Back to reality [11 May 2003|10:45pm] I pass the torch along to Melinda who is in the 'the thick of it' - best of luck to her and everyone else as the time approaches! Thanks to the well wishes conveyed in the journals - I finally had a chance today to check on how everyone else is doing. I'm starting to get back to a normal schedule... I watched the final film tonight with two friends and it actually held up! There are definite things that belie my normal style (a dropped frame here, a shot that goes on too long, etc). But it's surprisingly easy to just let it all be. In fact, those little blemishes are sort of battle scars to the entire experience. I became very enmeshed in the whole topic of this film - the role of art in the community as evidenced by this gallery in the subway station. I always take it as a positive first step that I'm actually motivated towards some sort of reaction by a finished project, because if it hasn't impacted me in some way, why would it affect anyone not connected with it? Now that this is under my belt, I'd actually welcome the challenge of doing this again some day - LOTS of stuff learned in this project and that I feel is the most valuable import of any such undertaking. I've got a reporter from a local J.P. newspaper to talk with tomorrow and I've got to update ravijain.org, but for now I'm happy to have 'de-installed' everything from the gallery space and gotten my system back on-line at home. /ravi p.s. If not mentioned earlier, my final piece clocked in at 71 minutes and a handful of seconds. 3 comments|post comment

And like that... it's over [10 May 2003|04:25am] Well I managed to actually get to the South Station Post Office and back with out crashing... and there was a line at the post office at 3:15 am?! I had a sudden fear of forgetting my wallet or something, but I got it off - Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation. I left the gallery in a blur of cognition and form. I need to return in the morning to clean up and pack up. And I hope to burn a DVD copy of the final project for myself! Since I had all the wacko technical difficulties, I used Cory's machine for the whole project. So I want to get a copy before returning his machine. Since Tuesday morning at 8 am, I've slept a total of... nine hours? Something like that. Today was a rock 'em sock 'em day but somehow it all came together. I clung to the hope of getting the final moment of the Cyberlounge at midnight, even though that gave me just over three hours to finalize and output the film. I'm so happy with the film! And that's not the sleep deprivation talking! I'm just really happy with it and feel like it's a good representation of my style and approach. And I think it will be good for the Gallery@Green Street. Okay, now I will actually go to sleep for a few hours before returning to my home away from home... /ravi post comment

Finished! [10 May 2003|03:06am] Fifteen minutes shy of the deadline - we've finished!!!! We're off to the post office! More later. /ravi, steve, james and cory post comment

Steve Reports From Our Last Night [09 May 2003|08:51pm] A car alarm continually goes off in the distance, while Ravi continues to edit all the footage we have shot. He's set up to edit on a Macintosh using Final Cut Pro 3. Ravi sits in the front exhibition room, right between the front desk and exhibition hall #2. Set up on the front desk is an iMac connected to the internet. On it's main screen is a link to Ravi's earlier web based sitcom Three Abreast. People have been coming in all day and watching the sitcom. In exhibition hall #2 videos are being shown 24 hours/day. At one point this afternoon, one of Ravi's other projects, Three Speed 2000, was showing in exhibition hall #2 and his web sitcom was playing on the iMac. Ravi had to put on headphones to drown out audio of himself from both of these other presentations. When I got here this morning Contractor/Artist Douglas Wethersby was set to do a cleaning performance. He vaccums up and then creates art out of the debris. I got some good close ups of him cleaning up the floor. We then went outside and Ravi and I filmed him sweeping up the sand on the brick sidewalk while photographer Sonia Targontsidis took still photos. A woman walked by and watched all this happening and was probably wondering why we were so interested in this guy sweeping up the sidewalk. I hope she didn't think we were capturing him sweeping proficiency for a later job evaluation! During all this filming Ravi made sure I was aware that he didn't was too much more footage shot because that would only mean more logging! After we completed shooting, Ravi sat down to log the rest of the footage. He started editing at 1:00. I left at this point and came back around 6:00 to find Ravi editing the end of day one footage and going on to edit day 2. Right now he's half-way through day 2. Of the completed editing I've seen, the Bakery segment came out very nice and the Coffee Project Interlude is delicious! The envelope for our entry is addressed, waiting for the completed tape, and sitting by the Macintosh. We are all very excited about nearing completion and have had a lot of fun working together on it. 1 comment|post comment

Actual sleep! [08 May 2003|11:29pm] I may actually embark on sleeping through some of tonight... I've made great progress through the day. I reached a low-point of exhaustion early in the morning - I became flummoxed by a simple purchase of a currant scone at our new favorite bakery, Bread and Butter. But I got reinfused with energy and spent the majority of the day logging footage. I had a good solid nap in the afternoon for about three hours, which is the most sleep I've had since this all began. I'm hoping to sleep for five hours tonight. I'm presently capturing footage. I still have two tapes from today to log, but I think I can do that early in the morning. The only things I really want to shoot tomorrow are morning ritual items (calesthenics, sunrise, the writing of the schedule) AND if Douglas does a 'cleaning performance'. But even all that will only be a few minutes of raw footage and maybe I can even fit it on the rest of Steve's unfinished tape so that I'll still have only two tapes to log. I've been editing in my head to some degree as I've been logging the footage. When I started logging footage of me logging footage, I felt it was time to stop. Recursion alert! I don't feel tired and I think the editing process tomorrow will be invigorating. /ravi post comment

24 hour mark [08 May 2003|02:57am] I'm approaching the 24 hour mark and I've been plagued by bizarro technical difficulties - primarily the difficulty of getting a computer monitor to work in the gallery space. Thanks to a very kind soul named Cory who I met at the gallery, I'm now up to speed - on HIS computer! A rockin' 933 MHz G4 that blows the doors of my machine. So at last, I can start logging the large amount of footage that Steve and I shot (over 4 hours already?). So I don't think we'll do as much taping today. On a very positive note, Stefan Economou and I whipped out the score to the film! Stefan and I have worked together on many projects and the scoring was his work - I would just give some guiding comments. We likened our relationship to that of Gordon Parks and Isaac Hayes. I told him that Steve and I had visited the Bread and Butter Bakery and Stefan banged out this great tune which I've titled 'Bread and Butter'. Funny - the music is actually shaping my ideas of how to structure elements of the film. Okay - back to the gallery where they've been watching Wizard of Oz with Dark Side of the Moon... /ravi 2 comments|post comment

First leg completed [07 May 2003|02:25pm] We've finished the first stretch of taping - from sometime after 3 am until about an hour ago. The severe power surging through the train tracks underneath the gallery makes my monitor wig out, so I haven't started logging footage. A kind visitor to the gallery offered to lend me his LCD monitor! So hopefully I'll be good to go tonight. Stefan called me to arrange for our writing/recording of the musical score tonight - some time after 5. And then I'll be stopping off at the Art Interactive gallery for the launch of Aspect Magazine. Steve Garfield has been great - a pro to work with and good fun, as well. I'm hoping he'll be able to help me a good chunk tomorrow as well. Okay, quick nap before the next round... 2 comments|post comment

Boston Globe [07 May 2003|09:12am] Production began a little after 3 am this morning. It's been going well, though there are some technical difficulties (jiggly monitors). And some man from the MBTA yelled at us. I should have offered him a donut. The Boston Globe called attention to the project in today's 'Go' column: http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/127/living/Junior_achievement+.shtml We continue... post comment

Final Sleep [06 May 2003|09:43pm] I moved my editing suite over to the Gallery@Green Street earlier this evening and set things up (for the most part). I'm going to take a quick nap and then head over to the gallery some time after 2 am to start the project. As luck would have it, I went by the Harvard Business School for lunch and they were selling 'all-nighter' snack bags chock full of Mountain Dew, Reese's Pieces and other assorted high octane goods. I bought one, of course. I'll try to post *something* during the 72 hours, but I make no promises! /ravi post comment

On Deck [05 May 2003|09:46pm] Steve Garfield and I did a location scouting trip tonight over to the Gallery at the Green Street. They were celebrating their 5 year, 5 month, 5 day birthday (which coincidentally falls on May 5th? Or just a gimmick?!). It was good for Steve to see the site and think about how we're going to shoot all of this. The schedule is starting to fill up for the Cyberlounge (http://www.jameshull.com/cyber.schedule1.html), so I can start fleshing out my shooting schedule with specific names. I still need to figure out when I'm going to sleep. It doesn't help that I'm already exhausted! I had planned to begin shooting at 3 a.m. on Wednesday, but I see that Tony Flackett, who does very cool performances, will be performing at 2.... so maybe I begin sometime after that and pray for easy output 70 hours down the line? I had a good chat this evening with Daniel Berube who is the video guru behind the Boston Final Cut Pro Users Group (http://www.bosfcpug.org) - he offered his spiritual and tech support. I don't know if I'll be networked down at the gallery, but when I zip back to my place for eventual sleep, I'll try to log in and post something cohesive. /ravi post comment

First thoughts [23 Apr 2003|10:59pm] Okay, I've finally had time to read through all of the proposals. It will be interesting to see the variety of content produced in 864 hours (you do the math!). With my shooting schedule approaching in two weeks, I've really got to get things as structured as possible. I met with James Hull, director of the Gallery at Green Street, on Saturday to discuss how this whole thing will play out. Since I won't be able to capture the entire 72 hour Cyberlounge event from start to finish (if only for a '78 hour film project'), I'll be starting things up probably at 3 or 4 in the morning of the first day of the event. I figure there will be some sort of final... poignancy? celebration? exhaustion? at the end of the 72 hours that would provide a narrative resolution to the whole thing. I also had lunch the other day with Steve Garfield, the one person I've reached out to so far for production help. It was helpful to bounce some ideas around with him. I've ported content over from my old site www.ravi.nu to ravijain.org That's all for now. 1 comment|post comment

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