pliSkiNAKE

Pumped right now from editing music for tomorrow’s All-Store Meeting at WFM - HAL! Some of the music I choose was just making me giggle like a schoolgirl and the others just mixed well after taking out monotonous parts. I did a good job too. I need more music options though. Give me ideas! It needs to be clean though, or at least I need to have enough to work with to edit out the bad language. Funny stuff, up beat please. I hate to say this, but popular stuff now, stuff on the radio or something; stuff people know. *shrug* sleep…early morning tomorrow

Well, I got bored. I have lots of stuff that needs to be done but don’t know where to start or what is most important. I started doing some picture organizing/transftering and then while doing that I got out my camera. I started taking pictures, then I got an idea. It was a good idea in my head, however, it didn’t turn out as good as I hoped. A lot of those ideas I have for pictures really turn into videos; short videos that would only be 3 seconds long and the videos themselves are acutally only multiple pictures put together but still. I couldn’t bring across what I wanted to show without it moving in some way. Anyway, this is what I got out of what I took.

I wanted to start with a picture of me at my computer, nothing on my desk, nothing in my hands. Then turn into me doing one of the many things. Then after that, the thing would be sitting on my desk while I started another project, etc etc. Continuing until my desk is full of stuff and me getting overwhelmed and shutting down.

Well all that would involve a little bit of transparency change while looking at the picture; a slow desolve even. GIF images that move are just not for me. They look too abnormal when on a webpage so I decided against it. Instead I just took about 4 to 5 pictures out of the bunch, changed the transparency, choose what should be on top and what should be on bottom, then saved it. Didn’t take too long yet I need to go to bed soon so I wanted to end it. I know if I said “I will finish this tomorrow” that it would never get done so here it is.

So I didn’t mention this earlier because I forgot I had the ticket and, well, yeah, I forgot I had the ticket. I went to the Arcade Fire Concert in Chicago at the Chicago Theatre. The concert was way better than I was expecting it to be. For the record (you probably know this if you know me) I am not one to like new bands that come around. I am stubborn about that type of stuff. So for me to be introduced to a band, like them enough to listen to them quite often, and then hear about a concert and attend is a pretty big step or it just says a lot about the band. *shrug*

The visuals were simply creative, obscure, and also amazing. The lighting was good; they had some new “effects” that I hadn’t seen before but NIN and Tool have been more creative. I can’t really compare them to Arcade Fire thought because they are on completely different levels. It is always slightly hard for me to judge sound at a concert. When I talk about sound, I don’t mean the lyrics. If I didn’t like the lyrics I wouldn’t be at the concert. When I talk about sound, I am talking about accoustics and also mixing of instruments and vocals. So the sound was done quite well. I stood by the audio booth and was watching the girl play on the audio board. I think she didn’t like me watching her because it is a “looking over the shoulder” annoyance. After about 10 minutes she asked me if she could help me with something. Sorry to whoever that was, I am just a little kid that am interested in lights, knobs, and sliders.

Now for the good parts of the concert. I will be leaving some stuff out (opening band, waiting in line, etc) for just making this a shorter post. I mean no one will be reading this in the first place, but if I do get someone reading this, I only want the good stuff in it.

When I saw the stage I thought “damn, that is a lot of shit”. The first thing I noticed were these white-looking strips that might have been attached to mic stands that were at their hightest height. Then the 5 white circles that were attached to lighting tripod stands. I didn’t really know how those would be incorporated into the show but I will tell you that one later. Then I noticed the small set of hanging pipe organs. Finally the numerous amps that were on stage. I believe there were around 8 or 10. There were 2 keyboards, one of those large-ass wood intruments (ya know the ones you have to stand up to play that are higher than you), the playing part of the organ, some guitars, drum set, and some misc brass intruments. There were tons of different instruments up there. There were also what looked like 2 projectors in the back next to FOH (front of house which means audio).

When the show began, those white circles turned into a moving animated logo of their new album which is called “Neon Bible”. So my first thought was that “hmm…maybe there are 5 different’ projectors somewhere? No that would be way too hard to aim, what if they got moved by the people playing? Maybe it will be a set image, a moving one at that. hmmm….”. Those 5 or so white strips were actually lights and when they first turned on they sorta flashed a pretty lighting color flash and then turned red. There were more of that same type of lighting along some of the different platforms. There was one more of those circle projector (or what I thought might have been a projector) on the kick drum as well. They came on stage and started playing.

All their music was pretty good. They played some songs from their first album but I wasn’t very fond of their first album. Not quite my cup of tea (especially because I don’t like tea). Okay, so more on those circle things. I found out from my observing techniques that they were in fact projectors. The circles were being projected from the rear (rear projected). And it wasn’t anywhere backstage but better yet, attached to the circles. The white circles weren’t just white circles but red squares with a white circle in the center. I believe they did that so you could only see a circle of the image that would then be projected.

Also, they did not just project their current album logo. They had grainy looking recordings of people playing instruments. I say grainy but I am talking about just poor quality cameras or low end. Then, as I looked closer at the people playing, I noticed that they were in rythm of the people on stage playing. Upon further looking I saw that even the hand movements were the same. Then I said “no….no, it can’t be, can it? Holy Shit, it is! There are cameras on stage, cameras about the size of pennies or nickles probably”. There were probably 10 or 12 cameras in different positions on the stage. Throughtout the show I also think I decided that they might be able to move as well because someone would be singing in the center and the two cameras, and the two circles that were showing the camera images, the cameras wouldn’t be quite on center with them. I saw movement (very very very slow smooth movement) of one camera, then bam, she was centered. Then I saw the other one move and she would be centered again. I don’t know what type of small cameras they were or how they got them to move, but I know they were moving, I know it.

Okay, more on the camera and visuals. During one song they put up static on the 5 circles. Then the sorta blended the static with colorbars that were wavy from left and right (as in the waves were going virtical). That looked really cool. Then they blended the static with the camera feed. That was awesome. And now for the part I can’t wrap my head around. Well I understand it but I have never seen equipment that could do it. They blended the static, with the wavy colorbars, AND the camera footage. From my experience the most you can do on a switcher is blend two sources together. hmm…just thought of this, but maybe they had two switchers. One that had a 50 - 50 on two images and then the second, being the main one (as in the feed coming from the first switcher, instead of that going to the projectors it gets fed to the other switcher as if it were it’s own feed, its own images) with a 75 - 25 with the third image. 75 being the mix of the first (sub) switcher. I guess that might be possible. Along with the circles they also projected on the back black cyc two images. Probably overlayed somewhat.

Now back to the beginning. When they came out I thought maybe some stage hands came out as well but no. There were ten people playing stuff. 10 band members! There were two on the back right (house right) platform playing brass intruments. Two on the floor in front of them playing woodwind intruments like violen and that big standing intrument that I can’t think of the name of. The main guy vocalist had a small guitar type instrument that I think was wooden. The girl to HIS left (or house right) was the main girl vocalist and was playing some winding instrument. It was like a fat wooden guitar. She wound it with her right hand and somehow played it with her left. She (or another girl) also had an accordion. That was awesome. Those things are so cool. There were two blow horns on mic or lighting stands. Ya know, those things people hold and talk into to make themselves louder The electric ones. They had mics attached to the end of them as well which is quite creative. There were some misc single standing instruments that you would normally find in a set; like a symbol on a stand, standing alone, or a snare drum. They were off to the left (house left).

It seems like almost every song, they were shuffling spots or jobs. The drummer came down to play on the keyboard while the main girl vocalist went to drums and put on a headset mic so she could still sing. That is pretty cool. One of the middle songs I looked over to my left and there were two girls dancing in the aisle. I believe they were doing somewhat of swing dancing, which was cool. The song was correct for that type of dance anyway. My face lit up with joy to see that. I love when I see audience members get into it as much as that. The lead girl vocalist danced a little on stage too. She had a very pretty black dress with a red cloth type belt I think, or it went over her shoulder somehow.

Finally, my favorite visual thing which had me drop my jaw. They said that it would be their last song and they walked off stage. The stage went black but I saw a few roadies put something on stage. It was a human size cutout of the guy lead vocalist. His face wasn’t there though. It was white. Of course I didn’t think of it at the time, but once it happened…yeah. They came back out to play. He played “My Body Is A Cage” and was at the organ spot. Very soon after that the white spot on the cutout wasn’t white anymore but instead was an image. It was one of the camera feeds. It was just of his face so it looked like his cutout was singing at the mic. Beautiful, creative, inventive. I believe they played two other songs after that. Two of the band members, they were mainly playing on the left side (house left), were switching instruments like crazy. They also played those single, solo instruments. They were going all out. One of them was singing into the blowhorn mic, then throwing it up in the air, only to catch it again and sing the next part. He did that a bunch of times. The other had drum sticks in his hand and playing the cymbal along with a snare drum. Later he picked up two cymbals with handles on them and clashed them together. Fucking ingenious. I loved it.

Again, overall I thought the show was awesome. Creative ideas, new inventive use of graphics, mass amounts of instruments, and all the energy to use them along with giving us energy. I am glad I got to go.

Well, I am working on a video now. I have actually already made this video once, but the copy I have of it is bad quality, and I cannot find all my OMFI files for it (avid files that is). So I am making it again. It is for Willow Creek (production stuff that I do). I hope it helps me get back into the swing of things.

Well, I just did my first solo Directing for Willow Creek DuPage. It went quite well. At first I was confident. I though: “Hey, this is easy. You have done it before at TCD. How different could it be?” Then the time crunch started leaning on me. It was 6pm and we had not finished sound check. It was all the stupid small things that were holding us back, along with 3 people trying to figure audio problems out. It was really stressing out the audio guy. Anyway, once we started the service, it was all down hill from there. (and I mean that in a good way, the “Hey, I don’t have to peddle my bike anymore” way) Everything went quite smooth, so smooth that while looking in my backpack, I saw I had Biger with me, and started taking pictures of him “running the show.”

I am guessing at least two people up in the booth were looking at me funny but I don’t mind. Yeah, it wasn’t professional, but I still pulled off a professional service. I was told that Shelton was quite nervous because it was a full band. Yes, I do belive I forgot to mention that. Full band: Full drum set, 2 electric guitars, 1 accoustic guitar, 1 bass guitar, keyboard, and 5 vocalists, plus the video feed. It was quite a big show, no wonder he was nervous. Unfortunately I can’t be there for the Tuesday Thanksgiving service; I have work and can’t get out of it. Oh well. Next time.

Well. I really thought I would have tome to post something before I left on my Germany trip, but it didn’t work out that way at all. I didn’t get too much computer time there either. I am back now though, and I am very tired. I do have to go to work though, to finish something up for tomorrow.

Adrenaline pumping, exhausted, tired, eyes bloodshot…yeah…that is me for the past 3 days including today. Two more days of this as well. I am so tired. In the past 3 days I have only got 5 hours of sleep each day (give or take). And the day before that it was 6 hours of sleep. Other than that, the other 19 hours has been setting stuff up: lifting, tightening, taping, aiming, pulling, pushing, analizing, etc. This is the first time that I have really had time to get onto my computer, let alone the internet. I don’t think I will have pictures up anytime ON the trip, but when I get back, I will put some up. Ugg…complaining again: my feet hurt, arms and leg muscles ach. That feeling you get in your gums after flossing….yeah that too.

I tried calling two friends from work while here but I haven’t gotten to talk to either of them really. :-( dissapointing….I wanted to talk to someone I have known for longer than 3 days. I will try again tomorrow morning…which is abour 10pm Chicago time. Until then…

Yay, I directed a service! It wasn’t that hard at all. I have directed live video before for TCD which actually was way more complicated and in turn, harder. It has been two years since then though (or close to it). I was told I did a good job, even though I feel that it could have been better. I am going to be directing next weeks serivice as well, along with the service right after getting back from Germany. It is cool that Shelton trusts me enough, and believes that I am up to par for putting me in his shoes for two weeks. I think I am going to try and make it to TCD and talk to Jeff Heise this next week before Germany. I haven’t talked with him in quite some time now. I also need/want to have lunch with Bill Stoerp (old Director for Willow Creek Wheaton) to catch up on what is happening with him.

Need to study for now though. Midterm tomorrow (scawwy face, big eyes)

Yeah, I know. The pictures aren’t working. They do, but they don’t. It is too late for me to fix what is wrong. I will do it later though.

UPDATE:
Okay, I made it so you can see the images (big sizes when clicked) if you click on the thumbnails. You can’t click on the post and then click on it. Stay in the main directory. This probably doesn’t mean much to most. Nevermind…heh

I am going to be kicking myself for staying up to watch that movie. I have always loved staying up late, watching the sun come up, shining in against my black curtain. But school is important, important enough to not miss. Mmmm, 1:44am……sooo lovely. Hehe

Speaking of lateness/earliness. I am going to be setting up my webcam again. Be ready for it in the near future. Yay, watch me type….and watch me watch a movie.