Friday, September 20, 2013

Don't hate, facilitate.

Okay, well, I'm not sure where to begin with this one.  Earlier this summer, an old friend of mine reached out to me to see if I would be interested in editing something for a buddy of his.  (I'll call my friend Francis Talk, and his buddy is Yuri Nasole.)  I'm just going to kind of rant here.

So anyways, Yuri gives me this detailed email with a schedule: the rough cut for him in about a week, another draft for the client a couple weeks later, and then the final version about a week after that.  So after taking a look at their other work on their website, I decided to take a chance to see where this would lead, and I actually held off on making plans for the summer.

Francis was supposed to drop off a hard drive with the footage earlier that week, but I didn't hear from him.  On Saturday, while I was at the park with my family, I get this text from Yuri that since Francis can't drop off the hard drive (no sh**, really?) he can do so since he is on his way to NYC.  So rather than enjoying the afternoon, I'm now having to scramble and head back home to meet this guy.  After a while, I realized that I can probably just meet him at the mall since that is right by the tunnel.  So we meet there and he hands over this LaCie hard drive with a USB 3.0 micro output.  It had been raining torrentially hard just minutes ago, but he's holding the thing like a loaf of bread.  I stuff it into my pocket and go back to my family.

We stayed home that night and the rest of the weekend.  One of the instructions was that they wanted everything to be 1080p 24 because they "like the film look" and don't like the "video look".  But for some reason they shot half of it in 50 fps so I would have to convert it.  Fine.  I have the Adobe Suite so I used Media Encoder to convert everything.  That pretty much tied up my computer.

Here are some of the "style suggestions" I received:
Sound bites should be no longer than 30 seconds or so.
Each interviewee should not be on camera on the same shot for more than 10 seconds.
Optional: Add some light flares or soft glow effects throughout.

The following week, I go through the footage during downtime at work.  I'm taking mental notes, doing some basic assembles of the interviews and paring down the B-roll.  After a couple of days, I'm getting confused as to how to get this down to 9 minutes or so, and I'm not sure how to deal with dozens of hours of footage in such a short amount of time.  So I look back at their website to familiarize myself with their style, and then it hit me.  Some of that footage is from their old projects.  And they didn't tell me.  So I email Yuri Nasole to confirm and he says, oh yeah forget about that other stuff.  So yeah.  They told me they were giving me a hard drive containing 160GB of footage but failed to tell me to ignore 100GB worth of it.

And how much of that 60GB was actually usable, by the way?  They shot with 3 DSLR cameras.  How do I know?  One way to tell is the folder structure on the hard drive.  Another is that I can see the other cameras in the footage whenever they would walk into each other's shots.  They also had no lights and used monopods instead of tripods.

And they kept starting and stopping their recording whenever they felt like it.  There was absolutely no way to efficiently synch this footage.  And much of it was junk anyway.  Like, why are you framing that soda can in the foreground?  How does that pseudo-artistic junk pertain to the message?  And why are you shooting these people chewing away during their lunch meeting?  How do you figure they or anybody else would ever approve of that going into their marketing video?  And really, 30 seconds of b-roll is enough, right?  Argh!  I could go on and on.

So let me go on and on.  One of the cameramen was supposed to convert time-lapse footage for me, but it never came.  Apparently, he was busy working on other projects.  And how did they shoot their time-lapse?  Clicking still frames every few seconds.  Loudly clicking.  Which is being picked up by the other cameras, making the other shots unusable because of that audio.

So after wasting most of the week, I redo the entire project and stay home again during the weekend.  I get him the rough cut by the deadline.  I send him a hi-res version via Dropbox and a lo-res version through sendspace.com.  He emails me back to thank me and that he will "watch it tomorrow".  So after he's wasted my time, and after I've hustled my ass to meet his deadline, he can't take a few minutes to watch it and get back to me.

So I don't hear back from him for a couple of days.  Then on Wednesday, he emails me and wants to know when is a good time for a phone call so we can go over the changes.  So we schedule it for Thursday at 4pm.  The appointed time comes.  And he calls me from his car.  While driving.  In traffic.  And then he asks me if he can call back later that evening because, you know, he's in his car driving in traffic.  So I said, okay.  So while I blocked off time to talk to him, time that could have been used more productively, he couldn't plan ahead so as not to be operating a vehicle and endangering his life, and more importantly, the lives of others at that specific agreed upon moment.

So later on, I head home and after exiting the subway, I get this voicemail that says tomorrow would actually be better for him so he'll call me tomorrow instead.  Tomorrow comes and he calls me.  This time he's not driving a car.  He's in some kind of cafeteria.  And it's loud.  And I can't hear a damn thing he's saying.  I'm not sure why he couldn't just email me days ago when I first sent out the rough cut.

So after a whole bunch of "what?", "sorry?", and "can you repeat that?" I get his feedback, and pretty much, he wants to overhaul the entire thing.  He wants the sequence backwards, wants to change the music and lower third graphics.  I tell him it would be best if he gives me copyright free music that he already has and already knows that he likes.  (I don't mention the fact that obtaining music costs money.)  He agrees to do so.  He also volunteers to give me a graphics template.  I tell him that it's no problem to make all those changes and I'll confirm when I receive the music and graphics.

I also bring up the fact that the audio quality is terrible.  At one point, they had interviews with people in the middle of a party.  They pinned a lavalier on them instead of using a cardioid or something.  And I'm pretty sure nobody was monitoring it, or they might have figured out that the audio sucked in that room.  Why don't we step outside for a few minutes while we conduct this interview?  Because otherwise, we would be just wasting our time, the interviewee's time, the client's time, and more importantly in this case, the editor's time.  So he tells me he realizes that the audio is terrible so "just do what you can".

Days go by, and I don't get anything from him.  Then the second deadline comes, and still I get nothing.  At that point, summer is nearing its end so I made last minute plans to go on vacation.  Of course, the hotel rates were not ideal, but we went anyway because we had no choice.  And I took my laptop and his footage with me.  My vacation comes and goes, and I don't hear from him.  Then the final deadline comes.  So I said screw it.  I don't know what happened, and I don't care to know.  Either they had a copy of the footage and they worked on it on their own, or the project is FUBAR.  If it was the latter, I wasn't going to facilitate the project for them for the amount of money I was getting ($500 for the entire project, which was nothing compared to what I would be getting if it had been at my hourly rate).

So about two weeks after the final deadline, I get this voicemail from Yuri Nasole.  "Hey, I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to you, but I've been busy with other projects."  Huh?  Why even mention your other projects?  Like I'm supposed to be understanding of your ineptitude because you had other priorities than the one you took me on?

But wait, there's more!

He goes on, "Luckily, I was able to get an extension by promising the client two extra short videos at no charge."  Goodie for you.  And then he asks me if I can get the final version turned around quickly.

But wait, there's more!

He then asks me to re-upload my draft because somehow the link doesn't work anymore.  Because he didn't actually download it or anything, I guess.  The project being so important that he just leaves it wandering around in the internet somewhere ready to come back to him at his beck and call.  And then he says, once he's seen it, he can get back to me with his notes.

But wait, there's more!

He then adds an encouragement that we should get this done quickly so that we can work on other projects.  Apparently, he's got so many other opportunities waiting in the wings.  That certainly makes it worth my while having to deal with this hot shot professional producer.

He also asks me for some raw material and how big they are so he can clear space on his Dropbox account.  So I tell him it'll be about 14GB and that I don't have enough space in my Dropbox, but if he gives me his account info, I can upload it.  He gets back to me with his email.  So I'm thinking, um, I already know your email.  We've been emailing each other.  And I know how to send out a link once it's uploaded.  What I actually need is your account info, i.e. your username and password so I can actually upload it to your account since I don't have enough space in mine, as I have previously stated.

So while I'm going through this material, he then texts me and says, "Never mind.  It turns out Francis actually has those files so don't worry about sending them."  This was on a Friday night, and I went out to dinner with my family.

He then adds, "In the interest of time, since Frank Talk and I are used to working fast together, can you please send over the project file so he can drop it into his timeline?"  I text him back and say it is not a problem and that I will do it once I am home.

Later that night, I sent the both of them an .XML file, which should open in whatever version of FCP they're using, as well as Adobe Premiere.  I don't hear anything back.  No acknowledgement.  No confirmation.  No "let me see if it works and get back to you".  No "it doesn't work you *&%#$&(*^" or anything.

So around 4pm on Sunday night, I get this text from Frank.  He says he can't find this footage of so and so, and can I please upload it to Dropbox.  I tell him no problem.  I will need somebody's account info.  He texts me back with his email.  So finally, it hits me that I need to spell it out for them, and I text him back that I will need a username and password to an account that has enough space.  I finally get the account info and proceed with the upload.  This ties up my computer for the night.  Actually, it ties it up for a couple of days, even though I have FiOS.  Again, I get no acknowledgement or confirmation that they are seeing the files and are downloading them.

I check the files, see that they have successfully uploaded and that they are being deleted soon after.  Then after a couple of days, I am no longer able to access the account.  I guess they got what they needed and changed the password.  So now I'm not able to unlink my computer from their account and every time I log on now it's looking for me to enter their username and password, which is really freaking annoying.

But wait, there's more!

Days go by, and late Thursday afternoon I get another text from Francis.  "Yuri Nasole is going to be in your area this evening and wants to know if he can swing by and pick up the hard drive."  I text back, "I won't be available but I can FedEx it to him if you give me the address."  He replies, "He really needs it today.  It's urgent.  If you're going to be home late or whatever, it doesn't matter.  He can swing through late.  Or if you can drop it off at The Swinging Hip Cat Place Downtown because he knows the owners there.  The point is he needs you to accommodate him somehow.  He needs that drive tonight."

So again, Yuri Nasole's lack of preparation is turning into my emergency.  I could have given him that hard drive days ago.  Actually, weeks ago.

I really don't know how these guys can sustain this kind of workflow.  They are probably wasting too much time on projects than they should.  And it seems like they are too busy acquiring more jobs to actually oversee them.

Anyways, my mistake was in assuming that they knew what they were doing.  And I guess it was wrong of me to bite my tongue instead of telling them outright how it should be done.  If this had not been a friend's referral, I would have said if you need this done by this time, you need to give this right away and you're going to have to let me do this my way to meed the deadline, etc.  But whatever.

I text back, "I won't be in the area, but I can swing by the house in the morning and bring it."

"His house?"

Huh?  I'm gonna swing by his house in the morning?  Don't I have work to go to?

I text back, "I can stop by my house on the way to work, pick up the drive and meet him at NYC.  Or meet him at the train station at 8:30."

"That works.  He can do that."

"Which one?" I ask.  "The train station?"  No reply.

I then get this email about meeting at the train station.  And then I confirm it.  And Yuri confirms it.

So I'm busy working on a project when I get a text later that night.  "I'm at the station in a car with blinkers on."  So I'm thinking, what?  I look at the time.  It's 8:30pm.  I double check the email.  It says "8:30pm".  So now I'm thinking, what?  I guess when I said that I wasn't going to be in the area that evening, that I'll have to swing by my house to pick up the hard drive in the morning, somehow it still was possible for me to meet him with the hard drive that night at 8:30pm.

So long story short, I again have to scramble and met the guy an hour later at a Dunkin' Donuts.  I get there and he's sitting at a table munching away at a croissant or something.  Not even looking out if I was actually going to show up.  So I hand him the hard drive, this time wrapped inside a bubble wrapped envelope, with the USB cord neatly rubber banded to it.  He says, "Thank you" and I move on with the rest of my life.



Friday, August 9, 2013

News Watch

I'm sitting here in the kitchen playing hearts on the computer.  Timeout Boy sits beside me eating grapes and cheese.  The TV is tuned to the news.

There are wildfires in California.  I glance up for a moment to see the damage.  Then I notice the boy.  He is staring at the screen intently, a grape in one hand and a slice of cheese in the other.

Suddenly I remember being a little boy in the Philippines.  I'm sitting on the concrete floor in our living room.  My dad is on the sofa, and the TV is tuned to "NewsWatch".  Our set may have still been black and white, but I'm not sure.  The anchor is white and speaking in English.  I have no idea what he's saying.  Something foreign, grown up and important.

I tried looking up "newswatch" on YouTube, but there are too many results with those key words.

I wonder if Timeout Boy will remember this moment.  He just stopped eating and went to look for his dalmatian movie.  I won the hearts game by 1 point.  The evening news ended, and I switched over to a rerun of "The Simpsons".  Now he just came wandering back in, placed his hands on my elbow and shoulder, and stands watching beside me.

---------

I kinda lost my train of thought here.  I guess my point was that I remember just playing and not caring and leaving all the supposedly important stuff to the adults.  And the news certainly seemed to be relevant back then.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

More than one.

Timeout Boy: "If it's more than one, it's dance.  If it's only one, it's dan."

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Tag a log.

So the other day, I was at the bank, and the teller asks me, "Are you Filipino?"  So I say, "Yup".  And then we proceeded with the transaction.

Sometimes people speak Spanish to me, and sometimes people speak Chinese to me.  I'm not sure exactly how the teller figured out that I was Filipino.  I wouldn't have guessed that he was Filipino just by looking at him.  I'm not sure how any of that was pertinent to the transaction anyway.

We didn't even go into any kind of small talk about our Filipino-ness either.  So I guess, my point is, what was the point of asking me that?  It's not like it would change anything.  It's not like you'll slip me some extra cash because we both happen to have the same ethnicity.

It all just seems pointless to me.

I can see if I was having trouble speaking English maybe.  Then you can take a chance and say, hey, if you're more comfortable with Tagalog, I happen to be Filipino as well.  But I mean, he seemed to be fluent in English, and I believe I can communicate fairly well in the language.  Also, I'm not even that used to Tagalog because I don't really speak it with anybody anymore. 

I mean, am I wrong to wonder about the logic of asking somebody's background, regardless of whether you happen to be the same or not?

Another day, I was at the pharmacy.  The lady spoke to me in Tagalog, and I answered in English.  She looked up from her computer and gave me this curious look.  It was only a quick glance, but she seemed to be figuring me out, like it was so odd that I responded in a different language.  I may have had an accent then.  So she may have assumed - and rightly so - that English wasn't my first language.

My accent comes and goes.  My Filipino-born friends don't think I have an accent when I speak English, and they think I have an American accent when I speak Tagalog and other dialects.  Meanwhile, my American-born friends think I have a Filipino accent.  And I sometimes speak pidgin with my Hawaii-born wife of Filipino descent.

I used to actually try and speak Tagalog back, but now it's just too much effort.  I used to want the other person to know that hey, I'm Filipino, too, isn't that great?  But now I just wanna get my shit and go.  It doesn't really make a difference.

I'd just rather not assume.  I didn't realize one of my co-workers was Filipino until a few weeks after he was hired.  Someone in the office mentioned it to me.  And I said, "That's cool."  I mean, what else was I supposed to do?  It was actually the Filipino guy later on who came up to me and said something like, "Hey, you're Filipino also, right?"  And then we talked about where we were born, how we grew up, our families and other things.  And that was cool.  But I would have the same kind of conversation with anyone regardless of their background.

And he didn't speak Tagalog, but he understood it.  Just like my wife.  Actually, my wife doesn't know Tagalog that well.  But I told him that I have Jufran hot sauce in the cupboard, and he can help himself to it if he wants.

As you may or may not know, I'm a staff writer over at www.ganggreennation.com.  I have been interacting with many, many Jets fans over the years, and I have no idea what most of them look like.  And they don't know my background either.  And I like it that way.  And we get into debates about the team, and we joke around, and we even share real life problems and empathize. 

I'm rambling on now, and I guess maybe I'm making a big deal of this. 

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Cool story, bro.

So yesterday, on a total whim, I decided to take my son to the library for the first time.  I hadn't been there in about nine years.  I think I wanted to check out if they still had a media department so I could rent "Moonrise Kingdom".

Anyway, we went to the kids' section and read "The Cat in the Hat" and "Horton Hears a Who".  Then we checked out the media department, and it did still exist.  We found DVDs of "Horton" and "The Lorax", and we rented them, along with "Moonrise".

We went home and watched "Horton" while eating lunch.  We don't usually watch TV while eating, because Timeout Boy ends up just staring and not touching his plate.  For some reason I decided to just feed him and let him watch.

We then went grocery shopping.  We bought some things at Target.  Then we drove over to ShopRite. On the way there, the kid fell asleep, so he and I stayed in the car while my wife continued shopping.  I listened to the radio, and for some reason I was really paying attention to the songs' bass lines.  Then the DJ came on and mentioned that it was Dr. Seuss' birthday.

I thought that was a pretty cool coincidence.


Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Travel Plans

As I sat down to have my coffee on Friday morning, my boss came in and sat next to me.  "How do you feel about travel?" he said.  "I'm not sure," I said.

He then asked if I wanted to come to Las Vegas to a convention.  He gave me a choice in the way that I'm the only video editor in the company, and they need someone to edit a video during a show.  Not that I didn't want to go.  I like being needed, and I want to be there.  The question was the logistics.

My wife goes to graduate school classes twice a week.  We don't have a babysitter because we've never needed one before.  It's always been pretty much just us.  For the first couple of years, her cousin lived with us, but she has since returned to Hawaii.

We've never left Timeout Boy in the care of anybody else, let alone someone new whom we don't know.  In fact - I've written about this before - anytime we really want to see a movie, we take a day off, drop him at day care, and go on a little date.  (Over the years, we've taken days off for "The Dark Knight", "Inception" and "The Dark Knight Rises".  We're actually going to see "Django Unchained" this Friday, which is not a Nolan movie, for a change.)

After sorting it all out, my boss agreed to let me leave a day early so I can be home for one of my wife's classes, and she will either bring our son with her or just skip the other class.  Now what I'm worried about his Timeout Boy himself.  As mentioned, we have never been away from him much, and definitely not overnight.  Not even once in his almost four years.

There were a couple of occasions for me.  One was when he was about 9 months old.  I was invited to this Monday Night Football viewing party with free beer and food.  I was pretty miserable.  I just wanted to be home playing with my kid.  He didn't seem to notice that I was gone long, so that was good.

The second time was just a few months ago.  We had a little company dinner, and he kept asking for me all night.  He couldn't go to sleep because I wasn't home yet.  I kinda felt bad about that.

This time I'll be gone for about four days.  I hope he'll be okay.  I probably won't be.  The worst part will probably be the flight itself, when you're just sitting there with nowhere to go and nothing to do.  Maybe if we get free internet on the plane, and we can do a video chat.  We probably won't have internet at the hotel, in order to save money, but we might have it at the convention since we'll need the connection, so maybe I can sneak in a quick video chat before or after.

I don't know how frequent flyers do it.  Sometimes I rush out of the office just to have a few more precious moments at home.  I don't know how some people can deal with being away from their families so often.  Even those who don't really travel but spend long hours at work.  I'm not sure I can handle that.  I don't get paid very much right now, but at least I have my weekends and generally get to leave after 5.

Anyways.  Getting there and back safely is also in the back of my mind.  I don't even wanna get into that at this point.  I just can't wait for it to be over and be home again.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Queue Tips: James Bombed

I heard there were some good reviews of "Skyfall".  I've even heard it was the best James Bond film ever.  So far.  It starts in medias res with people dead and shot and the spy in hot pursuit of the all important McGuffin.

They chase through exotic locations, amidst crowds of foreign extras, colliding into their carts and wares and putting their lives in danger.  There are police standing by at the ready, and they join the race without a thought.  Not even a look at each other to say "WTF yo?"

And then Bond and the bad guy ride motorcycles through the rooftops of this village.  And it all goes smoothly.  They even crash into a packed market area, and everybody lines up to either side so they can pass through without hitting anyone.

Then, another agent stops traffic and causes accidents until there is a logjam.  She then gets out and watches the bad guy get away on top of a train.  And no one yells at her for the damage she's done.

And so Bond gets on the train as well, and we get the fighting on top of a moving train scene.  There is a Caterpillar digger thing on the train, and James gets on it.  The bad guy keeps shooting at the metal digger part of it as though he thinks it's going to make a difference.

And stuff like that.

I don't remember the rest of it.  I can't recall the female spy vixen agent's name.  It's probably Connie Lingers or something like that.  Sorry if I spoiled the film for you, but you've probably seen it anyway.  In other movies. 

Skyfall?  More like Skyfail, amirite?  LOLOLOL

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Presents for the Future

I think Timeout Boy has been playing with the ribbon more than any of his Christmas toys.  He calls it his snake.  It was on the bed one morning, and he yelled at me when I sat on hit.  Meanwhile, I don't know where the rest of his presents are.

Four of them are in the closet.  Still in the box.  He was more into the opening presents part than the actual content.  He would rip the wrappings, throw the paper in the pile, and look for the next gift.  We had to keep stopping him to take pictures.

He didn't notice when I took his two Lego Duplo sets and put them back in the closet.  Just like he didn't notice last year when I took his Hess truck and stored it away.  So now he has two Hess trucks in the closet.  Next year, he gets to open them again, I guess.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Silly nut.

Conversation with Timeout Boy, 3 years old.

Him: I want to watch, Daddy.
Me: Okay, you can watch Daddy.
Him: No, I don't want to watch a people.  I want to watch a DVD.  You silly nut.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Memory Gland: Itchy Feet

I've slept like a baby the past couple of nights.  That's because I hardly slept the past few nights before that.  I'm a light sleeper.  I usually wake up two or three times a night, and usually I'll go to the bathroom and go right back to sleep.  I have to keep my focus on sleep, or my night is ruined.  So if my wife is still awake - or when her cousin was living with us - I would have to ignore them and the rest of the world, or the sleep switch in my head would turn off and I'll be wide awake all night.

For some reason, sometimes when I wake up at night, my feet would itch.  Then I'll scratch them and go back to sleep.  But then they'll itch again and wake me.  And again and again until I get pissed off and can't sleep anymore.  This is what happened earlier this week.

I'm not sure why that is.  I'd put lotion on it.  I'd put anti-itch cream.  I would sit in the tub and scrub and scrub.  But in the middle of the night, it would still happen.

In the morning, while I was putting on my shoes getting ready for work, I remembered having itchy feet as a child.  I was eight years old or younger.  It was New Year's Day.  My mom and I were getting ready for church.  I have to idea where my dad was, or my two older brothers.

I didn't wear shoes often as a kid.  Like most kids in the Philippines, I always wore slippers, or flip flops, or tsinelas in Tagalog.  So when I put on shoes that day, I was uncomfortable and my big toe was itchy.

I was whining, even crying about it.  And my mother said that I shouldn't be crying on New Year's Day, because that means I'll be crying all year.  Since then, I always thought whatever you did that day, you'll be doing all year.  I don't remember how the rest of that day went, or the year, for that matter.

Anyways, I thought hard about my current situation.  I realized I had been having some terrible dreams before waking up.  Nothing nightmarish or anything.  More like worrysome.  About trivial things.  For example, I had been digitizing some video tapes into my hard drive, and I had a dream about that, where I was all confused in trying to organize the tapes.  Stuff like that.  I would be all anxious and wake up.  Then my feet would itch.

One of my dreams was a vague one about a saw cutting wood.  Like nothing else but that.  I wasn't even doing it, and I don't know who was doing it.

Anyways, I thought about it some more, and I realized I hadn't been so organized at work recently.  I haven't been keeping track of my projects.  So I made a list of my tasks and priorities, and that seemed to help clear my mind.

I slept very well the next couple of nights.  But my dreams were still weird.

In one of them, I was with another person, and we brought a live cow to this guy's house.  The live cow was to replace a dead cow in someone's living room.  That person opened his front door, and he was telling us that the one he had was fine or something.  He was an older man, and he had a distinct hook-shaped nose.  He kind of looked like maybe an actor from a Scorsese picture.  And then he was eating off an opening from the dead cow's body.

Later on, I was eating with a man and a woman at a small diner.  We were talking and there was some noise, and the woman casually said something like, "I wish you would close the bathroom door" across the room.  And then I looked over and realized that the open door in the corner was the bathroom door, and whoever were there closed it.  Suddenly we could hear ourselves clearly, and I remember thinking, so that's where that noise was coming from.  And then the woman somehow ended up sitting at another table at another corner of the place, and I noticed that she was overweight.  She hailed over a worker there, and I think she paid our bill.

Later on, the man I was with, who was an older man, but maybe not the same guy from before, was in our house.  He was kind of jumping on our bed and on my son's crib, just like my son would.  There are some other details that I've forgotten.

And then I woke up.