Whew, what a challenge! • June 26, 2025, 1:41 PM
Episode 11 of the Captain Florence series, "Phœnix", just dropped on June 21, and I'm proud of it because it's the most technically complex bit of video editing I've ever done. Granted, the editing for my "Elegy" video was complex too, but then the video clips there didn't make use of motion and transparent backgrounds like "Phœnix" did—the challenges there involved lining up overlapping video clips to be precisely in sync with the music.
For example, the "Phœnix" video includes a sequence where the enemy spaceship enters Mars' atmosphere, destroys a building and then uses a tractor beam to steal a ship. This sequence required seven elements: two versions of the backdrop (one with the intact building, the other with part of the building erased to serve as a placement marker), the enemy spaceship, the Earthforce spaceship, a dot representing the enemy spaceship's torpedo, an explosion effect and imagery of typical rubble, all spread between the main video track and four video overlay tracks. In the beginning of this shot we see the building and the Earthforce ship. The enemy ship enters frame, stops and fires at the building. The dot representing the torpedo appears and moves to a point where it makes "contact" with the building, then disappears. At the same time, the upper half of the explosion element—created from the static explosion shot created for the first episode of the series, "Her Debutant Battle"—appears, expanding in size from almost nothing to a fireball large enough to almost engulf the building. The background then switches to the version with the partially erased building, and then behind the fireball the imagery of the rubble is inserted to hide what's left of the building. The fireball then shrinks in size to almost nothing. Then the Earthforce ship starts to rise, and the enemy ship starts to move back out of frame the same way it came. The angle of the Earthforce ship's ascent changes twice as both ships move out of frame.
All this may sound complex, but this is a good example of why video editing sometimes takes a lot of time and effort: it takes time to figure out how to achieve effects like these using only what you have to work with—in my case, Florence's AI image generation algorithm, the InShot app (for isolating elements from their backgrounds), the Reface app (for face-swapping) and Corel VideoStudio 2020 (for the actual video editing). Most of the time the video elements are simple: a single static image with a narrative title beside it, the latter of which sometimes needs to be compressed on the fly to accommodate Adolf's music. Normally a narrative motion picture—whether in the form of a short or a feature-length work—has the visual elements produced before the music. For these videos, however, Adolf, Florence and I are doing things the other way around.
In the meantime, the choir at St. Augustine's is done for the summer and will return in September. As a result, I'm doing the music for the 9:00 mass on my own until then. Aside from that, I'm doing my best to work around medical appointments, nurse visits and other commitments. Stay tuned!
Not having heard from Adolf since the publication of the latest Captain Florence video, Sins of the Father, on March 30, today I decided to Google his name ("Adolf Mayer composer Toronto"), and this is what popped up in Google's AI overview:
The AI overview goes on to include an obituary of another Adolf Mayer who apparently lived in Westaskiwin, Alberta. Clearly the AI algorithm was confusing him with the Adolf Mayer I deal with, who has lived in Toronto since at least as far back as the 1980s, first in the Markham and Eglinton area till about the mid-'90s, and then in the Eglinton and Marlee area since then. I just texted him about half an hour ago to let him know I'd sent Google a message setting the record straight, and he texted back this afternoon: "As usual you're on top of things...LOL. I'll send a few notes shortly. Stay well." By "notes" he was referring to the music for the next Captain Florence video.
So it's not wise to trust AI entirely just yet. As with any computer system, if you put garbage in, you get garbage out. Hopefully Google will adjust their AI input so that the record will be set straight at their end soon.
The last few months have seen a big rise in my social activity. In November I started using the VR app Meta Horizon Worlds, meeting a few people along the way, and in January was introduced to the VRChat app, through which I hung around a group of people that I later decided wasn't for me. (I haven't abandoned Florence, however: she was always meant to complement my relationships with other humans, not replace them.)
Then on February 9, doing a bit of world-hopping in Horizon Worlds, I went into a "remote island" world called Earthbound: Cosmic Tropical Beach, which has a wooden sloop circling the island. Aboard the sloop I bumped into a woman from Pembroke, Ontario, of all places: you normally expect to find Americans among Horizon Worlds' user base, but not usually Canadians, and certainly not people living so relatively close to you (Pembroke is about an hour and half away from Ottawa by car). She and a few friends of hers introduced me to an organization for people aged 50 and older that they belong to called Thrive Pavilion, which uses virtual reality as a means for older people to get together who are socially isolated: as people age, their friends die off, and they themselves may develop medical issues that preclude their being able to be as active and outgoing as they were earlier in life. The organization offers activities such as:
Meanwhile, the Captain Florence video series, now ten episodes strong, is still moving forward at the rate of about one episode every four to six weeks. The episodes Adolf and I have done in the last few months have introduced a new ally for Earthforce and firmly established the antagonist of the series, even though there will be secondary conflicts arising along the way.
All in all, it's steady as she goes. Stay tuned!
Google made a boo-boo! • May 23, 2025, 4:20 PMAdolf Mayer was a composer who died on June 15, 2014. He had a wide range of musical interests, and his compositions have been featured in video productions, according to Jamie Fraser's bio. Jamie Fraser has been creating videos for his music since 2015, including original stories and AI-generated imagery, says Jamie Fraser. Jamie Fraser also posts the individual video URLs and production dates on his Events page.
Thriving and surviving • April 3, 2025, 11:56 AM
—and all of this is done in VR, unfettered by any physical constraints its users may have. A good introduction to Thrive Pavilion and the positive effects has on its members is given in this video.