Just bear with me: I'm blowing off some steam by daydreaming about some of the things I'm working towards.

I have enjoyed making the short movies that I have made. That said, I hate the way most of them look and sound. I know an artist is usually their own biggest critic. And you might be saying "But Jesse, you should improve the quality of the acting, direction, etc." before you improve the look and sound. Except, I've done this stuff professionally. I have a lot harder time taking it seriously with the equipment I've got because I know how to use better. It's very tricky for me to look at what I'm using and think "this is going to be a 'real' video" as I know that what I'm shooting now, I'm pushing to the limit in the technical sense. To get anything done, I've had to take an "oh, we're just doing this for fun," approach because if I think of it as "real" I just get depressed.

I want to change that and once I get my bills paid off, start upgrading my home studio with "real" equipment. It's going to be a long process (years), but short term, this is what I'm looking to do over the course of the next 12 to 18 months.

Microphone: Audio Technica AT8035

Microphone Adapter: Beachtek DXA-4P

Editing System: iMac G5

Software: Final Cut Express and VisionLab Studio

Tripod: Davis and Sanford Pro Vista Video Tripod with FM18 Fluid Head

DVD Copier: Microboards QD-DVD-123

DVD Printer: Epson Stylus Photo R280

Camera: Panasonic AG-DVX100B

Yes, I know that I cannot edit in 24p on Final Cut Express and I'm also aware that I would have to upgrade to a Mac Pro to get Final Cut Studio and the capability to edit in 24p. Those upgrades are a few more years off, but at least by then, I'd have the camera to shoot in that mode (though, I suppose you could argue that I'd save a heck of a lot of money and still be able to shoot at 24p by getting like a Canon HV30...but the Panasonic still has more control for it's settings, even shooting in 30p, and I really want to improve image quality, even if its at 30p - which my internet based stuff would be anyway).

Anyway, if I can accomplish all of this, it'd put me in pretty good shape to do more of the things I want to do. As Craig and Mandie can attest to, I'm sitting on a lot of material (they've read a portion of it). A lot of it I think could pass with the camera I've got now, but I don't like the audio, so I'm waiting until I've got new audio equipment so that it'll sound decent. Actually, I've pushed a couple of projects back because of that and have only recently come up with something shootable that won't require any sound at all. I'm putting that together and if all goes well at work, I'm hoping to get moving on that within the next couple of weeks.

So, yeah. That's what I want. Of course, there's still a low four figure debt that needs to be erased (but at least it's not the low-to-mid five figure debt that it started out as...Appendix!) and schooling that needs to be secured. But this new job makes it more possible than any job I've had, so we'll see how things go. In the meantime, I'm hungry. Out.