New Every Morning

I'm on the bed now. What did i dream of?

A really warped version of work. My mind is messing with me, I'm telling you. Especially on a free weekend. FREE.

Never mind. I'd like to acknowledge God's goodness because the 2nd thing I thought about after realizing my nightmare was but a dream, was the song 'The Steadfast Love.'

I love waking up to His presence. :)

Music Gets the Worst of Me

En route to set


Very chim, very chim.

My fingers are now shedding a few flakes of skin here and there, and I am able to strum 2 different strokes now.

However, when I strum, I cannot sing. And vice versa.

There's just something about the rhythm that I cannot catch. It's a left-brain/right-brain, mouth/ wrist coordination that I just can't put together as of now.

But well, I can always hope.

Anyhoo, that's my only form of entertainment nowadays. No life! No life!

But I have 3 weeks of weekends ahead of me. PURE UNTOUCHED WEEKENDS. (See, I'm going berserk already)

Then it's endless shooting till June.

With that note, I shall end this post. No mood to type further already.

The Steadfast Love Of the Lord Never Ceases

Thank you Lord for guiding me through leading bible study. It was daunting, but I know the Holy Spirit was with me all the way.

And next Friday, I pray for Your presence in the YPM office, to guide the musicians Esther and Cuiling, and to guide me in leading Praise and Worship.

Lord, even though people may leave and turn their backs on me, You've never left. Since the day I sang "He's Able" in kindergarten, to the day I sang "Shout To the Lord" in secondary school, even though I refused to believe in you then, You never gave up calling me into Your presence.

I made the right choice in You, Lord.

Great is thy faithfulness.

My New Muse.

That explains the bruised left fingertips. Sadly, am progressing at a slower-than-a-tortise rate, but still, progression IS progression nonetheless. Looking forward to the day where I can strum one song and at least can call myself somewhat musically-inclined. (Now my status is "musically declined.)

I will press on. My fingers, I mean.

Teach Me How To Play The Guitar

Because my left fingertips are officially numb.

In The Still Of The Night

I'm still in the office, waiting for footages to be transferred.

But the song for the
episode that we filmed today is stuck in my head.

Darn the ear worms.

"in the still of the night
I remember holding you tight
Oh how I love, love you so
Promise I'll never let you go
In the still of the night"

Also the title aptly describes my time in the office for the past 3 days.

Really, I'm in the still of the night.

On Set.

Production madness is here.

But I thank God for His mercies and grace.

We'll survive this.

Bag Of Tricks For The Editor

Once again, I'm emphasizing on the fact that I'm only 1 year in the industry, with a lot to learn, and a lot of grammar to correct (for my previous post, that is).

But I've learnt quite a few tricks from a few of the people in here. One earns more than five thousand a month just doing editing, and one does wedding videography. Looking at their style and works, I think I might have just found a winning formula on how to make videos look good.

1. Rack Focusing

This is probably more for the videographer. Always a surefire winner. When you put in pull focus shots, especially for on-the-fly event videography, it adds a touch of sophistication and somewhat enhances credibility. Always popular, whether it's a pull from the flowers in the foreground to guests in the background, the only thing is to restrain yourself from doing too much of it or the viewer will get sick of it.

2. Magic Bullet Looks

The one Final Cut Pro plug-in that all editors should have. You can throw your 3-way colour wheel out the window and stop fretting over colour-correction. Not everyone likes colour correcting, and it's always hard to define a mood. But with this plug-in, let the music play!

http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/magic-bullet-looks/

They didn't pay me to advertise for them, but I thought I should. If you use Instagram or any photo filter software on your iPhones, Magic Bullet works in the same way- except that you can continue to fine tune parts such as exposure, contrast, add vignettes and all the works, in a very user-friendly interface too.

3. Music

I always thought that one bed music would work for an entire clip, but after having edited 12 episodes of a tv show, it pays to change the mood through music. It will definitely enhance the emotions greatly, especially when you use the right piece at the right time. Big Bang and Fuzz are our current paid music source for now, and it's got quite a fantastic library. Of course, there are free ones around, like Jamendo.com, which I used to go to during my penniless university days.

4. Style

This is something that I'm trying to work on, and something that a lot of established editors already have. Sometimes I steal a glance at the experienced editor's timeline in FCP, and I can see the number of layers and the tricks that they use to add effects to their video. Finding your style is probably the hardest part, but with the above tools like Magic Bullet, music, and rack-focusing, it won't be as daunting.

Thumbs up to learning.