Off the prompt "cuddles."

Final Cut came out with a new version today, which is $299 and downloadable (that for the whole shebang as far as I can tell, not for an upgrade). I watched the video and while it can do some new things, a lot of the things they were advertising are... things Final Cut has been able to do all along? I mean, I guess they're primarily advertising to new users. But it makes me wonder, did they change how you do those things? If I buy this, will I have to relearn how to do things I know how to do? Are my keystrokes still the same? *Can* you still be a keystroke editor or is it suddenly all about the fucking visual pretty "magnetic" interface*?

Hmph. Gerroff my lawn.

*Snap, it was called snap, you toggled it on and off with the n-key.

It's four in the morning. What are YOU doing?

Since waking up at 1:30am, I have:
--subscribed to someone on the strength of a Vorkosigan AU
--priced Final Cut keyboards
--decided that putting Final Cut stickers on the keyboard I use regularly would be a good way to go INSANE
--discovered from close examination of Final Cut keyboard images online a set of shortcuts I will probably integrate in my repertoire now (⌘+1, +2, +3, +4, +5 goes through Viewer, Canvas, Timeline, Browser, Favorites)
--priced Final Cut keyboards on ebay
--dredged up my ebay ID from the depths of the internet to bid on a Final Cut keyboard on ebay
--refused to be sucked into bidding wars on ebay
--checked local craigslist for Final Cut or easily mod-able keyboards
--figured while I was making wishlists, priced flight to DC at end of October ($400)
--contemplated moving my desk three feet to allow vidding from bed and cause me to make some further effort regarding organization in my room

Wow I spent a lot of brainpower on that Final Cut keyboard issue. Uh.

ETA: Apparently what I actually want is to apply keys, not stickers to my standard issue NOT aluminum apple keyboard. If only it didn't cost $80.

I have been burning the candle at both ends, hit the ground running at six thirty in the morning, never off work on time because it's goddamn rush season, all week long. And it's only Wednesday Thursday, and my classes start tomorrow some four hours after I have to get up, and next week I am working until 9 every night per schedule.

I keep thinking of entries I want to write and never being at a computer to write them. I want to write vidding meta. There was a entry in my head today about how vidders (ones I know anyway) choose songs, and how some songs are obvious to everyone and some are only obvious in retrospect once the brilliant vid is made. And I keep thinking about writing up some really basic Final Cut stuff, because things like markers OMG SO USEFUL yet news to some friends.

Anyway, since I am failing at getting those entries started on my own, I would like to put it out there, is there any part of vidding as a process or my vids in particular that you would like me to talk about? I am now taking questions from the audience. seperis, I am looking at you.

So apparently FCP handles mp3s poorly; I went back to check in iTunes and QT to see if this audio track had as many blips as it did in FCP and the answer was "no, no it does not." So I made an AIFF out of the mp3 in QT and swapped out the source file in FCP and magically, all the weird blippy vaguely-clipping-but-in-an-analogue-magnetic-tape-sounding-way,-and-even-though-the-decibels-never-went-above-negative-5-or-so went away! Yay!

Except that I realized I may have been vidding a clip or two to artificially introduced noise. There's one in particular that... well, I'm considering adding a sound effect. *headdesk*

When I said I picked this recording of the song for the cheese factor...

eta: *starts examining sound effects* oooh. Maybe this needs more cowbell.

eta2: Every time I go hunting through audio loops I discover I love the dorkitude that went into these more than... than sleep. I swear this one is called 'electronic surge' because 'lightsaber hum' would get them sued.

I appear to have accomplished 42 seconds of a vid tonight. Not so much in the way of homework, but yay vid.

This is a weird one in that... it's not fully formed in my head, but I'm not feeling the need to pre-clip for it. Like, I had a thesis centered on the choruses, and working on the verse has been... it's flowed. Like, when I get to each line I know what to do with each line, so I know exactly where to go get it. Mostly. There's been some cases of "Cas, could you please be a little more badass now" and "Stop simpering, Ruby, I swear to God, no one would know you were a demon." But like, most of the stuff has been just there, right where I need it to be.

grey_bard asked me if it was coming together so fast because I'd clipping for the last week, which I haven't been. I've been watching stuff? But mostly not even with intent, and so crazy out of order that it's kind of hilarious that I can tell a remotely linear story with this. Weirdly, I think that my vid-brain image memory must be connected heavily to my fic-brain plot memory, because while I wasn't watching with intent to vid, I was watching with intent to write. So a lot of stuff got entered into the mental encyclopedia that way, I'm guessing.

I should write up my workflow with Final Cut at some point, because the way I'm set up it's adaptable to clip or not to clip, whatever works best at a given moment. And I think this is key to letting your creative juices flow. Sometimes you need to hunt and peck for the best iteration of a repeating theme, sometimes you need to be able to ram footage straight from a whole episode file directly onto the timeline with no intermediate steps to slow you down and get in your way. Or I need, anyway.

So yeah. I cut 42 seconds of a vid tonight, which, seriously, comes out to something like six or seven seconds per hour, which is... a lot, really. That's like, the night after Vividcon extension deadline pace, niqaeli can attest. There is no deadline on this! I don't know what's gotten into me! I'm usually a lot more methodical. Well, that's kind of a lie. Let's say, I'm usually methodical for two months and then finishing shit in a fucking hurry last minute. I do not usually start with the fucking hurry. This is weird for me.

Hi. Hi there. I realize this is late and I apologize, I hope you haven't been freaking out. I know I promised to link/list some stuff in this letter, so I'm especially sorry it took me this long to get it done.

Right, okay, my requests:

( 1. Less Than Perfect - Kipp Steadman )

( 2. Final Cut (software) - the programmers )

( 3. Raines )



Beyond fandoms: what I like.

I realized that I didn't put any pairings in any of these, so I should probably say here, I'm mostly a slasher. But I also read gen, and I also read het (and I also read femslash, although I had to remind myself to add it as a separate category, because I tend to assume "slash" swings both ways), and I also like threesomes etc. (I kind of think this is unlikely to come up with this request set, but, my favorite threesome configuration is M/M/F--Mommy and Daddy and Daddy's boyfriend!) I don't, usually, read smut, though. I'll read stories with smut in them but I tend to skim past it. Unless there's important characterization to be had in the sex, I'd druther a fade to black.

And, seriously, gen is totally fine too. (I'll note again that I didn't put any pairings on these. Heh.)

I like humor. I like crack. (If you had any desire to take a standard crack or AU trope like Age of Sail or Egyptology or Genderswap or Wingfic or With Dragons and drop it on any of these fandoms, I think I would probably die laughing. But I'm totally a fifth-wave fan; if you're going to do something like that, commit to it, invest in the detail and treat it seriously, because that's how it becomes seriously awesome.) I like irony and snark and gallows humor. I like plot. I like fluff. I hesitate to call the kind of wallowing I do with angst "like" but I do enjoy it. (I enjoy it more if everyone's dealing with angst by snarking off. Did I mention I like snark?) I like it when I read the dialogue and it sounds so true that I can hear the characters saying it in my head. I like smart. I like it when characters are smart and I like it when plots are smart and I like it when stories answer questions, and when they pose them. (This is probably related to my enjoyment of science fiction in its speculative mode, but also to my enjoyment of fanfiction as a way to fill in the blanks canon leaves, explain things left hanging.)

I've put this in two previous yuletide letters so I think I'll keep it as a tradition:
In someone's commentary on the Etiquette of Yuletide, there was mention of the struggle some authors have between fulfilling exactly a detailed request, and writing a good story. It is my feeling that this should never be an issue. If you are struggling between writing a crappy story to my specifications and writing a good story that throws them out the window, for God's sake, write me a good story.

Thank you.

~juls