Focus On Your Strengths – A Light Of Guidance
|
|
Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes
http://ilmcast.com/videos/log-yq-uk-finalcut.flvOne of the greatest benefits of having a contract with a client to produce work is the existence of deadlines, which bring about a sense of urgency for you and your team to produce something of value.
If you really wish to grow in a craft, whether its basket weaving, graphic design, video production, motion graphics, medicine, law, engineering, etc. — you need to put yourself in a position where you have the opportunity to practice and work hard to hone your talents to mastery and excellence.
Practice doesn’t make perfect, but it sure can bring about excellence — ONLY if that practice is in an area of your strengths and talents. Working on your weaknesses and not developing your strengths will ultimately land you in a career that will make your miserable, or at the very least leave you empty in a way.
I’m not saying ignore your weaknesses, rather understand them and work around them and make sure they don’t undermine your strengths. What I AM saying is develop your strengths and talents to a level that will enable your to simply dominate your area of expertise. – What ever that may be.
- — -
When you service a client well and shatter standards that were laid out, usually this ends up in the bar being raised — followed by a push of encouragement to shatter it again.
Visual Eye Candy Store
The last trailer I did was for the Torch Bearers seminar taught by AlMaghrib Institute. I ended up employing motion graphics, something I hadn’t done much before.
The issue this time around was that AlMaghrib and its base loved it so much they wanted more of the same quality.
I’m not a motion graphic artist. I’m far from it. Personally I haven’t had much opportunity to practice such a specialized craft (which by the way pays real well). I decided to look for outsourced venues to do some of the work.
For those who don’t know — RevoStock.com is an excellent source for stock footage and Adobe After Effects project files. I purchased a project file titled Particle Fractal Fly Through and began playing around with it in After Effects until I got it to be visually as I wanted it.
Personally still being new to After Effects, it took me quite a while to get myself around it. Longer than it normally would if I was editing footage shot with a camera in Premiere.
- — -
Shatter a standard continuously is harder each and every time, but that doesn’t mean you cannot be consistant. I’m not a sound designer or sound engineer by any means what so ever. I personally don’t even have the proper tools, knowledge or skill set to be an effective sound designer.
Music To No One’s Ears
I go by an Islamic standard and principle that musical instruments are not permissible in my line of work. Whether those instruments are based in string, wind, brass or percussion.
I guess this principle has been an aspect of the brand I’ve been building for Leechon. I guess you can say that’s a good thing.
Fundamentally, in Islam musical INSTRUMENTS are prohibited — this isn’t a forum for Islamic jurisprudence, so don’t start a debate
The After Effects project file came with an audio track that I had to throw out the window and face the challenge of producing another track inline with my principles.
Creating the sound score is a difficult challenge for me personally. Its certainly not a strength of my own and its a source of pain considering that I’m not a sound designer by any standard.
:: UPDATE START :: 8:52pm
I forgot to add…
One of the ideas I had for the dialog portion of the sound I got from the movie Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. The opening lines start with a voice in “elven” language and then follows with a “translation” in English.
I thought that would be an interesting way of applying Yasir Qadhi’s voice into the sound track. Arab (a real language) followed by English.
:: UPDATE END :: 8:56pm
After about two days of intensive work, I ended up with a first cut for the trailer. This first cut is what was played at the GPU conference. Personally I find it a bit embarrassing.
http://ilmcast.com/videos/light-of-guidance-yq-uk.flvAfter I got news back from AlMaghrib, I was basically requested to redo most of the audio and change up some of the visuals. After about another week worth of stress and facing the technical challenges I came out with the final cut which you see in the beginning of this post.
- — -
E.I.D. – Enjoyed :: Improved :: Discovered
The only facet of this project I truly enjoyed was the end result. Not so much the process. The reason for that is because I spent most of my time working on my weakness of sound design — only because it was simply undermining my strength. I certainly did improve in my ability to take sound and develop a track that sounds quite professional to the ear while keeping to my principles.
My most important discovery here is that I need to move beyond working with only myself. If I’m to shatter the standards I’ve set for myself for future projects, I’m going to need some professional assistance — especially in the area of sound design.





