Over the last month, I’ve shot and edited more professional video than the previous three years (COVID and all of that) and I’ve really enjoyed learning new tricks. The stuff I’m shooting for myself is pretty basic—setting up a couple of GoPros and recording the entire scene, while the stuff for work is more tightly scripted and produced. I’ve spent a lot of time developing narratives and building out stories from a rough outline, and then teasing out those stories during live interviews, which is challenging and fun.
I’ve also been using a new camera/sound rig: a Sony A7Sii with a wireless RODE mic setup, which has been a challenge to learn but has been yielding some excellent footage. I’ve also done a crash course in shooting S-Log to color-correct in post production, which is a lot like shooting photographs in RAW and making adjustments in the processing workflow. Finally, I’m pushing the boundaries of what I know about Final Cut Pro to take advantage of all of these new methods, and I feel like I’m a lot more proficient with the editing suite.
I think the next thing I really need to push are my setups and framing, to make things look and feel more interesting. Basic interviews are easy, but making them visually interesting is key.
I’ve had the shambling, melancholy verse and chorus of Auto Pilot by Queens of the Stone Age stuck in my head for a couple of days now after using it for an Instagram Reel. I dislike the bridge but the rest of the song is aces.
I’ve got entirely too many browser tabs open so let’s review some of them:
- This little QuadLock CarPlay USB dongle looks pretty slick; it’s small, it supports more than one phone, and it would remove at least one of the cords in the new Honda. I’m also considering installing an OEM wireless charging pad, but Honda is selling those for $230, so I’m holding off on that for now.
- Truck nerds only: Truck Town is a 3-hour documentary on the IH plant in Fort Wayne produced by PBS. I’m only an hour in and I find it pretty fascinating.
- The Autopian reported yesterday that a private equity firm bought the Pick and Pull business from LKQ, who have spent the last ten years consolidating all of the locally owned yards around the country. Private equity never means anything good.
- Driven to Write is another car-based website with independent contributors. They ran a great feature on Briggs Cunningham, a wealthy motorsport enthusiast and car builder. I’m looking forward to the second half.
Here’s a video featuring Darth Haul’s first drive around the neighborhood from start to finish. I swapped the EFI out for the original carburetor just so that I could get the damn thing on the road. It’s running poorly right now, so I pulled the carb apart, cleared it out with brake cleaner, and re-assembled everything. Next up, I have to tune the engine properly and then I’ll swap carbs back out to properly set up the EFI.
Robert Reich, national treasure, details five things we can do to stand up to fascism.
- Call your representatives. 5calls.org is a resource he suggests.
- Attend town halls. (bring people with you).
- Join resistance groups. Indivisible.org | ACLU | fiftyfiftyone
- Boycott companies that support this regime.
- Protect the most vulnerable in your community.
“Democracy is not a spectator sport.” Truer words could not be spoken.
Phillip Bump was until recently a journalist working for the Washington Post who decided to leave. He wrote thoughtfully about what institution he wanted to write for next, in his words, “…directing their accrued power responsibly.” He talks about not publishing on Substack due to that platform’s position on supporting white nationalists, but finding an institution that does good work and using his voice to build that power. See also: How to Read This Chart.
(via onfocus)
We’ve been buying renewable energy for over fifteen years through a program Maryland’s legislature put together, which allows for consumers to choose who their provider is (as long as that provider is part of the program). I just got a letter from our longtime supplier saying they’re withdrawing from the program based on Maryland Senate Bill 1, which imposes stricter regulations on retail energy suppliers to protect consumers from misleading practices in the competitive energy market. So I have to go shopping to see if there’s someone else we can buy clean energy from.
We’ve also gotten several notices from the Johns Hopkins Medicine group, which informed us that as of today they are no longer in UnitedHealthcare’s network, because they “have been unable to get United to agree to a contract that puts patients ahead of profits.” Johns Hopkins took absolutely world-class care of my family and I when I had cancer, and UnitedHealthcare’s coverage came through for us. But that was almost eight years ago, and the world has changed a lot since then. I’ve only got one more checkup scheduled with Hopkins before they cut me loose, but now I’m considering skipping that because I don’t have the money to pay for all of those tests out of pocket. Greatest healthcare in the world, etc. etc.
Tired of dealing with a pair of wired headphones for my work computer, and unwilling to use my AirPods with that machine, I bought a pair of Anker Soundcore P20i headphones from Amazon for $20 a few weeks ago, and I’ve been very happy with their performance. I’ve got a handful of Anker products here, and I have to say I haven’t been disappointed with any of them. As far as inexpensive Chinese brands go, they have had the highest consistent quality.
I saw a great reel on the Autopian’s Instagram feed about a beautiful harlequin Series II Land Rover spotted on its way back from Monterey Car Week the other day and immediately mashed the LIKE button. They got so much response from it, they followed up and got the full story, which is even better.
Damn. Brent Hinds, founding lead guitarist of Mastodon, left the band this March for unknown reasons, and all parties were initially quiet about the reasons. More recently he started posting angry tweets about being kicked out of the band, and things got uglier. Yesterday he was killed in a motorcycle accident, when a woman turned left without signaling in front of him.
It sounds like he had a lot of stuff to work out, and like any band breakup, I always have hope they can sort their differences and work together again; I do hope the band can continue making excellent music. Several of their albums have been inspired by personal tragedy, but this just seems cruel.
Last week I rented a drone kit for work in the hopes that I could save some money by avoiding commercial B-roll. Pricing for video clips has gone up recently, and my total costs for a 4-minute video have gone past $1500/ea, which is a lot of money for an NGO. I typically scour my limited stock of company-owned footage before I go to the online services, but I have to be careful I’m not recycling too much, and I really don’t have a lot to begin with.
I picked out a DJI Avata 2 with a set of FPV goggles mainly for the price: about $300 for 7 days’ usage. As usual, LensRentals sent it in a sturdy box which contained a custom Pelican with all of the components. I watched a couple of videos online and then took it out for a spin.
This drone is about six generations beyond my old Phantom 2, so it’s probably 1/6 the size, in a compact little package, designed for acrobatics and not stability. The blades are completely enclosed and the camera is on a 1-axis gimbal, so any tracking needs to be done by moving the drone itself. This is achieved by using the goggles and a handheld controller, which is a huge leap beyond the joystick/cellphone system my old Phantom employed. It took some time to understand the control setup but once I committed that to muscle memory, it got much easier to use. I took the Scout over to an empty parking lot and used it as a target, burning through each battery in about 15 minutes. I very much enjoyed the goggles and I think I would make them mandatory for any kit I was going to buy—they make flying so much easier than squinting into an iPad in the sunlight. The video is crisp and stabilized, and the drone performance is impressive, but this is not the model I’d consider purchasing to shoot stabilized aerial footage.