While I know there's nothing more boring than a geek talking about his favorite gadgets, this week I turn my diary entry into a technology booster column anyway, because I actually am sort of tickled with the state of various pieces of technology today, mainly because they make my life easier (and also because digital video technology itself is really making "MacArthur Park" possible, due to DV's high quality and low cost).

While the particular pieces of technology I'm excited about are many (Apple's latest announcement of iDVD and cheap, all-in-one machines that let you become a one-person DVD manufacturing house are the buzz of the low-budget indie-film community right now, for good reason), this week I'll concentrate on what's making my life easier here on my trip in New York right now.

But before that, let me offer one caveat. Most of the following pictures were taken with the little eyemodule camera that snaps into the digital organizer I use. When I first used this thing, I was taking pictures indoors and they looked something like this one I took of Larry O'Keefe, the "MacArthur Park" composer:

I was so upset with the image quality that I wrote a nasty review (scroll down to "vagrant's" review) on amazon.com. Which, by the way, they censored--they took out my references to the "misleading" nature of the review by their own reviewer. But that's another story.

Any old wig, after venting my anger and disappointment on amazon.com, I then discovered that the little eyemodule camera could, in bright enough light, take pictures like this:

Me on the plane to NYC

Me at a diner Monday in NYC

Which aren't all that bad, really.

HOWEVER, the pictures that follow were necessarily taken indoors, so the quality is pretty bad. If I could bother getting a real digital camera (I didn't bring my Sony camcorder with me to NYC), I would, but I can't be bothered. You'll have to deal.

So...the point of all this. I've had to head out to NYC for two months to oversee the production of a stage musical I co-wrote called Bat Boy: The Musical, but while I'm here I plan to get lots of editing done on the documentary. I'd like to finalize the 3D stuff, tweak little segments here and there, and really cut down the verrrrry long segments of Citizens for Truth meetings in the current cut of the film.

And how will I pull off this amazing feat, away from the editing station back in L.A.? I'm glad you asked. Here, presented as a weak parody of RES Magazine's "Digital Habitat" feature, is Brian Flemming's current digital habitat:

Upon arriving in my apartment, I immediately overloaded the nearest electrical outlet (1) and plugged in my mobile phone (2), a Sprint Touchpoint 2200 with voice recognition and Wireless Web access; my Powerbook (3), which is a G3 500Mhz 256 RAM 20G HD loaded with Final Cut Pro, pretty much the only software worth cutting DV on; a mug for tea (4), generally Lipton but sometimes Tetley, and Sleepytime or Lemon Zinger at night; and a CD burner (5) for sending drafts back and forth to George (now that I'm not home with my DSL line, Fed Ex has become the next best thing). Not shown: My Visor Platinum with eyemodule, because I needed them to take the picture.

Here it is without the cut-and-paste look

The best thing about editing on a Powerbook,
though, is that you can edit in bed

In case you're interested, here's what the screen looks like when I'm editing

And that's it for this week. I do want to give a quick thanks to Andrew, who wrote in this week to say he went to the Sundance Film Festival and saw a film called "MacArthur Park"--which was not the film he expected. Yes, there is another film out there called "MacArthur Park." It's about a drug addict who lives in the park, and is directed by a fellow named Billy Wirth. What are we going to do about this situation? Well, we're going to wait. If Mr. Wirth's film goes on to wide theatrical release, obviously we'll have to change the title of our film. Meanwhile, there's no way to copyright a title, so we're both legally entitled to use it. We'll have to see what happens...

Until next time.

Best,
Brian Flemming
doc@nothingsostrange.com