I’m going to try something different, so I really don’t know exactly where this Iteration is going to go. I thought I’d just put on some music and write whatever came to mind. At the moment, Dark Star by Crosby, Stills, and Nash is playing in the background, which I love despite not really being a CSN fan. Adrianne found the album at this little record store in DC a few weeks ago that’s across the street from our favorite ice cream shop.
I don’t know about you, but I had a really good week, and after last week, I kind of needed a win. Adrianne and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary on Friday, which was pretty terrific. It really felt like a milestone—like we reached something or arrived somewhere and now that we’re here, everything’s going to be okay. We went to a little Italian place for dinner that apparently used to be a brothel. I love finding out the history of places though I will say that the thought of a brothel in the middle of Kensington, Maryland, caught me a little off guard. I couldn’t find anything about it online, but one of the servers confirmed it, adding that it also used to be a general store and a post office—though I’m assuming not all at once.
I spent the better part of the week putting together a new YouTube video. It’s sort of a progress report on the Tascam Mixcast 4 and features some of my thoughts after using it as my main audio interface for more than a year, as well as some audio samples with and without the built-in effects. I put together a review of the Mixcast when Tascam initially sent me the unit, and I had every intention of doing a followup. I’ve been wanting to start making videos for a while, but I don’t really want to be on camera, so trying to come up with a format that I felt worked for me has proven to be a little tricky. I actually did a video a few years ago that got close, but I never really pursued it because I started focusing more on painting. The video is a review and a partial flip-through of David Carson’s book nucollage, vol. 1. It was also my first attempt at using DaVinci Resolve.
The whole idea of taking another look at doing videos has been in the back of my mind for quite a while—I even started a list of potential subjects. But I think I really started thinking about it more seriously on the back of a couple recent Iterations. In one I did last month, I talked about getting back into 3D just because I missed it. In another, I talked about the incredible position I’m in with regard to having an abundance of time and no shortage of interests to explore. While I wanted to do another video, I wasn’t settled on doing a followup to the first Mixcast review, but I ended up rewatching the David Carson video—which I hadn’t watched since I put it together—and made some notes around what worked and what I thought could be improved.
I knew I wanted to be able to finish something fairly quickly, so a Mixcast follow up actually seemed like a logical choice, especially since I could reuse at least a few of the assets from the first one. I also didn’t want it to be too complicated, because as I said, I’ve got pretty limited experience with Resolve. I talked about it with Sean, who encouraged me to start with the voiceover and build the timeline around it, which is exactly what I did. In addition to reusing a few assets from the first video, I created new product stills that I referenced in the voiceover and used Affinity Photo in order to separate them away from the background to create depth. To simulate the oscilloscope effect, I uploaded the audio into Headliner to create an audiogram, which I then brought back into Resolve and finished with an Edge Detect filter to give it a bit of a glow. I also ended up recording a few screencasts and shooting a couple new clips of the Mixcast. Then it was just a matter of filling in the gaps in the timeline, adding typography, and adjusting the timing of the various elements to match specific cues in the voiceover.
When I finished it, I asked Sean if he would take a look at it, since he’s got a great eye for flow and has a ton more experience making videos than I do. I thought it looked good, but it never hurts to get a second opinion (or a third, since I also showed it to Adrianne). I won’t go into a ton of detail, but I will say that both Adrianne and Sean loved it, and in a nutshell, Sean told me that in his opinion this is what I should be doing. “Find things that you use or that interest you and make videos about them.” He said that the style and format were perfect for how I’ve said I want to approach video and I think I agree with him. I really did have a blast putting it together. This style of video lets me be a writer, a designer, a photographer, and with some practice, maybe even a filmmaker. And the best part is that other than the occasional shots of my hands, I don’t have to be in front of the camera as a “YouTuber.”
Between working on new creative projects that will help me rebuild my portfolio and getting out into the world more with Adrianne and with friends, I feel like I’m in a really good place. I think part of it is also on the back of coming to terms with where I am creatively and what season of my life I’m in and being grateful for all of it. I don’t know how long it will last, but what I do know is that I’ve always been happier when my hands are in motion and I’ve got enough ideas to keep them busy for quite a while.
Thanks so much for reading.
Keep moving forward ✨️