Edit and Mix, 2016, Jim Middleton
(just never got around to putting it here)
Here lies the residue of "The Animating Apothecary," a source of obscure ephemera and thought, created fresh(ish), but now reduced to howling into the wind, sketching in sand, and nibbling at the crustier extremes of an overbaked society. Instagram? see - https://www.instagram.com/animating_apothecary/ - content (c) 2006-2023 Jim Middleton
It's only a minute from a 15 minute radio address, but it's enough to show that certain things haven't changed much in nearly 90 years...
Well, this took a while to discover, but there is a reason - I had been so disappointed with the Windows Movie Makers for the past several iterations that when my "newish" system came with Win10 instead of my preferred Win7 (as hoped), I didn't even bother looking for it.
This morning, I had a few moments to clear out the garbage in my temp folders, etl files, and generally re-evaluate what programs were on the machine, and I came upon the latest(ish) version of their Movie Maker, which comes with some basic dumbed down effects, but lacks even basic scene or photograph transition functions.
So I gave it a 30-second test, then dragged the results - of course, Windows video output only - into my usual software, the equally approaching relic status called Vegas 16, to trim and add shot dissolves.
The effects gave me insight where a lot of recent festival films have been getting their visual "plusses."
So, in lieu of anything useful, here's that short bit of fluff:
2023 Jim Middleton, The Animating Apothecary |
A mere 30 months ago, I was provided with a diagnosis that came with an 18 month shelf life. Four rounds of lymphoma, three indolent, one insolent, made a few people very nervous (I have to confess, my overall reaction was more one of annoyance, despite the interesting dreams). In prepping for that, this notice was intended to make the Final Announcement, post facto, to prevent any of the drippy platitudes and more maudlin boilerplates from finding their way into print.
It is presented here, in slightly redacted form, to show the tone it intended. So, if one falls upon some such thing with my name affixed to it in some distant future, and it goes on about "being called up" or "at the right side of the Grand Hoo-Hah," such nonsense is far, far from my intent and should be dismissed as just so much faux noise. In fact, if this ever appears, it, too, should be considered faux noise.
The proposed announcement would have run thusly:
As I said, the current situation (according to the Best Minds who answered by calls, anyway), is that the treatments "seemed to work for you" (quizzically uttered, as the clinicians darted to their own retirements), so all can be assured of a long period of being annoyed from this little land in mid-Michigan.
I think I'll just update this every few years, as one should do with any resume, but it probably won't appear in LinkedIn. Is LinkedIn still a thing?
Crescit eundo
The feature film made its Director Cut debut over the weekend - down from the three hour edit to just over two hours. More trims will be introduced, and it's taking shape nicely. Seeing one's work on a large screen makes a huge difference, especially when little whoopsies in the frame are magnified by a factor of 1000.
So some minor scribble adjustments are in the works!
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(c) 2023 Jim Middleton, Animating Apothecary |
Working on some scene transitions - sometimes that's the most time-consuming part of the production!
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(c) 2023 Jim Middleton, The Animating Apothecary |
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(c) 2023 Jim Middleton, The Animating Apothecary |
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Still (c) 2023 Jim Middleton, The Animating Apothecary |
Six shots, waiting for conversion to video and subsequent edit
Not sure it it'll help their cause, but it was fun to draw animals in perspective...
Sketch 1