The video we are making for our youth group is coming along. The deadline is coming up here very quickly and so far not much has been done. Mostly because I have been working way too much.

I’ve got the video rough cut done. Today I have and am going through and cleaning up the cuts and lining out second by second what will be where. I’m also getting the list of scenes we need animated second by second so we don’t have to make extra stuff we won’t use.

The audio has been killing me. For some reason in the timeline Premiere Pro has a lag in the audio with this HD footage. It’s not just this computer either as I tried it on the other computer we’ve got. I think it’s just the fact that these aren’t the latest and greatest computers. Both computers are pretty much exactly the same, earlier model dual core processors, 1GB RAM, 256MB video card. I want to order some more RAM from Newegg but it’s going to take a few days to get here and I’m not sure it will help. I’m just gonna have to kind of live with it.

I’ve been playing a little with the animation we’re doing in Lightwave but haven’t really got anything to show yet. Once I get these scenes all exactly cut and I have the exact things I need done in Lightwave I’ll start with those. Cory and Nate: I’ll probably need your help once it comes to this.

In fact, if anybody who does 3D animation happens to see this and wants to help out a Youth Group make this awesome video, let me know. I’ll buy you a Dew, a Beer or a camel, whichever you’d like. Let me know.

I’m cutting together the footage for the short film our youth group is making. I love editing stuff. this is like my dream job. The first two movies I made were really rushed and for school so I didn’t do such a great job on them, but I just love sitting down and going through footage. Finding the awesome parts. Making it all flow. This is what I want to do forever.

Hopefully we’ll start getting some jobs and all I will have to do is edit. Shoot, edit, awesome. If I could do this for the rest of my life I would be happy.

While I was running through the footage I came across a scene of epic fail. Everybody messed up their lines or said them wrong, but we just kept rolling. It was awesome.

Hopefully I’ll be able to post a preview of the film to come by the end of this week. I should have all the footage cut together by tomorrow. Over the next couple of days I’ll be working on the keying. Then I’ll be doing the hard part: Making a fake lake and beach. Deadline to have it completed is May 16th at the latest. I’m putting my deadline at the 10th, but shooting for having it completed on the 3rd.

I am putting together a new video editing computer for some things that are needed. I don’t really have a set budget, but it looks like I’m keeping it under the $2,000 mark. I was looking for something that handles Adobe CS3 (Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop) mainly. My list currently comes to $1,618.86 at NewEgg (though I will be shopping around for the best prices) Here’s what I’ve come up with:

• Antec P182 case for the superior cooling and soundproofing
• OCZ GameXStream 700W Power Supply
• ASUS P5N-E ATX Motherboard
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz (Quad core, *drool*)
• 2x Patriot Extreme 4GB (2×2GB) DDR2 800 (Was considering DDR3, but 8GB DDR2 vs 4GB DDR3 Costs less and I think will be better for what I need)
• MSI GeForce 8600GTS 256MB 128 bit video card (Really just for the display, I don’t think a high end video card is required for video editing but I could be wrong)
• Creative Soundblaster Audigy SE 7.1
• Western Digital Raptor 10,000 RPM 150GB (For the OS drive)
• Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 500GB hard drive (For storage)
• LITE-ON 20x DVD burner
• Microsoft keyboard and mouse (best keyboard and mouse in my opinion)
• Logitech speakers (just because)
• XP Pro 64 bit (I was considering Vista Ultimate for a moment. Yeah, right)
• CyberPower 1500VA 900W UPS (Don’t want to lose anything with our unreliable power)
• Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium: $1700 (So expensive, but so worth it)

So, would anybody change this? I am looking mainly for something to do videos ranging from 30 seconds to 15 minutes. Possibly a lot of effect work, maybe not. I don’t think I will need a dedicated scratch drive with the 8GB of RAM and staying with XP.

It will be mainly for the Adobe Suite but may occasionally have some games played on it. I think the video card will be fine but I might upgrade.

I may also add an additional 500GB drive. I really don’t like running in RAID 0 because of the possibility of one drive failing and all data on both drives being lost. Everything will also be backed up to DVD as soon as I capture the footage from Mini DV tape.

I will not be doing any overclocking on this. I don’t want to risk anything and I don’t want to mess with cooling. That’s why I’m getting a quad core and 4-8GB of RAM. Shaving off 1 minute of rendering time from a 30 minute render doesn’t really interest me.
If you’ve got some suggestions let me know!