This afternoon three of my friends performed in an acting showcase, the culmination of weeks of training. Though I'm sure they'll critique themselves, I thought they all did splendidly (as anticipated :)
Afterward, one of them asked me when we'd be shooting my next film project, FAR AWAY. I replied that I'm hoping for next summer, but it really depends on how quickly I can raise $200,000 to green-light the production. Usually when I tell that to people they chuckle. But Corey did something different. Rather than respond with nervous laughter, his reply went something like this: "Well, I've got $10 in my pocket, let's get this ball rolling!".
This evening, as I've reflected more on that moment, I've once again come to feel truly humbled. Corey knew only the basic premise and overarching theme for the movie (the "elevator pitch", as I'm told it's called), and yet he believed so much both in the story and in my passion and ability that he made his pledge right there, no waiting around.
I feel inspired and invigorated, awed and humbled.
It's interesting, also - yesterday afternoon I was telling my parents how far things were coming along, and they made the same metaphorical reference: the ball is rolling already. To hear Corey independently make the same reference today may have just been coincidence, it may have been just a common figure of speech, but I choose to believe it's a Higher confirmation that this movie will happen!
$10 pledged, only $199,990 to go. In all seriousness, I see that as meaning we're well on our way. Praise God.
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Thursday, October 01, 2009
Wonderment
During Awaken last year, before each performance, after rehearsal had finished but before the cast left to start putting on their makeup, we all took 10 minutes for quiet prayer/meditation/preparation in the sanctuary. During this time, Jon played two instrumental songs over our speakers: "Wonderment", by Kerry Muzzey, and "Ben" from the National Treasure soundtrack (essentially the theme song of the movie).
Before last night, I never really understood Kerry's song, "Wonderment." During Awaken it evoked for me a sense of preparing to run into battle, like in Narnia or Lord of the Rings. Last night, it had new meaning: in reflecting on my journey so far toward my next film project (a modern day retelling of Job from the Old Testament), I stood in wonderment of how far God has brought me. So many things fell into place this past week, I'm left with nothing but amazement at how God is working here. And so I understood: the "pre-battle" excitement I felt during Awaken – it doesn't necessarily need to be a battle, but rather, something wonderful, something Epic – the excitement of the adventure to come.
I'm left in Wonderment of God.
It's a good place to be.
Before last night, I never really understood Kerry's song, "Wonderment." During Awaken it evoked for me a sense of preparing to run into battle, like in Narnia or Lord of the Rings. Last night, it had new meaning: in reflecting on my journey so far toward my next film project (a modern day retelling of Job from the Old Testament), I stood in wonderment of how far God has brought me. So many things fell into place this past week, I'm left with nothing but amazement at how God is working here. And so I understood: the "pre-battle" excitement I felt during Awaken – it doesn't necessarily need to be a battle, but rather, something wonderful, something Epic – the excitement of the adventure to come.
I'm left in Wonderment of God.
It's a good place to be.
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Looking for a New Church
For several months I’ve wondered whether True Light Covenant would be my church “home”. Sunday morning I got my answer loud and clear: Absolutely not.
Ironically, when I walked in things actually felt better than normal - several people greeted me, very kindly, with smiles, shook my hand, and I truly felt welcomed. The worship set was good, also, and the sermon introduction sounded promising: the idea that God calls us to excel, not just get by with “good enough”. I had thought, if only for those brief minutes, that today finally things would turn around - True Light would become my home.
Unfortunately, the pastor took a turn for the worse while talking about sexual morality. And of course he had to go off on what I now commonly refer to as “the issue” (aka, homosexuality). And he railed on the ELCA for their recent vote to approve of partnered clergy, saying “they voted on a sin!”
I was ready to walk out then and there. Before I did, I prayed, and I felt God calling me to stay, that there would be something worthwhile for me before I left. And I suppose I also hoped the pastor might somehow finagle himself back out of this hole he had dug.
The latter did not happen; the former did… marginally. Unfortunately at this point I was fuming so terribly that I could no longer focus with any degree of clarity. I heard something about excelling in the work place… something something. And to the pastor’s credit, he did also spend equal time going off about premarital sex for heterosexual couples, so that was a pleasant change from how most off-the-deep-end conservative sermons go.
At this point I suppose I ought to explain why, exactly, I was so furious. The answer is really quite simple: while I myself am straight, half of my absolute closest friends are GLBT (and a significant number of my second and third tier friends, as well).
Secondly, hearing one too many conservative nut-jobs on the radio was what drove me away from the church several years ago, and it’s been a very long road coming back. It’s those sermons that make me ashamed to have any connection to “Christianity.”
Thirdly, I’ve spent more than my fair share of time studying the theology - I’ve heard all the arguments, I think they’re all bunk, and it’s fairly easy to systematically prove that… to any reasonable human being who’s actually willing to listen, rather than just regurgitate Old Testament theology (that, in my humble opinion, doesn’t really have a home in modern day Christian thought; count, for example, the number of times Jesus ever mentions anything that could even remotely relate to homosexuality: 0).
This is an important issue to me - I quit one of my web design jobs last year because of this. And so, as I said, I was fuming.
As soon as the service ended, while the congregation was singing along with the praise team, I scurried out right behind the pastor. In the back, he smiled and held out his hand to shake mine. I refused. “Well,” I said, “I’ve been wondering if this would be my church home, and now I have my answer. I can’t feel at home here, I will never be back.”
I began walking away, and he looked at me incredulously and asked, “Why?” I told him: “A few months ago, Dan [the former worship leader] said that he had met a lesbian who didn’t go to church and he told her that she’d be welcome at True Light. And now I find out that that’s absolutely not true. You just alienated half of my closest friends.”
At this point the conversation became heated. And people were starting to come out of the chapel, so I just wanted to leave and not make a scene. As I continued to edge nearer the door, he retorted that “of course they’re still welcome”. If I’d been thinking more quickly, my ideal response would have been akin to “Not after the gospel of hate you just preached”. Instead, my reply was less well-thought-out: “No they’re not” or something. What really hurt was his audacity to then declare that I “just don’t understand.” My reply was most definitely out of sheer anger, bordering on hate. I told him I would never come back to this church, and that I hoped never to see him again.
In retrospect, I know this was an overreaction. In the heat of the moment, emotions win. And there were some powerful emotions that day.
It’s very hard to separate the sin from the person. I’m struggling. It’s hard not to look at him and place blame for all that’s wrong with Christianity in America. It’s harder to remember that I’m no better, just in different ways.
In rehashing the memory in my mind, I reconstruct the scene similarly to a scene near the end of Star Wars III, where ObiWan is crying/yelling at Anakin: “You were the Chosen One!” If you know the scene, allow me to rewrite O-W Kenobi’s dialog: “You’re a Pastor! You’re supposed to be a reflection of God’s Love in this world, not one who fills it with hatred!” If only I’d been so quick-witted.
When I got home, I did the most logical thing anyone does after a traumatic experience: I updated my Facebook status.
Jeremy Gustafson is sad. And angry. And upset. God is good, and Christ is Good, so why are Christians such self-righteous and hateful jerks? (ie, I'm never going back to True Light Covenant ever again)
By the end of the day, numerous people had commented. And I want to respond to those now:
Comment 1: Good. Judging by the name of it, it's not a righteous place anyway (if there can be any righteousness in a place). The TRUE and the only light?
Truth be told, it’s not the place, it was just the one man. The people overall are friendly, and I harbor no ill feelings toward them. I honestly fear for the new Christians in the group, though.
Comment 2: Gandhi is often quoted as having said, "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
I have a Muslim friend who thinks the same of the Taliban. Whenever they come up in conversation, she asks, "are we even reading the same book?" I am beginning to think the same of Christians sometimes.
I completely agree. This quote came to mind even before you wrote it - it’s been a constant companion to me for a long time :)
Comment 3: Why even read the book? It's filled with hatred and stories of revenge... sanctioned by god. Gives me shivers.
The Old Testament is filled with such stories. The New Testament (which is most definitely not from where Sunday’s sermon heralded) tells a much different story… I’ve never really been one to actually recommended reading the Bible, but in this case I’ll break my trend: check out Luke (you can read it online for free at www.biblegateway.com).
Or, if you’re strapped for time, I’m sure there’s SparkNotes or Wikipedia entries that summarize it. My point is, the NT gives a dramatically different picture of God.
Lastly, from a secular point of view, it’s important to have basic Biblical literacy in order to understand the vast majority of English literature.
Comment 4: Hey Jeremy, just thinking about you and I hope all is well for you. Maybe someday you can visit my church. I think you would like it.
I’ll definitely check it out. I’ll message you soon…
Comment 5: Not all who claim to be Christians, are Christians...Real Christians will never make you feel the way you do now. So let's not loose our faith in Christianity because of a few pretenders. That line of thinking is the easiest way to justify turning your back on Christ.
You’ve nailed it. The last line in particular. The first time I dealt with this issue, that was my solution: to run away. This time, I know better. My faith in the church has certainly taken a significant hit, but my faith in God, in Christ, will not waver because of the actions of men. Thank you, sincerely, for the reminder.
Comment 6: I feel your pain, I have a similar situation here, but I believe God has called me to pray for them and help them repent. I will pray for you to love in spite of them.
It’s been hard - I’m not at a point yet where I’ve been able to pray sincerely for the pastor. Unless half-hearted prayers count for something… Blessings and peace to you as well, though, as you deal with your situation. Maybe we’ll form a support group for each other :)
Comment 7: These are the people being addressed in the book of Jude, I think. It's short - read it. Then come to Bethlehem Covenant. Ryan Eikenbary-Barber is back!
I’ll check out Jude sometime soon. And I might come to Bethlehem sometime; I find it very difficult to worship in traditional worship services, though, so I won’t promise being a regular attender.
That's enough for one blog post. New Church recommendations welcome. And prayers, also: for my former pastor, for that congregation, for the Church as a whole, for love and reconciliation.
Ironically, when I walked in things actually felt better than normal - several people greeted me, very kindly, with smiles, shook my hand, and I truly felt welcomed. The worship set was good, also, and the sermon introduction sounded promising: the idea that God calls us to excel, not just get by with “good enough”. I had thought, if only for those brief minutes, that today finally things would turn around - True Light would become my home.
Unfortunately, the pastor took a turn for the worse while talking about sexual morality. And of course he had to go off on what I now commonly refer to as “the issue” (aka, homosexuality). And he railed on the ELCA for their recent vote to approve of partnered clergy, saying “they voted on a sin!”
I was ready to walk out then and there. Before I did, I prayed, and I felt God calling me to stay, that there would be something worthwhile for me before I left. And I suppose I also hoped the pastor might somehow finagle himself back out of this hole he had dug.
The latter did not happen; the former did… marginally. Unfortunately at this point I was fuming so terribly that I could no longer focus with any degree of clarity. I heard something about excelling in the work place… something something. And to the pastor’s credit, he did also spend equal time going off about premarital sex for heterosexual couples, so that was a pleasant change from how most off-the-deep-end conservative sermons go.
At this point I suppose I ought to explain why, exactly, I was so furious. The answer is really quite simple: while I myself am straight, half of my absolute closest friends are GLBT (and a significant number of my second and third tier friends, as well).
Secondly, hearing one too many conservative nut-jobs on the radio was what drove me away from the church several years ago, and it’s been a very long road coming back. It’s those sermons that make me ashamed to have any connection to “Christianity.”
Thirdly, I’ve spent more than my fair share of time studying the theology - I’ve heard all the arguments, I think they’re all bunk, and it’s fairly easy to systematically prove that… to any reasonable human being who’s actually willing to listen, rather than just regurgitate Old Testament theology (that, in my humble opinion, doesn’t really have a home in modern day Christian thought; count, for example, the number of times Jesus ever mentions anything that could even remotely relate to homosexuality: 0).
This is an important issue to me - I quit one of my web design jobs last year because of this. And so, as I said, I was fuming.
As soon as the service ended, while the congregation was singing along with the praise team, I scurried out right behind the pastor. In the back, he smiled and held out his hand to shake mine. I refused. “Well,” I said, “I’ve been wondering if this would be my church home, and now I have my answer. I can’t feel at home here, I will never be back.”
I began walking away, and he looked at me incredulously and asked, “Why?” I told him: “A few months ago, Dan [the former worship leader] said that he had met a lesbian who didn’t go to church and he told her that she’d be welcome at True Light. And now I find out that that’s absolutely not true. You just alienated half of my closest friends.”
At this point the conversation became heated. And people were starting to come out of the chapel, so I just wanted to leave and not make a scene. As I continued to edge nearer the door, he retorted that “of course they’re still welcome”. If I’d been thinking more quickly, my ideal response would have been akin to “Not after the gospel of hate you just preached”. Instead, my reply was less well-thought-out: “No they’re not” or something. What really hurt was his audacity to then declare that I “just don’t understand.” My reply was most definitely out of sheer anger, bordering on hate. I told him I would never come back to this church, and that I hoped never to see him again.
In retrospect, I know this was an overreaction. In the heat of the moment, emotions win. And there were some powerful emotions that day.
It’s very hard to separate the sin from the person. I’m struggling. It’s hard not to look at him and place blame for all that’s wrong with Christianity in America. It’s harder to remember that I’m no better, just in different ways.
In rehashing the memory in my mind, I reconstruct the scene similarly to a scene near the end of Star Wars III, where ObiWan is crying/yelling at Anakin: “You were the Chosen One!” If you know the scene, allow me to rewrite O-W Kenobi’s dialog: “You’re a Pastor! You’re supposed to be a reflection of God’s Love in this world, not one who fills it with hatred!” If only I’d been so quick-witted.
When I got home, I did the most logical thing anyone does after a traumatic experience: I updated my Facebook status.
Jeremy Gustafson is sad. And angry. And upset. God is good, and Christ is Good, so why are Christians such self-righteous and hateful jerks? (ie, I'm never going back to True Light Covenant ever again)
By the end of the day, numerous people had commented. And I want to respond to those now:
Comment 1: Good. Judging by the name of it, it's not a righteous place anyway (if there can be any righteousness in a place). The TRUE and the only light?
Truth be told, it’s not the place, it was just the one man. The people overall are friendly, and I harbor no ill feelings toward them. I honestly fear for the new Christians in the group, though.
Comment 2: Gandhi is often quoted as having said, "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
I have a Muslim friend who thinks the same of the Taliban. Whenever they come up in conversation, she asks, "are we even reading the same book?" I am beginning to think the same of Christians sometimes.
I completely agree. This quote came to mind even before you wrote it - it’s been a constant companion to me for a long time :)
Comment 3: Why even read the book? It's filled with hatred and stories of revenge... sanctioned by god. Gives me shivers.
The Old Testament is filled with such stories. The New Testament (which is most definitely not from where Sunday’s sermon heralded) tells a much different story… I’ve never really been one to actually recommended reading the Bible, but in this case I’ll break my trend: check out Luke (you can read it online for free at www.biblegateway.com).
Or, if you’re strapped for time, I’m sure there’s SparkNotes or Wikipedia entries that summarize it. My point is, the NT gives a dramatically different picture of God.
Lastly, from a secular point of view, it’s important to have basic Biblical literacy in order to understand the vast majority of English literature.
Comment 4: Hey Jeremy, just thinking about you and I hope all is well for you. Maybe someday you can visit my church. I think you would like it.
I’ll definitely check it out. I’ll message you soon…
Comment 5: Not all who claim to be Christians, are Christians...Real Christians will never make you feel the way you do now. So let's not loose our faith in Christianity because of a few pretenders. That line of thinking is the easiest way to justify turning your back on Christ.
You’ve nailed it. The last line in particular. The first time I dealt with this issue, that was my solution: to run away. This time, I know better. My faith in the church has certainly taken a significant hit, but my faith in God, in Christ, will not waver because of the actions of men. Thank you, sincerely, for the reminder.
Comment 6: I feel your pain, I have a similar situation here, but I believe God has called me to pray for them and help them repent. I will pray for you to love in spite of them.
It’s been hard - I’m not at a point yet where I’ve been able to pray sincerely for the pastor. Unless half-hearted prayers count for something… Blessings and peace to you as well, though, as you deal with your situation. Maybe we’ll form a support group for each other :)
Comment 7: These are the people being addressed in the book of Jude, I think. It's short - read it. Then come to Bethlehem Covenant. Ryan Eikenbary-Barber is back!
I’ll check out Jude sometime soon. And I might come to Bethlehem sometime; I find it very difficult to worship in traditional worship services, though, so I won’t promise being a regular attender.
That's enough for one blog post. New Church recommendations welcome. And prayers, also: for my former pastor, for that congregation, for the Church as a whole, for love and reconciliation.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Compressor and Qmaster Cluster
In preparation to create the Harry Putter 2 DVD, I borrowed (with permission) a number of Macbooks from work and set up my own little render farm at home. I installed Apple’s Qmaster package on each machine, which would allow my laptop to use them as a distributed computing network. In principal, it’s supposed to be really easy. In practicality, it sort of was, but not really.
The Qadministrator application is incredibly picky. If you do things right, it works great, but if just one variable isn’t to its liking, it beach-balls and won’t respond. Worse, it destroys the cluster you were trying to save and you have to start all over. After doing this several times, it goes pretty quickly, but still, it’s frustrating.
Anyway, here are some tips and tricks I learned while battling with Qmaster and Compressor (version 3, so yes I know this is already out of date, but may be useful for anyone who hasn’t upgraded to Apple’s latest and greatest)
Before you think about doing anything else, before you even open up Qadministrator to create a cluster, update all your machines to the latest OS (10.5.7 as of this writing). Also, after installing the Qmaster package on each render node machine, run Software Update again and install any Pro Application Support or Quicktime updates. Without these installed on every machine Qadministrator will not be able to set up your cluster.
To set up you Qmaster cluster, follow this excellent tutorial: http://www.macworld.com/article/49047/2006/01/marcchreateside.html
Also, note that if you’re setting up machines that have more than one processor (any dual core MacBook or MacBook Pro, for example), you can highlight the Compressor service in the Apple Qmaster System Preferences pane, click “Options for selected service”, and choose as many instances as you have processors (so, dual cores = 2 instances). I’ve found it convenient on my master node (my personal laptop) to leave this at 1 less than the maximum so that
Lastly, whenever you make changes to your cluster in Qadminister, do it slowly. And by that I mean one change at a time. Then quit. Then open Qadministrator up again and make another change, and so on. The alternative is that you might get an error message saying it’s unable to save the changes to the cluster, and next time you open Qadministrator your cluster has disappeared. Now you must go to every single stinkin’ machine, open the Apple Qmaster System Preferences pane, stop sharing, hold down option and click “Reset Services”, then start sharing again. On every machine. And a reboot doesn’t hurt then, either.
When rendering some of my videos I ran into audio sync problems. Specifically, I found them when compressing MPEG-2 and Dolby 2.0 streams for DVD, using a video that was either 23.98 or 24 fps. Oh, right, by the way, in Compressor 3, in order to use Qmaster to render a video, you need to export a Self-Contained-Quicktime-Movie file (SCQTM as I’ve seen it commonly abbreviated) first, then send that file through Compressor. I understand Apple fixed this in Compressor 3.5 so that you can use QT reference movies, but in v.3 it needs to be a SCQTM.
The issue I saw was that, even for short, two minute clips, the audio would be off sync by almost 1 second toward the end. But only when I compressed through the cluster. If I encoded the job on my local machine, no issue, looked beautiful (and obviously, I checked, the SCQTM file played correctly). Sidenote, I used a program called MPEG Streamclip to preview the renders without having to bring them into DVD Studio Pro, or, worse, actually burn a real disc.
After literally hours scouring Google, I finally broke down and called Apple’s “expert support” service (I’m not saying that sarcastically, that’s what it’s actually called). The guy I spoke to (Jon), recommended I disconnect some of the machines from the cluster and see if that made a difference. Apparently “network latency” can cause audio sync issues.
I was skeptical, and I still can’t wrap my mind around why that would make any difference, but nevertheless I tried it, screwed up Qadministrator, reset services and rebooted, and then sent the batch job through again, this time with only 1 extra computer in the cluster. Everything came out correctly. Hmm. I added computers one at a time until I realized that it was the computers networked on my second switch that would cause problems. Well, not the computers themselves, but the fact that there was a second switch between those machines and the master node. Thus I’ve determined you can probably have as many computers as you want in a cluster, as long as they’re physically all on the same switch. At least, for certain types of encoding - oddly, one timeline that was 59.97fps encoded perfectly fine with the entire cluster, it’s just the 23.98fps sequences that didn’t.
Another issue I had was that some movies came through incomplete. The last minute or two of footage just hadn’t been encoded. The SCQTM was all there, but the MPEG-2 stopped about 95% of the way through.
I’ve finally determined this was my own ingenuity working against me. Early on in the process, I saved my Compressor batch file with all my sources, destinations, and settings for my entire DVD contents. This way I made sure I wouldn’t forget anything when I needed to render everything after I finished editing. Unfortunately, Compressor apparently keeps track of movie length, so after I added some clips to my FCP timeline and exported a new SCQTM, Compressor didn’t recognize the movie as being any longer than it was before, so it only encoded the length of the original movie. Deleting the job from the Compressor file and re-adding it solved this problem.
That’s all for now. Hopefully this will help at least one desperate person someday.
The Qadministrator application is incredibly picky. If you do things right, it works great, but if just one variable isn’t to its liking, it beach-balls and won’t respond. Worse, it destroys the cluster you were trying to save and you have to start all over. After doing this several times, it goes pretty quickly, but still, it’s frustrating.
Anyway, here are some tips and tricks I learned while battling with Qmaster and Compressor (version 3, so yes I know this is already out of date, but may be useful for anyone who hasn’t upgraded to Apple’s latest and greatest)
Software Update
Before you think about doing anything else, before you even open up Qadministrator to create a cluster, update all your machines to the latest OS (10.5.7 as of this writing). Also, after installing the Qmaster package on each render node machine, run Software Update again and install any Pro Application Support or Quicktime updates. Without these installed on every machine Qadministrator will not be able to set up your cluster.
To set up you Qmaster cluster, follow this excellent tutorial: http://www.macworld.com/article/49047/2006/01/marcchreateside.html
Also, note that if you’re setting up machines that have more than one processor (any dual core MacBook or MacBook Pro, for example), you can highlight the Compressor service in the Apple Qmaster System Preferences pane, click “Options for selected service”, and choose as many instances as you have processors (so, dual cores = 2 instances). I’ve found it convenient on my master node (my personal laptop) to leave this at 1 less than the maximum so that
compressord leaves me a little bit of processor power to check email, etc, but it doesn’t matter too much. The important lesson is to take advantage of those dual cores where you can.Lastly, whenever you make changes to your cluster in Qadminister, do it slowly. And by that I mean one change at a time. Then quit. Then open Qadministrator up again and make another change, and so on. The alternative is that you might get an error message saying it’s unable to save the changes to the cluster, and next time you open Qadministrator your cluster has disappeared. Now you must go to every single stinkin’ machine, open the Apple Qmaster System Preferences pane, stop sharing, hold down option and click “Reset Services”, then start sharing again. On every machine. And a reboot doesn’t hurt then, either.
Audio Sync Problems
When rendering some of my videos I ran into audio sync problems. Specifically, I found them when compressing MPEG-2 and Dolby 2.0 streams for DVD, using a video that was either 23.98 or 24 fps. Oh, right, by the way, in Compressor 3, in order to use Qmaster to render a video, you need to export a Self-Contained-Quicktime-Movie file (SCQTM as I’ve seen it commonly abbreviated) first, then send that file through Compressor. I understand Apple fixed this in Compressor 3.5 so that you can use QT reference movies, but in v.3 it needs to be a SCQTM.
The issue I saw was that, even for short, two minute clips, the audio would be off sync by almost 1 second toward the end. But only when I compressed through the cluster. If I encoded the job on my local machine, no issue, looked beautiful (and obviously, I checked, the SCQTM file played correctly). Sidenote, I used a program called MPEG Streamclip to preview the renders without having to bring them into DVD Studio Pro, or, worse, actually burn a real disc.
After literally hours scouring Google, I finally broke down and called Apple’s “expert support” service (I’m not saying that sarcastically, that’s what it’s actually called). The guy I spoke to (Jon), recommended I disconnect some of the machines from the cluster and see if that made a difference. Apparently “network latency” can cause audio sync issues.
I was skeptical, and I still can’t wrap my mind around why that would make any difference, but nevertheless I tried it, screwed up Qadministrator, reset services and rebooted, and then sent the batch job through again, this time with only 1 extra computer in the cluster. Everything came out correctly. Hmm. I added computers one at a time until I realized that it was the computers networked on my second switch that would cause problems. Well, not the computers themselves, but the fact that there was a second switch between those machines and the master node. Thus I’ve determined you can probably have as many computers as you want in a cluster, as long as they’re physically all on the same switch. At least, for certain types of encoding - oddly, one timeline that was 59.97fps encoded perfectly fine with the entire cluster, it’s just the 23.98fps sequences that didn’t.
Incomplete Rendered Movies
Another issue I had was that some movies came through incomplete. The last minute or two of footage just hadn’t been encoded. The SCQTM was all there, but the MPEG-2 stopped about 95% of the way through.
I’ve finally determined this was my own ingenuity working against me. Early on in the process, I saved my Compressor batch file with all my sources, destinations, and settings for my entire DVD contents. This way I made sure I wouldn’t forget anything when I needed to render everything after I finished editing. Unfortunately, Compressor apparently keeps track of movie length, so after I added some clips to my FCP timeline and exported a new SCQTM, Compressor didn’t recognize the movie as being any longer than it was before, so it only encoded the length of the original movie. Deleting the job from the Compressor file and re-adding it solved this problem.
That’s all for now. Hopefully this will help at least one desperate person someday.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Privilege
Shopping at Rainbow, a nearby grocery store, often proves to be a humbling reminder of how privileged a life I lead. A few weeks ago, the cashier asked the gentleman in front of me if he wanted to become a Roundy’s Reward member: ‘It only takes a few minutes and all you need is a name and phone number’. “Well”, he replied, “that answers that, I don’t have a phone.” He seemed like a very nice guy, it’s hard for me to imagine, though, what that life would be like not being able to afford a phone. Admittedly, I could be wrong in assuming that - he may very well choose not to have a phone, I’m just drawing my conclusion based on his state of dress, and also that he paid with cash and not plastic.
I rarely see plastic cards used at Rainbow, it seems like most shoppers are 'just getting by' financially. It’s strange, picturing that, because I’ve never needed to worry about having money to buy groceries - on this particular day I remember I didn’t even look at my total bill, just swiped my card and moved on. Definitely a life of privilege.
I rarely see plastic cards used at Rainbow, it seems like most shoppers are 'just getting by' financially. It’s strange, picturing that, because I’ve never needed to worry about having money to buy groceries - on this particular day I remember I didn’t even look at my total bill, just swiped my card and moved on. Definitely a life of privilege.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Honor vs Obligation
For the first time, this year I was privileged to march with the Minnehaha faculty and staff for graduation. I’ve looked forward to this event for 5 years, and now, finally, with my fancy college degree, I could don a black robe and look smart.
While all faculty are required to walk in the procession, staff are not, and, in fact, very few staff ever choose to. So it’s an interesting difference in perspective: for the faculty who have been around for a long time, this march has become just another obligation, whereas for me it was a great honor, an event I’ve anticipated for years.
While all faculty are required to walk in the procession, staff are not, and, in fact, very few staff ever choose to. So it’s an interesting difference in perspective: for the faculty who have been around for a long time, this march has become just another obligation, whereas for me it was a great honor, an event I’ve anticipated for years.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
No More Yellow Pages
A few weeks ago I came home and found a massive pile of Phone Books on my front door step. Okay, it was only two books, but in my mind I was screaming at the injustice - why kill a tree to print a useless book that I'm just going to recycle and never use?
I found another blogger who adamantly agrees with me:
http://www.thedeets.com/2008/06/16/how-to-unsubscribe-from-the-yellow-pages/
And he turned me on to this site to opt out of phone book delivery. I signed up. I hope it works.
http://www.yellowpagesgoesgreen.org/
I found another blogger who adamantly agrees with me:
http://www.thedeets.com/2008/06/16/how-to-unsubscribe-from-the-yellow-pages/
And he turned me on to this site to opt out of phone book delivery. I signed up. I hope it works.
http://www.yellowpagesgoesgreen.org/
Monday, June 01, 2009
Time for a Promotion
In The Devil Wears Prada, Nigel tells Anne Hathaway's character, "Let me know when your entire life goes up in smoke, then it's time for a promotion."
That quote has stuck with me ever since, because, well, last summer I pretty much devoted my entire life to work, and while the paychecks were very nice (I'm paid hourly, plus time-and-a-half overtime), I've made a deliberate effort since then to not let work consume me; my personal life needs to take priority, otherwise I run a very real risk of becoming a workaholic. The Devil Wears Prada resonated with me so strongly because, in the end, Anne's character finally makes this decision for herself, as well; moreso, we even see a glimpse of jealousy from Miranda, her [former] overtaxing boss. Miranda lost her family and has no real friends because she could not escape the lifestyle of the rich and famous and successful - that's not where I want to see my life going.
That quote has stuck with me ever since, because, well, last summer I pretty much devoted my entire life to work, and while the paychecks were very nice (I'm paid hourly, plus time-and-a-half overtime), I've made a deliberate effort since then to not let work consume me; my personal life needs to take priority, otherwise I run a very real risk of becoming a workaholic. The Devil Wears Prada resonated with me so strongly because, in the end, Anne's character finally makes this decision for herself, as well; moreso, we even see a glimpse of jealousy from Miranda, her [former] overtaxing boss. Miranda lost her family and has no real friends because she could not escape the lifestyle of the rich and famous and successful - that's not where I want to see my life going.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
51 Days of Uptime
This is totally geeky, but here's one reason I love my Mac: I routinely can go over a month between restarts. Okay, yes, I know there are some Linux nerds out there who can claim records of over a year, but still, my point: try doing anything comparable on Windows.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Class of 2009
Today was St Olaf’s Commencement for the Class of 2009. It’s been an entire year since I graduated college. Weird. It was great to see so many of my friends at one time, though. So proud. *Tear*.
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