Ok, I managed to get everything done with the DVD project and now it is just encoding for the demo for the distro folks to proof.
I got that done while busting my ass to get the other stuff done. Today was a good day. We were busy with a ton of new video coming in. Brian nailed the squall line in Florida and even got video of a boat sinking in Sarasota, FL while Bill was in North Carolina in the outer banks shooting a couple packages for BNVN that was on CNN and TWC.
He got some wicked footage that looked like a tropical storm out on the Cape.
Wow, yesterday was pretty insane with the video from Tony and getting it on the air with CNN in about 2.5 seconds after it happened.
2007-04-13 Wedge Tornado – Seymour, TX
Ok, it was a little longer then 2.5 seconds but it was asap broadcast
quality from the field right after it happened. The cool part was that
he did not even have to break off the chase to get the footage out and
was able to keep chasing and up to BNVN. WTF is up with TWC… Tornado
Time, 2:40 footage in the hand time 3:40 and the storms were rolling
towards Dallas. Wedge tornado on the ground and they decided to wait for
free footage or tower cams but at the same time the CNN desk was like
um name your price because were rolling with it since this stuff is
heading for Dallas. Wedge Tornado on the ground in Seymour, so you
people in Dallas, watch out this is coming your way…
Or a freaking tower cam and “if you catch stuff, send it in for free
and we will use it on the air” bull shit. Oh well, TWC is turning into
the lifestyle network vs being a real news channel are focusing in on
the NEWS when NEWS happens. Oh well, such is the life of a stringer and
the stringer network… Today I’m just trying to finish up the
corrections to the hurricane project that Chris found. Then it is off to
try and catch Dander and Dumpster Juice tonight.
I was out shooting for some rushed weather video for TWC and shooting some snow video in a pinch to get to them for the evening show.
Well, I’m up late working with Scotty on the Wisconsin weather video that he is out shooting for the Cantore crew. Their live crew is in Milwaukee but it’s not snowing there. So Scott is in Madison shooting snow video for them so they can say “See, It’s Coming This Way…”
Anyways, I’m up working on the audio balance to wrap up the project and put it to bed.
Up all night, sleep all day… I got all the voice overs in on the tracks. I’m just going through everything now and syncing it up and all I can say is damn…
My goal was to make a kick ass video but now, I have done it. I have blown away the Charley DVD and I won some film festival for that project. This is my best work ever and is going to be my resume tape now.
The Audio sounds great, the timing is perfect, damn, its all finally coming together. Now I just need to finish up the contracts for the video so I don’t have a repeat of the bull shit with the ego trips like I did with some people with the Charley and Fury projects. I will be looking for beta viewers to check it out in a day or so.
Ugh, the fn voice overs are now done. Everything is now in the computer and I’m just doing the rough layouts right now. I’m going to try something else which is save the project as an AAF file and then try and import it on the laptop using Adobe Pro 2 for the final editing to balance out the audio.
I started this project right after the first of the year. Its taken a lot out of me and I could have done so much more with my time. But as soon as this is done, I’m going to start working on my resume to get more paying gigs. So sick of the storm chasing spec work these days when I could be making a lot more working as a freelance editor and shooter. Yes I still love chasing storms but this is not where the money is anymore.
Ok, today not much was happening. I did go out and shoot a video for The Weather Channel today of the record high temps. On Sunday I ended up in Albert Lea and there were several other chasers there. This is what happens when the storms DON’T fire and stringers get together in southern Minnesota. Video by KMSP FOX 9 Storm Chasers…
Ended up at the same Shell gas station with Bill, Eric, Mel, David, Tony, and some new chasers that asked it they could tag along too.
For hours and hours this morning I reviewed data, looked at the ruc, reviewed even more data and picked two targets. One near Albert Lea to Owatanna MN and the other near Hastings MN.
Since Hastings MN is on the Mississippi River and the target area would be in Wisconsin, I said, eh, NO.
So I went with the southern option.
Why do I sucker myself into chasing setups that the surface, 850 and 500 mb winds all scream at almost the same direction? The best backing winds were from Hastings to Eau Claire WI but again, even that was 45 to maybe 90 degrees at best.
But it was not a total bust. I got to test out the new transmission and work out some bugs in the new data setup.
And yes, I did it, I took one for the team. After I met up with most of the group just outside of the base of Mt. RedWing, I did it… I went into the forbidden chaser land… I went into Wisconsin.
Half to chase and half to check out that area just for kicks. I made it to just east of Plum City where I said enough was enough and turned around after my phone got a signal.
Cell phone coverage from Mt Plum City WI to Mt Red Wing MN to Mt Prescott Wisconsin poor to none. I say MT. as a joke because their is no mountains but the roads all go through river valleys and you get on top of them from time to time. For the most part your maybe 300-500 feet down in the sub basement of a valley.
I did see some short lived lowering on the tail end of the stuff that went into Wisconsin but I did my Wisconsin chase for the year and got it out of the way on the first chase so I won’t be tempted to go again.
Lessons Re Learned:
Don’t go into Wisconsin. Highway 52 is your neutral ground to say, enter at your own risk because your not going to see anything but hills and trees from this point forward.
When Surface, 850 and 500 mb winds are all going the same way and really fast, with temps and dew barely over the 75/55, your chances of seeing a tornado is slim and the storms are going to race off at light speed.
And when doing 5 over the speed limit, ALWAYS let the guys speeding by at 90+ pass you. While we were all driving north on 35 to the cell that just went up, a Lincoln blew past me like I was standing still. I was doing 75 and they had to be doing at least 90 to 100.
A few minutes later, a MN State Trooper came flying up behind me and I was thinking oh crap, this is not Texas, you can do 8-10 over up here before they get anal. I moved over and he blew past me like there was a tornado on the ground. So I thought there was and I was thinking oh crap, what is happening up here?
Until a few minutes later, the trooper had the Lincoln pulled over.
That and pea sized hail was the extent of the chase.
Anyway (we can edit that out in post…) I’m up way the heck too early on a Sunday morning for not going to church. Actually, I slept late yesterday while taking a nap after shooting the fog video for the weather channel and my sleep schedule is messed up again. Today, the weather looks kind of messed up, not sure where to start with the forecast but I think I’m going to get a few hours sleep then look at it again around 10am then head out if its not in the land of hills and trees in Wisconsin or SW MN. So why was I up so late? I finished the script voice over stuff. It’s DONE!! All 24 pages of the script is done, fact checked, re checked, name checked, double checked and anal probed. Ok, no Cartman Anal Probe but I went to the point of looking a Google maps and zooming in on stuff in New Orleans with the satellite view just to make sure I remembered things correctly.
What is funny is I really don’t remember driving down a couple blocks from Canal and going over to Tulane and then driving over to interstate 10. But when I double checked everything, right down to the name of the business and buildings I was passing, I found some errors. Nothing major, I was 2 blocks down over but it is major for me since this is now my two plus hour resume tape / DVD project. But, since the script is done, all the stuff ready for voice overs, it should go pretty smooth now and honestly, I don’t want to chase today since I could nail this thing in a few takes. All 24 pages of it but still I could be done with it and finish up the final edits. All the video is color corrected so that part is done. I just have to sync up the vo with the video and adjust the audio and then publish the first second drafts for everyone to review and that’s it. Oh yeah, what else is going on. Well the jeep is fixed, $2650 worth of repairs. Talk about a total pain in my wallet!!! Then while on the break down subject, last night sucked balls but I was able to pull out of a tail spin nose dive and walk away from a major computer crash. Huh? My dell started screwing up. I thought I was screeeewed for the chase today because the backlight in the laptop was not working. I was in a panic since the chase was on today and now the computer was dead. I was in a panic and looked on Ebay and what did I find? Someone was selling a motherboard on EBay for the same computer and they said they had additional parts. I emailed them and they got right back to me and within the hour, $300 was now paying for emergency computer parts. I was pretty pissed that I just had to blow $300 on parts until I got home. He sold me his old laptop, minus the hard drive and power supply and everything worked. And by everything, I mean everything!!! I replaced the LCD screen and computer monitor board with the parts I bought then just for kicks, replaced the processor with the new one. I was able to upgrade to a P4 Hyper Thread was what loaded on the screen. He sold me a replacement laptop with a 2.8ghz P4 hyper threading processor. My machine is now um yeah, twice as fast as before with the old 2.8 ghz processor. Not only did I fix the computer, I pretty much replaced and upgraded it into a new high powered machine that I was looking to buy. Why did he sell it to me for so cheap? Was it hot? Was it a lemon? Nope! He sold it to me because he had the same problem I had with the Dell. The power supply will come loose in the machine and you just have to rip it apart and solder it back together. And his hard drive died so instead of fixing the computer which would have been maybe $100 for the new drive and a few hours of screwing around, he just bought a Mac. So I take back what I said about the Mac users… I just got the hook up from a Mac user that was sick of his PC. Oh and about the Hyper Threading Processor, it works great with Adobe Pre Pro 2.0 Only too 2 minutes to encode a 4 minute file. I redid the file I edited for TWC and it blew through that like it was downloading email. Granted I hate blowing money these days since its been slow but this was by far the best $300 I have spent in months if not years on a repair. Oh yeah, for the last time, if your not a BNVN stringer and don’t want to be, don’t call me asking how do I do what I do because you want to sell video to the weather channel too. Idiots! I swear the next person that does that I’m going to record the phone call and post it on line for the whole chaser world to see how stupid you are.
