Last year, I went on a 5-week trip outside the states. I traveled across seven different countries starting in Sydney, Australia and ending up in Hanoi, Vietnam. I traveled on behalf of work, and I remember feeling incredibly grateful for the opportunity. More than once, it occurred to me that my life has been sheltered within the confines of the states. Confinements consisted mainly between both east and west coasts with a few years spent in between at the mid-west. Otherwise, I didn’t travel much at all. I hardly had the opportunity to. We didn’t travel much as a family outside our immediate time zone, and I’ve never flown outside the country.
On the road and over the course of five weeks, I captured literally hours of footage between my phone, digital camera, and a borrowed Flip MinoHD. I had some expectations for this trip to be life-changing and for it to serve as a continued experience I’d look back on years later to remember distinct moments and memories I’ve created. I set a goal to capture this experience in moving picture, then produce a video of my own to document it.
Video editing is something I thoroughly enjoy, even if it is an innately long grueling process and black hole for people with obsessive tendencies such as myself. It’s no secret. The beauty and transformative power when combining moving pictures with a mood set by your choice of audio soundtrack is simply amazing and incredibly profound. I remember envisioning the final product. I remember feeling so excited at the idea. The trip hadn’t even begun. Yet I was motivated. I was moved and inspired to create something meaningful, profound, and authentic first and foremost to myself. I was anxious to edit and produce my own trip documentary. All I needed was the footage. It’s exactly what I set myself out to do. Capture it.
I captured footage ranging from five second to five minute clips. I captured this, that, and everything in between. I captured everything with every chance I got. I snapped a few stills with my digital camera, put it down, whipped out the Flip, captured the same at a constant 30 frames per second. I captured lots of b-roll footage, knowing I’d need spontaneous footage to use during any number of video transitions. I was diligent and relentless. As I traveled through each destination, I subconsciously acquired a constant mission to capture as much on film everywhere I went. I frequently stopped, took a break to breathe in the air and relax. Then I’d whip out the Flip and get cracking.
I hit my goal. I captured something over 8 hours worth of footage. By the time I got home, I was left with a pile of digital media with less than a clue on what to do with them. I was within a state of organized chaos. I didn’t know how to get started. I was drained. I wasn’t an expert in Final Cut Pro by any means. I had outdone myself. The project quickly jumped from transitioned from being something incredibly exciting to things resembling more the opposite. I felt stifled, stuck, overwhelmed, and incredibly daunted by the sheer amount of raw footage I knew I’d inevitably have to sift through. It’s the equivalent of walking into a living space full of scattered objects, everywhere. I had to organize them all in some shape or form but didn’t know where to get started. I’ve worked on it here and there, but it never stuck. Not until now.
The other weekend, I buckled down and completed the very first of what I suspect will be seven videos total, one for each city and country I visited. My trip went onto the following after starting in Sydney: Manila, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam. I started with Sydney and pushed through with undivided diligence. I organized and arranged clips from almost 100 clips of of raw footage. It was an incredibly challenging experience but not without a degree of fun and freedom because in the end, it produced an exciting feeling to see my project finally come to life.
While having so many options is often times liberating, it can on the other hand be very stifling. I’m not someone who thrives in situations where options are so plentiful. I thrive better in situations presenting with constraints, giving me the opportunity to problem solve and discover the most optimal way through it. When editing video, the possibilities are nearly infinite multiplied by the seemingly infinite number of routes to achieve each of those possibilities. What’s infinity multiplied by infinity? Eternity.
Needless to say, I finished the video in less than a week but not without sacrificing my physical and mental states. I stayed up till three, four, sometimes six in the morning every night. I mulled over the results, replayed the audio tracks and sequences in my head incessantly over the week. The music, the transitions, the transition durations, opening and closing sequences, you name it. There were critical transition points I replayed in my head constantly as if the more I thought about them, the closer I’d get to achieving perfection. It was the first and last thought of each new day. Every night, I’d edit till my body literally began to droop and fade in a half-upright position with eyes as heavy as sandbags. I didn’t eat dinner. I’d scarf down a few Samosa girl scout cookies instead, which Tricia so thoughtfully gave me as a gift the weekend before. Little did she know how important they’d become in fueling my obsession to complete this project.
Alas, I found myself once again striving for perfection despite my best efforts. I fell again into the never-ending black hole leading to self-deprivation, isolation, and obsession. Yet, I do have a video to show for it. Screw it. I’m happy and proud of myself for accomplishing it.
