XDV video: UPDATE and Call for Papers

From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com>
Newsgroups: alt.slack
Date: Tue, Jul 9, 2002 2:17 PM

In article <pXDW8.77509$QD2.20646854@twister.nyc.rr.com>, Reverend
Sinphaltimus Exmortus <RevSExmortus@nyc.rr.com> wrote:

>
> The funniest part about it was the very last day of slack, gather in Tranq.
> Base and saying good-byes, I had the 7BWB in my ass the whole time. It even
> fell out of my shorts at one point but no one noticed. All the hugs good-bye
> and the consistent re-adjustment of the damned thing and NO ONE FELT IT or
> discovered my secret. See I got to T.B. thinking Doc. Frop was setting us up
> for an ambush so I brought the 7BWB with me, concealed in the seat of my
> short for protection, I knew that If indeed we were walking into a trap, At
> least I would be safe because I possessed the most powerful of church
> artifacts mentioned in both "The Book of the Subgenius" and "Revelation X".
>
> It wasn't until we made our great escape that I finally ripped it from my
> buttocks, Samhain shined a light on it and we Mocked, and flaunted it in
> front of the eyes of all the ancient ones in the church, the elder gods if
> you will. I saw the look on their faces, I knew they were confused. I
> personally don't think that Stang believes I could have acquired such an
> artifact but I did. The very last words I heard from the group was a
> familiar one. It was the voice of Doc. Frop as he said just loud enough for
> me to hear him "We're gonna kill you S.Exmortus."
>

There is an asteroid with your hemmorrhoids' names on it, my friend.

--
4th Stangian Orthodox MegaFisTemple Lodge of the Wrath of Dobbs Yeti,
Resurrected (Rev. Ivan Stang, prop.)
P.O. Box 181417, Cleveland, OH 44118 (fax 216-320-9528)
A subsidiary of:
The SubGenius Foundation, Inc. / P.O. Box 204206, Austin, TX 78720-4206
Dobbs-Approved Authorized Commercial Outreach of The Church of the SubGenius
SubSITE: http://www.subgenius.com
For SubGenius Biz & Orders: call toll free to 1-888-669-2323
or email: jesus@subgenius.com
PRABOB

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Reverend Sinphaltimus Exmortus" <RevSExmortus@nyc.rr.com>

> There is an asteroid with your hemmorrhoids' names on it, my friend.

-- I have the 7 Bladed Wind Breaker to blown that asteroid away for ever...
I was just wondering, is this thing supposed to spew green smoke at
mid-night? And what's with the voices?

Sincerely yours, forever Bob's,

The Reverend Sinphaltimus Exmortus
of the
First Ever Digital Church of Mind Slack
http://www.Digital-Church.com
A Totally Independent Clench of
The Church of the SubGenius
THE SUBGENIUS FOUNDATION
PO BOX 204206
AUSTIN, TX 78720-4206
Send $1 and S.A.S.E. for more info
or visit
www.subgenius.com
or email
RevSExmortus@nyc.rr.com
or die pink
or kill me
"Exterminate all rational thought" W.S.B.
16*2*!!

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com>

Not that I've looked at any of it yet, but in theory I have like 12
hours of unmanned wide-shot tripod 8mm video (actually recorded mainly
for audio of rants for Hour of Slack) and 6 or 7 hour-long mini-DVs
which I shot hand held and more judisciously.

But I have learned from long years of experience that mailing one's
originals to youths who say they're gonna do something great with them
is exactly like throwing them into the trash. No offense to your
personally. It's just that I don't trust ANYONE under 30 until I have
seen them "whip it out," as Frank Zappa might put it.

>
> Really, I'll work with you folks on just about anything. I've the
> equipment, the ability, and I'll make the time. But no content
> translates to no show. Lots of content means you won't have to stare
> at MY ugly mug much at all when you watch it.

Before I can let go of these incredibly precious church artifact
originals and mail them to some snot nosed SubGenius youth that I
barely know, no matter what talent he or she might actually possess, I
would want to see a VHS dub of your previous video work. It can just be
doofus home movies of something, I don't care what it is. You said you
have the ability, so you must have already done something to
demonstrate it. (Silverback challenges younger male.)

Another thing you could do to flesh out your series of cable access
shows would be to use little modular chunks of ARISE each time (a la
Night Flight of the ancient world). You have my permission to use bits
and pieces of the whole video, as long as they're spread out amongst
other footage... i.e., sort of creatively excerpted (and make sure me
and Cordt Holland get credit for those bits!). Also the X-Day 1998 vid.

Just so you know -- I edited like HELL the 1998 footage from 5 cameras
-- I only had pause-button in-camera edit technology at the time, not
even frame accurate, a fiendishly tricky thing to try to do -- and I
somewhat less carefully cut the XX-Day footage into a two-VHS set.

We sold about oh, 80 copies of the 1998 one (even though it's been in
film festivals) and I'd say about 10 copies of XX-Day set. The audio CD
of the XXX-Day stuff sold THREE copies and as far as I know, not one
person bought the 4X-Day MP3s or plain CD collections that I had at the
Swag Shack this year, I don't think.

What I'm saying is, don't do it for money or glory or anything but your
own fun. I LOVE fiddling with this footage and using the audio on Hour
of Slack, but I have learned not to expect much more than that from it.

X-Day Drills are really of the "you had to have been there" variety.

However, I do think that there is SERIOUS good potential for a sort of
"BEST OF X-DAY DRILLS" feature length compilation, a "history" of the
Drills that would use only the BEST moments from all the Drills. For
that matter, my long range plan is a video/book/CDR that would cover
the history of the whole Church and all the wacky shit done under that
umbrella since 1979. Before somebody else tries it and fucks it up
big-time. I am not planning to wait for some publisher to be
interested, and we will probably publish it ourselves on the Internet.
At this point I see absolutely no reason to keep fiddling with the
Conspiracy's idea of entertainment distribution. They would have to pay
me a FUCKLOAD at this point to sell out, especially after seeing the
Bold Young Spazzes of 5X-Day. We have been butt-fucked utterly by Simon
& Schuster AND by Polygram, and by everybody else we ever did Con-level
contracted biz with, except Steve Jackson, so I feel better off and
richer sitting here selling home made wares by the Info Roadside.

I still ain't gonna send my camera origs off to somebody unless they
have proved they can make a whole movie. That and that alone would
prove that they have mastered the art of Not Losing or Spilling Beer on
The Master Tapes.

I would be happy to make a DUPLICATE of the Mini DV but I'm not sure
how I'd go about that -- another DV camera?

On the other hand maybe I'll actually go hog wild and transfer and chop
up all my DV footage myself before you guys have even finished
unpacking. In that case I'd be able to spew out a DV copy off my
COMPUTER that I could mail you, which would be pretty close to an exact
copy... close enough. (Digital video is compressed and re-rendered
copies are NOT actually EXACT replicas -- they lose a little, like
cropping a JPEG and then re-JPEGing it.)

I don't think that'll happen this week but it might happen by next
month.

I should probably start dubbing that DV over to VHS just for yuks and
safety anyway.

I could send you VHS any old time... I'm just leery of parting with DV
originals any time soon.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: lyonderboy666@hotmail.com (Anti Pope Lupus of SI)

"Rev. Ivan Stang" <stang@subgenius.com> wrote in message news:<090720021442325317%stang@subgenius.com>...

[snip]

> But I have learned from long years of experience that mailing one's
> originals to youths who say they're gonna do something great with them
> is exactly like throwing them into the trash. No offense to your
> personally. It's just that I don't trust ANYONE under 30 until I have
> seen them "whip it out," as Frank Zappa might put it.

I totally agree. Having been a project leader all my damned life, I
am well acquainted with those who like to talk about stuff to
considerable length, but when it comes to actually DOING something
it's all excuses. What I wouldn't give for a dozen or so people that
are serious about this kind of thing. Betcha I can find 200 or so
talkers....

> >
> > Really, I'll work with you folks on just about anything. I've the
> > equipment, the ability, and I'll make the time. But no content
> > translates to no show. Lots of content means you won't have to stare
> > at MY ugly mug much at all when you watch it.
>
>
> Before I can let go of these incredibly precious church artifact
> originals and mail them to some snot nosed SubGenius youth that I
> barely know, no matter what talent he or she might actually possess, I
> would want to see a VHS dub of your previous video work. It can just be
> doofus home movies of something, I don't care what it is. You said you
> have the ability, so you must have already done something to
> demonstrate it. (Silverback challenges younger male.)

Shurr thing. I guess your footer address is fine?

> Another thing you could do to flesh out your series of cable access
> shows would be to use little modular chunks of ARISE each time (a la
> Night Flight of the ancient world). You have my permission to use bits
> and pieces of the whole video, as long as they're spread out amongst
> other footage... i.e., sort of creatively excerpted (and make sure me
> and Cordt Holland get credit for those bits!). Also the X-Day 1998 vid.

Excellent, thanx a bunch. I will definitely consider this an option
once this project enters its next stage.

> Just so you know -- I edited like HELL the 1998 footage from 5 cameras
> -- I only had pause-button in-camera edit technology at the time, not
> even frame accurate, a fiendishly tricky thing to try to do -- and I
> somewhat less carefully cut the XX-Day footage into a two-VHS set.

My first editing was on an Amiga, which was supposed to be frame
accurate but really wasn't. One of my side projects is to return to
my original footage and re-edit the monstrosities into a form that I
consider to be acceptable.

> We sold about oh, 80 copies of the 1998 one (even though it's been in
> film festivals) and I'd say about 10 copies of XX-Day set. The audio CD
> of the XXX-Day stuff sold THREE copies and as far as I know, not one
> person bought the 4X-Day MP3s or plain CD collections that I had at the
> Swag Shack this year, I don't think.
>
> What I'm saying is, don't do it for money or glory or anything but your
> own fun. I LOVE fiddling with this footage and using the audio on Hour
> of Slack, but I have learned not to expect much more than that from it.

I know better than that. :) At the end of each clip (such that they
are) I'm thinking of flashing the URL of SubSite and then a hotmail I
took out specificaly for this purpose. A big no-no on CTV is
advertising, which is not to say pople can't be directed TOWARD
advertising, kind of round-ways. :) I won't bother you with anything
at this point, but if there's something else you'd like me to tag on
(when this project becomes more of a reality), let me know.

> X-Day Drills are really of the "you had to have been there" variety.

True. But I don't intend to use any clip at length. Sexmortus wants
to do a half-hour thing aside from my 15-minute project, which would
be cool but not as tight. But if he truly has 3 hrs, and I have 2.5,
we SHOULD be able to get a solid 1/2 hour. How's that for editing
down?

> However, I do think that there is SERIOUS good potential for a sort of
> "BEST OF X-DAY DRILLS" feature length compilation, a "history" of the
> Drills that would use only the BEST moments from all the Drills. For
> that matter, my long range plan is a video/book/CDR that would cover
> the history of the whole Church and all the wacky shit done under that
> umbrella since 1979. Before somebody else tries it and fucks it up
> big-time. I am not planning to wait for some publisher to be
> interested, and we will probably publish it ourselves on the Internet.
> At this point I see absolutely no reason to keep fiddling with the
> Conspiracy's idea of entertainment distribution. They would have to pay
> me a FUCKLOAD at this point to sell out, especially after seeing the
> Bold Young Spazzes of 5X-Day. We have been butt-fucked utterly by Simon
> & Schuster AND by Polygram, and by everybody else we ever did Con-level
> contracted biz with, except Steve Jackson, so I feel better off and
> richer sitting here selling home made wares by the Info Roadside.

Sorry to hear how that turned out. The only con stuff I ever did was
publish a story, which I still have yet to see dime one for even
though the thing sells fairly well for an independant, and submit one
of my videos to a college competition, in which I narrowly missed
getting a decent grant. :( I lost to two strange action films, one
of which was pretty damned good, and a Japanese conceptual film, go
figure. The Japanese film was really odd; there was like this dead
body in somebody's house and the living people were moving it around
like it was furniture. I didn't really get it, but apparently the
judges did.

> I still ain't gonna send my camera origs off to somebody unless they
> have proved they can make a whole movie. That and that alone would
> prove that they have mastered the art of Not Losing or Spilling Beer on
> The Master Tapes.

UNDERSTOOD, totally. I wouldn't send out my masters either, unless I
was REALLY, REALLY sure. Plus, I really wouldn't even know what to
ask you for yet. I've learned that you can't really know what you
have until you sit the hell down and go through it. That's going to
involve a full Saturday making clips. Then, it's get Sex over and do
his clips.

> I would be happy to make a DUPLICATE of the Mini DV but I'm not sure
> how I'd go about that -- another DV camera?

That's one way. Most DV cameras have an SVHS port and the quality
translates fairly well. The only other way is if you have a DV deck,
and they're hella expensive right now. But the Mac should change all
that in the near future considering they're buying up all the plug-in
companies right now. Glee.

> On the other hand maybe I'll actually go hog wild and transfer and chop
> up all my DV footage myself before you guys have even finished
> unpacking. In that case I'd be able to spew out a DV copy off my
> COMPUTER that I could mail you, which would be pretty close to an exact
> copy... close enough. (Digital video is compressed and re-rendered
> copies are NOT actually EXACT replicas -- they lose a little, like
> cropping a JPEG and then re-JPEGing it.)
>
> I don't think that'll happen this week but it might happen by next
> month.

I'm glad for the month, let me tell you. I started this with the idea
that if it's done by next year, it'll be a success. If I get it to
the point where I can honestly say, "Stang, it's ready. We just need
to fill in a few more blanks," then you'll know for sure, because I
will not damn well say that until it's so, I promise. Here are the
stages before I can say that:

1) Master all the Dvideo
2) Log all the Dvideo (groan)
3) Decide on format for each show.
4) Storyboard them (and you have to see this using my horrible
stick-figures) This needs to be redone now that I didn't really get a
lot of what I wanted.
5) I've a bunch of projects for Sex, our resident animator.
6) Peace it together clip by clip

At that point, I'll see the gaps. Right now, it's all an unfinished
mess.

> I should probably start dubbing that DV over to VHS just for yuks and
> safety anyway.
>
> I could send you VHS any old time... I'm just leery of parting with DV
> originals any time soon.

Well, that depends on your future purposes.

I've mastered off VHS before, and the quality isn't that bad. Another
thing is, when the show is finally ready to go to CTV, they master it
onto (gasp) 3/4" tape (ugh). You can expect the quality not to be
pristine by any means when it reaches the airwaves. They recently
moved some of their stuff to digital, but they went DVCpro instead of
miniDV. Why they would go PAL format instead of NTSC is, quite
frankly, beyond me, but they aren't known for their brains down there
anyway. I could tell you stories, but I digress.

Mainly, the only thing is the quality of mastering off
second-generation VHS, if you decide you want it mastered to a DVD or
something. miniDV is 25lpi better than SVHS, and we're talking about
regular-old VHS. But it doesn't really bother me if it doesn't bother
you.

Then again, I have not yet, as you say, whipped it out. I'm not even
sure if it's entirely feasible, so don't trouble yourself quite yet.
I'll update you as this progresses. You can expect a repost of me
shaking like a giddy little bear cub if it starts working out.

-APLY

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Original file name: Re-XDVvideo-UPDATE.txt - converted on Tuesday, 16 July 2002, 14:21