The Last Candle

Blim blam!

My footage of the Sonata Arctica concert from back in February has finally been edited, color-corrected, scored using other people’s music, and post-produced beyond recognition. The final product turned out well — so well, in fact, that I decided to keep it for myself and upload this ugly, poorly-produced version to YouTube instead. Too bad, suckers!

99% of the time spent on this video was spent in post-production, jammin’ away through Vegas Movie Studio. The title came together fairly quickly, but the denouement sequence — the last third of the movie, after the audience-jam ends and the fade-to-white — went through many, many revisions. The final bit is a big dramatic blob, but I’m pleased with those big blobby results. Mmmm, blobby.

The production of this movie firmly establishes a pattern: the last four dorky little films I’ve made were quick on the actual recording of the event, lasting long enough to capture just a few minutes of footage, but the post-production spans hours and hours. Out of my meager YouTube catalog, Son San Fran joins Catchphrika, Reverend Horton Heat’s Birthday Wishes, Solid Squirrel and, to a lesser measure, A2 Xp 2k7 in the quick-filmed, heavy-post-produced group of creations.

On the other hand, the time spent to make all of the other productions in the catalog combined could’ve fit into the full schedule of any one of the aforementioned post-prod time-hogs. I’m enjoying the full process of editing stubby films more and more, but if pushing out a squiddy little thing like Son San Fran takes as long as two months, I fear that my available resources have possibly hit a ceiling. I just don’t have the time to make this stuff as much as I would like. Ack, argh, arugula.

But I have no problem kicking the premise of an unavailable time investment out into the open road and stating that I’m definitely interested in making a movie that makes use of, y’know, multiple cuts, scenes, and — get this! — acting and a plot (gasp!).

But don’t worry, gentle and cultured Internet readers: all people of good taste are likely saved from the disgusting throes of such a creation — I spend so much time post-producing these darn things that I would never finish toying with any amount of film that lasted more than five minutes. Maybe I need a collaborator to crack the whip and, erm, do all of the hard work.

Much fun was had, anyway, both at the concert and creating the final movie. Enjoy!

Addenduodeneumden: The original version of this post and video was actually up on Monday, two days ago. To any readers who watched that version of Son San Fran, congratulations! You win absolutely nothing.

In fact, that version of the video was the super-secret YouTube Overlay version, the one where some of the titles at the bottom of the movie were covered up by the little YouTube button that appears in the lower-right corner for shared films — that is, the crappy version. (Again, for anyone that watched Monday’s version: being an early adopter is always a bit rough, innit?)

I discovered the overlap problem a couple minutes after I thought everything was uploaded and finalized, and, boy, talk about a buzzkill. Nothing stops the poppin’ champagne bottles during the after-party like discovering the final production was botched by a third-party.

Anyway, the version now available is “corrected,” and by that I mean the conflicting titles were moved over to the left side of the frame, resolving the overlap problem. Yeah, that’s right: I ripped my artistic license in thirds, subscribed to The Man’s weekly recipe newsletter, tossed out my croissant crumb-covered beret, and edited away the original vision, acquiescing completely to the constraints of YouTube sharing.

Damn straight I did.