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This is a log of Master Powered Paragliding's production progress, an
undertaking of larger proportions than the book, involving dozens of
pilots, dozens of sites, hundreds of hours spent on animations and much
more. It is the culmination of a passion to share the intricate bits
that have been learned by our sports best pilots. By embracing very high
production values and animation, it is intended to provide a crystal
clear expose on the finer points of making the paraglider do incredible
things both with and without power.
2008-Nov-23 Florida Filming
The production process moves south where we'll be killing two
birds...lets rephrase that...where we'll be accomplishing two things at
once. I'm going through tandem certification with Eric Dufour and we're
getting footage of the process to include in the video series. It won't
be much, probably just a few of the 70 minutes but it will be quite
useful for instructors seeking to become tandem qualified and maybe
interesting to see what's involved. Hey, if a picture is worth a
thousand words, think what 30 pictures per second will provide!
A bunch of other shots are planned, if we have time, with Eric Dufour
demonstrating certain specific techniques. Most involve using a vehicle,
steadicam and Eric flying between zero and 5 feet. Ought to be
interesting.
2008-Oct-15 Carnage
Yesterday I was labeling clips from an outing last month and it was
kind of fun to relive.
One major part of the project is showing how to handle strong winds,
especially for the first video on ground handling. So, on a day with
gusts to 23 mph, we took the opportunity. "Tim, grab the camera, lets go
get carnage!"
In the Midwest, strong winds mean gusty winds. It's not the
relatively steady wind that I recently enjoyed in Galveston or the
smooth morning flow over point of the mountain in Salt Lake City. Nope,
it's just nasty, especially in the thermal-tormented afternoon. That's
when we went out. That's why I expected some carnage. But hey, this is a
video about how to handle strong winds so how better to do that than to
go out in conditions a bit stronger than the strongest we normally kite
in.
Our spot was huge so as to allow being dragged downwind with little
risk of injury. The techniques worked great but with winds that strong,
there were some interesting moments.
Within a half-minute of getting the wing overhead, I got whacked by a
huge gust. Up I went. It felt like 15 feet and a half-minute worth of
flying. Of course watching the video showed it was only about 6 feet
high and lasted 7 seconds but that was still sporty. Tim took his turn
on the wing while I took over the steadicam. Same thing. Gusts, long
slides during inflations, getting lifted, dealing with collapses. The
footage is actually kind of humorous as we go about getting lifted every
minute or so. Tim has become quite accomplished at kiting! We recorded
it close, far, from different angles, and all kinds of inflating, kiting
and deflating methods.
It was good stuff and kind of fun to get. Amazingly, we managed to
stay on our feet the entire session.
Here is
more coverage of the production process on the "Enterprise Log"
2008-Dec-28
The script for all four videos has been completed. Yehaaa!
That's a big deal, especially since it's ahead of schedule. Of course
"completed" is a relative term because there is editing, reviewing, and
tweakings that will morph it significantly after footage is shot and the
general changes that are inevitable. Although the vast majority of the
shots are being flown for the video, some are not and script will be
adjusted for them.
We were stymied on two recent efforts to get to Phoenix to do some
taping. Weather first then full flights. The Enterprise will now stay in
Phoenix then go right to the Salton Sea Paratoys fly-in, to the dunes
afterwards and then back to Phoenix. There is a group of capable and
willing pilots there that have offered to help and so we're planning to
get a bunch of the necessary footage there.
The scripts vary from 7000 words to 10,000 words each. That means that
the videos will vary from 65 to 75 minutes each with extras (flying,
music, outtakes, humorous comments by the pilots, etc) likely adding up
to an additional 20 minutes each.
2009-Aug-30
Having complete access to a full-reflex glider has allowed us to capture
some of the specifics to show differences. There's not that much,
really, but we've got enough footage to properly support the script.
Filming was done with a Dudek Plasma wing. Differences in inflation,
wingtip steering, and kiting.
Recording of the script should start within the next month. Projects
will be completed in order so the first video, on kiting, will be
completed before beginning the next three.
2009-Nov-17
An enormous amount has been completed including animation and narration
recording which is nearly complete for video 1 and will hopefully be
completed by early 2010. One of the most significant accomplishments is
getting many of the requisite animations done and the basic parts of
others built. That has been an enormous undertaking, as time consuming
as actual shooting.
I am working with Phil Russman as an adviser and his input will make the
product much better. In fact, it already has. Plus, Phil is
producing a new video series for learning powered paragliding that will
be an enormous asset both for new pilots and instructors. It will cover
everything from first sight through being competent to fly
independently, including animation to explain difficult concepts. It
will be an invaluable asset to anybody, especially those just starting
in the sport.
2010 Jan 14
 A
week ago the editor crashed. What's worse is how it crashed, seemingly
taking some of my work with it. Alas, the information is still there but
these things do slow you down. This editor (Adobe CS4) is a high-end
program that doesn't like being run on a low-end platform. A new
computer was planned for this project but I put it off as long as I
could, knowing that they only get better, faster and cheaper. The time
has come--a new fire-breathing laptop is on the way.
In the meantime I've been working feverishly on the many animations that
are coming along VERY nicely. 80% of the animations, about 3 minutes
worth, have been completed for video 1, (Advanced Ground Handling) and
I'm now working on those required in video 2 (Advanced Launching). About
two of 6 minutes have been completed, including a new Trike that, in
spite of it's several hours of creation time, only appears on screen for
about 12 seconds. Oh well.
The script for video 1 has been recorded, processed, and placed on the
timeline. I now know the running time: it will be a bit over an hour and
25 minutes. That is a surprisingly arduous task requiring many repeats.
Music beds will be added after all the video has been laid because there
will likely be changes along the way. Always are there changes.
Something that I didn't include and just after getting all the video
laid decide needs to be included. Such is the process.
The script for video 2 is being recorded right now and should be done by
the weekend.
New green-screen material has been delivered and a better looking
fully-functional simulator has been setup so I can show the finer points
of riser setup, including reflex wings, without distraction. The whole
point of using green screen is to minimize distraction while showing
details. It allows replacing background with a neutral scene so the
viewer's eye goes only to the subject at hand.
2010 Feb 13
Read the previous entry (Jan 14) to appreciate the next paragraph.
A week ago the editor crashed. But this time it was the human, not the
computer program. Yup, the software (yours truly) took on a camper while
doing a kiting demo near Yuma, Arizona. The only upside is more
time for a few weeks to focus on editing.
A new, much more powerful computer has been added expressly for editing
and animation, and progress is being made nicely. As I write this, a
resource-intense animation is rendering. It will take it a third of the
time as my previous machine and, overall, everything runs much, much
better. I was pushing my previous machine way too hard and it
puked--sometimes you just gotta spend the money. A few scenes are
making me laugh and I love it when things come together. Man does that
feel good. Now it's just a matter of plowing through the timeline one
chapter at a time. There are 11 chapters on disk one and not very many
animations, most of which are already done. These are extremely simple
and brief. The beginning of each video starts with a review of concepts
that a few experienced pilots may need brushing up on -- pitch, roll,
yaw axis, aspect ratio, chord, flat and projected wing size and wing
loading. Yes, they are basic concepts but, since they're used in other
descriptions I wanted to make sure there was full understanding.
It's fun making the animations and now I've gotten reasonably fast.
Some of them are actually made for a beginner series planned by Phil
Russman. This video just touches on them but his series will spend the
requisite time on concepts for new pilots just entering the sport. These
advanced series expects the pilot to know the basics of kiting, building
a wall, inflation types, etc, so I don't describe those in any detail.
OK, enough of this...back to work. 2010
Feb 26
It just never ends. Today saw many hours poured into creating an
animation that will be used in video 3 for a portion on the cloverleaf.
Mind you, competition is a very small part of these videos, but the
cloverleaf is our premiere task and warrants appropriately coverage.
Sometimes you build something, run it, and it just doesn't work as in it
just doesn't look right. That's what happened today. Fortunately, I was
able to get it looking good and will test it on some unsuspecting
victims. The results of the test are either "ahhhh, I seeeee" or "hmmm,
what was blah, blah, blah?" in which case I go back to work. Just the
process of recording audio takes longer than you'd think. If there's the
least little mistake, you restart the paragraph or sentence and keep
going. Then afterwards, it gets sliced and diced so all the good parts
remain, then any noise gets removed, then it gets compressed to control
levels. That audio is imported into the animator where everything
is timed to coincide with the narration. Rewarding when it comes
together, but extremely time consuming. Thankfully, there's only about
12 to 20 minutes of animation total planned for videos three and four,
less for two and even less for one. I've also been studying for my
real job for which I'm going to training tomorrow. We're getting a
significant upgrade to our flight displays and navigation over the next
few months and there's a lot to know. Plus I've got my regularly
scheduled sim ride so I've been into the books (mostly the PDF's,
actually), boning up on stuff. My rib recovery is nearly complete
given that today I was doing pushups and even survived a sneeze. Life is
good! 2010 June 3
Finally, significant progress is being made on final output. I'm on
the timeline and getting it all together. As of today, 28 of 93 minutes
are completed.
That's huge! Up until last month there was zero completed minutes.
I was writing, shooting, narrating, and building animations. Now it's
coming together which is soooo much more enjoyable.
Just this morning I put finishing touches on chapter 12--a chapter
that, I must confess, wasn't even in the original script. But it was
ooooh soooo much fun! In 3 minutes it shows how to do paraglider kite
skating. NOBODY, of course, is ever going to actually do such a thing
but it does show techniques, in mildly humorous fashion, that are
covered in the video's meat and potatoes chapter 10. Like other
chapters, I use slow motion and graphics to show clearly what is being
done and why so it still has instructional value. Seeing this stuff in
action is so much better than reading it in a book. This short chapter
could be scrapped if screenings suggest but, judging from reactions so
far, I doubt it. Chapter 9 is about 10 minutes and Chapter 10, yet to
be started, is the main course at 30 minutes. Hopefully it will go a bit
faster as I continue to improve my efficiency with the tools. Maybe I'll
finally realize one of my goals--to be finished with video 1 by summer.
The ticking of summer's short clock is banging loudly in my head.
I finally bought the new computer necessary to make my editor (Adobe
Premiere CS4) happy. It's a fire-breathing Dell with 1920 pixels of
display and reasonably fast-for-a-notebook speed so I can work on the
road. My former computer was not up to the task and, after losing work
to an editor crash, I had no stomach for trying to coax more life from
it. There's more about other taping we've done
here on an
"Enterprise Log." 2010 Aug 8
This is a big moment: Chapter 10 is now cut together. Some
finishing touches remain and a few "black holes" await filling, but that
will take only an hour or so after the scenes are shot. Base titling and
scoring will be another couple hours but this is a milestone.
Chapter 10 is the meat and potatoes of video 1, "Advanced Ground
Handling." It's where we show numerous techniques for handling multiple
tasks on different wings and conditions--it's where all the cool stuff
happens. It's also, by far, the longest chapter of the video at 49
minutes. The other chapters vary from 3 to 8 minutes each for a total
running time of about 95 minutes. Chapters 1 through 9 and 12 are
completely done including all titling and scoring. I've been begging
off of numerous flying trips and web updates while working on this thing
and that will, no doubt continue. Plus, work on edition 3 of the book
must start soon so it's important to be done with this video before
running out of books. Having two major projects in process at the same
time would NOT be fun! 2010 Aug 14
Today was the first day that all 15 chapters have been placed on a
timeline. THAT IS ENORMOUS!!! Running time is longer than I hoped and
few clips are longer than 10 seconds. There are tons of graphics, other
pilots, cool scenes from all over the world and a lot of material on
ground handling paragliders. Scoring remains as does a very view scenes,
less than 40 seconds worth, have yet to be shot. I hope to get those in
the next week, possibly out in San Diego. Total time is 1:42 One hour
and 42 minutes. I'll be reviewing the whole thing with others in order
what, if any changes or cuts are called for. There's still some nitnoid
steps to final production, but the light at tunne's end isn't sounding a
horn. |
