If you're following us on social media, you may have seen a cryptic allusion to PaulT (aka: PlacesLost) and I joining forces with our respective extra-curricular interests and making a day of it. Spoiler alert: Paul was looking to do something fun for himself in the world of video, and so he interviewed me about my Superman hobby for a while, and then he shot my my collection of stuff. Also: we ate pizza.
I think its still a bit up in the air what Paul will do with the footage, but we had fun, and I think I talked either as an interviewee or just running my mouth from 10 in the morning until about five PM or whenever Paul departed.
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| This promises to upstage Nixon/ Frost, I am sure. Yes, that is me in my office. We're a bit out of focus here, so consider it a teaser and get off Paul's case. |
I haven't worked in video in about a decade, and it was fascinating to see how the available technology has changed in the pro-sumer category. The tiny camera (with no tape, no less), this interesting track for moving shots that's maybe 25 pounds and fits on two standard tripods, and what I kept talking about was the lights. (A) they're battery powered, (B) they're LED and "blue", (C) they're plenty powerful, (D) you can make adjustments in camera that used to be a major issue when dealing with light back in the day and (E) you can just hold one of these lights in your hand and in no way will lose all the flesh off your fingers, which used to be SOP with video lighting.
It was fun helping out and getting to talk endlessly about Superman and myself. I probably gave Paul a 1:50 ratio of usable stuff, but I got to talk and nobody could tell me to shut up, and that's a pretty big rarity when I'm talking Superman. I mean, Jamie is a good and decent person, and even she has her limit. Its not so much that she tells me to be quiet as that she'll interrupt with a completely unrelated question or statement that lets me know "I quit listening to you, like, fifteen minutes ago and have moved on with my life".
Anyway, I hope Paul got some usable stuff, and he'll share the final product at some point. He's also a pretty handy editor, I hear.
Today I had a fantastic lunch with family at Green Pastures in South Austin. It was a celebration of birthdays (we have three in rapid succession in the family), the upcoming Easter holiday, and, of course, my brother's engagement.
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| And now we have an answer to this question |
And, after two weeks of illness, then two weeks of travel, various obligations, etc... I had only worked out occasionally using my elliptical machine at home, and so today I finally returned to the gym. Y'all, a month off from working out is just enough to make coming back the first time less than an ideal workout and kind of embarrassing as you have to reduce all the weight on the machines, and you realize "oh, gee, I sure managed to fall apart in this brief interval".
But, I actually missed the gym (even if I did not miss their music selection). I didn't miss it just because various body parts were suddenly hurting for no reason prior to the return to the gym, but because lifting lots of weights repeatedly turns out to be fairly relaxing both during and after the exercise.
So, I missed a month, and I'm off target for my fitness goals, but I'm glad to get back to Planet Fitness and my love/ hate relationship with the ab workout equipment.
I can only imagine the techniques that Paul probably had to use for capturing this sort of thing. Maybe a stack of comics or Superman figurines left next to some tasty snacks on a table? Motion activated infrared cameras and microphones set up to catch the guttural mutterings of the rare, elusive North American fanboy as he snatches his prey and ambles back into his native habitat, muttering under his breath about how the new stuff isn't as good as the old stuff?
ReplyDeleteWhere were you when we were thinking of ideas for b-roll footage?
ReplyDelete