9th day at ACMI

Freaking computer always crashes...doing Quuiet Courage 's title sequence for the whole day.....end up...that's the only thing that I 've been doing.

Told craig and he told me that I can switch to one of the high end suites and worked there!!

A bit of background information of Craig:
His best interest is in computer networking, he began 5 years ago at Digital Pictures. He knows Pamela Hammond as well as he was looking for her for work experience at that time. I realise that my work relationship has come to a circle........again.

8th day at ACMI

I've been looking for Helen for the whole morning

making more DVDs,
burning the best of DVDs...redo Alzeimers DVD, by putting a new log and redo the title menu navigation.

Got two new briefs....1. Quiet Courazge, which is about Helen's MUM and 2. Tour for a cure.

write down all my questions in point form on paper is the best communication that I could think of when she's not here.

7th day at ACMI

Making my own DVD for the Best of Compilation for the digital storytelling program for VIC HEALTH.

Also, I did 2 A4 prints.

I couldnt read Helen's writing....too rough..

Fixing Candice's sound effects and music.

6th day at ACMI

Working in the studio for a whole day....

learning DVD studio pro, I am learning the basics of creating a DVD, Craig - the digital studio manager taught me.

For menu, selecting each clip aften, each clip is finished, go back to the main menu.

Really Really simple.

Animating splashes for Candice's GUM BOOTS.

I am starting to like this work as the diversity of work that I have to do is so wide.....
Now, looking forward to tomorrow's work!!

5th day at ACMI

editing with Kathleen on her digitalstory, taking over from Helen

its my first time working with an unusual client....one with mental illness.
I spend the whole day putting music, fine cutting and putting subtltes into the program.

It's exactly the same stuff that I am doing for my farther's corporate videos.

4th day at ACMI

went out to shoot some footage for the digital stories.......

flowers, i went to the flinders street florist and shoot some really nice footage, i even pay $2.50 for that guy so that I can shoot him wrapping the flowers.

Other footages that I shot are cityscapes....white vans. We need some shots of the POKIES, so Vivian and I sneaked into the pokies and secreatly shot some footages there~~

I feel like I am beginning to get inspired...once again.

preparing animations

- hair being cut short
- smoking is good for you
- smoke inhaling
- heart beating.

Started doing subtitles...the reasont that we need subtitles is becasue its an art group where all people needs to have access to the art forms........as this is a video, say for like deaf people....subtitles it the medium for them to understand.

3rd day at ACMI

Started Digital Storytelling at last...

my first work is to do some video capturing at final cut pro...

Met Vivian, Peter, Dave and Craig...

This group doing digital storytelling are from ARTS access....they are people with psychological illness....they are Catherine ( sporty ), Kathleen Robert and Candice.

2nd day at ACMI

feeling much better, as I know what to expect now....working with JOHN the drama couch at the screen adventures again!!

not much work left and there I left early....again

1st Day at ACMI

Met Helen Simondson @10:00am

Watching the scrfeen adventures session....
And later today, I worked in one of the session.....its like working at a childcare centre.
To be honest, I am a bit dissapointed....am I going to be doing this for the rest of my work placement? I am confused and lost.....

I had my own office chair...I got my own office space/ table....its weird working in an office space.

feeling so bad...I asked Helen whether I got more woek or not.....she said no....and then I left.

Tomorrow @ 9:30pm

Oh GOD help me!!

Thirteen Day ( Last Day )at Complete Post

Today is my last day at Complete Post.

I spend the whole morning with AMANDA, looking at the edit as Chris was with clients.

I have to remove a section of KATH's interview as the director thinks that its a bit drag.
I let her hold onto the computer for a while as I was a bit confused at what I am doing at that time. She just wants to render a certain part in the edit...... However, I know what she wants and I am back in control!

She picked a font for the titles. - Palantino.

The rest of the day, I just keep cutting the overlaying materials, more composites and go back to previous sections to make the edits more reasonable / less literal for shots which we dont have a clue at that time and we just put some shots on top to cover the gap.

Amanda come back at 5:pm and Chris is back on the editing chair.

Amanda told us about the screening, which is on the 28 OC outside NGV......there might also be a federation square screening, which has yet to be confirmed.
Got the contacts of the directorAmanda Sykes - 0410 526 997
amandasykes@care2.com

I was talking to the director and finds out that she wants to make a film clip for a band using rotoscoping technique........so i said to her, if she needs an animator, I am the man!! And I gave her my showreel, which I happens to got one in my bag. It is a bit sad as today is my last day at complete post and I really like the working environment there, there is always work for me to do, apart from the times where people has to use the editing suite, but most of the time.....fun~

It's 6:30pm.....Amanda has left for a GIG of her friend and chris is ready to go as well....he told me something which makes me very happy, and probably I will remember for the rest of my life. He said " You're probably the best work experience guy I've ever worked with ! "
I dont know if he is serious in saying this or not, but....what the hell. I say goodby to Chris and then I say goodbyle to Michael Warden at his office. I talked with him what a wonderful time that I've got He came up to me and shake my hands and thank me. He said " without me, we couldnt not have finish the project " ........then I ask him...." I really enjoy my time here, do u think I could come back and get some more work from you? I really want to spend more time at the telecining room " and he said next time, he'll put me in there. I am so happy that I know that I 'll have somewhere to go after I finishes my semester. He told me if I finishes my semester, just send him an email~ Of course I will~............another coincidence is that while I was talking to Michael, the boss of complete post - Kerri Schwarze came in and I tell her that I would love to come back and she 's happy for me to do that as well~ Good Good Good!.


One more point while I was talking to Michael was that I told her i HAD A hard time while working in Letters To Ali and he told me that he understands my situation as Clara and Eddie are true tough clients....I told her my problem that I've had with audio on the promo reel...Also, I talked to SONIA COOK earlier today, about all the documents that I produce for her about EDLs and superimpose titles..........she was saying that I 've given her too much information........but , shee add that its better to have more then less.........I am relieved.....I thought she hate me or something, but it turns out that its her character....she is a nice person....I like her!

I got to go to Jarret's birthday dinner and tomorrow, I got to help Winfred for his video shoot....
so, after saying goodbyle to everyone.....I left completepost and head to the train station....
- to be continued -

Twelve Day at Complete Post

THe editing is a bit slow, need to increase the speed a bit more.

Chris suggests, putting music in mind during the editing process, spacing out the interview a bit, so, leaving some room for music to show its magic.

After finishing checking on all the sound, I produces OMF again.

I last time that I produces OMF is for Letters To ALi.

What is an OMF?

OMFs are audio files with in and out points exaclt the same as the edit, but with audio only.
I burn them into CD-Rs, waiting for AMANDA to pick them up.

Editing continues and chris wanted to have more jump cuts!!

The sound guy is Pip Atherstone, he is responsible for doing the music and sound design.

Eleventh Day at Complete Post

Today Chris come back to do some editing with me!

Starting with some strong music!!

Chris's Choice
Drum n' Base: LTJ BUKEN.
MC COMRAD.

Watching Chris on a job with client at 12:00pm, work has to be stopped as it is using the same suite.

Description of the job:
- getting a photoshop file from a CD
- adding a logo to the end of a TVC and then removing a set of text.
- getting rushes from the clients (digibeta, non compress)
client: power advertising (breathclean)
regrade the rushes in Final CUt Pro ....> diffuse.

Meeting tonight at AAV@ 7:00pm
Australian Screen Editors Huild.
ASE annual meeting, met Jill Bilcock again!! I think I am going to volunteer myself to be a student volunteer, in this way, I can interview different post production people for the newsletter! I got the form already, need to sign it and hand it in to sydney with the money!!

Tenth Day at Complete Post

Chris told me to go nuts with assembling the montages as time is almost running out and we have to work faster. This is an unusual project as for others, there should be more time for editing, now, it seems like we have to rush through it.

I dont need to do too much fine cuts as this will spend too much time to do it, now what we have to do is to get more rough cuts done.

Yesterday I have just finished cutting 1-1.5minutes of montages, but its a 1.5 minutes that I really like!! I am feeling a bit paranoid as I am worry that Chris might not like the cut that I did.....havent heard anything from him yet.....nervous!!

In section 3, I have used a lot of jump cuts, time remapping and I think that my editing style is really influenced by Wong Kar Wai films. Today talked to Amanda and find that she likes the same cinematographer - Christopher Doyle, he did mostly all films for Wong Kar Wai.

Today Chris and Amanda watched section 2 and section 3 - that I cut!! They really like it!!
I am so happy that I went to lunch straight away. And I told Michael that Chris likes my cut!!
I can feel that they appreciate all the work that I have done. And I am really glad that they did.

trivia:
- go to the properties of each shot and turn on/off excess luma, which is a series of lines at bright areas of every shot.
- strobe effect ( on / off/ on/ off under video.
- to close a shot: righyt click (clip enable)

Today, feeling so happy, went to IBL exhibition opening night!

Ninth Day at Complete Post

Keep cutting montages.

Today, started to seriously look at the tools at Final Cut, slipping ( slip within a clip with the duration of the shot fixed ) and rolling ( moving the in point of a shot and changes the duration and the out point of the previous shot )

Cutitng montages is hard as I am always trying to keep the images to relate with the words with the interviews, but at the same time, I am trying not to be too literal~~ That's really hard!!
Also, I find that its a bit hard to have a process of assembly a series of shots ....looking at atound 6 minutes and need to cut it down to around 1 miniutes. I guess its the same case as cutting the interviews, but this time...has to be a bit abstract as I am only dealing with images.

I guess its better for me to look at how chris procedure of cutting montages.

Today I have to go at around 3:20 pm as I have to go to school to help setting up the IBL exhibition.

Eighth Day at Complete Post

In the morning, need to go to school to finish all the printing issues at school, had lunch and arrive Complete Post at 3:00pm.

Really looking forward to complete editing the interviews as I can proceed to cutting montages.

Today, finished editing section 6 and 7 of the interview sections. Proceed to cutting montages.

I love staying back to work, dont want to go home.

Seventh Day at Complete Post

Today is the first day that I can actually doing some editing by myself, while Chris is busy working on other job with Clients. I edited until 6:50pm.

The main sequences that I was cutting today was mainly the interviews, as I have to watch the whole assembly, which is around 6 minutes, andI have cut it down to 1-1.5 minutes. There is a lot of stuffs ti be cut away, and Chris have advised me to be "ruthless" while editing. But i guess the challenge for me is that I have to make the interviews makes sense, while keeping all the important points of every interviewees.

Today, I am a bit distracted by school works as the IBL exhibition is next tuesday and I have to do a group printing and that I have get a quote from different printing places........what a hustle!!

Alright, back to the film. I really wanted to keep a copy of this film, will have to ask AMANDA or Chris / Michael about it. But I guess that should be alright.

Today, done section 3-5 of the interview section.

Got a return email from Belinda:

" Wow, that sounds cool! You're very lucky

bb "

Vert tired today, need to sleep......

Sixth Day at Complete Post

Hi Belinda,

I am now working at Complete POST and I am having a great time there!!Just wanted to give you some quick updates.They are sponsoring project for "the brother of st. Lawrence " on a shortfilm about homeless people which is going to be showing at the fringefestival on 28 of sept.
It's a huge job and now, I am working full time on that as an assistant editor! I am going to keep working on it till nextFriday. After that I'll continue my work experience at ACMI.

I am doing a lot of editing, digitizing and logging, they said they'll give me a credit in the film, that's fantastic!! I am having absolute fun working as an assistant editor and I think at the end, I will try to keep contactwith them for further working opportunities, I think they are pretty happywith my works and hope that it works out!!!

They told me that this is the first time that internship students can actually work on one single project from start to end, i guess I am the first, and that my timing with this filmproject is perfect!!

will give you more updates soon!!

cheers
Thomas

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am starting to get into real editing today, as Chris suggested yesterday, I am doing editing on the interview only, after that's finalized, cutting the other montages in the other split screens would be much easier. Most of the sections, I have to cut them down from like 3 minutes into 1 minute and 2X seconds, which is a big cut down already, I dont want to cut down too much as I dont want to be too ruthless in editing, as I want to see whether my perception in cutting those interviews are right or not, really looking forward to hear Chris's comments on them tomorrow.

I've cut till the end of section four today and hopefully will get to section 5 tomorrow.

The way that we are working now is that Chris is workin on another suite on the after effects elements and leaving me to do the editing of the interview, so we are like working together at the same time as this is such a huge project.

I am learning some shortcuts from Chris today on Final Cut

- click the shot, press option and move the shot, then it will ripple the other shots and push them away

- F is the match frame function which will pop up that shot on the source screen, and showing its in and out points for us to adjust.

-maker, apple + ~

Today, the director Amanda Sykes came in to look at the edit as we are trying to lock off the picture today, so that we could deliver a mini dv tape for the sound guy to start working on the sound design and sound fixup.

The director really likes our effects overlays and compositing and some of the split screen stuffs too, she is those directors that can get happy very easily.....It reminds me the days when I was working with difficult directors.....bad memory actually....I hope that this experience could cover that!!

I suggested the director to go ask SOUNDFIRM for sponsoring a sound mix of this short film, she will contact them tomorrow, it means, my work is connecting with soundfirm again~

I might try to get in contact with amanda, so that when she go to the mix, I could go watch it or something....?? nOT sure about that thou.

Fifth Day at Complete Post

Most of the time today, I am watching Chris doing the editing...since I havent really used final cut pro b4, so watching him is a good change for me to understand the nameing and the work flow of editing.

he showed me a couple of shortcuts every time we come across some important ones, he was very patient when showing me stuffs!!

here is the work flow in editing this project:

- drop all the shots into a bin and correct naming, referencing what section it is and what version of edit it is.

- then, chking the layout from the book of that specific section.

- V1 left screen ( A1, A2)
V2 right screen ( A3, A4)
- select all the shots, + 12 moving all the shots to the right!
- M market, add at the beginning of every edit.

- lock the other levels while editing

- shift delete, delete a shot and move the rest to the cut poiny

- just delete, delete that specific shot and leaving the space of that shot's duration~

I asked him how to do sliding and extending a shot, but he forgot and he said that he will get back to me later on with another editor SONIA COOK.

At 5:00pm, i finally get a chance to try actually editing one section as tomorrow, I am going to start cutting it myself, so I can get some practice and that Chris can show me what I have done wrong and stuff ....... It should be alright basically, mark in , mark out, and cut.....

but i guess the most important thing of cutting the interview is that I have to really listen to the interview's content and make decision of what's in and what's out. It's a bit hard for me as English is my second language so it might be a bit slower for me to understand. Especially when I am cutting people with really strong accent, I cant really understand.....oh GOD!

Really looking forward for tomorrow!!

Fourth Day at Complete Post

monday~

Didnt do anything in the morning as Chris is busy and that I have to just hang around and do nothing really. But I did spend the time reading the edit notes and Chris did gave me something to do.

He gave me the shots database and I refer that back and search for the shots 212 - 212 that were lost from the original shot database print out. After reading that, I have fixed all the shots log, except for the time code breaks that we couldnt fix that with a correct database.

Here is the details of the film from the editing brief:

name: HOME

director: Amanda Sykes
amandasykes@care2.com

duration 25-30min
1. home
2. homelessness
3. cause/how peple become homeless
4. when I see
5. stories
6. Helping / society
7. conclusive comments.
8. face to camera.

the foundation of the film is the interviews commence through the interview provide the core and we can inject the imagery over and around them once the assembly is complete.

as you can see, assembling the interview is really important, and I am going to be responsible of doing that....how exciting.

Chris finish digitizing all the shots on sunday and started editing the first section The director is going to come in today and look at the edit and provide us with some feedbacks. Amanda is so nice and she relaly appreciates what we have done!! Chris said if I am not helping him on this project, there is no way that we could keep up to speed~

This is something that I worked for, sense of achievements.

Third day at Complete Post

Today, i had a chat with Vincent, the telecine colour grader. He started as a cinematographer, and he learnt how to use the grading machine at CompletePost. ONe day, I would love to do something like that, I really enjoy the look of a film colour grading process, it can really change the look of a film drastically! I saw a bit of his shortfilm ...........excellent colour!!

Today, I continue digitizing all the shots in!!

at work, we have to share the DV deck with all the other editing suites, so a lot of the time, we have to stop working and let the other use the deck for a while before we could get back on digitizing. At the end of the day, we cant finish digitizing all the tapes as time has run out!

Feelings, from thursday and wednesday's climax back to normal.......as its very hard to be in a company while the others are extremely busy, and you'll feel bad when you're there, its like you're interrupting their work. So always, I am waiting, quietly, patiently.

My cough was still pretty bad, especially when it gets colder, it makes me cant ask much questions which are on my mind. But eventually, I had a chat with Chris.

He started off from doing a photography course, and then worked in two post production companies at south melbourne called " chocolate " and " creativology" before working at complete psot. He started off from getting work experience, and then after hussling Michael ( the producer ) at CP, he finally get his job as an editor. I really want to do the same thing, as this kind of ways of getting into the industry is exactly the way that i imagine... so different when I was working on "Letters To Ali".........i find that I am enjoying more now~

But I was wondering, is it better to start off from smaller companies, to build up the skills before getting a real job in a big company? I am just worried, that if i dont have much skills, big companies might not want me as full time worker there~ But frankly. i would love to work there as general assistant, even if they pay me nothing!

Happy Friday!!

Second Day at Complete Post

Met Michael Warden today, he is the guy who gave me the opportunity to have this work experience opportunity!! He told me that I was at a perfect timing as there are so much work arrived at complete post and suddenly I contact him.......what a perfect match!! I am relieved.

Today, what we are going to do is to start digitizing all the shots into the system.

We are using Final Cut Pro HD for the editing and its the first time for me to use this system.

There are totally 5 hours of footage that we have to digitize and its a massive job!! I dont think we can finish everything for today.

The best way to do it is to do it. WE started digizing the shots reel by reel starting from tape number one. The system automatically cue the in and out points of every shots and start capturing it. During the capture, it allows me to have time to chk all the logging that I did yesterday to make sure that all the shots were all right.

There were a few t/c breaks and the system automatically track the remaining shots but still, I don't know what its going to do to the actual edit.

I have added 1 seconds handle to all the shots just for safety.

For the whole day, there were 2 major system crash, but most of the media were still there, just that some in and out points were lost and I have to manually punch in all the right ones , like +100, -100, media start, media end, mark in, mark out.

I did have previous experience as an assistant editor, and it relaly helps in this job. Time code is such an important knowledge for editors and to understand it, the best way is to type them in and see what they actually does. I can call my self a semi professional on timecodes. I discovered a few problems of the system and the good thing is that Chris really appreciates it.

My approach to this experience is to show off my capabilities and trying to impress them, so that if I want to get more experience later on, they would let me. I have asked for 2 extra dates next week ( monday and tuesday ) so that I could follow this project from beginning to the end. This documentary is due on the 15 of September.

Apart from doing the edit, Michael told me that I also have to do some after effects and compositing works as there are going to be a lot of split screens and stop motion animaiton and some sequences require me to create some static distortions.

I find it so exciting as all these things that I was learning at school for my own projects, I could use them for the first time in a working environment, these skills couldbt be use in any offices, and definitely in any child care centres!!!

I have to change reels in between and I have to enter the machine room in order to do so. It was so cold, the reason why is because it has to keep the machine cold as they tends to get hot when its running for a whole day!!!

I really love working long hours, as long as I cna feel a sense of achievement and appreciating from the people that I am working with, that's totally fine with me. Like today, I worked until 7:00 pm and I wanted to work longer, but since Chris has to leave, I have to as well.

Really looking forward for tomorrow~~

Working at Complete Post!!!

Today is my first day at Complete Post, I was pretty nervous as I was still coughing.......i ate a panadol tablet and off I go to work.

It was 9:00 am and I met Chris Ward, the guy that I am going to work with for the next 2 weeks. The project that we are going to work on is a 30 minutes documentary on Homeless people called " Home Film ". This is a project which Complete Post donates for the Fringe Festival.

The first thing that I have to do is to read the logging sheet from the producer and the director.
There are 856 shots that I have to log and its a lot of shots!!! What I have to do is to type in all the reel number of all the shots, there in and out points and thats it. Sounds easy, but when it comes to actually working on it, its a bit hard. The text on the screen is so small and I find it quite hard to read the numbers. I have to pull the monitors closer so that I could see more clearly. While was punching in the numbers I have to make sure that I am typing in the correct numbers, so that the shots could be digitized correctly, which is going to be the next step.
This is a very mechanical process, but I really enjoyed it. I guess I like working with numbers and things that requires accuracy and logic.

The work is challenging but I do get tired a bit sometimes. But the thing is, when u have set youself a goal, you really want to finish it on time. Say I have set my goal to be logging all the shots in one day, so, my find have put that as my first priority and I dont want to anything else but this job. I have no appetite to eat, and I didnt have my lunch. This is not good for health. Chris asked me there is no need to burnt myself out for this work. I 'll took his advice and I wil ldefinitely have lunch tomorrow.

Work has finally finished i worked from 9:00am to 6:00pm and at the end, I did finish loggin all 856 shots!!!