Oh, the things I could have done in my mis-spent youth if I had had access to the kind of software and tools I have at my fingertips today! This little comical endorsement from a favorite fictional friend took seconds to knock out, but it would have been impossible in the '80s before the advent of the home computer.
The same company that makes the software that allows me to create my tarot decks also creates audio and video editing software that brings professional=level tools into millions of households. And I used them recently to correct Peter Jackson's grievous exploding of J.R.R. Tolkien's THE HOBBIT.
Much as I loved Jackson's LORD OF THE RINGS films, I thought that what he did to THE HOBBIT was a crime. A simple 300-page novel does not need to be blown up into three gigantic movies! That was bad enough -- but then went and released EXTENDED versions! I thought, "Why don't they release a CONDENSED version for those of us who just want an adaptation of the book as Tolkien wrote it?"
With the help of some like-minded fans and Adobe Premiere, I ended up doing just that! I created a version of Jackson's HOBBIT that runs as a single 3-hour movie, that is not only dramatically sound -- it looks as good as the official version with no loss of video or audio quality.
Which only goes to prove what I've already said about the world we live in. Pop Culture is dead. The media which used to inform and connect us is dead as a uniting force. We live in a wholly polarized and polarizing world in which the culture is what we create for ourselves. As liberating at that is, it's also dangerous. Think about it. . .
--Thorn.
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