Well the editing ball has started rolling, which makes me very very happy. (Not that I was getting worried or anything...and no that's not nervous laughter you here.) After capturing two tapes on Friday, I threw together a preliminary title sequence (assisted by a whole lot of swearing on my part, which Kat can attest to), and today Pete spent the morning capturing more footage and editing. Yeehaw!

So...we've got the goods...I mean the footage...on my computer, so just let me know when you want to edit and I'll vacate my machine (I'm not at my computer ALL the time...really). Or if anyone ever wants to edit during working hours they can take my external hard-drive to work. Moses also has an external hard-drive that we might be able to use.

And if anyone wants to think forward to the music aspect of our movie (I think we should get all the visual editing done and then try to fit music to it), my friend Barry has offered to let us use any of the stuff his band has recorded. They are called Off White Noise, and you can listen to some of their music here. I have access to more of their stuff than is up on that website if you guys want.

All right...that's all I got for now. Just remember...we're so almost done.

We heart Dr. Julian Earls!

We had our second meeting with the center direction of GRC, Dr. Julian Earls, today, and it was great! He's great...yeah...

I was able to ask him some general questions about how NASA works and poke at some pesky political and economic issues, Kat got some good stuff on the possible psychological side effects of prolonged spaceflight, Moses got him to discuss her pet subject, and Chris tackled the emotional side of the search for life.

Dr. Earls' office was rad, too. So many trophies (ok, maybe they shouldn't be called trophies) on the walls, and he even had the jacket he wore for the Salt Lake City Olympics torch bearing ceremony framed on the wall (hall of fame style).

My second favorite part (besides Julian Earls himself) was when we did some ad-libbing afterwards...I definitely think we need to get some more free-form "us just being us" footage. I've actually got some of that planned for my segment so...stay tuned.

Afterwards we talked to Bob Azzardi about how to get our footage onto a computer. He told us that he loves Julian Earls, too! (Really, he said "I have to say it...I love Julian Earls!") Still don't have the editing/computer/cable thing figured out (or do we, Kat and Chris??), but hopefully we'll get that working soon.

All right, time for me to get some work done. It's been a busy morning.

Filming notes

Kat and I just had a very good filming session. We used the hangar "default position" and we tried a couple of places before we ended up settling on the left side in front of this concrete barrier thing. Kat was able to lean against it, thus be much more relaxed during her speaking. Hopefully we can all take a look at the footage soon.

I also learned that a tripod is ESSENTIAL! We might need to redo some of the footage I shot today with a tripod. So...hopefully we'll get one soon.

Also, everyone should really be trying their hardest to think of creative ways to illustrate the things about which you are talking. Today when Kat and I were filming we realized that just zooming in on her bio sensor while she explained how it worked wasn't going to be very visually engaging. So she's going to modify her diagrams so we can use them in the movie. Stuff like that is good, also any interactive things (like if you can come up with some kind of visual or physical analogue for what you're talking about, something we can play with and actually have fun filming) are awsome. Ok this is kind of a cheesy example, but...

I made this video about salmon in sixth grade. There was this one part where we wanted to show how hard it was for salmon to get over dams, even when they install fish ladders. So we had one person just run and leap. Then we said it was going to be harder than that. Then we had another person do a cartwheel. It's still going to be harder than that. Then we had my gymnast friend do a couple of crazy back handsprings. Yeah, it's even harder than that.

So...think visual, think exciting to look at...

That's my message for the day.

Good job on the presentation today everyone. We've definitely all done some good background resarch.

We all have filming filming that we want (well, need) to do, so should we work out some kind of filming schedule (in addition to the interview schedule)? Maybe each person comes up with a list of scenes are where they will need to film then and who will be in them. Then we can decide when we are going to film them.

Also...we need to start seriously arranging this Mars simulation. What's it going to be like? Where are we going to film it? What costumes or props (if any) do we need? How are we going to organize it? How long is it going to be? Stuff like that.

Or maybe I just got bitten by the organization bug...let me know what you guys think...

I've got the skills to pay the bills...

...or something. Anyway, I've been using some video editing software this week to make "movies" for my dust research. The software we have here is Adobe Premier (which I used a long time ago in high school in my fild and video class). So...I guess what I'm getting at is I'm kind of anxious to start the editing process, so maybe I could start editing the footage that we already have (at least into easy to find/use clips or something?).

Oooookay...

A response to Kat's awesome link!

Food science is AWESOME! I totally want to be a food scientist! When I become a teacher--because it's inevitable--I'm definitely using space food as a teaching tool.

I think we should all do food experiments at Candlewood. (Except the mold growing ones.)

Also, what if during out "Mars simulation" we tried to eat what astronauts would have to eat? (I know Pete needs his high caloric intake, but the rest of us can adapt.) That would be another thing we can discuss in our movie. Rad! Well, I think it's rad now...we'll see how I feel about it once I get hungry.

More links!

Ok, here is some cool stuff (if you are into space politics):

Video of Bush’s "New Vision" speech with cool animations


Transcript of Bush’s speech


Zubrin article discussing "New Vision" for space exploration

In other news...I thought the meeting with Tracy Murnan about script writing went pretty well and was very useful, even if it did run on a bit long. I'm glad that our creative vision is coming together (we've all agreed that we prefer the more "active" 20/20 style reporting where we are going into the "front lines" of NASA to do research to the Ken Burns documentary style), and I feel a bit more confident about our movie now (even though everyone keeps telling us that we are too ambitious).

Also, we met with Julian Earls today (director of Glenn), and he's totally awesome. I love that he's a runner and a comedian. Anyway, we didn't get the one-on-one interview with him that we wanted, but we did get some good footage and he said that he's interested in meeting with us later. Rad.

Ok, I should get some work done because my whole morning was shot as far as dust mitigation is concerned...