CHRONICLES OF A FREELANCER

2012-01-27T23:17:00.002-05:00

A Time for us
Someday there'll be
When chains are torn
By courage born of a love that's free

A time when dreams
So long denied
Can flourish
As we unveil the love we now must hide

A time for us at last to see
A life worthwhile for you and me

And with our love
Through tears and thorns
We will endure
As we pass surely through every storm

A time for us someday there'll be
A new world, a world of shining hope for you and me

(By Kusik, Lawrence; Rota, Nino; Snyder, Eddie)

What have you done lately?

2009-03-24T15:45:00.006-04:00

This posting is just updated in 2011. It is a quick statement about my professional journey in the past 20 years.

I've been been a professional editor since 1995. My official title varied from place to place where I worked (offline editor, online editor, finishing editor, Producer/Editor) but I pretty much did the same thing; I strung the beads. I cooked the dish.

I had first graduated with a B.A. in Psychology in 1990 (in Egypt). Only then it dawned on me that I'll be sitting in a chair listening to other people's problems for the rest of my life.. Not good.. So I went to school all over again, this time in the good old USA.. It was a film & video program that had an art twist to it.. I spent long weeks and months and years in dark rooms working on my own personal projects -stuff that wasn't worth a dime to anyone but me. But I learned a great deal about life and about myself in trying to put these little gigs together. Back then, I did the writing, producing, 16mm shooting, directing, narrating and editing. And even though I still enjoy all of those roles, I settled into editing because I'm a cook by nature.

Back in school, I edited on a flatbed with a guillotine splicer (I still think that was the best!) Then I went hi tech to digital non-linear editing with my first job in the industry. The first editing box I got married to was in my boss's basement; an ole AVID MC on a MAC; version what? 0.01? I later moved up the ranks to XL then Adrenaline DNA & DNx; All very buggy toys with cool gadgets. Bottom line: They're all just toys. A good editor is a lot more than the sum of her toys.

Over the years, I won awards for my corporate work, but my real best work has been seen by few. Most of it resides in the inky shadows in my basement haha, but now that I am happily semi-retired from corporate life in my early forties (eat your hearts out;-) I shall make it my pet project to convert and upload some of these old works to the worldwide web and share them with you. For now- I have removed the corporate clips from this website here because quite frankly I no longer care to receive offers for corporate or cable broadcast... This blog will now be reserved for fun (raises virtual glass) So here's to 20 years of late nights and laughter and tears but most of all, pleasure.

A time for work.. And a time for caterpillars

2009-02-13T01:19:00.000-05:00

The first good thing about being freelance is that you actually have the time to follow your backyard critters around with your mobile phone's camera.. Here is a very, very long take I titled "journey of a caterpillar" :-D And another video of a gorgeous green beetle :-D:-D

Note: For those serious folks who logged on to view my professional clips, they're at the bottom of this blog page. Cheers -Amani

Juicy Bits I couldn't Resist Posting!

2009-02-12T02:36:00.000-05:00

In digital audio, bit depth describes the number of bits of information recorded for each sample. Bit depth directly corresponds to the resolution of each sample in a set of digital audio data. Common examples of bit depth include CD audio, which is recorded at 16 bits, and DVD-Audio, which can support up to 24-bit audio.

Technically speaking, bit depth is only meaningful when applied to pure PCM devices. Non-PCM formats, such as DSD or lossy compression systems like MP3, have bit depths that are not defined in the same sense as PCM. This is particularly true for lossy audio compression, where bits are allocated to other types of information, and the bits actually allocated to individual samples are allowed to fluctuate within the constraints imposed by the allocation algorithm. Recently, many lossy formats such as DTS and WMA Pro have been promoted as 24-bit. However, this is not correct.[citation needed] A lossy file will not actually contain 24 bits worth of information per sample, but is actually a file that was originally mastered at 24 bits and then compressed.

[Can't get enough? You can follow this extremely-interesting thread and read more at] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_bit_depth