update--some success

My "Paleojournalist" project is in somewhat better shape. The thumbnails in the timeline are still screwed up, and the video and audio were still scrambled in that one spot, but by restoring the project to a 5PM version from yesterday I was able to quickly make all the edits I wanted without having video spontaneously migrate from different parts of the movie, like some kind of A/V schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder.

Once i had an acceptable edit, I exported it as a QuickTime movie. But now I can't reinstall iDVD, because the install DVD says I have one of the following applications running and to please quit it first. I had no applications running. I restarted the computer to make sure of that: same result. So I am not out of the woods, and I will wake up early in the morning to call Apple. I am getting my money's worth out of that Apple Care Protection Plan, and I am enjoying not one minute of it. The worst thing is that I remain, amid this iDVD thing and other possible anomalies, both afraid to open Apparition and even to back it up on my other external hard drive. The other drive already has a back-up of the movie and its clips, though it's badly outdated. What if I back up what's on the main external drive, but replace the older uncorrupted clips with newer, corrupted ones? Do I need to go out there and buy a third external hard drive to know that I'm not royally screwing myself by trying to be responsible?

"You need," my boyfriend announced last night, "a community of filmmakers." When I get back from this festival tour, I promise, i will find one, if only to spare him and you from all of the above.

Art is difficult. Technology is lethal.