Iterations: Day 29
2.8.15
Day 29
I think about the iterative process a lot. There are so many good talkers out there. People that do something once and then preach about it. People that post what they did in their day on Facebook and then find a way, at the very end because they just can’t walk away, to turn it into advice for everyone else. And there might be some people that listen, because they think they are lower ranking in life than the person posting, but what those messages are really saying is “amateur.” I’m not bagging on these people, not totally, because I’m not trying to be a hypocrite. I’ve been there, still am there, and am working on getting away from there all the time. That doesn’t change the fact that it’s an amateur move.
The iterative process weeds people out. Like how when I first started recording pieces for Seeds a year ago I just threw it all on my computer. Well then I blew out the hard drive because I didn’t realize how much storage it would take. I didn’t know that a 20 minute clip of 30fps video shot in 720HD would take up 3 GB of space on my drive. I didn’t know that I could hook an external drive through Final Cut Pro as the default location for saving files. I also didn’t know that I was going to have a hard time deciphering which pieces were edited with method and which ones still needed to be edited. I had no idea what I already uploaded because I was just memorizing all of it at first. And what happens after you film 150 videos and leave them for a month is that you forget what is what, or at least it gets confusing enough to eliminate any chance of certainty. Memorizing things, not being organized, pretending that I don’t need to pay attention to details, all amateur moves that I still make on a daily basis.
So then what?
Then I started buying hard drives. Started labeling them by curriculum levels and date ranges. I started naming all the files based on a system I created > Company Name, Camp Level, Client Name, Date. I got a binder and made notes of which pieces I’d filmed, which ones I’d edited, and which ones I’d uploaded. I got a second camera so I could keep the curriculum filming separate from the trailer filming. That way the streams of uploading could be kept separate and be done more efficiently. I made a system of writing down file numbers on the camera so the importing process was seamless. I knew which piece corresponded with which DSC_ file number so I could load them straight into their designated area in FCP. I did a million other things.
Why is this important?
I learned these things because I needed to learn them to survive. Like evolution. I was working so much, repeat, doing so much actual work that I had to modify my behavior to be productive enough to make the cut. And this is a big deal to me because in my heart I’m the lazy kid that doesn’t ever finish what he starts. But I take this conversation into a production studio, one that has been in this business for years, and they are going to look at me and say, “No shit bro.” And that will make me feel good. Because we don’t need to talk about it. I’ll have been indirectly invited into the conversation of non conversations because we’ll be the type of people that just work and don’t talk. And this will be the most important thing I will have accomplished in a long time.
