The Morning After

The morning after, or rather the day after, I directed my first project for this class might have been as much or more stressful than the day of shooting itself. I think we certainly have proved Murphy's Law: "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong." After all of the mishaps of the night before, I was actually very pleased with how the footage turned out. The next day, however, I had a problem: I could not get the audio files from the Tascam. Yesterday it took me from 12-5pm to extract the audio data. I think I am the first and only Parkie to have had this problem. Because of how the data is organized in the Tascam, it turns out if even one file goes astray and is not in a new project, but is just a new file, Macs cannot find it. So when I took out the fire wire adapter, I discovered that my project was Project1s, but I could not access the files. It said that there was no data. I freaked out and went to PPECS and luckily Phil was there to help me out.

He told me that the only way to get my files was to find a Windows or PC computer with a fire wire port. This was no easy task. After going through Park and multiple computer labs, I went to the IT desk in Friends, but they told me there were no computers with a fire wire port on campus that I could use. Having to sit through an Intro to Theatre lecture after that was really tough. Then I remembered my friend Sean, one of my actors from the night before, has a laptop with both Mac and PC software. I met up with him and we were able to extract the files. Another problem, since my hard drive is mac oriented, I was unable to copy the files to my hard drive while he was using the PC software. He had to upload the files to Google and share them with me so I could get the files. What a day. All of this happened before I had to turn my equipment in at 5:30 before the files were lost forever. It was pretty nerve racking, but I'm glad at least that at the end of the day, I got my audio files.

After 5pm, however, my day wasn't over. I also had to return all my equipment to PPECS and then return borrowed props back to their owners. Having a cold on top of everything did not help either. I was exhausted because even after this whole debacle, I could not rest. I had to teach a Zumba class from 6-6:45, go to an ICTV post-production meeting from 7-8, and then from 8 on I had test shooting as a 1st AC for a thesis. By the end of the night, I was drained.

Luckily, today is a new day, I'm well rested, and I'm ready for more.