JoCo Day 2009

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Comments

  • I think we should say 'Big Brother says'.
    I think you should use "Wil Wheaton says..." even if you can't get Wil Wheaton to sing it. It's funnier than "Big brother." Just my two cents!
  • I also like the "Wil Wheaton" line, but I am biased. (One of the shirts I'm contemplating wearing for my video is a Wil/JoCo reference.)

    Any luck on audio mixers? I would offer but I have NO skills or equipment for that.
  • I thought people here would like to know... I have a friend who makes local commercials, and he has a small studio with expensive video cameras and a green-screen that he can use to project some funny stuff behind me while I'm singing "We're Having A Party". The soonest I'd be able to do this with him is Monday at 6:00 PM EST, and that looks like it'll be cutting it close to the deadline for video submissions, so I wanted to get the word out to you guys in the hopes that the deadline window won't close before I can get my contribution to you. Don't let the boat leave without me, that's all I'm asking... I think you're going to like what we can put together for you.
  • Oh, I like the Wil Wheaton line too, I just didn't think it'd be as good without the actual Wil Wheaton (and what if he would come down and punch JoCo? I wouldn't want to misrepresent his intentions.) But if you guys think it's funny anyway, then sure, we can sing that. And maybe use some footage of Wil from PAX, if the people who got some will share.

    The deadline is actually a variable depending on awesomeness of content, something like D=(Monday 30 November)-(3 days)/awesomeness, so for extremely awesome videos the deadline asymptotically approaches Monday night, but for submissions of normal awesomeness the deadline is Friday. At least, that's what I say [yeah, that's what she said], but whoever mixes the audio would want more time, and I'd want time after that, so really all I'm doing is modifying things to fit your schedule with no regard for what's actually possible, because time always looks so stretchy from far away.

    Surely there are Mandelbrot Set people who have the skills and equipment to mix audio. I have the equipment (GarageBand) but not really the skill, and if I'm already doing the video it might be either too much for me or, more worrying, too much of me (in terms of creative decisions etc, I'm sure I wouldn't mix too much of my voice in) in the final product.
  • glad to be jumping in on this project (with sporksmith), we're uploading our video clips now!

    (ps: be warned, there is some footage of me with an accordion, in case the audio is unusable I thought it was some funny montage stock:)
  • Our clips are uploaded to the mandelbrot set folder! We each did a melody and a harmony take. I did the verses on both to give more to work with. My harmony choruses weren't the best; maybe I should try just doing them by themselves.

    We also uploaded a couple gags. We did a little thing for "no one will dance", and then some footage of us dancing, and another clip of us dancing with a monkey :).
  • Oh, one other thing. We clicked the 'play' button on camera, and then I cropped the videos to start exactly when we hit play. So, theoretically they should line up exactly with colleenky's guide tracks. They might need to be nudged a little though; I think there may be a small delay between when we hit play, and when it actually started playing.
  • So just to check before I start recording the video tomorrow... the only thing you should be hearing in the footage is me singing?
  • By the way, I have to say that I never expected to find myself in a musician's fan forum that actually used the word "asymptotically" properly in a complete sentence. Just adds to the awesome as far as I'm concerned.
  • By the way, I have to say that I never expected to find myself in a musician's fan forum that actually used the word "asymptotically" properly in a complete sentence.
    Hey, we're nerds. What do you expect?
  • I would offer to mix the audio, but that would mean getting no sleep in the next week. Please, please, please, someone else from Mandelbrot Set volunteer to do this. Please.

    (Using "asymptotic" correctly in casual conversation was one of the things that impressed my husband when we were first dating. That, and the fact that my bookshelf contained both the The Anarchist's Cookbook and Winnie the Pooh.)
  • Can I make a little suggestion re audio? For those who have the means, it would probably yield a superior product to record the audio separate from the video, i.e. treat the video aspect as a lip-sync project. Things will be in sync anyway, unless you deviate from the rhythm (probably not a good idea) or use other sound effects.

    With that in mind, I can promise to have a go at audio mixing. It's just that we'll potentially have a lot of audio that may need to be ripped from video, and it will be less work if some of the audio comes in as MP3s already.
  • Yeah, Borba pretty much sums up my response to MightyJack's question; if it's hard to avoid hearing anything else in the footage, it's probably better to record audio separately. Particularly if the video is going to be recorded late; it'd be better to record the audio first and give the audio mixer something to work with, since it's (hopefully) easier to throw in extra video at the last minute than extra audio (though it'd be easier if I knew in advance which parts of the video I should leave gaps in for the most awesome parts of the late video.) The audio and video will be split eventually anyway for mixing, so either way I have to make sure things are in synch when making the video. I just figured that simply singing into a webcam was the simplest, quickest way for most people to contribute, and we don't have much time. But if you have the time, by all means go for a separate video audio lipsynching extravaganza.

    Thanks for volunteering to have a go at audio mixing, Borba, I was starting to panic a bit. :) If it would make it easier for you, feel free to set an earlier deadline for audio submissions, and direct people to upload the ripped audio (if they don't already do the audio separately) as well as the video.

    By the way, if the video is not done in time, I'm totally blaming time zones. I haven't looked up the difference between JoCoVille and Geneva yet, because I'm afraid it'll be unfavourable. Oh, and I love being on a musician's fan forum where I can use the word 'asymptotically' and be understood.
  • I haven't looked up the difference between JoCoVille and Geneva yet, because I'm afraid it'll be unfavourable.
    The time zones are in your favour...you are ahead of New York by at least 5 hours (The UK is ahead by 5, so Geneva must be more than that)
  • Borba - Good idea about separate video and audio. I wish I'd thought of that; it would have made life easier for me, too :). I have enough of a hard time trying to get the singing right, without having to worry about trying to "perform" for the camera.

    I might try to retake my audio later tonight, and just upload it as mp3. If you want I can rip blackcatbon's audio from her movie tracks and upload them separately as well (I don't think she'll want\need to retake hers).
  • By the way, if folks need software, Audacity is a free multi-track audio program. Using that, it's easy to make the recorded tracks exactly sync with the guide track, re-record individual lines, etc. It can be a little tricky to learn to use, though. If folks are interested I could probably make a quick screencast tutorial tonight.

    Of course, if you already have Garage Band or something, that might be easier :)
  • Okay, so here's a realistic statement of what I hope to achieve on the audio side: I'm going to import any and all audio that gets submitted into Sonar, clean it up within reason (no, not Reason) if necessary and possible, and do such housekeeping as I can. If we have a decent number of submissions, there should be enough to work with. If at any point somebody else wants to take over what I've got so far, please don't hesitate to let me know, and I'll hand it over.

    Pragmatically, I suspect we may need to consider a worst-case backup plan, which may be as simple as using JoCo's original audio over Angelastic's video. Either way, video and audio can happily live separate lives until Sunday or so, at which point we may just find happy accidents in terms of which voices marry which visuals. I kind of like that idea ;-)
  • I'm heading up to my friend's studio now to record our video submission. He says that he's been swamped with work right around now... go figure, a lot of people want to make commercials as Christmas approaches. Basically, he's squeezing me in for a half an hour and I have no idea what he's put together ahead of time to project behind me, if anything. I'll just see what's what when I get there and we'll do something with what we've got available and hopefully it'll make a good addition to the group effort... if all goes according to plan, I should have something fun uploaded to The Box soon after I get back. Later!
  • edited November 2009
    We're having a party
    Hey you wanna sleep over
    We're gonna get shitfaced
    And play Rock Band in the basement

    Not seriously suggesting a change at this point; just an amusing thought that went through my head today. ;-)

    Angela: What's the final decision on who's not gonna come down and punch JC?

    P.S. I love that the Firefox spellchecker recognized "shitfaced."

    ETA: Thank you, Borba!
  • Wow, Colleen... I wish you'd mentioned that amusing thought earlier. See... when I recorded my video with my friend tonight, I had my Rock Band guitar slung on my shoulder and I was using it to "rock out" during the guitar parts.

    So anyway, we've got the video shoot and the recording of me singing taken care of. My friend tells me that he won't be able to do anything with it until tomorrow, but tomorrow night it should be all set to go for you folks. I asked him to put together three versions for me... an MP3 with vocals only, an MP4 with no audio whatsoever and an MP4 with the video and all audio included for my own amusement and most likely for YouTube's amusement too. I think the first two versions are what you guys are looking for... am I right?
  • Sporksmith and I just finished our audio recording session in my studio, and I put four files in the drop zone (two harmonies and two melodies) hopefully they are useful!

    I put them in mp3 format but if you need another kind just let me know and I'll post again!
  • I can record my audio tomorrow evening, and hopefully the video the same night. I'll upload the mp3s no matter what.

    It has occurred to me to ask: will my bright blue hair be too distracting for the video?
  • If you have a bright blue voice to go with it, I'll forgive anything.

    Sporksmith and BlackCat, your audio is great! I must admit I was worried that we'll have too much audio filled with video-related noises, but yours has provided a lovely start. Thanks for going to the trouble.

    Colleenky, any chance you could do a vocal-only MP3 or two? From you I'm expecting the high octave as well (it goes without saying ;-) And if you don't mind, I'd love you to try the chorus up a fifth as well. If it doesn't fall into place easily, don't worry about "headaches in the basement"; "I'm having a party" is the bit that counts.
  • edited November 2009
    I was planning to record separate vocal tracks. Was gonna do it tonight, but family phone calls intervened, and now it's too late to be singing in my apartment. Tomorrow night! And I'll try my hand at a third harmony for the chorus.

    ETA: Got that harmony part worked out now. :-)
  • edited November 2009
    We're having a party
    Hey you wanna sleep over
    We're gonna get shitfaced
    And play Rock Band in the basement

    Not seriously suggesting a change at this point; just an amusing thought that went through my head today. ;-)
    Hmm... how many audio tracks do we have already? Nah, you're right, it's probably too late.
    Angela: What's the final decision on who's not gonna come down and punch JC?
    People seem to be happy for it to be Wil Wheaton whether he participates or not, so I'll say Wil Wheaton. Also, that's what blackcatbonafide sang. Did you hear anything from Molly, Wil, or Hodgman? Should we pester them again? Should I threaten Wil with the collider if he doesn't participate?

    I really should record my part. :) I think I'll be home late tonight (if the long meeting doesn't get me, the improv will) but I'll try anyway. Hey, is there any difference between the melody guide and the original song in terms of timing/tune? I'm just wondering, since we're using the karaoke track, whether singing along to the original (with altered words) would match up better or whether it doesn't make much difference.

    This is going to be awesome! And blue hair just makes the video more interesting. I am going to be so boring. Hmm, should I wear my lab coat [ETA: and hard hat, AlpineKat-style]? I don't have a party hat.
  • Repeating my previous question...

    I asked him to put together three versions for me... an MP3 with vocals only, an MP4 with no audio whatsoever and an MP4 with the video and all audio included for my own amusement and most likely for YouTube's amusement too. I think the first two versions are what you guys are looking for... am I right?
  • The first one, and one of the last two... actually, it might be easier to have the mp4 with audio, since then it would be a bit easier to synch it with the mixed audio (and then silence it once I know it's in the right place.)
  • You guys are awesome. Rather under the weather but I might contribute vocals this weekend -- we'll see.
  • Well, I went from really bad singing to croaking, due to my cold, but I managed to record some mp3s today that at least sound like singing. I apologize to Borba for having to listen to them. My first ever contribution to a singing collaboration, and on the internet! Woo! I hope I did it right. I will try to record some video next. It is a relief not to have to worry about the quality of the sound while doing the video. Thanks again, guys, for doing this project!
  • I've recorded video of myself waving (for "even Mark T. Gordon") and moving from a smile to a shocked look, then looking downward ("it's gonna be funny when Mark wets his pants.") This song is a bit above my range, I'm afraid, so I might end up just uploading that video and leaving it at that.

    I can shoot video of birthday decorations; we still have some from last week.
  • I think that's cool Mark.
    If you can't contribute a voice a face is good too. that goes for everyone that wants to contribute but can't sing.
  • WHY are the HUGE projects always when I cant do 'em !!!

    ;' )

    Good luck wth it guys !
  • edited November 2009
    And I'd like to add, even if your singing is marginal (like mine ;-) it will come in useful. What I've got so far promises a great fat chorus with everybody singing along, and I'll probably just have to play around with choosing some soloists or combinations for the verses. Would anybody object to me just playing it by ear in that regard? I'd still love to try a bit of final chorus with the backing track dropping out, replaced by foot stomps and hand claps, but I'll see how that pans out.

    On the flip side, if you're totally embarrassed about having your voice heard, but don't mind the video aspect, why not just submit video of yourself lip-synching along? I reckon it's going to be a bit of a swingers' party in pairing off faces and voices anyway.

    ETA: @Autumnraina: What you did was great, by the way. No problems there. I'm not referring to you as a marginal singer ;-)
  • @Borba: awww, shucks, thanks. :) That is nice to know.

    I finished recording a straight lip-synch video which I will upload shortly. I also pieced together some odds and ends of video clips, such as grabbing candy out of a bowl, and spinning a bottle, as well as a couple of clips of me/my dogs/my teddy bear in the sleeping bag. The files saved as .wmv and I don't know how to convert them. I hope that is an acceptable file type.
  • Well, today my usual Tuesday meeting finished early (early! We had pictures of collisions to look at, yet it finished early!), improv practice was cancelled, and the other friend I usually do crazy stuff with on Tuesdays cancelled, so I would have come home and recorded my part and looked at what everyone else had done, but I somehow ended up playing a game with a group of people [including the aforementioned friend] and then showing another friend my Mac, and coming home on the second-to-last bus. So nothing but hopefully-quick questions from me tonight. Maybe tomorrow night I'll record myself singing into my webcam (probably not doing anything particularly interesting, but it could be useful for tiling crowd-singing parts) and then, since I'm editing the video, I expect I'll film myself doing more interesting things if I find any gaps in the video where other people haven't done anything special. I can't produce Fudgie the Whale or Champales though, so somebody else had better do that.

    Can somebody search out videos we're allowed to use of Wil Wheaton:
    a) not punching JoCo
    b) with something which could be confused with Champale

    or

    c) a four-pack of Champales, and also a Champale bottle spinning, for later in the song.

    Maybe contact the people who put up YouTube videos of PAX. Or bother Wil some more. I'd do it myself by it's 12:54a.m. and I told you there'd only be questions from me tonight.

    Since I didn't get to record my part tonight, Borba, Is there a deadline for audio submissions? I said I'd prefer the audio mixed before I start the video, but really, as long as the timing is the same, I could get most of the way there with the video using the original JoCo song, and just make a few adjustments (perhaps to make sure the soloists match or absolutely do not match the people on the video) after I get the final Mandelbrot mix. I wouldn't object to you playing it by ear, or to anything else you do. In theory I'd be embarrassed about my voice being heard solo, but if you actually thought that it sounded good enough to be solo or near-solo, then I guess I'd just have to agree with you that I had nothing to be embarrassed about.

    Covenant, why can't you do it? If you can't do a full video/audio thing for whatever reason, you might still be able to contribute a short snippet of video or whatever you can.

    Does anybody have ideas for the credits? You will all have to tell me which names you want to be credited as. And should I add a URL, or twitter username, or something for each of you? Should there be something to say who did what (e.g. either putting names up during the video when each person appears, or having the list scroll by at the end with things like 'Pants-wetter....Mark T. Gordon. Rock Band Guitar Guy...MightyJack) And if the credits will be at the end, should we use part of another song (which?) and any leftover video clips of crazy stuff during the credits, or somehow extend the original song or do something else? I'm sure I could make all these decisions myself if it came down to it, but if I throw it out now I'm sure people will come up with ideas I would never have thought of. Oh yeah, I'm going to put my little 'Code Monkey like Creative Commons' thing at the end, because I like it.

    Who wants to be in the sleeping bag? We could have as many people as we want in this scene, I think it'd be fun to flick through a lot of pictures/very short videos of people in sleeping bags, gradually going from appealing women to fat hairy guys (Robgonzo, you've basically volunteered yourself for this) to maybe something really ridiculous like a dog or a cephalopod.

    And a related question... will anyone be in bed for the 'till it's time to go to bed' line? Just something to think about for those still making videos.

    By the way, I still haven't had a chance to look at what's been uploaded yet, but I'm pretty sure Bry is right (in the first sentence, at least.)
  • Just checked in with my commercial video editing buddy... not too surprisingly given the holiday crunch he's dealing with, he says he won't have my video ready until tomorrow night. As soon as I have the three edits of my footage that I asked for from him, I'll be uploading all of them to The Box.
  • Hey, is there any difference between the melody guide and the original song in terms of timing/tune?
    There shouldn't be. I sang along with the karaoke track.
  • I got my audio files uploaded, about to try to find a place in my apartment to record video (eep, messy room!)

    @Borba - I'm worried that my vocals are too quiet. My friend who recorded it said it would be easy for you to fix, but if it isn't, let me know and I'll try to upload better versions.
  • edited November 2009
    "Colleen is making onion dip and Fritos. Again," or "I maded you a video, but my camcorder eated it." :-/
  • @Chicazul: They are indeed on the quiet side. Not the end of the world as such, since one just bumps the volume up to compensate, but that does increase the background noise too. However, you seem to be singing against a slower version - did you use Colleen's guide track? If you are able to rerecord and confirm you've got the right guide track, it would be great - otherwise I can still use it, but will have to do a bit of editing to make the timing fit. Obviously the timing thing would apply to the video as well
  • @Borba: That is strange--I was definitely singing with the guide track! I can try rerecording, but probably not until Thursday night. I'm sorry; I don't know how I managed to screw up such a simple task. :-\
  • Update: Anybody want 32 oz of onion dip?!
  • @Chicazul - don't worry about it then, I'll tweak.
  • My best (only) idea for the credits so far: Show people's forum names next to them as they first appear, leaving only a few extra end credits (again, people, tell me if you think you should be credited here or have any ideas about what else needs to be said) which can scroll up during the 17 seconds of this and then dissolve into a Creative Commons logo at the end.

    What say you?

    I'm going to have to pass on the onion dip, code monkey have no Fritos.

    Oh, sporksmith: I see Blender is free and available for Mac, so I downloaded it. I haven't touched it yet, but I presume this means I can do the tiling parts myself, which would probably be quicker, as it would avoid file transfers, time zones, and stuff. Though if you had any particular idea you wanted to do, go ahead.

    I'm trying to decide whether to use this project as an excuse to get and learn to use Final Cut Express. It might slow me down, or it might increase the awesomeness of the video. I'm going to have to look at the features again and see if there's anything tempting.
  • edited November 2009
    Might I suggest that everyone making video take a quick shot of yourself waving and saying, "Happy birthday!"? What do you think, Angela?
  • edited November 2009
    Sure, sounds good, if people don't mind doing it... should these all be strung together at the end of the video, during the credits?

    Hey... does anybody have Fudgie the Whale?
    If so, it would be kind of neat if whoever has the cake provided a blower's-eye view of the candles being blown out, as if the viewer [JoCo] just blew out the candles, to put right at the very end of the video (or right before it goes to black and shows the CC logo, since it'd be dark after you blow out the candles anyway.) ETA: Can you have candles in an ice cream cake? I don't have much experience with ice cream cakes.
    If not, we need something at the end exclaiming that the expected visit from Fudgie the Whale would not eventuate due to the cake being a lie.

    Either way's good, I think. :)

    EATA: No progress on Wheaton-watch, as far as I know. Any ideas?
  • Angelastic - I'm fine with forum names. Tieing the names with the faces would be nice, but if it's too much trouble I'm fine with just a credits list at the end, too. And yep, no problem if you want to do it yourself in Blender. The interface can be a bit unintuitive, though. I can try to retrace how I did it and explain step by step if you need it. The gist of it is you'll need to go into the sequence editor (SR:4 Sequence from one of the drop-downs at the top), add the clips on top of each-other, change the x and y offsets for each clip so that they don't get placed directly on top of each-other, and change the blend mode from Replace to something else (I think add?) for the bottom clips to show through.

    I like the 'happy birthday joco!' and wave idea :). I'll see if we can do this and some of the other requested clips tonight (e.g., sleeping bags)
  • Oh one other thing - you can scale the size of the clips in Blender, but for some reason I was having a difficult time getting that to play nice with having the bottom layers show through. I recommend just scaling the clips down ahead of time before pulling them into Blender.
  • Angela, I think you should be granted executive-decision-making power. POOF! Done. :-) I say, do the credits any damn way you please.

    Spork and BlackCat, just watched a couple of your vids. You guys are just too adorable for words!

    I have done the following on video:
    - Sung the song
    - Wished JC a happy bday
    - Made onion dip and Fritos
    - Unfurled a sleeping bag at the camera
    - Gone to bed in my sleeping bag
    - Shown a selection of records

    (I did not invite JC into my sleeping bag. I already fear that he thinks I'm stalking him.)

    I've also recorded the following audio:
    - Lead vocals
    - Lead vocals an 8ve up
    - Harmony at the 3rd
    - Harmony at the 5th-ish (with a bridge harmony)

    The video is all uploaded. I'm having trouble with the audio files. Audacity is doing something odd when I export. :-/
  • Angela, I think you should be granted executive-decision-making power. POOF! Done. :-) I say, do the credits any damn way you please.
    Ooh... with great power comes great responsibility. I promise to use my powers only for evil.

    I'm fine with doing the credits any way I please, but I figured people might have some cool ideas, from which I could pick the one that pleased me the most, or which I could ignore completely. Step one in my secret recipe for minion dip which never fails: Fool the minions into thinking they have some kind of power.

    It occurred to me that there is one place where I might be able to record my vocals late at night without disturbing the neighbours too much (or at least not the ones on my floor): the basement. Unfortunately, there's no couch there, but it would make an interesting backdrop, I suppose.
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