I’m maybe three quarters through my second day on the payroll with DaVinci’s. Monday I went in to work at four, expecting to be a healthy couple hours early so I’d have lots of time to set up my patches and drives and sessions and so forth. 4pm.
At 2am picture arrived from the post production office. Or rather, I had to go get it.
My patches and drives and sessions and so forth gleamed with the immaculate preparation that can only come from spinning your wheels for ten hours.
I biked home with the sunrise at my back at 7am Tuesday morning.
If it wasn’t for the ten hour tug beforehand we would have made good time. Five hours actually working isn’t bad by anyone’s reckoning. And I really would have been fine with it except I knew, I knew, old deaf lady next door would be cranking her tv up at 9am. She didn’t let me down.
So I slept fitfully in the living room, dreaming of computer and device networking and kilometers of patch cable, amongst the blankets & bean bags that have evolved into our couch. A few hours later Maigen returned home from a thoroughly satisfying day of nannying. And she made me buttermilk pancakes for breakfast. That girl rules. She was content to chatter away while I oozed around like a dozy eighty-year old alzheimer’s patient. I wasn’t really in the conversation but I really enjoyed just listening to her and munching pancakes.
And off to work again I went. I was expecting tonight to be shorter, with the second load rescheduled for Wednesday night. Tonight is just loading dialogue alts and backing up drives. Nothing to it, right? Well, I spent three hours trying to coax two drives back to life. Stupid SCSI technology is beautifully stable except when it’s not. So I finally worked around both SKTCHY drives and now I’m really making progress. Should be done this part in maybe another half hour.
Not sure how I’m going to streamline the backups though. That is a job that moves at the speed of digital archive tape. Slower than a really slow thing. I’d leave it to run overnight except I think I also have to back up the dialogue sessions (as well as these dialogue alts). That means two really slow backups. Hours. I think I will let Harley do his own backing up tonight. It looks like he’ll be editing all night anyway. It’s kinda like a factory here. With the schedule as tight as it is we work around the clock, pretty much.
I hope I get to sleep a bit better tonight. Today. Whichever. I want to sleep. I miss being able to hold a conversation and speak in sentences.
There’s a location on this Audio Assist computer called “A Chicken” and I’m dying to open it up. See what’s inside. Should I?
I’m kinda busy though. What if it’s really really fun?
So, are you guys using Pro-tools? Logic? Maybe some custom software? All Analog? I’m really jealous, as you are doing what I went to school for over 10 years ago. I graduated from the Art Institute of Dallas in their Sound and Video Production program in 1991. Back then it was all razor blade editing and recording on 2″ tape. How things have changed! Best of luck with the new gig, just know that there are plenty of us out here wishing that we could secure such a gig. The long hours are worth it.
COMMENT:
I do appreciate where I’m at, Broch. I’m working with two guys who spent $25,000 for a year of school. And only one of those guys is getting paid to be here. Believe me- almost daily I’m stopped in my tracks by how lucky I am. Fabulously supportive girlfriend, carreer-building job, a city I love, and all the true friends a guy could want. I don’t have two dollars to rub together at the moment but you won’t catch me complaining.
And yes, the technology has come a long way. I’ve only had to deal with 3/4 tape a couple times. Around here the dinosaurs are the V-Mod drives. We keep them tucked in back so the neighbours don’t see. =)