It's Not Over Yet

So another blog to let you all know what is going on in my life. I know at least one person enjoys reading them (thanks mez/marlei), so here it goes.

College. That's pretty much my life right now. I have three assignments to hand in next week, so I need to get them all done. As of now, one is due in 7 days, two in 8.

The one due in 7 days is about sourcing and putting sounds to a 6 minute montage of scenes from The Animatrix. Seems simple? Well yeah, but when you actually give it a go, it's pretty hard. First things first, you need to watch the video and make a list of what sounds you want to put where. This takes an hour or three. Next part is finding those sounds. I've been spending the last week trying to find appropriate sounds and I've only got approx 1/2 of them sourced. After that, you need to place them all in the movie at the right points and line them up with the picture. This doesn't take too long, as you have the sounds and know where you want them. When I say not too long, I mean it takes a few hours to do. Hardest part is making them fit with the scene and mixing them to appropriate sound levels. This takes aaaaages. The video goes for 6 mins. I go through it 5 times and that's 30 mins. You need to go through it hundreds of times to make sure everything is perfect, especially for such a long piece. Lets assume all that is done.
Now, the next hardest part is exporting all the sound and making it into a DVD. First you need to export the audio, then render the video into the right format for a DVD, then time align them, make up DVD menu's and blah blah blah.
Whinge whinge moan moan, I have a lot of work to do.

8 days away I need to hand in an essay (which is super boring and hopefully the last one I'll ever have to do in my life) and final mixes of 6 bands that I recorded live so they can be put to video and also made into a DVD. This time I don't have to author the DVD myself, some DTV people will do that, but I will be handing in stereo mixes of each band AND 5.1 surround sound mixes. I've been progressing through these quite well. Tomorrow I have to re-record some vocals for one of the bands, but after that I should be able to get them finished pretty quickly.

Now, you might be thinking "hmn.. that sounds like a lot of fun compared to sitting in an office doing what I do". Yes, the mixing bands in stereo and 5.1 is great fun, but essays have always been my weak point for maximum damage, and I'm not terribly keen on doing sound-to-picture work unless it's mixing a band for DVD. Also, I don't have much time to get all this done.

On a brighter note, Throwdown is on in 8 days, which is excellent. I'm going to be busier than an ant when the rains are coming up until then, but so far things seem to be fitting together nicely. No bands have pulled out, we're going to have two stages, two good PA systems, advertising is being handed out (despite the photocopier breaking), we have some youth groups coming along etc etc and so forth. We're even setting up a coffee stall.
Only thing now is really for us to have the event and hope that people come. I'm assured that a few people will come, but I will be disappointed if we have less than 300 people. Always am, always will be. It seems to be my mental benchmark for how successful it has been. If you're reading this and are in the area, please come! Details are here: http://www.myspace.com/hometownthrowdown

Oh yeah, it's my birthday this month on the 18th, that same week my car rego is due and I finish college forever the week after that. Please buy me lots of presents of cash payments and cheques in my name so I can pay for my car service, pink slip and rego and still be able to enjoy my birthday somewhatish. Why it all costs as much as it does, I really don't know. Stupid ageist insurance companies/RTA.

Oh yeah, The stupid Klaxons make me want to go back to England again. All this rain and their music is making me miss the place quite a lot. It probably doesn't help that I'm wearing my Pogues shirt from when I saw them and Billy Bragg play in Manchester.

Aaaaaanyway. I should go to bed.

Night!