Making a Video

The hardest part of making a unit video for me is the first step, coming up with the music and theme then bending my mind around that idea. Once that’s done, everything else does start falling into place, the gaps get filled in and there’s a sense of accomplishment as sections get done till finally, a finished product. With a good enough idea and the proper eye and ear candy, the video can take on a life of its own. I’ve discovered that these video projects tend to take over the creative parts of my brain and other things that I normally do like write, talk and read for pleasure, all of that get chopped off at the knees and I mumble, spill drinks and my blogging goes to crap.

I was the unit videographer my first trip out here in 2004 and had a bunch of spare time to make movies and post pictures on my fotopage and it was still a huge job. This time it’s a different story, I’m actually working pretty hard. Yes Anonymous Guy, I am at Camp Cupcake with a nice pool walking distance away but that doesn’t make my job any easier or change the distanc that I'm separated from my family. I'm just cleaner and a bit safer and no, I haven’t gone out to Salsa night (don’t need strangers to see my lack of dancing skills). Even though I was getting mortared and shot at on a somewhat regular basis in 2004, my job back then was worlds easier. Now I’m living in a paperwork jungle and miss the easy, drama free times when I was just a squadron corpsman and could work on these huge products while sitting around at work instead of on my spare time after a 12 hour workday.

But I admit, there was one perk about being at Camp Cupcake, Puddle of Mudd came out a couple of weeks ago and put on a show for the troops. I got to watch from 15 or so feet away and it was an awesome! I even got to use some of the bandages I had packed into my cargo pocket at the end of the night, a guy who was leaving 4 days from then got gashed in the eyebrow by a flying CD. I estimate 12 sutures.

Well back to screening music, still haven’t figured out the soundtrack for the second quarter, wish the bride was around, she sees everything through the lens of song.