darryn

Video production has always been an interest of mine. When I was a teenager my father brought home a VHS editing suite which had been used at his work. It was a proper one, and it was kept in the room next to mine. Before long, I was an expert at using all of the equipment. I was always keen to push the limits of the Fairlight CVI+, which was one of the first reasonably-priced digital effects units. My Panasonic MX-10 vision mixer was used until the sliders wore out. The Sony 3 CCD camera was the shit, for the time. It would still hold up today. I was disappointed when I was forced to sell the gear in 1996.

For a time this equipment was in a studio being used by Avent Video, a small business set up by a few of us. We did weddings and promotional videos. I was the most knowledgeable and as such was involved in most projects, and any graphics-intensive work was solely my domain. But by this time, 1991-92, the CVI was showing its age. I was desperate for an Amiga, unfortunately I had no money.

At the end of 1992 I moved out of home into a flat above some shops. I brought the gear with me. One of the shops below me housed the offices of John Hunter Media, and it was here that I first saw an Amiga in action in a working environment. John had an OpalVision card. What luxury! John helped me with titling for a short video I made for uni (56011 Film & Video Production), and for this I got a High Distinction, one of only two in my initial uni career. He later (in late 1997) was kind enough to give me a chance working with him, but I was going through a difficult time in my life then and squandered the opportunity.

Since then, video has been an interest but I have never had enough money to get any serious stuff, and having been spoiled I would not be satisfied with consumer gear. Well, times have changed. I am a bit older and realise that I don’t necessarily have to own the best possible equipment, and consumer level DV cameras can now produce an image superior to my old 3CCD Sony camera. And DV, despite its limitations, is vastly superior to VHS.

With this in mind, last year I purchased a consumer level DV camera for $1000, including bag, tripod, media etc. I haven’t really used it a lot as a camera, but I have used it. I use it as a pass-thru encoder, with my VCR plugged into the input on the camera. By this I have been “digitally re-mastering” my old video collection onto DVD’s. This lack of camera use is about to change.

I have started work on a secret video project that is taking up a bit of my time. This has required a bit of time investment but it has all been fun. I am using Sony Vegas 5.0 software for editing and I like it. I have tried a lot of other software and I find Vegas to be right at my level: easy to use but technical enough that I don’t get frustrated. It is interesting to note that with my camera and computer (value:$3000) I have several times the functionality and quality of my old gear costing tens of thousands of (80’s) dollars. I can do anything that I could then, in a fraction of the time. The only concession is that they do not sell edit controllers with proper jog/shuttle wheels any more (at least for PC).

The video I am currently working on is meant to look dodgy, that is part of the brief. I am putting in a lot of home movie clichés and this amuses me. With this in mind, I thought that I would test out modern chroma-keying technology. Screens were blue when last I used this technique, but green seems all the rage now. The results using my green t-shirt and desk lamp were less than spectacular. I knew what I had to do.

I was worried, but unnecessarily. Lincraft sell bright green fabric for $1.74 per metre. I bought 5m. There was only one remaining problem: lighting. Proper video and film lighting sets cost a lot of money. I do not have a lot of money to spend. Then it hit me. Bunnings. I am now the proud owner of a dual 500W halogen work light, with adjustable stand (maybe 1.8m high). That is 1000W of pure brightness. $28.95!!! And it doesn’t count as spending, because of one of my life rules. All tool purchases are justified. I might get another one. For fill.

Now playing: Thomas Schumacher - Eighties

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The first computer I ever used was a Vector Graphics Vector 3 which ran CP/M. My Dad brought it home when I was six years old and I became immediately enamoured of this device for two reasons: it had a space game; and to load the game you had to enter “boot floppy” at the console. I thought that boot floppy was hilarious, it conjured images of clowns in my head, and as we all know; clowns are funny. So it was this OS command that set the ball rolling, that made me the geek that I am today.

The first computer that I owned personally was an Apple ][c, a gift from Santa for Christmas 1985. This was a great little machine, it had a 5.25″ floppy drive built in, a mouse and 128k RAM. Back then it was revolutionary that a few of my apps had a GUI (like a primitive Windows) instead of the old text-based display. The text based display was certainly there though, and I taught myself to code in AppleBasic, writing my own demos. I was first introduced to warez when a family friend, who worked at Apple, gave me a box of cracked games and some software that could crack any game. My status as a geek was locked in.

Since that Apple, I have owned 29 other computers: 24 PC’s (from 386 to AthlonXP), 3 Amiga 2000s, a Fairlight CVI and a Macintosh IISE. I don’t see an end to this progression any time soon. If I had saved the money that I have spent on computer hardware over the years, I would probably own a house by now. But what quality of life would I have had?

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You can tell that Summer is almost here when the grass starts to grow. Last mown in April, the lawn lay dormant throughout Winter and sprung* to life in September, requiring a thorough mowing by mid-October. Not even four weeks later and the grass is overgrown and badly needs a mow. Weather permitting this will have to be done on Sunday.

Perhaps you are becoming bored with my discussion of mowing, but this post is about a question. I was thinking this morning: every year we remove many kilos (dry weight) of lawn clippings. The matter that makes up the lawn comes from the ground, we haven’t used fertiliser or anything. So if we are constantly removing matter from the yard, why doesn’t the surface level drop?

Now you have a small window into my mind.

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Let me fill you in on what happened over the weekend, in order.

I got up early on Saturday morning for my first kickboxing class for a while (actually the second, but I had to work last week). I enjoy kickboxing and it is a great workout. When I first started it was a shock to my un-exercised system and I nearly died for the first two weeks. This time was different and I actually felt that it could have been harder. Despite this claim, my muscles are very sore right now. All of them. I aspire to someday walk comfortably.

After kickboxing I popped home for a shower and a little bit of study before my exam. Instead of studying I ended up watching TV1’s Star Trek: Voyager marathon for a few hours. Time well spent. With an hour to go I was getting a bit nervous and took 2 No-Doz (caffeine) tablets to ensure I stayed alert, as I was fatigued from kickboxing. Perhaps I am a drug cheat? Taking two tablets was a mistake though because the caffeine combined with the nervousness to make my hands shake. I don’t know why I was nervous. I had gone over a sample exam and knew 80%-90% of the answers without study, so I knew I would pass.

3pm came and I started CompTIA A+ Core Hardware 2003 (exam 220-301). No worries, the allotted time was 90 minutes and I was finished in 21 with a better than passing result. I was quite pleased and called Kip and my parents to tell them.

I sound like a bit of a wanker talking about how easy the exam was, but it was easy for me because I am not the target audience. This exam is aimed at people who hear that “IT is a good industry to get into” and need some kind of proof of competency to get the job. So it is basically a simple introduction to hardware spanning the last 15 years. I lived through this period as a geek and used and configured almost everything covered in the exam. So for me, it is easy. For someone wanting to get an entry level support job it is challenging but helpful.

You may have noticed above that I said “the last 15 years”. That’s right, the exam was updated in 2003 and still there were questions about IBM XT computers. It is a joke. I can’t imagine that there is anyone in the first or second world who is running an IBM XT, or even a 386, 486 or Pentium; for anything other than novelty value. Anyone who might have this hardware is either an enthusiast who would repair it themselves, or very poor and unable to afford a certified technician. 80% of the material covered in this exam is entirely useless in the 21st Century. Any part of the 21st Century.

You might wonder why I paid $268 to do such a pointless exam. Well the answer is: it counts as a subject of my uni course, and is mandatory. They actually wanted me to pay $1650 to do a 5 day course to learn this stuff but luckily they accepted my experience and are satisfied with just the exam. I have 5 more exams to complete before the end of the year to earn my Diploma in Information Technology (Networking Technologies), which is half of the Bachelor’s Degree. I spent a lot of money to do this course for a single reason: The Netherlands. To get a job I have to have an ‘HBO’ level of education, which is sort of halfway between TAFE and a Bachelor’s Degree. I have to get the Diploma by the end of the year so it can be translated in time for my leaving (134 days).

The exam over, I bought a well-earned beer and went home to drink it whilst getting ready. It was Tristan’s birthday and we had been invited for dinner at his parents’ house. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but suffice it to say that Tristan’s parents are very nice people and are excellent hosts. Also, Tristan had much more of an accent when he was a small child.

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