Sunday 15 January 2012

MAY I SHARE MY DAY - DISASTER TO PERFECTION IN 8 HOURS

Howdy Canadian winter folks,

now isn't life like that - one wakes up into a disaster fozen cold water pipes to main floor washroom  (since i know how to thaw pipes it's really a minor disaster - and i know that when the overnight temp hits -25c that cold water pipe on the overhang washroom extension i built years back freezes. ) if one can't repair it themselves costs spell disaster - but when on can then the expensive disaster turns into a modest problem that one quickly remedies - after thawing the cold water pipe, i made a great 'cream of leek' soup of the day which is rare for me since i usually don't buy leeks but the chinese superstore had them on sale and i buy 'sale items' always over full price ones since I cook so much i'm aware of costs - then worked away on my movies and that went well - FCPRO actually didn't give me problems - then a game of scrabble and for a change i won - then out for a riverside ski and my tore painful heel was healed enough not to give me such a pain that i'd have to give up and come back since it was really a fine day in the sun despite the -15c it was probably half that in the sun and nature was out there greeting me and the other 3 skiers who's path i crossed - so of the 1.3 million people in this area, 4 of us were skiing ... makes one wonder what the others may be doing on this fine Canadian winter mmmmmmmm?

p.s. while i was skiing along the River i had this nice plump chicken in the new oven (bought a new oven/fridge recently after 25 years with the old ones) roasting with a nice rice based stuffing - when i got back i augmented the chicken with some really nice french fries from potatoes i bought in NB - very tasty meal that i'm now vigorously consuming after my great skiing exercise -

hope ur winter day was also fruit-full and fun ??


Mr. PETER 'Chuckles' EVANCHUCK

Saturday 7 January 2012

ahhhhhhhh FRUSTRATION GALORE - the never ending search and rescue of older projects and older cameras

  I don't know who it was that said, 'it ain't easy.' or 'It's not over 'till it's over.' probably a few million comedians over the centuries. Well i'm now repeating those well used words 'cause such a couple days have i had with camera problems and it seems not a FinalCutPro problem but a old decaying camera problem.
 A decade or so back i shot about 12 hours recording a biPolar buddy's 'art therapy' tour of travelling on the cheap, sleeping in or around my old Volvo wagon in tents or just on the ground,  and he taking pics of Canada's World Heritage sites from Toronto to the tip of the Northern Peninsula of Nfld. at L'Ainse aux Meadows where the icebergs float from the arctic ocean along the Lab. coast between Nfld and Labrador.
It was about June of '99 and the weather was fine for the start of the journey. So after about two weeks of 'roughing it' we returned with some great footage - it was screened but very little was done with it until  a few years later when it started to go from editor to editor without completion then we both had moved on and that footage lay dormant until about 3-4 years ago when I got back into movie making at a pro level and started to learn FCPro bought some equipment and got a job that took me back to the maritimes shooing in Nfld and NB.
Then I remembered that footage checked it out and knew there was a fine movie to be made with it - then once again i had editor problems and once again it lay dormate for a while until i learned FCPro and got more serious about tying up loose ends and using some of that endless footage i shot over the years but never made into completed movies. Also i ran into Marco the photographer, again and we sort of renewed our friendship. He was still sort of hoping to do something with his new Leica digital camera but wasn't that active any longer since his new meds for his mania had given him peace of mind but put on about 140 lbs. So now he was FAT MARCO and ten years later no longer energetic and wild.



story to continue in next blog ....

Monday 2 January 2012

The learning never stops with FCPro

  The other day i pulled up one of my docs to continue working on it after a rather long absence - Much to my surprise things were not good -
    On my Fantom ext. drive half the movie was showing red blocks instead of the image and telling me that i was missing media - 'Media Offline' was the red reminder of shots/clips that were no longer viewable. A year ago when i was just learning FCPro this would have caused great consternation in my editing life as it would have sent any director/editor into a bit of a frenzy since working so hard to get it this far and then having more problems is no fun BUT that was then and this is now.
  Now after sort of learning enough NOT to go beserk, i started to attempt to figure out what went wrong but it was with the help of a professional editor that things cleared up instantly. Here's how one can 'locate media' that's on another drive but no longer on ur new drive. First connect the 'other external drive to a usb imput on ur iMAC - Go to the tiny 'camera' ikon on the time line's upper right hand side and set ur mouse pointed on it - a pull down menu will indicate that it's the 'find master shot' ikon when u click on that u'll notice in ur bin/browser a highlighted shot/clip - right click on that ikon and up will come a window menu - scroll down to 'connect media' click on that and another window appears with instructions to 'locate' the missing media from the original drive location - when it locates it on the lower right hand side u'll click on the 'choose' button then when new window comes up u click on the button saying 'connect' click on that button - now then connects ur missing media from ur original ( LaCie) drive to ur new Fantom drive and turns the red 'missing media' info on ur time line/canvas to the actual visual/sound shot/clip .... and peace returns to the director's frenzied mind
   Good luck and good editing.. it is fun when everything works smoothly , isn't it??

Producer/Director PETER EVANCHUCK