Hour before Morning et al.

I feel a need to post an update. Here goes...

The Hour before Morning progresseth... at a snail's pace.

We did a spot of dubbing for The Hour before Morning today, and then we watched the half of the rough cut that Matt had on his computer. By and large, I was very pleased. There are certainly some amateur moments: some rough edits, mumbled lines, odd lighting/makeup, quick cuts with dubious continuity (that last entirely the fault of yours truly, the writer). But a lot of those places can be smoothed over in post with the generous application of fade outs, music, audiovisual tweaking, etc. Will it look professional? No. Will it look pretty good for a $10-$15,000 movie. Yes!

Most pleasing were the performances by our three principals. They are all consistently good-to-excellent with many pro moments. My current favorite is Trish's (Meravyn's) reaction to Greg's (Jenchae's) bad pun, "I have him in hand," a play on Elek having recently broken his hands. I cannot describe the way she widens her eyes, but it speaks volumes.

We saw haemony as Jenchae's mother, looking very motherly and appropriately under stress. I don't know how we managed to miss her falling scene; we shot it at least five times, but it's not there. We still have good material though, better once we have music and a less utterly weird (lack of) transition into the scene.

Thanks to Tyler, Jonathon, Greg, and Matt (in no particular order) for fine work on the dubbing today.

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In other news, in a week I start teaching and am totally unprepared. Why did I take on three different courses I've never taught before?? Still, I am excited and think they will be good once I'm done with my initial scrambling.

Should I Buy Sic et Non? Yes or No?

This evening I have been made happy by thinking (vaguely) about Abelard. I'm not sure why; it was just shade of difference from my daily world and preoccupations to pleasantly divert my mind.

I did some searching for his book, Sic et Non, and discovered that it is not cheaply available. I suppose, once again, one can bless copyright that the e-text is available free in Latin but not in any English translation (even an old one, so far as I found). The cheap translation is about $30, and I am mildly amused that it is published via Lulu, the patron publisher of quacks who can't find a real publisher. (I say that with my tongue thoroughly in my cheek.) I also discovered that the book is 1 millionth and something in Amazon's sales stat's. Well, you can't stay popular forever.

So should I spend $30 on a book I probably won't enjoy very much but am curious about due to my interest in the author? This question would be easier if I hadn't recently been spending a ton of money on books and such whilst going through about two months of unemployment with very little income coming in. (Employment will start again next week, but it still won't be great money.) Anyway, this is a rhetorical question. I'm not going to buy it now. I might get it from the library or wait till I've saved up a little more.

Meanwhile I will think with vague happiness about Abelard, who was initially put in my mind a couple of days ago by yet another discussion of yet another Fail. You may conjecture about the connection if you wish.