This is the second week of making videos. And I'm still getting familiar with this industry. I have learned to implement even more effects and experienced some problems as well. While my editing skills are getting better, I had to go through software crashes, computer crashes, high memory consumption, computer overheating, very high rendering times, etc. I’m truly starting to miss my powerful desktop computer back in Peru. Doing this work on a laptop is not the best move out there, but it works for now. I do think most of these problems are caused by Kdenlive. So I’m really wondering if going back to Windows and using a more popular software is the solution I’m looking for. I will know the answer by the end of the week.
Either way, I realize now, that any modifications required for a video, like cuts, changing the background multiple times, embed another video, etc. drastically affect the edit time.

One of my new roommates is a Washington boy called Simon. He is a networks - IT tech and he’s very quiet. My other new roommate is a Chinese teacher stuck in the United States due to the lack of flights and heavy restrictions between China and USA. He likes to cook Chinese food, and he’s very good at it. He cooked for us a couple of times already and now I feel the need to cook some Peruvian food as reciprocity. I’m not a good cook at all, but I guess I’ll try... any of these coming days. Anyway, I think we’ll all get along just fine. The downside? The internet may get slower, especially at the weekends.

It sucks that T-mobile is surprisingly slower here, compared to New York.
​
I’ve been reading a book from a Peruvian author that Michael lent me. It’s a compilation of somewhat entertaining tales, let’s see how better or worse it turns at the end.

​Fabio

Michael shared a link to the article to identify the characteristics of the viewers watching the video. We first set a goal to find the character of the company and add it to the video production by referring to related keywords and contents. We compared the total of 9 keywords by selecting 3 keywords each of us thought. Fortunately, we combined keywords that are not much different and finally compressed them into three. Lastly, we coordinated the video schedule and reviewed all the scripts and PowerPoint presentations that Michael would use to shoot.

There was a formal Monday this Monday. It was the first time Fabio gave a presentation since he joined the company, and this was my fourth presentation. I reported to Michael and Fabio the progress of the database. I prepared for PowerPoint slides about the video shooting based on the checklist I made last week. Slides included that the equipment I installed for the video and took the first simulation video. The theme of the video was to show which video we upload on the LiftPort YouTube channel.

We ran the program to edit the video and there were many problems. First of all, the angle of light created shadows, which interfered with editing. The color of Michael's tie is also green, so it overlaps with the color of the screen. Finally, the wrinkled screen interfered with editing. I made a list of problems that occurred so that we can solve them as soon as possible. The video editing program that I used was a free version. This version was not able to do many functions and the watermark was included in our video so it could not be uploaded.
​
Fabio and I removed the wrinkles on the green screen with the steam iron that Michael brought. After that, I made a short introductory video for the beginning and end of the video. Fortunately, Michael liked the phrase graphics that I made, so I decided to use them, and I wrote down the needs and additions. I went into YouTube Creator's page and chose and applied music for the video.

Byungik Jung

Contrary to the feeling of a good mood last Friday, Michael's expression looked mad after a phone call with investor Jack. It was because of investors who did not want to build elevators, which was the core of the presentation made through Pitch Deck. The most absurd thing I've heard is that one of the investors has a deep connection to the Chinese capital.

It means that we cannot work with the U.S. government and military aerospace agencies. If any money needed for our business is related to China, we cannot make Luna elevators.

Michael has been explaining and rechecking all this, but today's call made him very upset and seemed to have lost some trust in investors.

Michael finished his call with Jack and had an urgent meeting with Fabio and me. He said we have to build a media company to earn money, assuming that we would not receive investment by investors.

Michael's emphasis at the meeting was to raise funds to run the company so as not to give up building elevators. Without the investment, Michael may have to behind the wheel again despite the Coronavirus infection. No one will want this result, but the remaining time is about three to six months. Although the investment has not yet been completely fall through, we felt the need to create Plan B through the currency today, and then we have finished a very earnest meeting.

Michael talked on the phone all day long to find another investor. Fortunately, Michael told me that It was very useful with the call with an acquaintance who would connect other investors. After talking on the phone with the participant he met at Summit last month, he learned how to get the funds.

After Michael's call, we had time to review Pros and Cons, which we first made after joining the company. We discussed some things, including my goals, possible difficulties in working. I was so grateful to Michael for trying to apply the work environment I wanted as much as possible.
​
The confirmed cases of coronavirus patients in the U.S. have exceeded 2 million. We talked about the recent protests and the increased number of people infected with the virus as social distancing released. We decided to wear masks more thoroughly and manage personal health more. I added all the books on the bookshelf to the database, and I also moved all the people's information on Contact Plus to Notions. Migration work will end until next week and The day to use Database to find a partner to join our business is just around the corner.

​Byungik Jung

Almost half a year has passed since I came to the United States. I feel like time is passing super fast and I haven't done anything valuable yet. Perhaps I’m too hard on myself since some of the skills I’m learning can be useful in the future, but that motivates me to work a little harder in the objectives I have.

We started filming videos! This sometimes gets a little frustrating. Like when one of your mics doesn’t work and you don’t realize about it until you watch the video. Or when you realize your 30 min rendering video doesn't even open for the 2nd second time. I guess this will get easier once we figure everything out. So far, I have made some progress in learning how to edit videos. For that, I’m using a free source software designed for Linux, called Kdenlive. Overall I would say it’s intuitive enough for me, but the effects are a totally different story. Figuring out what exactly they do, is really challenging. So I'm still learning and trying to produce the best videos for the media company project.

Things in Tacoma are still good, COVID-19 cases are going up but I don't think it will get worse. At least not for us. And the weather is still warm and nice.

I have a new roommate and I may get another roommate later in the week. Hopefully, they are as clean as my other roommate.
​
There’s definitely a lot to learn and work on in the following weeks, I will remain optimistic in order to reach our objective. I also need to organize better my time, to keep working on my programming course.

​Fabio

The past week was supposed to be normal but Michael got sick and we had to stop operations for a few days, just in case. He did get tested for COVID-19 and the result was negative as we were already expecting. At this point, I don’t feel any fear of contagion. I’m not sure if that is good since that reaction actually makes us be more careful. But we can not live our whole life with fear. So personally, I’ll try to be as careful as I can, and hope for the best.

Tacoma weather is actually pretty nice. Not too warm or too cold. Not too dry or too humid. By now, I consider the west coast of the United States, to have my most ideal weather to live in.

Michael talked to Jack, and it seems the investment may not be as close as we initially thought, but at least it looks like he is willing to commit to our cause a little later.

I still continue taking my online course. So far I like that we can implement many functionalities using very few lines of code. I really want to see if there’s an easier way to implement the front end styles.

Today we brought a bunch of filming equipment and shot a small video as a test. Good enough for playing around and getting familiar with my new video-editing software. We will see if the “open source” can deliver a product as good as the proprietary software.

In the afternoon, we got visited by the building owner. He was very serious and he probably wants to get the money we owe him from late rent. That’s a little scary to me, but Michael says it’s fine, nothing to worry about. It makes sense because right now none wants this office, or any office actually.
​
By the end of this week, we had already planned out a lot of details of the new media company. Our goal right now is making 110 videos until October. While it may seem way too optimistic, and the little reasonable voice in my head would tell me we should probably focus on delivering a super high-quality content instead, why not both? I’ve always been told to aim very high in order to achieve high. I guess it’s time to prove it.

​Fabio

Contrary to the feeling of a good mood last Friday, Michael's expression looked mad after a phone call with investor Jack. It was because of investors who did not want to build elevators, which was the core of the presentation made through Pitch Deck. The most absurd thing I've heard is that one of the investors has a deep connection to the Chinese capital.

It means that we cannot work with the U.S. government and military aerospace agencies. If any money needed for our business is related to China, we cannot make Luna elevators.

Michael has been explaining and rechecking all this, but today's call made him very upset and seemed to have lost some trust in investors.

Michael finished his call with Jack and had an urgent meeting with Fabio and me. He said we have to build a media company to earn money, assuming that we would not receive investment by investors.
Michael's emphasis at the meeting was to raise funds to run the company so as not to give up building elevators. Without the investment, Michael may have to behind the wheel again despite the Coronavirus infection. No one will want this result, but the remaining time is about three to six months. Although the investment has not yet been completely fall through, we felt the need to create Plan B through the currency today, and then we have finished a very earnest meeting.

Michael talked on the phone all day long to find another investor. Fortunately, Michael told me that It was very useful with the call with an acquaintance who would connect other investors. After talking on the phone with the participant he met at Summit last month, he learned how to get the funds.
After Michael's call, we had time to review Pros and Cons, which we first made after joining the company. We discussed some things, including my goals, possible difficulties in working. I was so grateful to Michael for trying to apply the work environment I wanted as much as possible.
​
The confirmed cases of coronavirus patients in the U.S. have exceeded 2 million. We talked about the recent protests and the increased number of people infected with the virus as social distancing released. We decided to wear masks more thoroughly and manage personal health more. I added all the books on the bookshelf to the database, and I also moved all the people's information on Contact Plus to Notions. Migration work will end until next week and The day to use Database to find a partner to join our business is just around the corner.

​Byungik Jung

We’ve seen Michael turn from a normal state to very excited, to very upset and then normal again, in a matter of few days. But even then I think he somehow kept his professionalism and dealt with his emotions very well. I would have probably done something stupid if I was in his shoes, I’m actually impressed on how he handled all that situation. I’m taking notes on how not to be over-reactive and evaluate well the situation in order to take a good decision.

Even after some slip-ups, I think we did pretty well this week. We will start working on a new media company and try to make some revenue out of it in the short-term. That means, new projects, creative initiatives and lots of entrepreneurship. This weirdly seems aligning with my initial interests, and I love that! At the same time, Michael will continue looking for others sources of financing. I believe we are getting a little closer to our goals, and that’s good enough for this week.

I still have to continue following my online course and try to get a good product for Liftport. The course is actually quite long and instructor is very responsive in case I run on problems. The skill that I’m developing will definitely be useful on the future, those 12 dollars are truly worth it!

We also had a nice small trip to places I didn’t know, all surrounded by nature. And I even heard a new hypothesis on why I get carsick, which is probably the closest to science and therefore closer to the real reason.
​
Overall, the word “progress” resumes this week just well.

​Fabio

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd died after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, pressed his knee to Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes.

After Floyd's death, demonstrations and protests against the use of excessive force by police officers and lack of police accountability were held globally. Additional protests developed in over 400 cities throughout all 50 American states and internationally. I support the purpose of the protests and the spread of them throughout the country. But, I hope that many people will not be easily exposed to the virus infection due to the protest.

Protests denouncing police violence have gradually led to riots and violence accompanied by looting and arson, leading to serious deaths. In response, some U.S. cities issued curfews at night, while 12 states, including Washington, D.C., and California, called in defense forces.

Takoma had a very peaceful demonstration this week compared to Seattle, and I was very proud of it. But on Tuesday, the Tacoma City Council ordered a curfew across the city. Shops in the city have been damaged, and more and more are setting up plywood to prevent looting and arson. I hope to return to protests without looting or violence.

I put down a lot of dusty books on the office bookshelf for a moment to make a list of writers belonging to Outreach, one of the Noumenia processes. About 70 scientific and non-fiction books have appeared. The main purpose of creating a database is to record the number of contacts of writers and followers of social network accounts. This database will be the data needed to record and publicize LiftPort's projects. The biggest difference from the business card database is to find the authors' social network accounts and see how much we can publicize our project externally. We need famous writers who have many followers on social.
​
He gave a Pitch Deck presentation to Jack and Peter about LiftPort's originality. I and Fabio greeted them and listened to Michael's presentation behind them. Michael delivered many brief and clear messages in a limited time. I took a video with my cell phone to record the presentation. He started his presentation at 1:00 and spent about two hours answering and explaining the participants' questions. He also briefly introduced books and equipment in our office and continued to talk to participants with physics-proven theories. Fortunately, the meeting ended well, so all of the LiftPort employees had dinner together after work. Michael shared the meeting and we could enjoy our dinner and listen to it.

​Byungik Jung