Over a Mountain - Final Cut Pro

At NAB today and it's a milestone day.  Last year I was new to Final Cut Pro - took two certification classes and missed the test cut off by two points.  I got a 78 and needed at least an 80.  I used the software all year and came back to try again.  I took the class over and am very glad I did.  Final Cut is so robust and even using it a year, I haven't touched it's full power.  In addition to another handful of tricks and shortcuts to employ, I passed the certification test with a 90.7.  There are seven certification tests in total.  So, I've just begun.  I'll pick another to work on this year - perhaps level 2 or color correction.

Meanwhile, shorter workshops tomorrow.  There are so many choices.  One huge area is social networking.  

If National Association of Broadcasting (NAB) is new to you, this is the premiere worldwide show for radio, TV and general producers.  It's huge.  I'm hearing numbers are down 20% or so but it still appears to be near the 100,000 number.  It's always been one of the bigger conventions in town each year.  There are multiple tracks of training going on.  I stick close to the post production world conference but general conference sessions are open to all.  This is the first year I've noticed social networking as a topic and I see it popping up in every track - twitter, blogs, pod casts...

One serendipitous part of my trip at this time is the need to solve lighting issues for our underground (mining) videotaping and making contacts with photographers/videographers in China.  I noticed a big international trade table and meeting area today so I stopped.  "You're in the right place", the woman said as I explained my mission.  She will connect me with the head of the China delegation tomorrow.  She also expressed surprise that I videotape underground saying she had never met anyone who went into mines before.

I'm guessing the head of the China delegation will be surprised as well.  I hope he can help get me connected with the right people.

You know, I love my job.  And these kinds of missions are most interesting.  It's challenging but I can count my lucky stars to be working for a company and particularly a boss who understands how to maximize resources without frustrating them.  It's up to me to use the tool between my ears while they put me where I need to be to get the job done as well as providing the physical tools required to do it.  I've been around long enough to know this is a very special combination.

Today, I'm over the top about it all.

 

Is underground unusual?

I've been saying for a time that my cameraman, Pete, is one of the most experienced underground videographers in the world.  Tonight I am at the National Association of Broadcaster's conference and went to an event with some of the most well known videographer's in the industry.  I was hoping for leads - a videographer/photographer in China willing to go underground - advice on lighting to use in such conditions.

I think I can safely say that I was the most experienced underground videographer in the entire mix of hot dog videographer's this evening.  I got some very disbelieving looks as I explained my networking needs.  I found no one who has even shot in a cave.  I found a sky diving videographer.    And I discovered that "underground videographer" has a rather unseemly definition.   I need to make a note of that one.

The next few days will be interesting and fun.  I need to follow up on a few leads of possible avenues to finding global assistance with our video needs.  And I will have fun telling people what it is we do and why.  I will be a bit more careful about asking if someone does "underground video" and careful about saying I do.

Welcome Home

Today I was thinking about what it is like to come home to a community that you perceive does not welcome you.  I remember the 70's with Vietnam Vets coming home from a very unpopular war.  Most of them had been drafted and would not have chosen to go to war at all - especially not that war.  Many of them tried not to bring attention to their service feeling that the majority of the nation somehow blamed them - shunned them - even denounced them.  No matter how you feel about war, most of us would agree that these men and women did not deserve that.  30 years after the last Vietnam Vets came home, there was a National Welcome home day.

GLBT people who grew up in that era and left small towns in search of careers, etc. can relate to the experience of returning under those conditions - not expecting to be welcomed home.  Blamed as threats to family values.  Shunned by our past church communities.  Even denounced as unworthy of equal rights as citizens.  We see glimmers of hope in Iowa, Vermont, Massachusetts and with companies who include GLBT people in anti-discrimination policies.  There are signs of a new day.  

Wouldn't it be amazing if small towns and even churches across the country had "Welcome Home Day" for GLBT people?  A day of celebration where GLBT people who left go back home to join their brothers and sisters who stayed and are received by a new welcoming community.

That would be a powerful message of real change.

Getting out and about

I started this blog with a story about a trip for work and what it's like to be in underground mines.  There's a whole different world underground.  A different communication system - both technical and as simple as nodding your head so your caplight catches the attention of moving equipment.  And you don't look people in the eye when talking with them because it shines the light right in their eyes.  You need to know the different signage - emergency systems - escapeways - rope systems.   A mine may have hundreds of people working in entries that spread for miles.  A salt mine near Cleveland goes under lake Erie.  I haven't been in that mine and would try not to think about that aspect if I did.

I don't mind working underground but I couldn't do it every day.  I wonder if miners have the same feeling I do at the end of the day.  A sweet sense of being more alive when I see the daylight. 

I thought of that feeling today after visiting the Artist Studios at the Transit building in Oil City.  Art gives me that feeling.  Music gives me that feeling.  Time listening to a respected friend gives me that feeling.  Being part of a larger community gives me that feeling.  A sweet sense of being more alive.

Underground Movement

I called this blog "Into the mountain and under the mountain".  May I add "Over the mountain"?  I watched a documentary last night - "The Secret".  Several people had recommended it in the last year.  If you are philosophical or spiritual at all, you should watch it.  You can find information about it at www.thesecret.tv.  

It seems to me that it brings together threads of all the spiritual teachings, the motivational speakers, the abundance preachers....  It is about the power of thought and intent - the laws of attraction.  It reminded me to walk in the power I have known to be true but all too often drift away from.

Some years ago, I read a book "Small Miracles".  It is a series of stories about miracles in people's lives and how they brought them into their lives.  I recall the author saying she had tested it by repeatedly thinking she would find pennies.  And she did.  After reading that, I decided to take it up a step.  I would see dimes.  And I did!  I was finding them everywhere - on the ground, under my bed, in my pocket.  I wasn't finding pennies or nickels or quarters.  It went on for weeks and was quite fun.  Now, the question is - why did I stop there?  Soon, I quit thinking about dimes and went right back to my normal way of thinking.  

I believe there is a power much greater than any of us truly realizes.  Call it God, the Great Spirit, the law of nature, whatever.   We call that power to us when we use the gift between our ears.  And our ability to call upon that power depends upon our ability to align ourselves with the source of that power.  Some understand it as good versus evil.  But I believe it is order and harmony versus disorder and kaos - feeling good - gaining energy - or draining energy.

Every successful underground movement has built upon good energy - gained energy - gained momentum - built something.  That is the secret.  Fighting against something does nothing more than drain our energy and often energize the thing we are fighting against.  

Your underground spirit

Lately I've been focused on individuals who make a contribution somehow.  What is it that sets them apart?

Dig beneath the surface and you see that they had a very human side.  They were not perfect.  They had failed relationships.  Some had temper tantrums.  Some had addictions.  They suffered poverty.  They were often rejected - even ridiculed - in their lifetimes.  And yet, they achieved a lasting legacy somehow.  What set them apart?

I believe it is deep rooted - deep underground - a passion for something.  Something they could not let go of no matter what.  A belief - a message - that could not be buried.    Some universal truth that springs up beyond the rational and mundane.  And that truth strikes a chord with any who can hear it.   Some part of us yearns for it.  Some part of us wants to bring that truth alive.  But instead we push that spirit underground.  We push the spirit of other's underground.

It seems to me, it's time to stop that.  

Underground

This last week I watched both Milk and the documentary about Harvey Milk.  And I thought about my life.  My life.  Underground.  I remember those days.  I entered college in 1975.  By 1977, I accepted that I was a lesbian.  And, while in college, I wanted to start a revolution.  

Instead, in 1978, I entered the USAF.  I had to pretend I was not a lesbian.  Several years into my military service, I got a top secret security clearance.  I was a lesbian.  My supervisor suspected so.  And, he asked as he told me my clearance had come through, "How do you feel about gay people in the military having a top secret security clearance?"  

'Gay people aren't supposed to be in the military', I answered. 

 "But if they are, they could be blackmailed." He said.  

'And if they admit to being gay, they are honorably discharged, correct?'  I said, "But if they give away top secret information, they are charged with treason, correct?'

He acknowledged.

'Which would you choose?', I asked.

He asked no more questions.  I served my time in the USAF - honorably, without instance.  Underground.