(no subject)

Ohh How I love this task!

(no subject)

Oh man. Oh shit.

Why, oh why? +1

Why was I unable to come up with a good idea for this until now? It's perfect: scary as hell, and something a single person can do in 10 hours with no collaborators, or fancy equipment, or artistic talent.

But, it's also the middle of the night, 23 hours before the deadline, I've got to sleep and work between now and then, I've never edited video before, and I've already spent something like 35 hours tasking this week. I don't have ten hours. Hell, I don't really have the 15 minutes it's going to take to write this up, but I can't bear to let this idea die without at least some pathetic attempt at expression.

After spending half an hour starting to actually do this, gathering a hand full of creative commons licensed images and installing video editing software, I realize how hopeless it is.

So, as a lame attempt to say to the admins, "thanks for the dispatch challenge. I really like it, even though I didn't actually meet it. Please keep 'em coming," here's what I wish I had time to do, in video format:

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From black, a very rapid (1/8 second) fade in to a still photo. The only audio is the sound of a drop falling into a pool of water timed to coincide with the fade in.

The photo: a happy six year old child. Along the bottom of the frame is printed in fixed width font, terminal green in color: "64 years 3 months 1 week 3 days 5 hours 16 minutes 12 seconds"

There follows a series of identical rapid fades followed by three seconds on a single portrait photo of one person and a similar time interval written along the bottom. The people are different genders and races, so we know they're not the same.

Photo 2: a high school age person. Maybe a prom photo. A new date, c. 15 years.

Photo 3: someone in their mid-twenties, having fun, dancing or posing comically for the camera. Another date, c. 45 years.

Photo 4: a middle aged person. Another date, c. 25 years.

Photo 5: a retirement age person. A date, c. 5 years.

Photo 6: a person in a hospital bed, covered with instruments, looking very ill. A date, c. 1 week.

Photo 7: an funeral procession, the coffin centered in frame. A date, this time with a minus sign at the left, c. 3 days.

Fade to black for 2 seconds.

1 second fade in on a man holding an anachronistic still camera with a big flash bulb, facing 90 degrees away from us. Along the bottom of the screen is the same date stamp text, except it's mirrored. The big numbers are blurry. The small numbers are very rapidly counting down, at a rate so you can just barely make out what they say.

For 2 seconds, the man on the camera smoothly rotates to face the audience. He takes a photo, and the flash bulb goes off. The whole frame goes white, except for the time stamp along the bottom of the frame which freezes. The big numbers are still artificially blurred, but the hours, minutes, seconds are now clear and frozen. This text remains in place until the end of the film. Simultaneous with the flash is the sound of a water drip.

For 2 seconds the background transitions from white to black, then remains black for 2 seconds, leaving behind a single word written across the center of the frame in white block lettering: "Smile."

Credits.

(no subject)

Hugo approves:

To Loki--and anyone else still thinking!

I have no problem with someone completing the task a little bit late if it's worth the wait. Anyone else? You can also complete the task independent of the challenge...that's alright, too!

(no subject)

Wow Loki, Please do that. Sounds amazing!

(no subject)

Thanks for the offer of leniency, Orion.

But, I'm afraid entering the contest late wouldn't be fair to all the people who did such wonderful work *and* made the deadline. (I'm blown away by the completions. Great stuff!)

Without the deadline as a driver, the task becomes one more of many that may or may not ever happen. But, I'll keep it in mind. Some day when I'm stuck for twelve hours in an airport lobby with a laptop and nothing else, it could be just the thing to play with.

I like it.

Loki, you're amazing. Even if you never make the video, you've painted a beautiful word picture that will stay with me. Bravo.

(no subject)

Haunting and mindshaking. Yeah, who needs to see it in You tube format? The story in images has already been stored in the brain, soundtrack and all.
Thanks for those 15 minutes!