geek stuff

So, I’ve been tinkering.

This is something that will probably send chills down the spines of everybody involved with this movie, but that’s just the way I am. After the March 1st screening, I promise the movie is done. I won’t touch it again. Yeah, there will be promo stuff to do, but as far as the actual movie, I have to put the final nail in the coffin. But if you happened to be at the December screening, there might be a few surprises.

This tinkering means I have been basically enslaved in front of my iMac with very little social contact, very little recreation and too much caffeine and nicotine. Today I actually added a new hard drive which brings the total amount of gigs up to 1,250 not counting the hard drive on the computer. The little LaCies are humming along nicely, staring at me with glowing blue eyes.

I also picked up a new Apple mouse - they like to call it the Mighty Mouse. I have only used it for a few hours, but already I must highly recommend it for all Mac users. Of course they come with the new Macs, so you may be lucky and already have one. It’s beautifully designed but I was skeptical of the tiny track ball thing. It works perfectly though and it’s nice having a 2-button mouse that looks and feels like it is part of the computer.

The final bit of geekery is a new book I recently bought called DROIDMAKER: George Lucas and the digital revolution. If I wasn’t so immersed in my current project I probably would have already read the whole thing. Basically, it is a very detailed, behind-the-scenes look at Lucas’ digital innovations with a spotlight on EditDroid. EditDroid is the first non-linear editing system that eventually evolved into Avid and influenced everything we now take for granted about editing.

I am actually only a few pages into the book, but it is a very entertaining read. The book goes into a lot of detail about the early careers of Lucas and Coppola and their wave of filmmakers. 70’s american cinema is one of my favorite time periods and I just can’t get enough information about it. So 5 pages in, I am already in love with the book and recommend it to anyone interested in editing or this particular time period in American film. Don’t let the tech-y description and boring cover put you off. I’ll definitely be posting more about this in the near future.

All you George Lucas haters can go ahead and start in with the hate-mail.