Daily Update: A Marathon of Sitting

Here I sit, at my girlfriend's mother's dinner table, surrounded by script pages and notebooks and empty pizza boxes. My throat is spent, and my buns have atrophied to jelly after hours in this chair. Today felt a lot longer than it was, but that probably has a lot to do with the sheer girth of the audio file I just created.

That's the big news for today: I'm officially done narrating the audio for the list video. Now I get to pass off the wave form to Chloe and let her work her meticulous magic. The raw project file is an hour and twenty minutes long, but soon we'll have a beautiful .wav file, sliced and spliced, ready for the timeline. I'm expecting it to end up in the ballpark of 17-25 minutes. 

What we don't have are visuals to match the run-time.

Normally I just kind of read over the script and come up with some ideas for the types of visuals we'll need, then we begin the frantic task of sifting through the great wide internet for imagery that could feasibly fit the bill. But with a video like this... options are scant.

There are a few possible routes we can take, here:

• Spend many hours digging for visuals that can just work, then pan them across the screen slowly (because there won't be time to add the slight animation effect I'd like to)

• Choose a select few quality images that might not match all the material in the script at all points, but will look pleasant with animated effects either looping or animating slowly throughout the duration of the list item

• Wring what money we can out of our bank account in order to pay Felipe for 6-10 custom visuals for the list, which will be quite expensive, but probably much faster for Chloe and I

I'm trying to determine which path we'll take here, and input is welcome. It won't necessarily change my decision, but I'm open to opinions. Right now I'm very much leaning toward the second option.

That's about where I am with production at the moment. 

Phew. Alright. I feel like lately these have just been like [INSERT DETAILS ABOUT VIDEO PRODUCTION PROCESS].template. 

If you guys wanna know how I'm doing personally... I'd say I'm in a kind of equilibrium. I have things to look forward to, I feel productive, I have support, but I also spend a lot of time with my butt in a chair, and my mind is pretty much wiped of anything that isn't video-production-related by the end of the day. I love it, but I worry it saps away my humanity at times. I'd like to be able to talk about my interests outside of work, but... I don't... really... have those anymore?

It should get easier when we have Felipe on. I'll be able to do more for myself when I can do a bit more delegating. For now, it is what is. Work hard for the things you love, then let them love you back.

Speaking of which, I'm going to clock out for the evening. Time to throw away the pizza boxes and put away the papers.

Good night, one and all. I'll have lovelier things to say to you tomorrow, I promise.

—Benji