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Well, I'm kinda waiting on the hosting company. I think they are a little freaked by the 2.79GB file that is sitting in my directory. We'll see what happens. I'm starting to suspect that streaming won't be an option and you'll be downloading the file. But I'll wait and see what happens.
Vampire Elf on 04.30.05 @ 10:56 AM EST [link]
As I write, wowgirl is happily rendering away on my machine at home. The Render takes about 7 hours. I know this because I rendered it overnight, but because of a stupid aspect ratio checkbox that I left checked, everyone looked all tall and skinny. I fixed the setting and left it to rerender as I went to work.
It look like it'll hit around 3GB in total file size. Pretty wild. This means that somewhere around 64 complete viewings can occur before it costs me money to continue streaming it. That should be plenty for the 20 or so people I'm sending it to.
The resolution is 640x300 (-ish, I don't actually know what the height is - long story). I capped the data stream at 300K and it still looks pretty good. So that means you should be able to watch it in full screen mode without too much trouble. I'm going to recommend that you ignore your web browser and simply type the address (which I'll have soon) into Quicktime. As The Voice of Reason (sometimes called Nate) pointed out in a comment below (and which Compton told me on the phone earlier), there is a standalone version of Quicktime without iTunes available. Yes, I'm a l0s3r. Here's the link:
Get Quicktime
If I made this available for tomorrow night and Saturday night, would anyone actually be watching it tomorrow? Say so in comments.
Vampire Elf on 04.28.05 @ 09:46 AM EST [link]
Therefore, I must be a fucking genius.
from the New York Times Magazine, via Metafilter.
The Sleeper Curve is my new best friend. Sorry, The Greatness. ;)
In brief wowgirl news, I'm literally 2 songs and maybe 4 subtitles away from the complete cut being done. Assuming no traffic problems on the way home, the finished 2nd cut will be done around 8:00pm. Maybe sooner.
Then I have to convert it to Quicktime (probably will require an all night render) and then hint the movie (an hour?) and upload. The upload might take as much as 24 hours (seriously). Those stupid DSL modems cap your upload speed at an unreasonably slow rate. If I can, I'll burn it to a DVD and bring it to work to upload to save time. Go T-1!.
After that, I'll start sending out passwords and instructions. Saturday is looking like the day.
Vampire Elf on 04.27.05 @ 03:50 PM EST [link]
Since I get to use any music I want for this preview screening, without any consideration to money, I've picked a shitload of music to throw in. I'm going to list the entire soundtrack here, so you can refer back if there are things you like and don't recognize (like some of the local Athens stuff). I'll note where appropriate.
Vampire Elf on 04.25.05 @ 11:42 PM EST [more..]
Where, indeed.
If I have never told you before, I hate computers. I work in computers. Therefore I hate them.
Computers do exactly what you tell them to do. Problem being, I work in internet development, which for the most part means I have to make my programs and web pages and things work in Internet Explorer, since something like 89% of all people browsing use Internet Explorer. So I don't have direct control over what the computer does. Point of fact, I'm several layers of abstraction away from telling the comptuer what to do. My immediate layer of abstraction is IE (mostly). So the people who write IE have to tell the computer (or at least their layer of abstration) what to do properly, in order for my code to work.
And the people who wrote IE are some of the biggest fucking morons on the planet.
So my job is made markedly more difficult by them. As an aside, Mozilla Firefox rarely gives me any headaches. It renders most things correctly, and when it doesn't do it right, it's usually because the person who wrote the web page had to write it incorrectly to make it work with IE. If you don't already use it, get it now. Unless you like security holes big enough to sail yachts through on your computer. Or you prefer shit that doesn't work. Seriously, just click the link. Get it now. Seriously.
So, you are asking yourself, what does the Elf's rant on the evils of IE (Note: not hyperbole) have to do with wowgirl?
What, indeed.
Vampire Elf on 04.22.05 @ 12:06 PM EST [more..]
John Rogers is a fairly prolific screenwriter who has written some good ones and bad ones (he was involved with Catwoman, but by all appearances, the studio fucked it up right good, so don't be too hard on him). I read his blog regularly, soaking up the screenwriting and business advice from the seasoned pro. He posted a neat little jargon primer for professional writers containing some of the more interesting terms he has come across in the writer's room on the various TV shows he's worked on.
For everyone who was around a good bit during the wowgirl shoot, you will undoubtedly remember my fondness for this one:
"The Rake Bit": Something that's funny, goes on too long so it's not funny, then goes on so long that it becomes INCREDIBLY funny.
Goes under a couple different names, but of writers my age, this seems to be the most prevalent. Based on The Simpsons ep that was a Cape Fear riff. Sideshow Bob climbs out from under a car and steps on a rake. It smacks him. He mutters. He then steps three feet away ... onto another rake. He mutters. ad-near-infinitum.
I have always called this "Kicking the Dead Horse Alive."
Vampire Elf on 04.17.05 @ 04:56 PM EST [link]
I'll be the first to admit, the news source I'm about to quote is not exactly the standard bearer of impartiality, but I think the information is actually more pertinent to my liberals friends then to my conservative ones.
This article talks about the actual breakdown of numbers concerning the performance of Farenheit 9/11. It basically breaks down where the money that made it the largest grossing documentary of all time came from. Did it take the Red States by storm? Not exactly.
After you read it, think about this: By perhaps overexagerrating the popularity of his movie in red states (and, more importantly, swing states), did Michael Moore perhaps make anti-Bush advocates feel more like they had it wrapped up then they actually did? Was his self-serving helpful or harmful to his overall cause? Or did it have little to no effect at all?
In other doc news, I finally sat down and watched Super Size Me. After watching it, I have to say that I feel both less infuriated and even more infuriated by the movie at the same time. Which, I have to be honest here, is an incredibly awesome feeling. I'll write more about it later. The most immediate observation I have is that for a movie that was marketed as a comedic documentary, it really wasn't that funny at all. Too bad.
wowgirl news coming soon, I promise. Sorry about the delay.
Vampire Elf on 04.11.05 @ 07:55 PM EST [link]
So last night, I'm in the basement, working dilegently to bring you people the fantastic sneak preview of wowgirl. I was trying to convert the 48 hour film project short that we made last year, A Hero in Bloom: The Story of Captain Carnation to streaming Quicktime, as a test.
In order to stream Quicktime, I have to purchase Quicktime Pro. It's only $30, but it does mark the first time I have EVER given Apple Computer any of my money. I feel dirty, but I move forward. In order to purchase Quicktime Pro, I have to download the newest version of Quicktime (6.5.2). I discover that the only way to get Quicktime nowadays is to install the iTunes store. You have to install freakin' iTunes to get the Quicktime Player.
Under normal circumstances, I would be throwing bricks through the window of the nearest Apple Store. However, due to a conversation I had the other day with that guy who used to be called Raul, I actually sorted of wanted a copy of iTunes and Quicktime Pro on my machine for some research. My whole worldview is upside down right now.
Anyway, so I go back to Premiere, having installed the new Quicktime. And now, Premiere refused to export movies. It prefers, instead, to generate errors and force Windows to close it.
I am attempting to solve this problem, but it may delay wowgirl. I sincerely apologize, and I will do my best to get it up on time anyway. In the meantime, please note the excellent example of karma. Do something evil, like give Apple Computer Company money, and your computer will stop working. Good life lessons.
Now, where did I put my Zen Micro?
Vampire Elf on 04.07.05 @ 08:42 PM EST [link]
Well, I think it's still going to be this weekend, but I don't know for sure. I had a traumatic experience installing countertops that stole most of my time for the past two weekends. However, I'm going to work really hard to get everything in place by saturday. If I don't make it, it will be the following Saturday.
I'm going to stream it via Quicktime. My hosting provider allows me to do this. I'm going to try for a 300k stream, and I will make the picture as big as possible in 300k. I may also do a 512k stream, time permitting, that will allow those of you who can handle it to have an even bigger picture.
As a testing method, tomorrow I will make our 48 hour film project short film from last year available in Streaming Quicktime. That way we can work out any weird technical issues before Saturday.
List of things to be completed before Saturday:
Sync and Cut together: Reshot Opening Scene, Reshot Kate/Neil Scene.
Re-cut Final Maxwell speech with new footage: (basically, the big speech max gives to meredith at the end of the movie came out without sound. But since it was all in the dark anyway, we reshot it in the backyard and you really can't tell. Cool.
Record my ADR for the ERC scene - add some background sound
More ADR of mine, if time.
Add music in many, many places
Vampire Elf on 04.05.05 @ 09:17 AM EST [link]