As soon as the ground dries, I can turn the sky over to Kath to finish.

The Green, Green Grass of Home

You got lucky babe
Yeah, you got lucky, babe

In the meantime, I thought that I should describe those screen shots I make of Premier a little. Or at least explain what’s what.

Here’s a map of the screen shot from the 13th:

Questions?

Note: most of the images I post here are small and/or very low resolution. This is due to this site being hosted on a free server and I don’t to use up my allocated space.

I dropped four flights and cracked my spine,
honey, come quick with the iodine

This blog is called “Inside LTV Studios” and right now it’s not pretty in here. The main drive that houses the video files, session files, notes, etc. for LTV died today. Or so I thought. What ended up happening is that the index file (for lack of knowing any actual terminology) for the drive got corrupted during an unscheduled power-down (read: my fucking computer shut off because I asked it to do too many things at the same time). When I powered back up, the harddrive in question wasn’t being recognized, so I started unplugging drives from the motherboard to try to determine where the problem was (hoping for a loose connection that wasn’t there). No matter which SATA plug I used for the drive, my pc wouldn’t recognize it.

Fuck. At this point, I sent an email out giving a warning that the show might not go on.

I plugged the drive into the mac via USB and it recognized the drive as unformatted (not surprising, as the drive was never formatted for mac use). I made a tiny, 8 MB partition on the drive with the mac and plugged it back into the pc.

All the while, I’m running a program called Recuva (the third one I tried) to recover any latent copies of video files from my other drives. See, on Friday morning, I moved all of my video files on the computer to this 2 TB drive for ease of locating clips, etc. As I moved the files, I deleted them from their original drives. That’s where Recuva comes in. It finds files that have been deleted (even if the recycle bin has been emptied). So I’m trying to salvage any files that I can, in the worst case scenario that the LTV drive is unrecoverable.

Ok – back to the LTV drive. I just put a tiny partition on it and have plugged it back into the pc. Hey! It recognizes the drive, but doesn’t know how to handle the mac partition. I delete the mac partition and make a pc partition over the entire disc (again, it’s 2 TB). This step requires me to reformat the drive. This is the really scary part. Reformatting a drive is a good way to fuck up latent files. I might be able to use the drive, but getting the old files off may be a lot more difficult. I don’t think I have any other choice. I select “quick format” and pull the trigger.

After the drive reformatted, I ran Recuva. No Files Found.

Fuck.

But then the program prompted me: “Would you like to do a deep scan?” Why not?

After a long while, Recuva found 73,025 files, including everything I had been working on in the past week (plus the mixdowns from the past few shows).  I am in the process of recovering some of the files now to see if they work, but it’s a slow process. I won’t know the extent of the loss/damage until tomorrow evening, probably. But I am optimistic that enough can be salvaged to make sure that we have a show to watch on the 26th.

To give you an idea of where I was in the process before the drive malfunction occurred, here’s a screen shot of Premier:

The red areas show the unfinished segments of the show.

It might look like there are large gaps to fill still (and there are!), but I already have content in mind for those parts. Not only are the non-red parts done, they are rendered (which is the slowest step in the process), so I was feeling pretty good about my progress.

When the computer shut down, I was rendering the Chrome Stallion footage, which will be used as filler wherever it’s needed. Here are some shots of the filming from this morning.

Filming set-up

Another "action" shot

So that’s what was going on inside LTV Studios. I am cautiously hopeful that the 0′s and 1′s behave and I can get back to building the show ASAP, but there is still a lot of uncertainty. There is also the task of finding 2 TB of empty space on my other drives to temporarily put my recovered files (if I recover the files directly back to the drive they are on, I run a high risk of overwriting the data that I’m trying to recover). Once I recover all that I can, I can move back those files to the drive and all will be well. It’s just a little bit of a juggling act in the meantime.

For those interested, here’s the culprit (during the recovery process):

The LTV drive

Fun!

Part 1
09:38 – 13:21 — Bobcat Story (Ivey): simple two-person shoot with suitcase – see storyboard
13:32 – 14:00 — Loatheline (Boyle): show the new phone number on screen while Boyle reads the old numbers

Part 2
00:00 – 01:02 — Dog Drag (Ivey): leash on car
04:03 – 10:41 — Goat (Art Dibbs): if time permits, I want to do a drawn animated video for the song

Part 3
00:00 – 02:44 — Red Eye (Ivey): puppet Ivey over background of farm
02:44 – 05:38 — Burning Bunny (Snider): stop-action + live action models using firefighter figures and mechanical device (see prototype of spinning mechanism – 01, 02)

Part 4
00:00 – 03:38 — Animal Cannon (Plazaphonic): stop-action with farm
03:38 – 05:51 — Red Eyed 2 (Ivey): more puppet footage; continuation of part 3 bit
07:07 – 07:13 — Southtown Jims: maybe show footage of BNR postering party on Sunday (wrong band, but it’s close)
14:06 – 14:31 — Pet Casket: DHL footage of Pat from the old LTV xmas show; recut

As you can see, there are a lot of gaps. There are a bunch of unused (or slightly used) clips from the aquarium. These may come in handy for long passages of music.

I also have some non-specific clips to shoot, such as the Chrome Stallion, which will be used where needed.

In terms of other clips from the archives, I am pretty certain that Boyle has given me footage of his cats, and Daly has sent me clips in the past that show a young Lenny, etc. I also shot some potentially useable footage of hummingbirds and other wildlife. These types of clips will fit in somewhere.

I would like to find a nearby petty-zoo or other collection of farm animals. There is a great animal collection in Tillamook at the Blue Heron Cheese Factory, but it’s unlikely that I’ll be in Tillamook before April 26. I need to do some internet research to find other working farms in the area that are open to the public.  Even a field of cows would be useful. I do have some footage of the police horses in their stable; nothing too compelling, but it is thematic.

Shopping List:
In order to shoot the above clips, I need supplies. Fortunately, the local Dollar Store has the majority of these items:

• Foam core: the farm will be built on foam core. It’s rigid, fairly non-porous, and cheap
• Paint: I am out of acryclic or tempura paint. I need — in the very least — primaries and white. This will be used to paint the farm scenery
• Sandpaper: for dirt area on the farm
• sharpies: ’cause I need new ones. I done dulled the tips!
• Food coloring: to color cotton balls for bushes, etc. for the farm
• dried coconut: colored, this will make suitable grass texture (thanks to Kath for finding this tidbit on the ‘web)
• Condensed Milk: this may be used to make the paint glossy for a little more depth. I may try a glue wash instead
• Gummy Bear: burning bunny stand-in
• trinkets: I know that the Dollar Store has little animals that grow in water. That might come in handy to fill space

Since the farm scene is going to take some time to construct, I will probably start building this today, after work. Here are some very rough concept sketches. While the farm base dries, I will start building the video session files for the entire show. The next post will (hopefully) show some progress on the farm set, as well as the preliminary video session file.

EDIT: In looking over the list of things to make/film, I suspect I’ll have to simplify the footage gathering process by taking a trip to the zoo. Not ideal, but it’ll be better than having a blank screen.

Part 1
00:00 – 00:20 — scifi opening
00:20 – 01:46 — Mule Story (Clete)
01:46 – 02:11 — Rat in a Cage (Pat)
02:21 – 06:34 — Blackie’s Cat Bone (Boyle)
06:34 – 09:00 — Earl (BL Wassoon)
09:00 – 09:38 — Music (Plazaphonic)
09:38 – 13:21 — Bobcat Story (Ivey)
13:21 – 13:32 — music
13:32 – 14:00 — Loatheline (Boyle)
14:00 – 15:00 — music

Part 2
00:00 – 01:02 — Dog Drag (Ivey)
01:02 – 04:03 — Bear Story (Jon Salmon)
04:03 – 10:41 — Goat (Art Dibbs)
10:41 – 11:10 — 12 Bar Taquitos
11:10 – 13:07 — Seattle Story (DG)
13:07 – 13:14 — music
13:14 – 13:52 — Animal List
13:41 – 14:17 — SE Bureau (Snider)
14:17 – 15:00 — music

Part 3
00:00 – 02:44 — Red Eye (Ivey)
02:44 – 05:38 — Burning Bunny (Snider)
05:38 – 07:06 — Southtown Jims
07:06 – 07:29 — TBFKATTBT
07:29 – 09:46 — KO Cat (Ivey)
09:46 – 10:13 — music
10:13 – 10:48 — Cat Quinn (Boyle)
10:48 – 11:20 — music
11:20 – 11:57 — Plazaphonic
11:57 – 12:50 — Eating Alone (Snider)
12:50 – 13:08 — music
13:08 – 13:23 — Drop D (JC)
13:23 – 14:36 — Starting to Snow Again
14:36 – 15:00 — music

Part 4
00:00 – 03:38 — Animal Cannon (Plazaphonic)
03:38 – 05:51 — Red Eyed 2 (Ivey)
05:51 – 07:07 — Whale sound
07:07 – 07:13 — Southtown Jims
07:51 – 11:44 — Dog Hit (Ivey)
12:28 – 12:55 — you’re being recorded
12:55 – 14:06 — Music (E-Lael)
14:06 – 14:31 — Pet Casket
14:31 – 15:00 — closing stuff

This list isn’t totally inclusive. Some of the really short bits (2 or 3 seconds) aren’t listed. Those will be resolved during the video mixing.

The next step is to start marking which bits I have video ideas for, then see how much will have to be supplied by old theme-related (hopefully) video clips from the archive/library. That will be addressed in the next post.

Like the majority of LTV shows, the audio is straight from the LoatheCast archives. As much as it would be nice to be able to alter the audio, I cannot. One of the “rules” of these LTV shows is that the original audio must remain untouched; only video is new. Back when the Animal audio was being produced, we were not thinking in terms of video. Therefore, there is little-to-no pre-existing video footage for any of this audio.

This episode will be finished and ready to air on April 26 (for the “secret” chat). Today is April 11. That gives 15 days to produce an hour-long show.

Since the existing audio is going to determine the video content, let’s look at the audio:

Part 1 of LoatheCast 6: Animal

Part 2 of LoatheCast 6: Animal

Part 3 of LoatheCast 6: Animal

Part 4 of LoatheCast 6: Animal

The next step is to look more closely at each part and start blocking out chunks of space that will represent each video clip. For instance, in part 1, from 9:40 until 13:20, Jason Ivey is telling his “Bobcat in a Suitcase” story.  In the next post, I’ll talk a little more about this step of the process in more detail.

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This is from Pat:

To put things in perspective, I produced the intro. I got it together, took three cars on a trip around the treasure valley and directed all of the shots. Josh edited it. I am grateful for him doing that in the crazy time we had leading up to the LIVE SHOW. I might have edited it differently, except that I hate editing. He makes different decisions than I would, and it’s telling that he used material that he shot more than from the other cameras. I might have made the “montage” tighter, but, to his credit, we wanted to make the idea of just how long it might take to “run” the entire Treasure Valley be expressed. Next time, I would use music in a more cohesive manner. But I hate editing, and so we went with his finished product. That’s a lesson I learned, and you have too.

I arrived back a the studio during the airing of the video. Josh was in full DIRECTOR mode. Or, Josh was in PRODUCER mode and had Randy Florer in the control room DIRECTING. So when I got back (if you don’t know, I am in charge of our Boise City Council production…I have to make our airing of their meeting go…). So when I got back, I just let it all flow. Josh and Randy had it, and for me to take reigns would have been dickish and unnecessary.
Any ideas I had about going on the show were for filler. Alex said what was needed. Bringing the Board on was political, and fluffy, but it was what it was.
I just watched the whole show for the first time tonight, and I was glad and happy for what we did. I know you know a bit about “public access television” and what drama that’s about. I think we did a decent show touting our services and mission. It is what it is, and what we have is a pretty cool thing. I think our show proved that.

I might just add that we only had about 2 weeks to prepare. And we avoided trying to be to “telethon” like. We’re saving that for later, for when we can devote more energy and focus to it. And maybe to note that James Coberly Smith’s guitar did have audio at the beginning, and then it vanished, in the mysterious way of public access has.