And now, for something completely different…

Dear TRUE LIFERS,

Think your host is a blog slacker? Tired of the same old depressive rambling…on and on and on and on..? Have you found yourself asking, “When will this TRUE LIFE thing get good? Really good?”

Ah…the answer to that question may be closer than you think! Of course, we have strived toward the progressive in the past, posting links to impressive audio masterpieces composed and performed (with the help of GarageBand) by yours TRUE-ly.

Today, however, this little thing we like to call TRUE LIFE moves beyond the written word. Soars, as Pegasus, leaving mere audio faltering in its wake, the beating of its mighty wings. Yes! Yes…today, TRUE LIFE goes…

Multimedia!

I know, I know..! I know what you’re all saying. You’re saying, “What the hell are you talking about, TRUE?!?”

Huh-wha-?

Oh…er…well…

Okay, I’m certain none of you noticed, but I have been in a bit of a funk over the past few days. Yeah..! No kidding! I know….I hide it well.

Anyway, there are 100 things I SHOULD have done last night, but only one thing I wanted to do. That thing was to FINALLY start sifting through the DV footage that I (and others) shot during the RUNAWAY production, ostensibly for what the industry calls an EPK (Elecronic Press Kit). We mortals know them as “behind the scenes” thingys.

See, I am, like, a MONTH late in getting the tapes (I had them in my backpack, and they stowed away to Minnesota when I came home) back to Filbert Steps. Partly, this is because things have been a bit crazy (as you know)…dry-walling, sick, LA, cancer. You know, the usual. Partly, though, it’s because I haven’t wanted to send them off until I had a chance to take a look at the tapes, perhaps even upload them onto a hard drive and take me own stab at editing them in my copious freetime.

So…last night, Lynn and the kids were at church. I was all alone at home. AND…because I was a superstar cleaner on Tuesday, our office is now spic-n-span, quite the enjoyable place to bide one’s time, as a matter of fact. And that’s what I decided to do.

There I am, sittin’. I play a round of Klondike. Yawn..! Then I click on Safari, thinking I might do a little Internet surfing. …Like I never do THAT! Then I turned and saw the little stack of DV tapes sitting on the shelf behind me. OF COURSE!!!

I grabbed them, shuffling them greedily. I coveted each individual tape, as a pirate fawns over buried treasure that was long lost, now found.

“But there’s one problem,” I told Elvis (the dog). He pricked up his ears and wagged his tail, as if he really cared what I was saying. “There is 16 hours of footage here. I’ve got, like…” I checked the clock. “…Two.”

And there was one other problem, in the form of a little affliction we suffer from around here called NOT ENOUGH HARD DRIVE SPACE! Damned frugality! I shoulda gone for the 80GB hard drive when I bought this darn iMac. But nooOOOoooOOoooo…!

Finally, I came upon one particular tape. It was titled simply: “Flood”.

Ah ha! I almost forgot! My little “documentary” footage about last day of shooting, when the Friar Tuck (the place we were staying) got flooded to high heaven from heavy rains the night before. Of course! I really wanted to edit that together into…something. Why not start tonight? See how far I get.

That was 7:30 pm. Lynn finally got up and grumbled at me to go to bed at…er…well…4:30. …am.

All that said, if you wanna see the fruits of my nine hours of labor, here they are. The movie, which lasts about 6:20, is part one of the saga. I think there is about another 5-6 minutes worth of material I can cull from the remaining footage, but I pretty much just ran out of time. Well, also considering that the whole enchilada would have eaten up about 100MB of storage, I think it was best to break them up, anyway. No one would ever be able to download the thing.

I warn you…it’s kinda dumb. And I threw it all together very quickly and on the fly. And in iMovie, to boot! How consumer software user of me. Yet, hopefully you still get a kick out of it. If I have time this weekend (famous last words), I will try to get the rest of it done. Would be nice to just have it done.

And…of course, it helped lift me out of my funk. Funny how these little projects do that for a guy.

NOTES ABOUT THE FILE: I didn’t know how to do streaming, so be prepared. You’re gonna be downloading the thing. It’s 33MB, so unless you have broadband, I would ease up on your clicker finger. It’s a Quicktime file, so you’ll need that, too. Other than that…enjoy!

Yours TRUE-ly,