Editing: Built my first sequence in Final Cut Pro today, 3:45 at the airport (the opening scenes of the movie). I must say, it’s too long, and there are some cheats in it, but I kind of like it. If I could get my infrared working on the Powerbook, I’d post the draft version. But as I’m finding out (the hard way), what I don’t know about Mac connectivity can fill several books (and costs me precious time).
Exposure and lighting from cut to cut is a huge factor, or at least it’s very distracting to me right now. I’m hoping we’ll be able to finesse some of it away with color balancing and other post effects. In the mean time, I’m just trying to assure at least some kind of complementarity, if not actual continuity, in the light of abutting cuts.
Music: Once again, SoMa FM proves a great editing companion. This morning they streamed LTJ Bukem’s Inward Journey, a drum-and-bass CD set that has a couple of really chill, contemplative tracks on it. What I didn’t know about ambient, jungle, and drum-and-bass could fill… etc., etc.
What else happened today: My friends’ newly renamed memorial to the World Trade Center went live tonight. We watched from the Hudson River as the switch was thrown. From our first angle, the two beams overlapped almost perfectly. From other points, though, including Canal and Greenwich Streets, 6th Avenue & West 4th, and other stops on my way home, the beam were perfectly delineated. John et al had paid special attention to the proportional spacing and the crisp edge between the towers, and the lights communicate that amazingly well. In fact, I just found Gustavo’s comments on Slate: “…in effect, we’re not rebuilding the towers themselves, but the void between them.”
And while there was a sense of sadness building up before the lighting, I surprise myself by how comforting it is to see something again in the skyline. That something there–again, still–could be an unexpected solace for people who worried that only the buildings themselves are being remembered.