I finally got my author intro video filmed, edited and posted after much screaming and gnashing of teeth. Go check it out! It’s short, it’s awkward and one of the hardest things I’ve had to do so far. But totally worth it in the end.
Later!
– Rissa
Month: September 2015
Or: A comedy of (frustrating) Errors
Getting into the digital realm is not too difficult; the age of social media almost demands it. As part of getting all my social ducks in a row, so to speak, I decided to make a video post on YouTube introducing myself. Dependent on how that goes, I’m planning on doing several more videos to start a vlog. All in addition to this blog, my two websites and the half-dozen other social media outlets I maintain. Um … what am I getting myself into?
First Comes Un-Love
The love is gone. Unfriend.
All went well at first; I already had a camera – a Canon Rebel Ti. I procured studio lighting, found a relatively clutter-free corner of my house as the location. There, I sat down, stared into the camera and went totally blank. Crap, I thought. This is a lot harder than it looks.
Sixteen-and-a-half torturous minutes later (most of which was spent with me laughing my ass off), I managed to record my first video. I was so excited to get to editing it!
In a previous life, I did video editing. Left over from that short-lived career was a video editor called Ulead VideoStudio. I knew this program inside and out. We were like best buds. Through editing the long and painfully awkward video I just filmed, I went to export the file only to come to a rage-inducing realization: my video editor was frickin’ hooped!
Then Comes Rage
Take that, Ulead! Now, we must Kung-Fu fight!
A series of unfortunate events thus rendered Ulead completely useless, and my four duel core processors could not save me this time. An upgrade to Window 10 and raw MOV files proved to be doom for both the program and my mental stability. Ulead crashed continuously; I couldn’t export more than five clips at a time. Video that survived past the five-clip mark was cursed with an off-sync audio track, thus turning my video into a badly dubbed foreign film. Panic! Horror! I may have even cried a little.
Then Comes Rissa in a Straight Jacket!
It’s like a secret code to decrypt my insanity!
Thoroughly chafed around the edges, I nursed my downtrodden-ness with half a box of Oatmeal Cream Pies and did some research. Little did I know, there were a slew of completely free video editors out there to soothe my wounded pride.
Enter Lightworks on its shining white steed, here to sweep me away from the cursed land of poorly constructed videos. Lightworks had a very steep learning curve as it’s a non-linear editor whereas Ulead was linear; half an hour of watching tutorials online, and I manage to piece together a test file. It took another few hours to figure out what the heck I was doing.
Then came the painful task of transferring all my marked video from Ulead to Lightworks… via paper. By hand! Nasty!
What took me 16 minutes to shoot, about 2 days to edit (because I’m slow), and another week to finally complete is now available, in all its awkward glory, on my YouTube Channel. It took 45 clips to make a mere 3 minute video, but ya know what? I’m freaking putting it up anyway because it took me nearly two weeks to edit!
Lightworks! My Hero!
Well, now I know what not to do, both in the filming and in the editing of future videos. The next vlog post should be smoother. Though, I think I will take a break from all that frustration for a little bit.
I think I need a drink.
- Rissa
August 2015 Update
Phew! August has come and gone so quickly. So much has happened this month. The last week of the month was spent home-bound for much of southern Alberta, which unfortunately didn’t translate into a lot of writing time. It’s strange – when you’re bored out of your skull because it’s too unhealthy to go outside in the middle of summer, it’s amazing how much you don’t do.
We Didn’t Start the Fire
Smokey City
The biggest life event of August was that the city survived horrible smoke levels that were off the charts. Fires in Washington State and British Columbia socked in much of southern Alberta. At one point, air quality in Calgary was a whopping 28 on a 1 to 10 scale (methinks the scale needs to be revised, n’est pas?) Many of us were relegated to homes and offices with the ventilation turned off while temperatures ran up into the mid-to-high twenties (75-80F). Smoke choked the skies and choked our lungs, and I’m not even kidding about that. I couldn’t go outside without a scarf tied around my face. And even then, I would cough for half an hour once getting back in doors.
Websites!
Sometimes we have bad dreams…
I’ve launched my author website, www.rissarenae.com . Whoo hoo! The blog is up and I’ve put up a little teaser for Book 1. Still lots to add to the site, but I’m taking it all in baby steps. I’m kicking around the idea of starting a vblog on YouTube, and I’ve already set up a Facebook page. Social media is a lot to keep up with, so this is gonna take some getting used to.
Rose Cross Academy website
In addition to the author website, I’m setting up a website for the series I’m writing. The series is called the Rose Cross Academy series; central to the storyline is the aforementioned academy – a high school which trains its students to hunt and extinguish demons. I’m building up a university-esque website, www.rosecrossacademy.com, to serve as both a marketing tool and an informational site for the series.
Book 1 is still waiting patiently for final artwork. In the meantime, I’ve been polishing up Book 2. I’ve hit my word count, which I’ve been using as a basis for determining how complete the book is. But at 83,000 words, the manuscript is still not complete. This was something I was hoping to finish up in August. Now, I’m thinking this book may hit close to the 100,000 word mark (my editor better prepare herself!)
There will be a Book 6!
Book 5 Storyboard Snipit
Book 5 grew an ending this month! So now that means I’m going to have to write a Book 6 in order to end the war that’s brewing all the way back in Book 1. I’ve also come up with an ending for the series. When exactly the series will end in its entirety remains to be seen. Six books? Eight books? It’s strange to be thinking about the end of the series when I’m still waiting to publish the beginning of the series. However, when you take into account the fact that I’m a Pantser and not a Plotter, having a goal is a good thing: the light at the end of the literary tunnel is no longer a freight train.
The Statistics
I love my statistics – that’s the Gold in me coming out. I know it bores the snot out of most people, so I’ll try to contain myself. Other than Book 2 hitting the word goal of 83,000 words, most of the effort this month went to the websites and my experimenting with whether or not I’m going to be starting a vlog.
It’s looking like September may be fairly quiet. Still, I haven’t made a decision on NaNoWriMo 2016 yet as I’m aiming to publish Book 1 in November. Ahhh, so many decisions to make, and I still have to remain gainfully employed through all of this. I don’t know how most authors do it.
Later!
– Rissa
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