As it swelters outside (and I try to be frugal with the A/C inside) I'm holed up with my short film Yukuharu - The Fading of Spring (see my August 4th entry).
I'm cutting the film on an older Intel iMac with Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium and a phenomenal support utility called PluralEyes that syncs multiple sound sources automatically. So far everything is progressing smoothly, which enables me to get into "the zone". In the 90s that zone was sitting in a closet-sized editing suite with 16mm film hanging all around me and obsessing over single frames. I still do that, but without the whirring Steenbeck and clunking splicer.
Until around 2007 -- the last time I really shot and cut anything of note -- I had always been a Final Cut Pro person. However, after several discussions with my talented and highly-knowledgeable cinematographer Paul Leeming, I see now that Premiere (and its native integration with CS) has surpassed FCP in many respects. Not the mention the backlash against FCP X (dissed by some as "iMovie Pro"), which can't even open older FCP project files, while Premiere can.
Back to cutting. Hope to post some official high-res stills by the end of this month.
1 comments:
Good luck with your film. Maybe you can make a film out of my new book, who knows? I just published Japan's Tipping Point: Crucial Choices in the Post-Fukushima World as a short ebook and hope you will take a look at it. A paperback will be available soon. For info, see www.markpendergrast.com. I could email you a review copy. Here's an overview:
Japan's Tipping Point is a small book on a huge topic. In the post-Fukushima era, Japan is the "canary in the coal mine" for the rest of the world. Can Japan radically shift its energy policy, become greener, more self-sufficient, and avoid catastrophic impacts on the climate? Mark Pendergrast arrived in Japan exactly two months after the Fukushima meltdown. This book is his eye-opening account of his trip and his alarming conclusions.
Japan is at a crucial tipping point. A developed country that must import all of its fossil fuel, it can no longer rely on nuclear power, following the massive earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster of March 11, 2011. Critically acclaimed nonfiction writer Mark Pendergrast went to Japan to investigate Japan's renewable energy, Eco-Model Cities, food policy, recycling, and energy conservation, expecting to find innovative, cutting edge programs.
He discovered that he had been naive. The Japanese boast of their eco-services for eco-products in eco-cities. Yet they rely primarily on imported fossil fuel and nuclear power, live in energy-wasteful homes, and import 60% of their food. That may be changing in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Maybe. But as Pendergrast documents, Japan lags far behind Europe, the United States, and even (in some respects) China in terms of renewable energy efforts. And Japan is mired in bureaucracy, political in-fighting, indecision, puffery, public apathy, and cultural attitudes that make rapid change difficult.
Yet Japan is also one of the most beautiful countries in the world, with friendly, resilient people who can, when motivated, pull together to accomplish incredible things.
As an island nation, Japan offers a microcosmic look at the problems facing the rest of the globe. And as Japan tips, so may the world.
Mark Pendergrast, the author of books such as For God, Country and Coca-Cola, Uncommon Grounds, and Inside the Outbreaks, entertains as he enlightens. As he wrote in Japan's Tipping Point: "The rest of this account might seem a strange combination of critical analysis, travelogue, absurdist non-fiction, and call to action. It might be called 'Mark’s Adventures in Japanland: Or, Apocalyptic Visions in a Noodle Shop.'"
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