Season One

Editing Schedule

I am currently between semesters, my last one at Ivy Tech and my first one at IU. In this downtime, I’m working in some editing of the “good” episodes of ROX that I have, which are a majority of season one.

On a good night I can crank out 2 episodes. Last night I was only able to complete one.

Most of these episodes are in pretty good shape, they still need a look over to make sure they meet my high standards before I’ll allow people to pay money for them. The biggest issue seems to be with transitions between shots and the beginning and end of the show. Luckily I have a ton of “stock” clips to use if one is bad.

If you look at all of my blog posts regarding ROX, you’ll see many ramblings about technical difficulties or just not having time. I’m finished with giving excuses. I’d like to get season one ready and launch it with my new LML Video Services website.

Once this “easy” process is over, I will start the tedious heavy editing process. Dissecting each episode ensuring the audio and video tracks are synchronized and making sure there are no other transitional issues.

After the editing process is complete, DVD authoring and design begin. This is where I actually create the look and feel of the DVD. Then I design the case and labels. Once the producers give their words of approval, it will be released.

The biggest difference between this time, and the last time is I have an active backup solution. My computer is backed up every night, and those backups are backed up weekly. If my hard drive fails, I haven’t lost any work. That is what put me over a year behind. I had to recapture everything and start from day one.

Wish me luck.

Like a Phoenix

I am slowly but surely rising from the ashes of a dead hard drive.

About a month ago, my brand new 1.5 terabyte Seagate hard drive crashed. I tried a few tricks to try to recover the data, but none of them worked. I didn’t want to spend the $700 to $2700 I was quoted for data recovery, as I am a person of simple means.

Luckily I had old data from my old computer stored on 4 separate hard drives. I used my “old” hard drive dedicated to video work and installed it, and then started transferring data. Unfortunately my “backup” drive decided to crap out as soon as I got most of the data off of it. That drive is the only other Seagate I have. Their reputation isn’t doing so well with me. I think I’m going to stick with Western Digital from now on.

I now have almost every episode from season one of ROX on my computer and edited. There are a couple I’m having problems with, but this time around things have been much smoother than before. It’s a shame because I spent 3 years working on that stuff. The video is crisper, the audio is clearer – just a better product all around. I think this disaster was actually a blessing in disguise.

Once I get these “trouble” episode problems resolved, which are: Family Values Special, A Festival of Fools and Mom, Dad, I’m Getting Married. I can start on DVD menu authoring which is a tedious process. The more time I spend on it, the better the end product will be though. I want this season to be the standard, not the example.

Season One will be made up of two volumes of 4 discs each. This is mainly due to quality concerns. In the set will be all 25 episodes! Also included will be special commentary on episode 31, A Toast to Poverty by the shows’ producers – J and Editor B. Plus a few surprising extras. It should be a hit for all!

I finally have a backup plan so this shouldn’t happen again. With some help I have purchased a backup hard drive for ROX and I will have my server up and going soon. With those two options, I hope I have enough redundancy for this not to happen again.

I hope to have season one finalized within a few months, so be on the lookout!

I started working on ROX because of a passion. This show is one of the few things that let me get away from the craziness and feel free from the uncertainty that was my life.

When I “rediscovered” the show in my late teens, I began going to the MCPL and getting my hands on as many episodes as possible. VHS tapes were extremely cheap at the time, and I thought I would eventually do something with that collection. While I’m unsure of how many episodes I currently have, it has to total more than 50. Little did I know that an infamous hurricane would run me into a crash course with the shows’ producers.

I had just built an amazing computer at the time, and I wanted to condense all of those VHS tapes taking up space in our apartment. So I made a DVD set of the first 6 episodes for the shows’ creators. This would start an ongoing collaboration to stabilize the archives of this show.

Four years later, I seemed to be at an impasse. After buying a home, going to school and having a child on the way, I didn’t seem to have any free time to even relax – let alone work on a “hobby.” In that time, we had re-worked my original creation into a product that many fans have purchased and enjoy to this day. I had also done hundreds of hours of work to try to make some damaged episodes of the show up to par.

I have begun work on authoring the DVDs that will become the season one set. Preliminary results show it will be an 8 disc set. Due to packaging constraints, it will be split into two volumes; sold as one. I’m not sure on the price yet, but I expect it to be in the $30 range. With 25 episodes, and a few extras – this was a much larger undertaking than the 7 episodes of season zero.

With season zero, I was wet behind the ears. For season one, I’ve sharpened my skills.

I hope to have all of the preliminary work done within a few weeks. I’m sure editor b will make some announcement when the time is right.

A special thanks goes out to “roxfan” who sent me a few episodes on DVD. Without the kind generosity of people like him, this project would still be stalled. You will be the first to receive a set. I just need to find your address. If you read this, leave me a comment and I will get back with you.

These sets are a completely non-profit project. All charges are for cases, discs, ink, inserts and all other associated costs. The biggest of the costs being ink. We might setup a bartering system, to help eliminate costs.