Muzzle Flashes!

YES, finally I got you good people pictures of the flashes that are gonna be in UNDERFIRE 2. I spent all day working with it (taking a 2 hour break in between to play some games) and then some more working on it, and I think they look pretty good! I got you a couple of snapshots of what I have now.


This is the front view of it. I had it octagonal shaped before, and then I was messing with some effects and I got this "Sharpen Edges" effect, and now it looks like this. Looks pretty fiery. I think it's pretty good.


I know that you can't see all of it, but you get an idea of what it's supposed to look like. As you can see, it's quite large. I had some points poking out of the side before, and then I tried the "Sharpen Edges" effect on it, and I reduced the whole thing to a teardrop shape. I'm debating still whether or not the white is too small, but it's only because Henry's sorta picky. Oh well. I'm getting really excited for this video.

You might not be able to see it, but around each flash is a glow. Another special effect! Yes, it glows! I know, it makes it look more awesome, even though it appears for about 3 frames. Oh yes, I also used keyframed opacity on the flashes. In the previous UNDERFIRE, I simply put the flashes on for 1 frame with no spinning or variation. It looked good at the time, but it needed some life. I have it set now so that when the flash appears, it will fade out quickly in a matter of only a few frames. It makes it look more realistic, and it just looks cool this way. Woot. And, like last time, Gaussian Blur is used on the flashes to make it look "flashier."

Yup, so that's my update on the video, now I gotta do the rest and those really hard ones that I don't want to explain right now.

On a less important note [for you]: My ear is plugged again. But this is just more than a plugged up ear. It SWITCHED EARS. Yeah, my OTHER ear is plugged up now, it's really messed up. And since I took the motrin, I've been losing some feeling in my head and things have started to spin slowly. It's like being drunk, huhuhuhuh.

Yeahh, tomorrow's Sunday, I'll be editing in the morning and I'll be out later in the afternoon. Talk to you later, good people.

It's Friday

Well, as you can tell, today is Friday, and the video is NOT done, haha. Well hey, it will be done by next week. I figured out a new way to put in the special effects.

Today was pretty good I'd say. I hung out with friends, and swimming was pretty fun because we did some wacky strokes that were pretty much funny. Other than me being sick for one of the days, the week wasn't terrible; I'd say that most things went pretty smoothly overall.

Oh hey that reminds me, I have to turn in a homework assignment online now. Hahahaha crap.

Well today when I got home I made the uber fancy title for the video. I think it looks pretty damn fancy, if I do say so myself. A fade in, a lens flare, and BLUE WRITING. Pretty cool.

I figured out how to use the Adobe Dynamic Link for the editing. It should go by pretty fast now. It shall be done by next Friday, for sure.

Short post, but really, I had nothing much to say. My life overall is pretty monotonous, especially school. Everything is done roughly on routine: I go here today, there tomorrow, and etc. Nothing really happens unless I plan something, which I don't usually. It's okay, I got other things to think about than life variety. S'all good.

Tomorrow I have a piano theory test. I really hate theory I'd say, but it's sometimes useful. Because of it, I know why some chords are named this and why others are named that, and how some of those ornaments are played. But honestly, I think I could have done without it. I was able to play them before, doesn't mean I have to know what I'm playing.

I'm still a bit sick. My throat is pretty sore, I had a mild headache throughout the day, and now one of my ears is plugged up. The ear thing really baffles me. I took off my headphones during TF2 and it was plugged up. I was WTFing in my mind, because I knew that this would annoy me to kingdom come till it goes away. I want it to go away now. I've had it for about 2 hours and it's still annoying. I think it might be because I had some pool water in my ear. The reason doesn't really interest me; I just want it GONE.

Woot, Sunday is the first day of March! I like March for some reason. Anyone wanna guess why? :D

Lol, jk.

Well I'm off to edit while drinking my honey-lemon tea. Sweet dreams peoplezzzzzz.

UNDERFIRE 2 Update and Why I Haven't Posted in a While

Okay, I haven't been posting in a while, but I have good reason for it.

Monday I got home from school expecting a nice while at home editing or piano or something productive. 15 minutes after I get home, we leave for karate. I was like "WHAT THE HELL!!" but my mom made me go anyway.

I waited for an hour, then I trained with my friend (the one that reminds me of Matt Damon). It was an okay class, and it reminded me how wimpy I am (my friend was able to do pushups twice as fastas the rest of the class). It was fun I guess, but I didn't get home till 9, and at that point, I didn't feel like posting.

Tuesday: I got home feeling really shitty. I had a headache and a sore throat, and I was in a really pissy mood. Thus, I went to bed early after doing homework.

This is where the fail happens:

I woke up this morning with a 100 degree fever and a headache that made me want to fall sideways everytime I step. I wanted to go to school to take the quizzes (but mostly to see my friends), but I ended up staying home. I spent about 3 hours watching TV, then I edited for about 1 hour, and then I took a 3 and a half hour nap. And thus, I am here. It's been a pretty boring day I suppose.

By the way, I dreamt that I was Jenny the Teenage Robot and my parts were regenetitive. It was interesting to say the least...

Anyway, the main point to this post is to update you on how I'm doing in UNDERFIRE 2. I'm actually almost done, and I'm hoping to get it finished by Friday. I'll go into some detail of what major things I've been doing.

I composed all the tracks in order as I wanted them. That took about 45 minutes I guess. Then I went into COLOR CORRECTING MODE, which took me a surprising hour to finish.

This is what the color correcting did:



With the color correcting in place, the whole video looks more overcast, dreary and wet, thus creating the atmosphere that was our goal. Without the color correcting, it just looks wet on the ground. The slight tint of blue helped make it more realistic I guess.

I edited the audio for some of the clips because there were sounds in the background that were distracting/not supposed to be there. Didn't take too long. Then I added all the sound effects. I used sound effects from Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source, Half Life 2 and Team Fortress 2. Most of them sound pretty good with their respective guns. Then the music. Most music is from HL2, and there is one TF2 song at the beginning.

And now, I'm adding muzzle flashes. There aren't many different clips I need them from, but a lot of it is of Ryan spraying his gun. It looks okay, but damn, annoying.

Also, at the request of Henry, I've made a new decal for the gun flashes. I guess it does actually look better, much thanks to After Effects!

But I've got a bit of a bug with it right now, so I can't show a pic. Sorry.

Well I'll update later. Peace out.

Long Day?

Today was sorta a long day. I went to the main karate tournament at 8:30 a.m. and I got back at around 8:30 p.m.? Yeahh, it's been a long, long long long day.

I went there, competed in one event that lasted about an hour, I volunteered for another hour, and the rest I just hung out. I had a few friends to run around with. My friend Jared and I probably trespassed in part of the school, but it was okay because there was a gate in front of us and we needed to get around. And I walked around the school with my friends Abigail and Angelica. Nice girls, but I swear, they used to be taller....

I saw some pretty nasty fights today. They were ring matches, but damn.... just damn.... these guys, I swear, could be world champions. They would just be right there, then BANG! Hook kick to the back of the head. Their punches were so fast it's almost unimaginable how quick they were. I'm glad I didn't fight today! I woulda got raped.

Oh yeah, my division, I also got pretty raped. The first guy up just blew everyone away, and my friend Alex and I were like "Well, there goes Gold..." Eh, I was there to represent.

It was a ton better than yesterday I must admit. I had a lot of fun actually. Good day actually, enjoyed it a lot better than last year. I even met a new friend! And, don't take this the wrong way or anything, but he reminds me so much of Matt Damon.... SO much....

Well, sweet dreams kiddies.

Sorta Long Day

Today was sorta a long day. I woke up at 9 and I popped on my computer and started editing a bit. I got the gun sounds in and now I'm adding music. At 11:30 I left for what became something that dragged on longer than it should have.

Every year, we have a huge karate tournament where people from around the world come meet at this high school gym to compete in karate. Today was just weapons and stuff, and tomorrow is the main competition. I went today for a seminar and a Batto-do competition.

The seminar was okay. It was a bunch of sparing drills (which by the way means fighting drills). It was pretty good, and I met a new friend from Canada! Oh the irony!

Then the Batto-do tournament started. Batto-do is basically the art of cutting with a Japanese katana (sword). Like in the movies, the swords the samurai always carry around. That sword. Yeah I do that. I'll give you a picture when I can.

Well the competition for me didn't start right away, so I sat against a wall with my long dress-thing on and my sword. I got sleepy. Then I got sleepier. Finally I got so sleepy that I leaned back against the wall more and fell asleep. This was in an area where basically everyone walked by. I was pretty much unconscious for a good 15 minutes or so. I woke myself up when my head started leaning forward. From what I hear, there were a few people taking pictures of me. I don't care, I got to sleep, I still win.

The competition finally came. On my second go for the elimination round I got eliminated. I was pretty upset. I had done better the second time than the first, but I lost. I was pretty confused and pretty angry, but I didn't show it and held it off till later.

Turns out I did 2 minor things wrong (one of which I was never ever taught) and they deducted me for that. They also added that, other than those few details, I looked really good. I'm thinking, "Wow, these karate masters remembered me out of everyone else here, and they remembered what I did wrong." I was feeling okay then, but then I remembered that they eliminated me for it. Then I thought "What the fuck. I should have won that...."

I realized today that I'm pretty damn competitive. I try not to show it because I'm embarrassed by it, but I am actually very very competitive. I don't usually do anything well unless I have some sort of competition running next to me. I do better with competition/people to OWN. I hate competing at these karate tournaments, but when I do, I MUST WIN.

Not like I will win tomorrow, but who knows? Miracles are real.

So overall today wasn't that bad, but I coulda gone a few years without it. I'd rather be at home editing or doing something not productive. I just have to keep thinking to myself: "It's just one weekend.... Not a big deal.... Chill...." So far it hasn't worked.

Well I think now after a good 9 hours out, I'm ready for a shower and a bit of editing. Tomorrow is gonna be a long, long, long day....

Update

Been busy lately doing stuff and such, not as much time to post. This weekend I'll hardly be able to, but I'll update y'all when I can.

I compiled all the footage to about what I want it to be. It seems to flow okay, but it's a lot shorter than i expected. Oh well, it's a good 7+ minutes long though.

I spent about 45 minutes color correcting each individual clip. I made the whole thing seem more blue now, making it sorta look overcast and dreary. That's about all I did yesterday.

So far the editing process is going pretty quickly. I'll say that it looks pretty plain with no music or effects, but it'll look better EVENTUALLY.

Now, to other stuff:

Swimming so far has been pretty damn easy. I'm one of the fastest in my group, along with Ryan and some other swimmers. Though it's not terribly hard, I'm getting more and more sleepy after practices. It might be because I stay up till 11 talking to friends on Google Talk, but that's just a hunch. Otherwise, school's going pretty boringly.

For those of you who play Team Fortress 2, ALL I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT LATELY IS THE SCOUT UPDATE. I WANT THOSE NEW WEAPONS NOW!!!!!! AND I WANNA SEE THE NEW VIDEO BADLY!!!!!!! GO SCOUT! :D

And thanks to my friend Kristin, I have begun to love Arena mode and the Medic. Thanks again Kristin! :D

So yeah just an update there. Thanks for listening and good-day to you all. Seriously. You ALL.

Importing Footage

All good videographers will know that when you film a video, the best quality will be on actual rolls of film.

Not all videographers have it though, because it's expensive as hell. So, they turn to the next good thing: DV (digital video) tapes. You can see a VHS tape as a DV tape. I use a miniature version of these tapes, called a miniDV tape.

Now, these things are basically just tape right? How do you get this crap into an editing program on your computer? If you have a camcorder like a Sony Handycam, then all you need is a computer, your camera and a good-ol' Firewire cable. With the right software (Windows has it in Vista), you can take that footage off that weird roll of black tape and put it on your computer, great quality and totally digital! Very simple, very easy.

This is the first step in editing a video. Quite possibly the easiest part about editing. The only real thing you must focus on is the scenes you want to import.

I started importing today, and I was pretty excited to see the footage on my computer. But my camera isn't top of the line. Over 2 years old and only $300. The Firewire port in it is all effed up now, thanks possibly to my bad plugging skills. I got a few scenes in before I realized that the camera wouldn't connect to the computer. I was pretty damn pissed. The last thing I needed was for my camera to fail me at this point. Oh well, thanks to my bestest friend, Kristin, I'll be able to import the footage tomorrow with her awesome not-broken camera. Special thanks to KRISTIN.

I'll finish my importing tomorrow. Later friends and all.

Filming - Underfire II

Today, we filmed UNDERFIRE II. We had a new person fighting with us, and we had a few new weapons. The best part: it was raining.

We had more fights and slightly longer scenes. Some pretty cool shots were made, and a few references to the original video were made, such as the beginning sequence. We moved around a lot between the scenes, and often we changed settings very randomly. It's okay though, no one knows my neighborhood too well anyway.

Not even 5 minutes into our filming, an old lady comes out of her house and starts yelling at us for being too loud. We were sorta stunned that she actually came outside to yell at us, but after we changed settings we started laughing about it. Partway through another scene a kid starts watching us through some blinds. We say hi and the kid waves back. Few minutes later, another kid appears beside the first kid and watches us too. Few more minutes later, another kid appears beside the kid who appeared beside the first kid. It was pretty funny because William (the new guy) had to collapse on their doorsteps a few times. I think they were laughing. When we left that part, we waved goodbye and had a few good laughs about it.

Everything else was pretty much just filming. Nothing too exciting, but for us the whole thing was a blast. Filming took about 4 hours, with about 20 minutes of footage. We carted around about 10 NERF guns in a garbage bag, a camera and an umbrella. Good day. I'll start editing tomorrow, and I'll update when I can/want to.

Yup, post later.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention something. Henry stepped in dog poop too. It was amusing watching him freak out. Hehehe.

Productive!

The past 2 days have been extremely productive for me.

Yesterday I went to karate at 9 o'clock. My plan was to do a special class at 11 o'clock for 2 hours, but I decided to do the 2 classes prior too. The first class was decent, just did some normal things. Same for the 2nd class too. The 2 hour class I expected to be extreme conditioning and training to get me ready for competition. Well, by now you should have figured out that the class did not end up that way.

I was stuck, for 2 hours, teaching kids half my size how to fight. I planned on fighting with my friends, doing workouts, sparing constantly and jumping around. Instead, my friends left 15 minutes into the class, and I was stuck helping little kids beat the snot of each other (not really). It was total bull. Half of them didn't listen, some others didn't understand what I was saying, and they didn't care if they made physical contact with their punches. It was boring, and it basically wrecked the rest of my day.

But luckily I didn't have much of a day ahead of me. I went home, showered, and I sat in front of my computer and played. I played Day of Defeat: Source for a good 3 hours. I figured out that the B.A.R. (Browning Automatic Rifle) is an uber weapon and that all should fear my awesome wrath when I have that gun in my hands. Then I went on Team Fortress 2 with my friend Kristin and we owned everyone deep in the butt. She owned with the Medic and I owned with the Sniper.

TF2 = <3

Spent a good 5 or 6 hours playing TF2 with my good buddy Kristin. Ahh fun.

Then I watched Bangkok Dangerous. Horrible movie. Don't want to talk about it.

Next day: I woke up and started playing Day of Defeat for about 45 minutes. I got about 13 kills and I earned a new achievement. Already my day was going positively. Then I went to karate and did my class. It was a good class; it's a lot easier to train with adults. Got home, went to lunch, then got home again and played Day of Defeat for another 2 hours. More kills there.

I decided then to try my hand at Call of Duty World at War. My mission at the moment is to finish the campaign on Veteran. I finished Eviction and Black Cats. Then I played the hardest level in the game, Blowtorch & Corkscrew. It's a short level, but damn, I don't see how anyone can do this in one life. Bullets from everywhere, grenades from no where, and machine guns that can see me through tall grass. It was infuriatingly hard, took me, just that level, more than an hour to finish. Once I beat that level, I quickly exited the game and moved on with life.

Next was more Team Fortress 2. My friends were playing all on the same server, so I joined them. Not gonna go into detail with this, but I began to like the Medic a lot, and that Payload maps suck when you're a pyro. Played this for a good 4 or 5 hours.

Yup, that was my past 2 days. Very very productive, I must say... I got an achievement, over 300 kills overall in video games, saw a terrible movie, and was at karate for a good/bad 5 hours. Long weekends are the best.

... I just remembered I have Algebra homework.... Fuck.

Post tomorrow, after filming is done. And I apologize if you couldn't understand what I was saying in this post. It's sorta your fault you don't understand, but what the heck, I'm a gentleman.

Photoshopping

It's sorta late right now, but I'm gonna be out tomorrow in the morning for a few hours, so I thought I could do this now and save me the trouble of remembering.

I had some free time today, so I created a small Photoshop project for myself. I've done this in the past, but I haven't in a while, so I thought I'd try again.

In the past I took a few pictures of myself and composted them into a combined photo. I'd take individual shots of me with different clothing on, cut me out of each picture and put them all together. One time I even used NERF guns in the photo.

But this time I decided to quit with the clones and do something more dramatic-sorta-looking. I used a NERF gun, but in a different pose as last time. Last time I posed with the guns in a normal looking pose. This time, I used a wide-angle lens. The wide-angle lens distorts the photo more and makes some things look elongated. I used this to my advantage and made my gun barrel look really long.

It took me probably over 20 tries to get it just right, but this is how my favorite one turned out.


Notice how the barrel looks really really long. It took me forever to get the angle just right, with the barrel looking just long enough. I personally think the photo looks pretty good. But, I decided to try to Photoshop it to look slightly edgier.

My product is done as of now. I'm not sure whether or not it looks too dark, but I (being my own biased self) think it's pretty good. I spent a good 2 hours on it, the first hour focusing on the precision of my cropping. Here's how it looks.

I spent a good deal trying to make the cut-out as normal looking as possible, using a lot of zoom and a soft eraser. I blurred the edges of my body to make it less jagged, and then I sharpened the edges. I also played with a filter that made the whole thing look dark, and I liked it honestly. It looks intense to me.

Tell me what you think of it, any criticisms of any sorts. I like it, but I have a feeling it's a bit dark. I added the lens flare behind me to make me look brighter, but I'm debating whether or not it's enough. I also sorta think the muzzle flash is a bit too big, but I sorta like that kind of thing, so yeah.

Well, post later.

Productive Thinking

It's a long weekend this weekend, thanks to President's Day. All the more reason to celebrate and relax with or without friends. I started my weekend after school yesterday by going for lunch with my friends. And today, so far I've just been playing video games. My sad, sad life.

But I haven't gone without thinking productively. This weekend marks the filming of UNDERFIRE 2. I've been thinking of some things I want to implement in the video for effect. For one, there's a chance it will rain that day, so, hoping for the best, I want it to rain. I'm thinking rain will make the whole video throughout more dark and suspenseful, without giving up a lot of the quality. Last time the footage was so bright and innocent that it didn't seem like the right atmosphere for a firefight. I had to color correct the entire thing for it to look slightly edgier.

Another thing I'm wondering about is how to make the muzzle flashes. The ones in the movies are a large, circular shaped flashes of white and yellow. But the ones I made last time were more "realistic" in terms of how it was blurred and colored. I don't really think it matters, but I was thinking about it pretty deeply for about an hour. It probably doesn't make a huge deal.

Overall, this sequel will be in a sense the same, but in another sense, different. The battle scenes are going to be more dynamic and intense, with some more violent kills and actions. There will be a lot more story-telling instead of just 4 guys running around killing each other with NERF guns. It will be more interesting to watch. Toward the end of the video last time, it was shown in a way that the fighting was getting tougher and slightly more intense. I want it more intense this time. I want more interesting scenes, more facial shots, better angles, better fights, I want it better overall.

Oh yeah, another thing we need is a better ending. The last ending honestly sucked. It's the only thing I haven't thought up yet. So any suggestions are welcome.

3 more days to plan and think about stuff. I hope that's enough time.

And screw homework. I don't need Algebra 2 anyway.

Sore

I'm really sore right now.

We had another day of weight training today. Ryan and I promptly took a 22-pound weight. It was much easier than yesterday, but for some reason I'm more sore than yesterday.

My thighs are sore, my butt is sore (don't ask why, I don't know), and my shoulders are sore. I can barely walk down stairs, let alone sit down. It reminds me of my first few days of cross-country. I remember the days when I was in a similar state where I couldn't sit or do much else. But now I'm achy in more places than usual.

But, after weight training was done, I still felt a bit incomplete. Ironically enough, my buddies invited Ryan and I to go run for a bit. The funny part was, despite all the soreness and stuff, Ryan and I went running. It was quite an interesting decision, but it was good to be with the running group again. It's only been about a week since I last ran, but I miss the whole experience of running and talking and ditching and going to the bathroom and etc. I still don't feel like a part of swimming yet. I'm swimming, I do the weight exercises, I'm there. But I don't feel like I'm part of it yet. I'll give it more time I guess, but so far I'm not feeling it.

But I'm feeling something, something every time I stand up to get something or go to the bathroom. I'll be feeling this something for a few days, but it's okay, because I sorta enjoy the feeling. It feels like I've accomplished something in a way, like I'm actually improving, though it's only been 2 days of weight training.

I put too much thought into this. I'm just happy it's a long weekend this week.

Weight Training

I'm not a terribly strong person.

I'm athletic, I have good endurance in and out of the water, I can do things for a long time, but I can't lift weights.

Well, today in swimming, we lifted weights. The first thing Ryan and I do is reach for the weight that says 20 on it, thinking "Oh, hey, 20 pounds is really light, I can do this!" Well, apparently it actually said 20 kilograms, which is around 44 pounds. I could barely carry it a few steps. All the other ones were gone, except for the wimpy 10-pound weights. Ryan and I were stuck with the 10-pounders.

We went out there and realized that the 10-pound weights were considered for the weaklings, and no one used them. I was honestly embarrassed, so while the team wasn't looking, I swiped another weight (which did not say 20 KG). This one was 33 pounds. I'm/We're really weak, so this was still pretty heavy, but this was all we had.

Lesson: Go for the 22-pound weights.

This weight made me so fatigued that only after 4 repetitions of whatever-in-hell I was doing, I was gasping for mercy. I think Ryan was too. At least we could lift this one though. Well, some nice sophomores let us use their 22-pounder, so we were very happy.

We own the 22-pound weights. I can do this no problem. I was able to all (most) of the exercises without much fatigue. But then they took it back. It really didn't matter because after 30 minutes of enduring this training, it was time to run. Yesss.

Well, I won't go into detail with this part, but I'll say that we passed a crapload of people. That made the whole practice all the much better.

My ass is sore, my arms will be sore, and I'm still missing cross-country, but that's me being sadistic about things. I'm sure after a while I'll really enjoy this season as much as the cross-country season.

But this better get me some goddamn abs.

An OK Monday

If you know me well enough, you'll know I hate Mondays.

I mean I really fucking hate Mondays.

But really, today wasn't bad. It was raining, so I didn't ride my bike to school, which saved energy. English for once wasn't a bitch to sit through. Usually we do some retarded activity to understand a book better or something. One time we had to compare a dog to racism. But surprisingly, today was okay. We watched some Shrek.

Geography I don't care about. It's just a class I'm in, nothing more. It's so easy and stupid that I won't even bother to give any more details.

Math was okay. It's probably the best class of the day for me, especially now Roger moved into it. He's my buddy.

Science. FUCK SCIENCE. I can't accurately describe how boring that class is. Half the time we take notes, which drag on forever. And the other half we take tests. It's bullshit. But today, even though we took notes, it didn't seem to take forever. In fact, the period passed rather quickly today. It was weird. I felt some funky mojo in that classroom, so I was the first one out that door.

French was the worst period of the day. The teacher is a bitch. I know why she's a bitch, but I can't explain it, so I'm not gonna try. We had to do presentations that we basically had no preparation for. My partner and I even made a joke at the end of the presentation, and she didn't get it. In fact, she made a huge point that it didn't make sense to the entire class. She needs to go crawl back under that rock of hers.

Lunch was okay. I had mah-jong club. MAH-JONG IS FOR THE TRUE ASIANS, YO.

Swimming was boring. Everyday it makes me miss the cross-country season. The XC season was the best. All my friends, fun runs, talking, ditching, etc. Now I'm separated from half my friends, and Ryan and I are just swimming because we're swimming. I feel like a fish out of water. I miss you, cross-country.

The day wasn't bad I guess. I hung out for a while after school with my friend, and I went home. All in all, it was decent, I guess. But damn, it was freezing.

Tuesday better not suck.

Weekend and Plans

Well, I didn't post yesterday. I was sorta busy. I had Japanese class in the morning, then I took a nap, and then I played Day of Defeat for a few hours.

Then I went to my school's Winter Formal.

Well, it was a crapload of fun. I went with a bunch of my friends all dressed up an everything. We went to California Pizza Kitchen first, and then to the dance at this place called the Nixon Library. It was really just a very fancy, very fun dance. I won't go into specifics right now, but I'll say it was one of the best nights of my life. And yeah, I went with someone. Female.

Continuing:

Next weekend we will be filming UNDERFIRE 2. If you know us then you will know our video UNDERFIRE was one of our best looking videos so far. We're eager to make a new one, for a very long time, but finally we're gonna film the next one. It's gonna be more violent and more intense, but it will be a huge improvement over our last video. More guns, more people, more scenes, more minutes. It'll be great.

And it might rain next week too, so if we can film in rain, it'll look amazing.

That's about all I wanted to say. Till tomorrow.

Henry Makes a Friend

Henry Makes a Friend

I posted the new video up on Youtube today. Check it out if you have time.

Henry Makes a Friend

I'll say that this video is definitely one of our strangest. My original conception for this video was just Ryan and Henry interacting and talking to each other, creating somewhat of a picture of their relationship to one another. Instead we got this: Henry tries to make a random friend at a bench. It's a very strange concept, I know, but realize this, you probably would have had fun if you had to film something like this. It was really fun to film this one, lots of lolz and roflz and stuff like that. It was a good Sunday.

We made a bunch of "jokes" implemented into the script, like the penetrate thing. We just thought it was funny and related to sex, so we put that in there. We also really pushed for a somewhat homosexual scene between the two, which we came up with. That was a really weird scene. We're pretty gross individuals, but it's okay, we don't care.

This was Roger's first time helping with one of our videos. He didn't do any camera or editing, but he, alongside me, directed and wrote a lot of the lines in the film. He's a funny guy, and he knows what's funny.

Oddly enough, the first bit where Henry scoots closer to Ryan took about 4 tries. One of the original ideas was for Henry to put his arm around Ryan right away, but we thought it would best be saved for later, hence became Ryan's gay action. Also, the resolution of this particular scene is crappier than usual because you could briefly see Roger and my shadows at the bottom of the screen, so I had to make some sacrifices there.

Well a new video will be filmed next week, so I'll keep you posted.

Finished Editing

I finished editing my video earlier, just before the deadline of Friday. Not like it was a hard editing job for me, but still, it deserves quality.

I'm getting kinda pissed at the sounds my camera makes when it's recording. It makes this click-click noise when the tape is running and it's noticeable when you have the volume up. I get upset at it sometimes, but I really like this camera. It's made me over 20 videos for almost 2 years now; it's lasted me a long time. Solid camera, but not without it's flaws.

I realized that my buddy Roger is pretty good at the video production process. He's very relaxed and natural at it. I'd definitely ask him again to help me direct and stuff. And my two partners of course are still my partners. It's our thing after all.

Eh, well I decided to post this before I started exporting the video because it'll take a crapload of time.

More on the video tomorrow.

An editing pic

Better Introduction

Just for some clarification, I'm going to give a better introduction to this blog.

My name is Brandon. I'm a video maker.

A lot of things I will be talking about will be video editing and what I'm doing on my current project. I will be saying some more notable things about my editing and some video techniques that I want to share.

But otherwise I'll be talking about how I feel and what I'm playing. I'm a video maker, but still somewhat a kid.

Take today for instance.

It rained today. It was my second day at swimming, my first day wearing a Speedo since 1st grade or so, and I rode home in the rain. I'm gonna edit later but now I'm feeling sorta not up to it. My due date for this video is tomorrow, and I'm almost done, but I'm not sure how long I'll take on this one because I always take longer than I want. I hate being a perfectionist. But I can't help my instinctive nature.

The video I'm doing right now will be on my Youtube channel by tomorrow, I'll give link tomorrow.

On some other notes, I got pretty pissed off at Counter-Strike yesterday. I was playing with my friend Ryan and these two guys joined the game. They killed us over and over and over. It sucked. This is why I play alone with the friendlier bots. They give some mercy too. I started getting really fed up because they would kill us with the same weapons. I now know that the desert eagle is a bitch. I feel more safe playing Team Fortress 2 or Day of Defeat: Source or something like Call of Duty: World at War. But whatever. CSS isn't my thing.

I think I'm making this post long because I have a lot of catching up to do. I've been waiting for the time to make something like this and since it's finally happening, I'm letting it all out. I dunno. Not like many people are gonna read this.

First Post

This blog is just for documenting how I'm feeling and what I've been up to. I felt I needed some way to vent how I felt about some stuff, so I thought this might be adequate. I might post about some crappy things or some good things of the day, what I've been doing, and stuff like that. We'll see how things work out.

Nothing special here, I'm just typing what I think, with the occasional slip up of fingers and backspacing. It's just a thing. Read it, comment, or don't do those things. Whatever. I'm more here for me than anything else. Not many people will be reading this anyway.

Well, I'll post tomorrow.