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Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 7:13 pm
There was a chill to the autumn air, once that encouraged Alexander to thrust his hands deeper into his pockets and pick up his pace. He was on a mission today, a mission that began with a quick dash and elbow combo to be first out of the classroom door (he didn't succeed – he felt a bruise growing on his right arm from when someone literally beat him to the punch with a swift jab, forcing him to be sixth out the door) and to his dorm. Shed the Hillworth uniform and pull on some civvie clothes, grab the video camera and bam! Time to hit the streets.
He hoped he wasn't too late. Google maps and MapQuest had agreed on a route to Meadowview for once (except for a couple intersections where the two engines disagreed on how he could cross the street. Alex fixed that by jay-walking.), and by following that... well.
Alex couldn't help but to stare at the school as he leaned against its gate. Part of him was jealous – c'mon, a school that allowed boys AND girls to mix? That in itself was a higher step up from Hillworth! But there was something else that made this school special, that brought him here today: someone had recorded the local fru-fru terrorits.
He had sent them a PM on YouTube asking to meet here at the gate today. Was he too late? He hoped he didn't miss the mysterious uploader. Finding that clip was hard enough!
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Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 7:20 pm
She'd uploaded the clips to Youtube, both the Fight At Meadowview and the Would A Terrorist Rescue Kittens ones, but was such a newbie at it that she hadn't done a very good job of drawing attention to herself. It wasn't like she had a reputation on the web or anything - who would go out of their way to watch a couple of shaky clips by an unknown user, anyway?
Well, apparently someone had. A kid named Alex from Hillworth, and he'd agreed to meet her after school. When the last bell rang, Tallulah threw on her Meadowview Swim & Dive jacket and a thick plaid scarf and headed for the gate.
Through the swiftly thinning throng of Meadowview students, she looked for someone who looked out of place, and spotted a boy leaning against the wall. Cautiously, Tallulah approached him.
"Hi," she said. "Are you... Alex?"
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Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 8:23 pm
Schoolgirl, schoolgirl, schoolgi- WAIT! Alex did a double-take at a passing student. No, no, that was a school boy. Man! Talk about a serious trap! He made a note to come back here sometime later, just to check things out again. The uniforms were awfully similar... How many awkward 'Oops sorry thought you were someone else' conversations took place here?
He snapped out of his thoughts when he heard his name, grinning and nodding before taking her hand and shaking it. "Alex also known as power up X on the YouTube! Granted some nub took my name but the spelling's the same, just with a three instead of an e," he replied cheerfully. "You're the one with the lucky footage, right? Not bad! I had to dig through several pages worth of faux clips to find your's, though. It's a shame, really -- such stuff could make it big on the news which could lead to more hits, y'know?"
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Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 8:33 pm
He was talking pretty fast, which made it tricky for Tallulah to keep up with him. She didn't speak Youtube lingo, but she thought she got the gist of what he was saying. "Well," she said, "I'm pretty new to the whole Youtube thing. I've never used it before, so I don't really know how to promote my stuff."
It was difficult for Tallulah Cowden to swallow her pride and admit she was not naturally talented at something, but asking for help was the first step towards being successful if you didn't understand.
"I was hoping you could help me get noticed," she said after a moment. "The computer lab stays open after school."
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Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 8:53 pm
A newbie? That'd explain it. "Hey, ya gotta start somewhere right?" Alex replied, taking a step away from the gate and gesturing to the school. "With stuff like that, sure! Does the lab also have video editing software? Could get rid of some of the shaking with that, maybe up the colors a bit..." He rambled, beginning to walk towards the school.
"What did you use to capture it? Camera? Cell phone? DSi?"
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Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 8:58 pm
"Cell phone," said Tallulah, "and I think it does." She'd never had much reason to investigate the video editing capabilities of the school computers before. She motioned for him to follow her onto the grounds. "Just don't look suspicious and we should be okay. As long as you're with me I can say we're doing club stuff."
Among the Stupid Things To Do At Meadowview, bringing a strange Hillworth boy onto campus was one of the top ones.
"Try not to break anything," she winced as she lead him into the building. "I don't want to get in trouble."
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Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 9:59 pm
"Suspicious? Psh! I graduated from Solid Snake's own lessons on how to be sneaky!" Okay, so it was a poorly written fanboy's guide, but it had Solid Snake's picture on it. It had to count, right!?
"Aww, you're ruining my fun already," Alex replied with a grin, following her to the computer lab. He couldn't help but to gawk at the sights: Meadowview was so different! For starters it was pretty... well, clean, obviously. It also was quiet -- a drastic change from the shouts and cries of boys getting into scuffles along with the piercing whistles and commands of hall moniters trying to keep the peace.
In the lab, Alex waited for Tallulah to log in before taking command of the keyboard, bringing up the movie editing software first. "H'okay, first... Is this clip it? Yeeeow, high quality's really not it! Here, let's first save a copy so we don't accidentally screw up the master. Now y'see this option here under effects? It'll sample the movie and cut out frames here and there to stabilize it in order to get of most of the shakes. Or try to, anyway -- sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't."
"So how'd you score your footage? Got lucky one night and ran into them here and at the 'Shelter or...?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 5:57 pm
"A friend and I were sneaking around after hours," said Tallulah, purposely omitting Jaimie's name from the story. "We ran into..." she pointed to the screen, singling out the blue-haired girl in the gray uniform. "Her. She was sort of threatening. I didn't get that part on film. The girl in white interrupted," she continued, pointing to Sailor Pegasus. "My friend and I ran and got separated. I couldn't find him when I went back to see what was happening, but I saw them fighting and got the video. By the time I got back the other senshi was there. Him, see?"
She pointed to the second figure in white. "Senshi's what the girl in gray calls them in the video. At about 2:22. I found my friend again later, after they left."
She shrugged. "The animal shelter was just kinda dumb luck," she said.
The computer finished applying the effect. "Oh, that looks a lot better already," she said with a nod.
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 6:31 pm
Alex let out a low whistle after Tallulah explained what happened, shaking his head slowly. "Man! You've got yourself a lucky break, even if your friend did happen to get separated. His loss, 'cause look at this! It's as if there's not one form of terrorist, but two -- and once of them called the other a 'senshi' right?"
He leaned back and began to drum his fingers on the desk, thinking. "Hmm.. Before we get into the next step, lemme show you something. See this menu option called "effects?" You can use this to lighten or darken a scene, turn it black and white, and all sorts of fun stuff. I think the scene's lighting is pretty good, so let's get this converted... Here, could you log into your YouTube account? While we're waiting for the file, we can get started on tagging.
"You know what tagging is, right?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 7:25 pm
"You type in related phrases, yeah?" asked Tallulah as she pulled up Youtube and logged in.
"And yeah," she nodded. "The one in gray called the ones in white Senshi. She seemed kind of surprised that the second one was a guy, too. I don't know what senshi means, though. I tried looking it up but it didn't bring anything back."
She clicked through to the video and its measly 200 hits. "I tagged it with Senshi, Meadowview, and fight. I'm guessing that wasn't a good idea?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 8:51 pm
"Pretty much! A tag is what the search engine uses to find what you're looking for. Liiike say you're looking for a new computer. You could type in computer, but you'll probably get an article on what a computer is, some companies that make computers, and maybe some side-ads saying where you can buy computers. But if you, say, wanted a laptop computer, you'd type in 'light laptop cheap' for good deals on a light laptop, right?"
He clicked the links to the upload area, and pointed, "When it comes to YouTube, you need to really take into consideration what people want and what they know. If you tagged it with 'senshi,' only those... people for lack of a better word, would know what they're called and look it up. The rest of us..." He shrugged.
"So pretend for a moment you want to see clips of these people in action. What would you type into the search bar?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 8:59 pm
Tallulah thought for a second and then said, "Destiny City, Meadowview, Terrorists, Fight?" It seemed like a good bet. Better than how she'd tagged it before - terribly specific, right?
"And the other one... Destiny City, terrorists, fire, kittens?"
Though really, she had all but abandoned the idea that the Senshi were terrorists. After all, Sailor Atlas had rescued kittens! "What kind of terrorist rescues kittens?" she asked. It had been bugging her ever since that day, and she was eager to hear someone else's thoughts on the subject.
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 9:17 pm
Alexander clapped. "There you go! That's the sort of tags you'll be using! But don't forget you have a description and title, too -- hey!" He sat up, snapping his fingers. "That's a good idea for a title for your second clip: What kind of terrorists rescues kittens? I don't know the answer myself, but if you can get a lot of people asking that..." He trailed off, grinning.
"I think you'll start getting hit after hit on YouTube after putting up something like that. Series, yet thought-provoking title -- I wouldn't be surprised if some news media stole that title too for an article or news story, to be honest. Ah! The video's done."
Alexander alt-tabbed back to the movie editor and saved the video, then went back to YouTube and started uploading. "Here -- why don't you fix the shakiness and mess with the brightness of the other clip while the other clip's uploading to give you practice? Speaking of the clip... Did one of those terr- er, senshi really rescue kittens?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 9:29 pm
"Do you read the paper?" she asked. "There was a big fire at the animal shelter over the weekend, they think it was arson. But that's not the point." She took the mouse from him and started going through the process he had just showed her.
"So the place is burning, and there are still cats in there," she said as she clicked the option to steady the video. "And all of a sudden Sailor Atlas - that's the one in the second video's name. there's a little interview at the end - he shows up and rescues the cats and he gets out right as the building collapses. It was like something out of a movie."
"The lighting on this one's okay, don't you think?" she asked. "So these will be more popular the second time around?"
This was important footage. The world deserved to know that senshi rescued kittens.
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 9:37 pm
Alex gave her a blank look. "Paper? Paper, paper... Oh! News paper! Nah, I don't considering the paper doesn't come by my area that much. I've been out of touch with the local happenings since most of my online time is spent either playing games or looking up things." He shrugged, "Limited computer time really bites, y'know? But man!"
He scooted forward to the edge of his chair and turned to look at her, ignoring the screen. "All the animals get out? The senshi managed to get them all? And... wait, Sailor Atlas? Isn't an atlas like a roadmap or something...?" So they had names? Huh! That was something new.
"Hmm? Yeah, you might want to check out the fire shots again to make sure the lighting's not too bright. You want to be able to see things, and also make sure people don't get blind while doing so. White and in-video lights are things to watch out for, 'cause if it hurts to look at it then it's too bright."
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