Well, here it is everyone - the week every assignment ever is due. I feel moderately progressed in most of them... but in the next few days we'll test whether that's adequate or not. Bleh.
And regarding the Adobe package, I've thought it over and given the fact that my computer now grants me the powers of a demi-god of digital video control and editing, I can officially declare my buyer's remorse over. I also remembered that I don't own a car, so I'm allowed to drop this kind of money every once in a while that would have been going towards gas, insurance, booting, and towing expenses otherwise.
The programs has already been helpful with some of the school projects. In fact, I've spend the week ripping clips from various DVDs and editing them together for the "portrayal of family in the media" project due next week. While pulling a few clips from Mulan, I remembered something about the soundtrack I discovered years ago - which led to the discovery that this program may be a bigger and more entertaining time-waster than most video games I own.
"I'll Make a Man out of you" Monday
An OST so original, they couldn't use it in the film
Mulan has some fun musical numbers and some really beautiful scores, so not long after seeing the film in theatres I bought the soundtrack. I really grew to like the track "Mulan's Decision," referring to her early in the film choice to run away and join the army in her father's place. It wasn't till months later when viewing the film again that I realized that it wasn't the same track used in the movie. It seems that for whatever reason, the main section of the song was switched out for a more... edgy... pop beat... sort of thing, that in my mind just really didn't live up to the soundtrack version. I think at some point years ago I played the track while watching the film on mute in an attempt to see what it might have sounded like. Today I look back at this primitive method and scoff, with much smugness.
Yesterday I produced exactly what it would have sounded like. Just because I can.
Mulan's Decision - Film Score -- This is the film version you're familiar with. Looking at both version, I can kinda see the appeal of this version, and it's not as though the music ruins this scene or anything like that, but I still think that overall this is the weaker of the two videos.
Mulan's Decision - Original Score -- This is the version using the original score included on the soundtrack. It's longer for added aural context, and much bigger (40 mb) because I wanted it to look pretty. Since editing in animation is generally one of the first steps rather than one of the last, the point where the track ends and starts up again matched up perfectly. It's possible that some of the internal scenes could have been altered slightly had they gone with the original track, but most of the key moments match up so well that I doubt there would have been much difference at all. I did some finagling to keep in as many of the sound effects as I could (any during the middle stretch are gone), but neither audio track was edited for length. The video wasn't edited at all.
Mulan OST - Mulan's Decision -- And finally, the full audio track itself. One of my favorites on the album (which I really recommend, as long as you skip the 98 Degrees/Stevie Wonder "True To Your Heart" single).
PS. I've been messing with various compressor programs and codex all week. Both above videos are XviD and look relatively decent. The larger file even continues to look decent in full-screen. But I'm not satisfied with the size of either of them - I wasn't able to get below 20 and 40 respectively. To those of you downloading - are these acceptable sizes, or does a 2 min clip need to be 10 mb or less? Is the video great or could it be better? Or would you rather it was worse for a smaller, faster download? To the experienced video renderers/editor out there, any helpful freeware recommendations or settings advice would also be welcome.
*Thanks to Xirax
3 comments:
Er, the links are not working for me. :/
That is because Kimberly has two extra spaces by the end of her links up here.
You can get them by right-clicking on the link, clicking properties, copying the link, posting the link in your browser and erasing %20%20 in the end of it it.
Whoops. Fixed now.
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