Sunset #2

I started to work on a small movie project this week. I've not done much work on any of my other, higher priority, projects, but I thought this one might get the ball rolling.

Recently I've watched a lot of the relaxation / autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) videos on YouTube. They helped me cope when my wife was sick.

I also noticed that they are quite popular; some have millions of views. So I thought I'd like to make my own.

One thing that I noticed about some of the ASMR videos, after my brother pointed it out, was that while it appears to be a “live” video, it is actually a still photo. They've added in some animated bits to make it seem more real. My brother pointed out that the clouds in one video didn't move, even after a couple of hours. I've seen several 4 hour video where the angle of the Sun doesn't change. I'd like to do one where things do change.

I tried twice to do a video of the sunset from my office window. The second one turned out better, so I decided to work with it. I got about 1 hour and 50 minutes of usable video. Unfortunately, as it gets darker outside, the image starts to get noisy. I've noticed that other cameras do the same thing when I shoot in low light conditions. Maybe I should do videos where it doesn't get dark out.

I used a Kodak video camera I got for our visit to China in 2009. It was a simple fixed focus, auto exposure camera with only 4 buttons to control it. Not exactly a professional camera. I was worried that pointing the camera at the sun would destroy the image sensor, which is why I decided to use my old camera. While I didn't want to emulate Alan Bean, if it did get damaged, that would give me an excuse to buy a new camera. As it turned out, the image sensor seems to be just fine. All the same, I think I should look into newer cameras to see if it makes sense to get one.

The camera will only record for an hour or so and then stop. That is a bit of a hassle, but checked on the camera every 10 minutes or so, then stop and restart the recording just before the hour was up. The camera shut down completely after a little over 2 hours. I think it over heated.

I ended up with three segments of video. There was a slight jar each time I stopped and restarted the camera, which I needed to cut out. With the stuff I had to cut out and the time it took to stop and restart the camera, there is a slight gap in the time line. Although the gap is only a second or so, it produced a noticeable jump. I used a cross fade and it looks much better. The movement seems to speed up for a second or two. I could likely fix that too, but I am not sure it is really necessary.

Another problem, which I should have caught when I set up to record, was that you can see the reflection of the camera in the window in the corner of the screen. I got around that with a zoom in. That isn't an ideal solution. I will need to avoid that problem the next time.

To finish it off, I added some simple titles. I've played the video on my TV several times and I think it looks OK.

What I still need to do is develop the soundscape. In a proper ASMR video, you need to have some sort of white noise run through out the video. This is usually wind or rain or water falls. None of those sounds make sense in my video. While I did record sound, because the camera was inside, the sound is very quiet. You can hear me walking around. There is also a slight hum. I think that is the computer. That really won't do. I will need to record some typical outdoors sounds in my neighbor hood: people walking, people walking down the gravel lane, some wind, some birds, dogs, cats, and maybe the occasional car or bus passing in the distance.

This is a good first try, and I do plan to finish it up. However, I want to try it again. I know we get some much more beautiful sunsets now and then and would like to catch one of those. I also would like to get some day time videos at other locations, like along the river or maybe in the woods or mountains.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

Slow Progress on the "The Barrier"

I did a little on "The Barrier" this week. My wife's illness has progressed and that is a higher priority for me than this project, so I don't expect to have much time for "The Barrier".

It's been at least a month since I did any work on "The Barrier". This week I got back on to it. Mostly I planned out what I need to do, and I didn't do any actual writing.

My main objective was to see how to fit the new scene I developed into the story. I had to rework the outline to fit it in. I had to delete one scene, add a new scene, and modify another scene to make it all work.

I also wanted to shift the focus of the story to give more emphasis to the storyline about the traffic barrier and less on the traffic impact study.

I deleted four scenes about the traffic impact study. I will have to revise one other scene to patch up the problems caused when I cut the other scenes. It was hard to delete the scenes because I thought they were good. I had revised two of the scenes earlier and lost that material too.

That said, I think it improves the movie as a whole. They do say that often you need to cut your favourite scene to make a movie work. Fortunately, my favourite scene survived. At least so far.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

Film to Video Transfer

A few weeks ago I bought an 8mm/super 8 film to video transfer unit made by Wolverine. I wanted to use it to transfer some old home movies. It has been a bit of a struggle.

Old Home Movies

Many years ago, about 1983 or 1984, I used an old projector and a rented video camera to transfer all of our families home movies to VHS tape. As I recall, it took me about a day. Later, in 2004, I converted the VHS tape to a DVD. The image quality after a couple of transfers is not nearly as good as the original film. There was some loss of colour quality in the initial transfers and I didn't do a really great job of focusing.

For quite some time now, I've wanted to do a new transfer from the original film to digital files. Our old super 8 projector isn't very reliable and I'm reluctant to use it. I did some video transfers for “Contingency” using a 16mm projector and a digital camera. The quality was poor, but good enough for what I wanted to do.

Film Transfer Options

I looked into what it would cost to get the film transferred by a professional outfit. It looked as if I'd need to spend in excess of $1,000 at least. I couldn't justify that kind of money to myself.

I came across an 8mm/Super 8 film to video transfer unit made by a company called Wolverine. It cost about $450 Canadian, so a lot less than what it would cost to get some one else to do the transfer. I figured that it would be cheaper to do the transfers myself, then I could resell or even give away the unit.

There were quite a few videos posted on YouTube by people who have used the unit, so I watched those before I decided to buy. People seemed to be quite happy with the image quality, so I decided to go ahead.

I got the unit a couple weeks ago and tried it out with the original version of “Weekend in Calgary”. I was disappointed with the image quality. It looked very noisy. Because I had paid for it, I decided I would experiment with it before I gave up on it.

Image Settings

The unit allows you to adjust the framing, exposure and sharpness. Sharpness appears to be the same as contrast. I adjusted the framing a bit, but it doesn't affect the image quality I am concerned about. The exposure can cause the image to look too dark or too light, but it didn't apear to affect the noise much.

The sharpness did make a difference though. With high sharpness, the noise is worse than with low sharpness. The low sharpness setting didn't eliminate the noise entirely. However, with low sharpness the image tends to look fuzzy.

Video Compression

One of the videos I watched earlier suggested that the video compression may be a factor in image quality. I contacted Wolverine to asked if I could adjust the compression. They got back to me quite quickly. They said the compression cannot be changed. They added that the unit is set to the lowest level of compression that the chip allowed.

Bypassing the Video Recording

After considering the reply from Wolverine, I felt that either this was as good as the unit could produce, or that I had a defective unit. The unit does have a line out to a TV monitor, so I decided to try that so I could record the video with my computer. I wouldn't get a usable video because the computer would record continuously and not just the still frames. It did allow me to isolate individual frames and compare.

I could see very little difference in quality that I could see. The frames from the computer recording seemed a little fuzzier. If the unit is defective, it isn't because of the video recording.

Next Steps

As I worked with the unit, I started to feel more comfortable with the image quality. It may be that because I have paid for professional quality transfers for my films in the past, that my standard may be higher than I need for our family home movies. I used one of my own films as a basis for the tests, so it may not give me a clear indication of what the home movies would look like.

I plan to transfer some of our home movies and then compare the image quality against the images from the earlier transfer. As long as the quality is better, it makes sense to go ahead with the transfers.

Wolverine did suggest that the image could be improved with some professional video editing software. I have Premiere Pro and Lightworks, so I plan to use those to experiment with them.

Lessons Learned

One of the difficulties I had was that I didn't set aside the time needed to properly test the transfers. Partly this was due to my other commitments, but I am also struggling with motivation these days. In future I should ensure I have the time to follow up before I buy new equipment.

I also feel that I didn't do enough research before I decided to buy this unit. There are many video reviews available on-line, and I only watched a few of them before I decided to go ahead. I am not sure if I would have gone with this unit if I were more aware of the limitations.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

Could Automation Replace the One Percent?

A while ago I read a report about a fast food company owner who suggested that he could replace most, if not all, of his staff through automation. I thought, “how would he feel if he could be replaced by automation”. Is their work really that much more complicated that cooking hamburgers. My original idea was that this could be a concept for a story, but I also wondered if it were possible.

Who Are the One Percent?

At the outset I want to define who I have in mind. My view is that the elite of society can be divided into two groups, the financial elite and the intellectual elite. I believe most people think of the financial elite when they hear the term one percent. That is who I have in mind.

What is the Role the One Percent Play in Society?

I believe that the one percent plays a useful role in society. Their role is to decide where money is invested. This is necessary for any economic system to function. By way of contrast, the intellectual elite provide ideas and innovations for society. Of course there are a few individuals that will fit into both groups.

Can Artificial Intelligence(AI) Systems Perform the Role of the One Percent?

I strongly suspect that the role of the one percent can be automated. A large part of their work is clerical in nature, which we know can be automated. A great deal of work has already been done to automate the financial system.

Consider a couple examples:

• Investment firms use computer based systems to manage their stock trades;
• Banks use automated systems to evaluate loan applications.

These systems have been controversial because of undesirable side effects. However, I think they do show that a well designed AI could very well be able to play the same role as the one percent.

What Would AI Investors be Like?

I imagine that these AI investors would not be mobile robots, but would be accessed through the Internet. I expect that there would be some kind of central system to monitor the AI investors and facilitate their inter communication. However, there would be many individual AI investors, no two exactly alike. Possibly every person would have their own. This would make the financial system more of a free market.

Advantage: AI Systems Are Not Greedy

Some people say that “greed is good”, but I don't agree. The basis of free markets is that people work in their own self interest. Deciding on your self interest is an intellectual process. In contrast, greed is an emotional process.

My late wife had a story that illustrates this point.

A monkey was travelling through a forest and came across a banana tree. He climbed up and took a banana from the tree in one hand. Then he took a second banana in his other hand. He was greedy and wanted more bananas. He put one banana under his armpit and held it there will his arm. He then took a third banana. He was still greedy and wanted more bananas. He did the same thing with the banana in his other hand.

He now had four bananas. That still wasn't enough for him. He held up his arm to put another banana under his arm pit. When he did that, the banana there fell to the ground. He then grabbed another banana, which left him with four bananas. This continued for hours. He had picked hundreds of bananas, but still only had four. The rest littered the forest floor below, of no use to him or anyone else.

A monkey who was concerned with their self interest would have stopped after four bananas, or maybe even two.

Advantage: AI Systems Do Not Need to Make a Profit

Profit would have no meaning to an AI investor. Its only goal would be to stay solvent. It would tend to remain about the same size and would not grow to the point where it could exert control over the market.

Advantage: AI Systems Would Not Exert Political Influence

One of the complaints about the one percent is the influence they have in politics. AI investors would have no political interests, and therefore, would have no influence.

Disadvantage: AI Systems Could Malfunction or be Hacked

Anyone who has worked with computers knows that bugs can arise in any system. This would be a real problem with AI investors. It would require methods to monitor and correct problems as they develop. If, as I suggested earlier, there are large numbers of independent AI investors, individual bugs would be less likely to cause systematic problems.

Hacking could be a more serious problem. There are many people who would try to hack into AI investors, or even the central system, to turn things to their advantage. This is a problem with current computers systems. Large scale efforts are under way to address hacking, and will likely continue in the future. Again, monitoring systems and having large numbers of AI investors would help mitigate the impact of hacking.

Could This Happen?

While I think this approach is technically feasible in the longer term, it would need to overcome substantial barriers. Not the least of which would be that the current members of the one percent would be reluctant to give up their positions to an AI system.

I still think it might make a good premise for a story though.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

Retrospective and Tranquility

I've been working on two projects, although it is really a piece of work I need to do for both of them. It isn't going well.

My primary project is a retrospective of my late wife to show family and friends. The other project is called “Brief Moments of Tranquility”. Both of these use videos I've shot over many years. Over the last few weeks I have gone through my videos to log them to help me select which shots to use.

Once I get started, the logging goes smoothly enough. I find it difficult to set my mind to it though and keep putting off to another day. Partly that is because logging video is not especially exciting work. I think that another issue is that I often find it difficult to deal with strong emotions. In the past I've had to find ways for me to distance myself from emotions that my films touch on. That isn't something that I can do with a video about my late wife.

When I do work on the videos, I generally don't feel strong negative emotions though. Often, it is the opposite. When I watch a video where she is happy, I find myself smiling and I feel some sense of happiness. Often that side tracks me from my logging.

The idea for my other project, “Brief Moments of Tranquility”, is to compile shots I've taken of things that make me feel calmer. I have video of rivers, snow falling, and various quiet places. Or at least I thought I had. I haven't found as many as I thought I had. Many of them are also quite short, and may not really work the way I intend. Maybe, as I log more videos, I will find others. I have started to think that I may need to go out and collect more of these moments of tranquility.

I don't have any kind of target date to complete these videos. Unfortunately, that allows me to procrastinate indefinitely. I can't put off the retrospective on my wife too long. It is hard for me to commit to a specific time line though.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

Vocal Recording for “The Barrier”

One of the issues I have with recording a lot of voice work for “The Barrier” is the cost of renting a studio and recording engineer. I wonder if I can do that on my own.

I did my own voice over recording for “Who Shot the President”, “My Next Film”, and the original version of “My Most Difficult Case”. I was happy with what I got, but I know that I am not really a professional sound person. I don't have professional quality equipment either. Nevertheless, I think I might be able to put together something that will give me what I want.

I have a small room in the basement, that I think I could modify to use as a sound booth. A previous owner built it as a cold storage room, but I never used it as such. It has insulated walls to keep the heat out. While mainly intended as heat insulation, it also does work as sound insulation.

Now, I think it would need to be modified. Two of the walls are concrete. I would need to add some kind of sound absorbing material to reduce echos. My current thought is to get some old drapes and hang them along the walls. I use the room to store some of my film gear and files. I don't think I would need to remove them, especially if I do use drapes to control the sound.

As far as recording equipment goes, I have a laptop computer that is very quiet. I think that might work out OK. I have some old microphones, but none of them work very well. I will need to get a good microphone. I am not sure what kind of microphone I should get. I tend to go for a cheap one, but that may not be of adequate quality.

Up until now I've assumed that I would work with one person at a time. The more I think of it though, it may be better for the voice actors if I have several record at the same time. The interaction with other characters would bring out better performances. At the least, it would help to have some one read the other character's lines to help with timing. I've tried to do that myself in the past, and I was terrible at it. Besides not being an actor, I am not good at multitasking.

If I do work with more than one actor at a time, would I need to have a separate microphone for each. I might need to have a microphone mixer as well. The room could get very crowded if I have more than a couple of actors.

I need to investigate more before I commit myself to this route. Maybe I need to try some tests.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

The Mundane Things Come First

While I would like to just dive into one or another of my projects, I need to get some rather mundane pieces of work out of the way. It isn't very inspiring work and some days I just want to rest and relax.

This week I   got started on a catalogue of all my videos. I've collected quite a lot of video over the last 14 or so years, but I don't have a very good idea what I have.

There are two projects I need the catalogue for. The first is a retrospective of my wife's life and our time together. This would just be for family and friends.

The other is a project I call "Brief Moments of Tranquility". Over the years I collected shots of quiet places: snow falling, rain, flowers and lakes and rivers. I think I can put them together in an interesting way.

The cataloguing went smoothly enough. I was often side tracked by clips of my wife that I would watch over again. I think this could be quite a challenge for me.

Another mundane task that sits in wait for me is some filing. When I searched for my print of "Contingency", I moved all my film making files from the basement storeroom into our living room. A total of 16 bankers boxes of stuff.

I felt I should try to organize the files a bit better before I put them back. It one of those things I'll tend to leave to another day.

I have people coming over Monday, which does not give me much time to get this done. I better stop here and go try to get it done.

I noticed that I had huge increase in page views on my website starting about 2 weeks ago. The views are spread across several different categories that I don't think are related. I would have expected that a big jump in views would be in one category, or even one page.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog