Things I’ve learned whiles editing

Film Editor at work (source - http://www.bls.gov)

 

The past few days have given me a glimpse into what my life as a full time film/video editor is going to be like. Most of our second semester project work is done and has been left in the capable hands of the school’s editors, including yours truly.

The software I am currently using is Edius, not my preferred choice but I’m making do, and it seems pretty robust and reliable for the most part until it crashes after an AutoSave. I can’t complain too much since I got this copy for free.

The undo function.

I can’t count the number of times I had re-sized a shot on the Time Line I wasn’t meant to re-size or deleted one that wasn’t meant to be deleted because my touch pad was fucking up or I was awake at 3am when I should have been hugging my pillow tight, deep in sleep.

Manual Saving Vrs Auto Save.

Always save your work-in-progress manually and don’t rely too much on the software to do it for you. No matter how good the software might be it might miss some very crucial changes when it is in AutoSave mode and so take you back a couple of steps if you manage to recover your files after a crash.

Untrained students make terrible actors

No joke. Trust me when I tell you that you haven’t seen bad acting until you have seen a student production even when the takes are good ones. From missed lines to over the top acting to refusing to take instructions from the directors or the display of Diva-like attitude even though you are clearly not meant to be on screen.

Keeping awake

This is composed of a multitude of solutions from coffee to occasionally dipping feet into cold water whiles making sure you don’t short circuit the house by electrocuting yourself to standing up and stretching after every 2hours to watching porn…. scratch that, watching hard core porn with acrobatic porn actors to keep your interest piqued but without blowing one’s load. The aim here is not to fall asleep and you know after the release it is all downhill from there 🙂

Shortcuts

Knowing the shortcuts for performing various functions on a particular software is essential. Apart from cutting down time during the editing process, it also keeps both hands busy since mouse clicking involves the use of the dominant hand. This last tip comes from my fear of muscle atrophy so I try as much as possible to use the majority of my muscles all of the time 🙂

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Video_Babies

I saw parts of this documentary when the film maker Thomas Balmes was interviewed on the culture segment I think, on France24. I always knew from the first time that I saw a short clip of it that it would be a hit with audiences worldwide. I mean who doesn’t love babies?Everyone does but if you don’t, there is a special place in hell for the likes of you so be prepared.

The documentary which I will be watching soon enough, follows the lives of four different babies born at practically the same time but living in four different places around the world. They are each born in a town in Namibia, USA, Tokyo and Mongolia.

I will give a more detailed review of this documentary when I have personally seen it once for the enjoyment and twice to dissect it with clinical precision for review purposes. In the mean time though, enjoy this trailer.

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Video_Perola-Omboio

This Angolan girl not only has a magnificent voice but has the face to match. A true African beauty that will melt the coldest of hearts with just a wink and her vocal dexterity. Enjoy.

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Video_Thandiswa Mazwai_Ingoma

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Video_T.I ft Chris Brown _Get Back Up

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Video_Press Pause

Still waiting for the day Xtreme sports will make a debut in Ghana.

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Yesterday’s TV _The One Show

Joycelyn of The One Show

These are the things I learned from watching Viasat1’s The One Show yesterday.

1. Ghanaian women and their bras

• Plunge bras are for evening wear and Balcony bras are not suitable for fully busted girls,
• Women should get their busts measured every six months,
• The working Ghanaian woman needs nipple covers since showing nipples in the workplace apparently is offensive,
• And some Ghanaian women wear corsets to keep their bodies lithe,
• Going to bed with tight bras on can cause breast cancer,

And last but not least

• Women are self conscious of their panty lines when they’re wearing denim trousers(If only they knew how much of a turn that is for men they would buy jeans that have panty lines sown into them)

Tips by Lydia C.E.O of Coin deluxe

2. Our Intellectual Mcs are all in the Diaspora.

One thing I realized was that no matter how much people like me want the Ghanaian public to embrace real good music( in this case hip hop) one that talks about life  but not just about parties, it will remain apathetic and in the dark. For one, most of our radio djs won’t play songs that are not on the  pop Top 40 chart (because of corporate responsibilities) so the Ghanaian audience doesn’t know about them.Also we find ourselves in a time where socially conscious music isn’t seen as danceable and popular anymore so they are not bothered about liking or listening to something that the next person hasn’t heard(but that is where most of the fun is). So if you are djing for the club or on radio during prime time, playing Fela isn’t really an option; that is if you want to keep your job.

So even though I was excited to see an artist like M.anifest being given such a platform to talk about his music, it was but a momentary period of bliss since experience has taught me that by tomorrow it will all fade away. The Ghanaian brain works that way unless it is constantly reminded of how great something is.

Wanlov da Kubolor comes to mind. Even though he might be the exception to the rule, he would have gone the route of all the underground acts that don’t make it locally but end up playing in small clubs in Europe, if he hadn’t gotten the needed air time. I suppose timing also played a huge role in his success since he was a breath of fresh air when he first came out with “smallest time”. It could also be because he is “obroni” and you know how we Ghanaians literally worship our “obronis”.

M.anifest did himself and his fans proud though with his very thoughtful and precise observations of day to day life in the big city. He even sited our back-of-the-truck guerrilla marketers as a source of inspiration for his music during the course of the interview.

His blackstar video would definitely, if actively promoted that is, take some time to sink in and appreciated especially when it would be competing for attention with videos from the likes of Phamous Philms. And there were no girls shaking their behinds in the video either, another minus. A big minus for the Ghanaian audience.

It was a good interview and I wish M.anifest and his label the luck they need to market their music here.

3. Quotes from “The good, the bad and the ugly” shown on on Joy TV

” When you have to shoot, shoot. Don’t talk”

“In this world my friend there are two types of people. The ones with a loaded gun and the ones who dig. You, dig!.”

After watching this movie it was clear to me that the director deliberately went out of his way to make one of the coolest movies of all time. And it was.

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Video “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part1”

Like the other movies in this franchise, I will put off seeing this one until I have read the book. I like to compare and contrast the changes that occur during a book adaptation pertaining to the plot, characters and locations as written and also imagined by me. In some screen adaptations of novels and short stories, the story gets so chopped up and rearranged that the movie title becomes the only faithful adaptational element in it but with the Harry Potter movies, the general consensus is that they have been fairly accurate in interpreting the books so far.

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Video- Jackass 3D trailer

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Music- Wanlov Kubolor_”Ververita” aka Opro song

 

Wanlov (The African gypsy)

Photo source: sampsonweezy.blogspot.com

This is a new track from Kubolor’s latest “Brown Card” album. If this track is a hint of the overall theme of the album, then I think it would be a very good album.

Wanlov Kubolor- Ververisa opro song by musikear
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