(music for this failed transcode is courtesy of audio swap on youtube. It’s The Institute of Contemporary Music performing Triangulum Galaxy.)

Over the last few days I’ve been trying, with the help of Jonny, to find a way to transcode the initial edit of Disembody. So far no luck. The feature file is almost ten gigabytes. So far we’re having trouble uploading it (our host rejects files that big, as did our library at the internet archive). VLC, Movie Player and Transcode all failed to successfully transcode it as a smaller file. It’s too big to put on DVD as is.

Etcetera

I would really like to have it available online. And Skye would really like it for his reel, as he is looking for video editing jobs.
The next thing we’ll try is putting it on an external drive and taking it to Amy’s Mac to see if the program that spat it out (Final Cut Pro) can recognize it, load it, and export it as a .mpg or .mov.

Elsewise, I’ve updated the 23E site again. And I’ve torn through every page of Vime, updating them all. Disembody and the next two MVM projects (tentatively titled Portal 7: A Mild Informality and Portal 8: Expansion) all have improved pages and info available. And the third SPP record is now represented and available online in a rough mix.

If you are in SF between September 26 and November 6 you should check out The Colony Room. It is curated by 23E friend Anne Colvin. And our own Marcella Faustini curated a jukebox for the space featuring original music and video from 23E members Alex Lukas and Skye Thorstenson. And, yours truly.
I put up a page and info about The MVM’s work (ten songs on three thumb drives, setting the Pentateuch to music) for the show.

This our food supply.  There’s more to the right.  We won’t be able to restock apparently.

The restroom is to the rear of the gallery.  We spent part of our food budget on a Glade Pug-in unit that can’t really be used since there’s not an outlet in the restroom.  Apparently.

Lee sent me off on a break/walk to go find an RCA to BNC adapter.  I didn’t find one.  I didn’t find an electronics store.  I did find this, however:

An abandoned cat sanctuary in an abandoned bank lot.  I could smell the baking, rotting cat shit from the corner across the street.  Every inch of loose dirt was covered in feces.  There were kittens everywhere.  Someone had left them chicken wings coated in that Chinese orange sauce, but they hadn’t eaten them.  The kittens hung out behind the iron fence like lions in a zoo.  Pretty fun.  Super cute.

The editors are on edge about the powertooling next to the editing station and so am I.  I snapped at Carson for shaking some luon around.

I’d taken a break resorting Lee’s boxes of cabling & tech to stick a parking tag behind my windshield.  To get to the lot I walked down this alley, to the right heading towards the rear of Chun King court.  Unassuming.  I like the lanterns.  There are lanterns strung everywhere.  They look great at night.

A few shops in a small bird bombed down and dropped a load almost as large as itself in front of me.

I’m in SF to pick up the ceiling and a slew of gear.
Jonny flies in today. Monday, he and Skye and I will pick up a Budget truck.
Then all over the Bay Area picking up items:

Douglas and Sturgess to get 4″ pink foam to use installing the ceiling
Carson’s studio to pick up the ceiling panels and Carson’s tools and Elise’s hotdog machine
Adi’s to pick up a popcorn maker
Kathryn’s to pick up the usher outfits
Skye’s to pick up some of his possessions (we’re helping him move South)
Terry’s to pick up the hoodies and concession stand and menu light boxes
Alex’s to pick up a ton of production gear.

We’re convoying down in Skye’s truck, Alex’s car and the Budget truck.
If you’re on I-5 and see a little green Ford truck driven by a bald guy with a handlebar mustache following close behind a 26′ Budget truck, that’s us, so honk and show us some love.

Today Elise and I looked at rough cuts.
I AM SO FRAKKING HAPPY!
Yeah, the crew on this project are blowing my mind.

Last week I hung out with my friends Chuck and Barbara. They both work in the film industry in Hollywood. Chuck’s a producer and while we talked he mentioned that it’s a given that you always make three films on your way to release:
1) the film on paper - the script
2) the film you shoot - that is, the footage that ends up getting shot and which inevitably differs from the script
3) the film you release - that is, the film that is made from the footag in post-production and which differs from both the script and the film the director, cast and crew were making.
I liked this idea, and the idea that it is a truism in Hollywood, because I feel it is one of the points Disembody is designed to bring to light about art.

It’s been an incredibly busy week, but I hope you’ll all forgive me if I haven’t documented it as well as I should have here. We’re getting really close and I’m finding it harder to frame and organise what’s happening in a legible manner for the blog.

I can tell you we are all incredibly excited. And everyone is working around the clock at this point to get this thing ready to start. Which is pretty amazing.
Incredibly excited and incredibly nervous.
Skye and Alex have both taken up smoking cigarettes again, due to nerves they tell me.
I hear other stories of sinful regression, as well. As we approach the opening and then kick off of the project, exhaustion and nerves are taking a high toll.
I couldn’t be happier.
For my part, the vice I’ve returned to is listening to Gary Numan and Franco Battiato pretty much around the clock.