that they've never seen me before."
You know what would've made the closing scene perfect? Chong Li from Bloodsport:
"You...are...NEX!!!"
...Okay, maybe not. Just a random thought.
That last episode was one of the best of the season, if not the best. Great acting, great plot twist with the listening device, and I have to admit that I teared up a little when they brought out Palmer's casket. Also, as a film student well educated in the visual language, I got a chuckle out of the editing while Logan was being escorted out.
You know, because they kept cutting back to him every time the salute was fired. Political assassination, bitch.
Speaking of Logan, I feel like I need a shower after watching the scene of Martha seducing him. There also seemed to be a subtle jab at his, um, "abilities," since the entire encounter apparently took place in the space between the ending credits of the first episode and the previews of the second. Real-time is fun.
Was there any reason to bring in Chloe's ex-husband other than fulfilling the smarmy British dude quota?
I actually laughed out loud when Jack said "WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF TIME" in the first episode. These writers...you gotta love 'em.
Is it January 2007 yet?
Ah, the month of May. When college ends for the summer, the weather gets warmer, and DOZENS OF EVIL FUCKING SPIDERS INVADE MY FUCKING HOUSE.
Yep. The sac spiders have returned.
Today's fun/unnerving story: I was getting ready to eat dinner, and after washing my hands, I went to grab a paper towel. As I spun the roll (I'm very impatient), I watched a small, dark shape quickly move in about the same direction and land on the wall directly behind my right hand. It happened so fast that I barely noticed, but then I took a closer look, and...
Oh, good. A sac spider on the wall. The little bastard came within inches of my friggin' hand. I'm lucky it didn't bite me (they're moderately poisonous and will defend themselves aggressively, from what I've read). This isn't the first time I've encountered one on or near the paper towels in the kitchen, either.
Unfortunately for the spider, after I finished drying my hands, I just used the same paper towel to kill it. The moron decided to stick around for a few seconds instead of running for its miserable life, and its broken body now resides in the trash can.
I freakin' swear these things are out to get me. I dislike spiders in general, but sac spiders are the only species that seems to know exactly when to appear in order to cause maximum arachnophobic panic. And that's just the adults. I still have "fond" memories of walking into the bathroom four years ago and finding literally a dozen baby sac spiders on the ceiling, and having my room invaded by half a dozen of the same three years ago. They've been pulling this crap for almost as long as I can remember.
But I won this round...although I'll be drying my hands on my shirt for the next few days.
All right, I'm attempting to get back into my guitar groove with a relatively easy cover, TRUSTcompany's "Running From Me."
There's not really much to say about it other than the fact that I played it in drop-D rather than Db, and I left out some weird lead crap that the original has. Also, I was going to add bass guitar, but the stupid thing died on me and is now essentially an acoustic instrument. Good times, indeed.
Finally, I'd just like to say that I'm proud of myself for pulling off the harmonic at the beginning of this song. Anyway, check it out:
This is based entirely on my own thoughts, and I haven't been to any spoiler/rumor sites, but I'll put it in the extended entry anyway...
So, we know that next week's season finale of 24 is going to involve a firefight on a submarine in order to keep a bunch of missiles from being launched at Los Angeles. I'm assuming, based on this show's formula, that Bierko and his men are going to be taken out about a nanosecond before they can fire, or that one missile will fire, but the others will be contained.
However, my prediction involves the fate of murderer/traitor/dude who let his wife get shot in the leg Christopher Henderson. Jack said he was bringing him along because he knows the weapons system, so we can assume that he ends up on the sub somehow. Assuming he isn't killed in the fight against Bierko (which, given Marwan's anti-climactic end last season, wouldn't totally surprise me), I'm guessing he's going to have to disable the missiles himself. Here's my prediction of what will follow. If this actually happens, you can all bow down to my precognitive/screenwriting powers:
_______________________________
INT. THE NATALIA - NIGHT
Bierko and his henchmen are dead, and LA has once again been saved from annihilation. Henderson gets up to leave the weapon control console, but Jack pulls out his gun and points it at Henderson.
HENDERSON: That's not necessary, Jack. I won't try to run.
JACK: Shut up, you son of a bitch.
Jack moves closer.
JACK: I should've done this the first time I had the chance.
Jack raises the gun to Henderson's head.
HENDERSON: What are you doing, Jack? I thought we had a deal.
JACK: We did. I said I'd help you disappear.
Jack fires twice. Henderson drops to the ground, clearly dead.
CUT TO:
EXT. THE NATALIA - NIGHT
Jack dumps Henderson's body in the water.
BOOP. BEEP. BOOP. BEEP.
_______________________________
If this doesn't happen, whatever they do come up with had better be good.
Son of a bitch. At some point in the last week, I seem to have completely lost the ability to play guitar. That's not an exaggeration; I seriously can't even get a decent sound out of the thing, my fingers won't do what I'm telling them to do, and the pick keeps falling out of my hand.
I know nobody cares, but still...it's fucking frustrating as hell.
Spoilers...
You know, by showing the "Jack confronts Logan" scene in the previews, they've effectively removed any tension from the submarine portion of the finale. Unless the missiles are going to launch right before Bierko gets it, and a bunch of innocent people die anyway, making Jack extra pissed off. Who knows?
As for the episode itself, very well done. Frickin' thing went waaaaaaaay too fast. I don't want to wait another week, dang it!
I think Henderson was speaking for all of us with the "what's the deal, full immunity?" line. I was thinking the same thing: "Immunity? Again? Stop using that plot device!"
Has anyone else noticed that in Bauerspeak, "excuse me for one second" means "I need to talk to Audrey?"
On a somewhat related note, I don't watch Prison Break in its entirety, but I've caught the end of the last few shows, and I think that tonight's big "season finale" was really weak.
"What do we do now?"
"We run."
"TUNE IN THIS FALL FOR A NEW SEASON!"
At least those of us who watch 24 know that we'll have some sort of resolution next week. I think.
Well, at least there aren't as many storms as usual...although I'm hearing thunder outside as I type this...
Ace is on f'n fire today. I suggest checking that out until I think of something to write.
Well, I'm back home. Time for three months of...something other than school, I guess.
Maybe I'll go back to regular political blogging. It seems kind of stupid to take all these poli-sci classes and then not apply them to anything...
The angle isn't the best, but I thought I'd provide some pictures of the utter chaos going on outside my dorm at the moment. Click 'em for full size:
Yeah...so you know how sometimes you have to decide whether it's worth it to pull an all-nighter to study for your 8:00 AM economics final, and you decide that it would be better to try and get some sleep beforehand, but it's so hot in your room that you end up not being able to sleep anyway?
Go ahead, ask me how my last few hours went.
Anyway, despite the fact that I'm delirious with sleep deprivation right now, I'm pretty happy that the Semester of Procrastination and Semi-Intentional Underachievement is officially over. Nothing left to do but get packed up.
Unfortunately, since I barely have the energy to type this post at the moment, that may be a bit of a challenge...
(Semi-related note: If I suddenly had the power to choose any one sound in the world to wipe out of existence, I think the high-pitched beeping of a large vehicle in reverse would be the most likely candidate. Sweet merciful retards on a pogo stick, I'm sick of that sound...)
You know, it's weird...there's a section of my economics book that I've read at least three or four times over the past couple months, and every time, I ended up still not understanding it. However, after reading through it again a few minutes ago, it just started to make sense and seem fairly simple, as if I never had any problems with it in the first place.
Stupid brain. Where were you in April?
TRF: Done.
Political science (U.S. Congress): Done.
Other political science (Modern Presidency): Done.
History: Done.
All that's left is the economics final, which unfortunately is at 8 AM tomorrow. I'm more concerned with making it there in the first place than passing...
Prediction: Logan goes on a killing spree, then blows his brains out.
Let's see if I'm right...
(Yes, I am actually typing this live for once)
UPDATE
Martha has about a minute to live.
UPDATE THE SECOND
Or maybe not.
New prediction: Final counter is set off by a gunshot sound effect.
UPDATE THE THIRD
Stop drinking and do it, asshole!
UPDATE THE FOURTH
MILES, YOU SHITFUCKING SON OF A BITCH!!!!!!!
I think my dorm is hosting some sort of annoying douchebag convention today.
Three classes finished. Now, only two final exams stand between me and what is shaping up to be a decent summer. Unfortunately, those finals are in history and economics, two classes I've spent practically no time on in the last month.
Crap.
So, I said I was going to post the film at 8 PM. That didn't happen. The explanation: I was going to stick to the original plan, but as you may have noticed, the site was down for a few hours today (along with the rest of MuNu). Long story short, I started playing guitar to pass the time while I waited for the blog to be available, and I got a little carried away (no, I wasn't actually playing for that entire time, but you get the idea). On the plus side, I wrote a couple pretty cool riffs and a solo that I might share at some point. But that's for another time when I'm not supposed to be studying.
Anyway, on to the post I was going to write...
I usually take up a big chunk of these posts with explanation before I link to the actual media. I've decided to link to the film first this time and write the backstory in the extended entry, which will let me really get into detail. A couple really brief notes:
1. This is a 65 MB file, which is as small as I could make it without losing too much quality, so you should probably download it.
2. The film was shot in widescreen mode, and I couldn't get iMovie to convert it properly, which is why everyone looks a little skinny.
Anyway, check it out:
Remember, criticism, both positive and negative, is always welcome.
Now, join me in the extended entry if you wish to know a lot (and I do mean a lot) more about it (WARNING: Contains minor spoilers)...
For those of you who may just be stopping by for the first time for whatever reason (as if anyone actually reads this blog anyway), this was a project for a college course called TRF 521: Dramatic Production. We shoot everything on digital video, but we call it "film" because it sounds cooler, and most of us taking this class actually do want to work in the film industry (I'm personally gearing my ambitions toward screenwriting and editing).
The production process went through several stages. First, everyone in the class wrote a script, and then we chose six scripts to be made into short films by six groups of three students each. My script didn't get picked (which is good, because it was really terrible), and I ended up in the group working with a script called "The Hitchhiker." The other two members of the group (I'll use the initial identification system here) were JK, a rather sarcastic guy who is also involved in acting, and BR, another part-time actor who is also very, very gay.
From there, our job was to revise the script, and JK ended up pretty much rewriting it from scratch, then me and BR put a few finishing touches on it, and I ran the whole thing through Final Draft so it would be properly formatted.
The result of all this is that, other than the very basic plot elements of hitchhiking and mistaken identities, "My Sister's House" bears very little resemblance to the script that inspired it. We inserted an entirely new story on top of the original, and although some of the characters survived the rewrite, the only one whose name wasn't changed is Lucy.
Once we had a script, we had to do casting. This was...interesting. I mentioned that both JK and BR take acting classes, but for some reason, only one of the people we auditioned (the guy who ended up playing Will) is actually an actor. In fact, we mostly took advantage of the fact that BR is an RA (had enough abbreviations yet?) and auditioned people from his floor. Surprisingly, some of them impressed us, and the actresses playing Lucy and Gerri got into the cast as a result.
Shooting was next, which took about a month. We switched roles between director (working with actors), director of photography (camera operator), and sound engineer (boom mic operator/rough cut editor) throughout the project. I'll go into detail about my contributions a little later. The entire process went surprisingly smoothly, and as with any project like this, there were some memorable moments. I guess I could've written about them as they happened, but...too late. I don't feel like getting into specifics now, either. Moving on...
The final stage was editing, which I have been writing about. We do everything with Avid Xpress Pro, which is what a lot of Hollywood editors use. I can say, however, that having used both Avid and Final Cut Pro, I prefer Final Cut. Avid has a bunch of little quirks that can quickly drive you insane if you don't know what you're doing (like the fact that you have to zoom in on individual frames to do a decent insert edit). Still, both are pretty cool. Aside from the tension that occurs when three people have to be in a small room together for hours at a time (including BR accusing me of giving him "attitude" whenever I tried to ask him a damn question), this went pretty well, and we printed to tape on Thursday morning. Which then led to...
The screening. On Friday afternoon, the class, some of their friends, and a bunch of actors from the projects gathered in a Newhouse lecture room to watch the completed films. The slight problem (for me, at least) was that the screening was at 4 PM, and I had a poli-sci final at 2:45. However, I blazed through it with single-minded determination (seriously, that Blue Book was filling up so fast that I thought I might have been imagining the whole thing), and I managed to finish in about an hour and make it to Newhouse with several minutes to spare (of course, the screening ended up starting 15 minutes late anyway, so...there you go).
Aside from the fact that the room had an extremely fucked up projector that put a bright green tint on everything and totally ruined any and all dark/night scenes, the screening went pretty well, and I'd say our film, while not the best, was at least one of the top three out of all six. If nothing else, we had the most consistent audio levels (here's a tip for aspiring filmmakers: It's generally a bad idea to have a conversation scene in which one actor's lines are as loud as hell, and the other's are barely audible. Just because you shot them separately doesn't mean you can't balance it out in editing. Thank you).
So, that's the story of "My Sister's House" and how it came to be what it is today.
Now, since this is my self-centered blog and I can write whatever I want, here's a list of scenes and what I did for each one. You'll notice that I was behind the camera for many of the best looking scenes. This is not a coincidence. Anyway:
1 - Hitchhiking/opening credits: Director of photography, credit design
2 - Driving: Director of photography (although the "eyes in the rear-view mirror" shot was done by JK)
3 - Showing Will the house: Director of photography
4 - The note/throwing out the models: Director
5 - First flashback: Sound engineer, first editor
6 - Dumpster/diary: Director of photography
7 - Second flashback: Sound engineer, first editor
8 - The date: Director, set up the really cool "Lucy walks away" shot at the end
9 - Third flashback: Sound engineer, first editor
10 - Gerri comes home/models are gone: Director of photography
11 - The interrogation: Sound engineer, first editor
12 - Montage: Director for Lucy scenes, sound engineer for Gerri/Michelle scenes. Also, I closed the door at the end.
13 - Closing credits: Um...I sat there and watched BR make them. Yeah.
Finally, a random fun fact: I'm the only member of the production team who doesn't have a cameo in the film (JK is the other guy in the dumpster scene, and BR is the guy in the background in the second flashback). I wanted to be the bartender in the club scene, but the rest of the group shot down the idea. Bastards.
I have several things to write about, so here's one of my world-famous roundup posts:
- First and foremost, the TRF project is done! We spent a total of 16 hours over the last 6 days editing the final cut, along with many more hours of writing, shooting, editing, and paperwork over the past 3 months.
The result? A 15 minute dramatic film called "My Sister's House" that is quite possiby the best production I've ever been a part of (although I still find myself occasionally watching Against the Wind and wondering how we managed to pull off something so incredible).
I have it all ready to upload to the blog, but I don't officially have clearance to publicize it because all the actors haven't signed performance releases yet. Fortunately, the official "premiere" is tomorrow afternoon, so everything will be taken care of by then, and I'll probably post it around 8 PM.
To hold you until then, I threw together a quick promo picture. Check it out:
And if you're wondering, those are actual stills from the film, but they're really two separate shots that I combined in iDVD.
- Next order of business: I finally have a complete class schedule for next semester. Let's take a look:
ANT 311 - Anthropological Theory: Complete bullshit course that I'm only taking because I need another arts and sciences elective and it looked vaguely interesting. Let's move on...
COM 506 - Communications Law for Television, Radio, and Film: Required course for seniors. Supposedly rather difficult and dull. But I guess knowing the laws of your trade is fairly important.
ENI 010 - Large Bands: It's hard to believe it, but next semester will mark my eighth and final year of marching band. I still remember my first day of band camp in 9th grade...when I couldn't understand what the drumline intstructor was telling me to do for the audition and ended up getting stuck on bass drum for a year (a scenario which would repeat itself in a slightly different fashion on my first day of college band camp). But still...two years of bass drum, six years of snare. Good times...
PSC 357 - U.S. Foreign Policy: This class seems to get good publicity. The professor has all kinds of credentials from the Department of State or something. Again, we'll see what happens.
TRF 421 - Feature Film Writing: Ah, yes. The class that almost caused me to have a fucking heart attack when I was closed out of it last month. Luckily, the waitlist procedure was a success, and I was able to enroll this afternoon. If you don't know why I'm excited about this class from its name alone, you probably haven't been reading SIT very long.
Oh, and a fun fact about next semester: I somehow managed to work out a schedule where I only have classes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. So that means that aside from football games, marching band rehearsals, etc...
EVERY. WEEKEND. WILL. BE. FOUR. DAYS. LONG.
I've been trying to pull off something like this since my first semester here, and since the screenwriting elective I want to take next spring is on Friday morning, this was my last chance. Mission accomplished.
- On a completely unrelated note...
I WANT ONE OF THESE!!!
Seriously. If all goes well, I might be buying one within the next couple weeks. I figure I can justify it by...*shudder*...actually getting a job over the summer. Although I'd probably end up doing that anyway since I can no longer use "I don't have a driver's license" as an excuse for not finding work.
- Oh, and speaking of summer, I'll be home by this time next Thursday. That's pretty sweet. Unfortunately, I still have four final exams, so...I should probably start studying.
Later.
During part 1 of the marathon editing session this morning, one of the guys I'm working with said the following:
"It's not that hard to shoot homeless people!"
Tell me, if you didn't know that he was talking about film, wouldn't that freak you out a bit?
I don't know...maybe I just find it funny because I only slept for about an hour last night this morning and everything seems strangely hilarious to me now.
(Incidentally, our brilliant student film, previously known as "Drifters" but now officially entitled "My Sister's House," will be done in a couple days, and I'll try to upload it as soon as I get a chance. We have a really good feeling about this thing.)
13 pages done. And I'm still on the friggin' Eisenhower administration.
This wouldn't bother me so much if it weren't for the fact that we're editing our film from 8 AM to 1 PM tomorrow...or I guess today...
Since it's after midnight and everything...
*headbrickwall*
UPDATE (2:45 AM)
16 pages. This is now officially the longest paper I've ever written in my life, and it's still not done.
Crap, I have to edit in five hours. I don't need this. Liberal arts...*grumble grumble*...
UPDATE (5:10 AM)
Finished. 19 pages long plus two pages worth of works cited. And it's only...let's see...20 hours late! And I even have a whole three hours before the upcoming five hour video editing session! Woohoo!
*dies*
Update your frickin' spam filters, dang it. I'm tired of these weird messages telling me how I can improve my marketing techniques or something.
In other news...still working on the history paper, which is now 10 hours late.
On a related note, I managed to get an A- on a poli-sci paper that I turned in the day after it was due, so maybe there's still a chance to salvage this thing...
...So...
Got a whole paragraph of the paper written. The paper which is due in 12 hours and needs to be at least 15 pages long.
Woooooooooooooo...
UPDATE (12:44 AM)
3 pages done. Only 4/5 of the paper to go...
Stupid Vietnamese Communists. Why do you have to be so fucking complicated?
Here's a tip I have now learned from experience: If you're planning to use the Pentagon Papers as a research source, DON'T WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE TO WRITE YOUR REPORT.
(Yes, I am going to keep doing this)
UPDATE (2:48 AM)
6 pages.
Kill me now.
UPDATE (4:04 AM)
7.5 pages.
My brain hurts.
UPDATE (5:00 AM)
Still on page 8, dammit. But at least I just got to write "France surrendered." Heh heh.
You know, I don't think I'll be going to this lecture...or getting full credit for the paper...
Oh, well. Like I said...meant to be this way.
All right, I need to be brutally honest here. You know all that work I said I had to do this week?
I barely even started.
Yep. I've just been kinda sitting around for the past few days, and now I have a paper due in about 36 hours that I only did about half an hour of research for. And I'm sitting here with...let's see...two economics assignments due in 7 hours that I barely even looked at, which is especially bad because I've only made it to a couple lectures lately thanks to my oversleeping abilities. I'll probably miss this one too and have to turn this stuff in later...if it even gets done at all. And then I'll still have a paper to write...which probably won't be done until Wednesday or something now...which is a day late...and that's if I'm lucky...yeah.
You'd think I'd be in panic mode right now, but that hasn't happened. It's weird, but I feel a strange sense of contentment, like this is the way things are meant to be. And I think I know why: It's because they are meant to be this way.
You see, I've been coasting for a while now. Ever since enduring academic and social hell last spring, I haven't been able to work as hard as I used to. I honestly think that semester broke my brain (and if you don't believe me, read the archives from January to May of 2005). And yet, despite the fact that I did practically no work last semester, I still managed to get straight As. Was it because I worked hard? Fuck no. I just had a nice combination of easy classes and the 150+ IQ that has gotten me out of so much trouble in the past.
The same strategy has resulted in grades in the B and C range this semester, and at this point, I think I should just keep it up. As long as I pass everything, I'll be okay, and it'll probably help in the long run since I seem to only learn from failure (for example, the only reason I was able to make the snare line in marching band sophomore year is because I was pissed about not making it freshman year, so I spent three weeks of the next summer practicing for several hours a day). I feel like the last 9 months of my life have been a lie, and it's time to face the consequences of my stupidity. I'm too honest for this fake success bullshit.
And now, I'm going to go completely against my better judgment and publish this post. Because, like I said, I'm sick of living a fucking lie.
Thatisall.
