Well, Jim Groom was right – this video assignment was really tough.

I decided to make a video essay on the film Memento. I watched it over the weekend, and on Monday I spent about two hours on one of the Macs in du Pont to take out all the clips that I wanted. (Of course, after the initial “Oh, you don’t get video and sound at the same time. And when you do, the sound will be a second and a half off, just to screw with you!” issues were resolved.) And then yesterday, after I finished with classes and work around 5, I basically camped out in du Pont and worked until I stumbled home at a quarter after 11.

Yep – a little over six hours straight of editing and talking and editing and retalking. I ended up not using half the clips that I took out, and having to retake out several clips that I’d cut in inferior spots. And you know what? I’m still really not happy with it. Part of that is, I suspect, a general dislike of the sound of my own recorded voice, but most of it is just frustration with being able to say quite what I wanted to say. I considered trying to go back and reedit some pieces in between work and class today, but I’ve pretty much decided not to – I’m not convinced I could improve it by much, and I’m so exhausted that I don’t think it would be a worthwhile way to spend an hour or two. The four of you who actually watch it will just have to accept it, as is.

But, that’s enough self-centered moaning for one blog post! On a more positive note, this project made me develop a newfound appreciation for Macs. I’ve previously pretty much just enjoyed having an iPod and iTunes, but haven’t liked using Mac computers at all. (Because of all the time I’ve spent on PCs, I find the interface on apple computers confusing and counter-intuitive.) But as I played around more over that brutal six hour edit session yesterday, I could feel myself get more and more comfortable with what I was doing. It certainly helped that iMovie is vastly superior to Windows Movie Maker, too. I can also appreciate much better how difficult it really is to properly edit videos; that’s something I’m sure I’ll feel even more of in the next week or two. So all in all, it was a valuable experience, even if it was time consuming and exhausting, and the end product wasn’t what I wanted it to be.

With that said, here’s my project: