Chris Higgins · @chrishiggins
143 followers · 21 posts · Server xoxo.zone

In today’s documentary editing adventure, I bleeped the swears. There are 20 of them in all, and one person in the show is responsible for 16 of them. It turns out that cutting the sound and adding the bleep at that precise moment is pretty fiddly. There were two times with f-bombs where I thought I had left the original sound in (!) upon listening back. The bleep itself made the sound of the word in my head. Super weird. Anyway, editing continues.

#bestoffive

Last updated 1 year ago

Chris Higgins · @chrishiggins
143 followers · 20 posts · Server xoxo.zone

I’ve been thinking about Tetris a lot lately (perhaps this is obvious from my feed). So I took a few minutes to write about Tetris as a metaphor for life—a way that I see the struggle of life as akin to the struggle of Tetris.

Gift link: medium.com/@chrishiggins/tetri

#tetris #bestoffive

Last updated 1 year ago

Chris Higgins · @chrishiggins
141 followers · 19 posts · Server xoxo.zone

Today’s filmmaking adventure is painfully technical. Long story short, on a Mac, most video is displayed somewhat “brighter” (aka “washed out”) compared to non-Mac displays. There are probably good reasons for this, but they’re…complex. So today I have tried to quantify this, to understand what *video* display gamma we’re working with on Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad, Android, and perhaps other devices. Goal: my colors will look the most correct to the largest audience. Nothing’s easy.

#bestoffive

Last updated 1 year ago

Chris Higgins · @chrishiggins
139 followers · 14 posts · Server xoxo.zone

Today’s documentary work involves VFX for the opening titles. In the screenshot attached, we see a still frame from the Episode 2 opener. I’m trying to put Tetris players into a blocky synthetic world. Here, Harry Hong (center) blends with Chad Muse (left) and Jake Stein (right, peeking in on back of Harry’s head). It’s trippy. The effect involves a lot of masking to mark which areas NOT to block-ify, then careful transitions between shots.

#bestoffive

Last updated 1 year ago

Chris Higgins · @chrishiggins
139 followers · 12 posts · Server xoxo.zone

Today’s adventure in filmmaking: flaky tools. Adobe Premiere occasionally just stops doing certain things. Today it decided not to “track mask forward” (or track at all). This is where you, in this case, put a blur-circle over someone’s face and ask it to follow the face through the shot. Not today, for some reason. The workaround? Half an hour of clicking one frame forward and moving the blur manually. And then doing it again for another face. My clicking hand is tired.

#bestoffive

Last updated 1 year ago

Chris Higgins · @chrishiggins
138 followers · 11 posts · Server xoxo.zone

Today’s adventure in documentary filmmaking is simply more super-subtle audio mixing. (Deleting breaths and other such noises from the narration.) One thing about this work is that it’s a *show*. There are five mainline episodes plus a sixth bonus episode. So when I do something in any one episode, I have to do again…five times. The mainline show runs about five hours, plus or minus.

#bestoffive

Last updated 1 year ago

Chris Higgins · @chrishiggins
137 followers · 10 posts · Server xoxo.zone

Today’s work is cleaning up the narration tracks recorded by Josh Boykin of Intelligame. It is very fiddly. I am carefully deleting very small sounds, like inhalation before speaking. It is very pleasant, though, because I have my friend Josh talking in my ears all the time.

#bestoffive

Last updated 1 year ago

Chris Higgins · @chrishiggins
137 followers · 9 posts · Server xoxo.zone

At this stage in my documentary work (I’m deep in the edit on a show about competitive Tetris), the main thing I face is the need to learn how to do new things in order to accomplish my goals. Lots of work I’ve done in my life has this pattern, but here it’s extreme. For instance, I have had to learn motion graphics skills in order to create (very brief!) VFX sequences. I’m pretty bad at it, but I’m able to scrounge enough knowledge to do the task. That’s my whole day, most days.

#bestoffive

Last updated 1 year ago

Chris Higgins · @chrishiggins
137 followers · 8 posts · Server xoxo.zone

I have been working (mostly solo) on a documentary series for several years. I haven’t written about it publicly really at all…just occasional updates for Kickstarter backers, and not much in the weeds. I think it’s time to start sharing a little bit of what I’m up to. I’ll use the tag (the title of the show) for some thoughts, incoming.

#bestoffive

Last updated 1 year ago

@savannahstennis @tennis




Again - fair point on attendance numbers re: Paris

However does seem to be different in that everyone in the UK suddenly becomes a Tennis expert for a fortnight after not having watched any for a year and I think all the tickets will have seen sold already and they'll watch anybody play - they don't seem to care who it is (unless it's a Brit).

#rolandgarros #wta #tennis #bestoffive #wimbledon

Last updated 1 year ago