When dealing with literally hundreds of videotapes, it’s a serious challenge to organize all the various elements. It’s all too easy to overwhelmed by all the different pieces. With my LOUIE LOUIE documentary, it’s been a massive undertaking.
On Wednesday night, I attended a users group meeting for SF Cutters, a collective of folks that use Final Cut Pro, my favorite video editing software. The topic was media asset management, and different methods of integrating database information within the Final Cut Pro interface.
For many years, Filemaker Pro has been my top choice for database software. I’ve used it before it was sold to Apple Computer, packaged under the Claris banner, and eventually established as the flagship product of a company with the same name. I’ve used it to keep track of my business contacts, to organize my videotape collection, my music archives, and even print specialized labels for certain photographic collections. It’s a program that had a lot of tools that I never fully utilized, but plenty of nice options available if and when I chose to expand my needs.
At this SF Cutters meeting, there were some interesting demonstrations of the latest version of Filemaker by representatives of the Filemaker Pro company, and eMotion Studios, a local film studio that developed some innovative templates using Filemaker software. At the end of the session, the organizers of SF Cutters raffled off a copy of the latest Filemaker Pro software, and I turned out to be one of the lucky winners.
This is a program I’m definitely looking forward to exploring. It’s been a few years since I’ve purchased my last upgrade of Filemaker Pro, and there’s been quite a few things added in the time between. Not only will it be handy for actual video editing and media management, but it will also help in the massive music cataloging project connected to the song itself. One of the newer features of this software is the ability to share an online version of a database without the need for special client software. This is something I’ll definitely take advantage of for the LouieLouie.net website.
One of the things I’ll be making more noise about in the near future is my belief that LOUIE LOUIE is the most recorded rock and roll song of all time. I’ve had some interesting online discussions with some rather confused individuals that could not comprehend the idea that this simple little song could inspire so many recordings from so many different musicians. They figured that such a distinction would be with either “St. Louis Blues” or “Star Dust” but NOT this seemingly primitive rock and roll song?? In the Guiness Book of World Records, it mentions that Paul McCartney’s “Yesterday” was the most recorded song, but I believe I’ll soon be able to provide definitive data that will contradict this information.
Right now, I’ve got an international team that is dissecting the assets of the legendary KFJC LOUIE LOUIE marathon that featured over 800 unique versions of the song, making sure that every version is properly cataloged. Since this particular event, with the explosion of the internet and this vast international global village, this team has documented a least another thousand versions of the song, taking the grand total beyond the 1,500 mark established by the Guiness Book for “Yesterday.” All it takes is time for this all-volunter team to process all of this data into the proper formatting, but everything is on track for a definitive number of versions in the near future.
In a few months, I hope to share a better version of the LOUIE LOUIE database, which can be instantly updated by responsible contributors. With a new version of Filemaker Pro, it will make my job much easier.
I’ve recently decided to use Filemaker to also organize my various eBay auctions. Most of what I’m selling these days on eBay are old rock and roll magazines, most of which I’ve inherited from my pal Myke Destiny of Cracked Piston Recordings, who donated an incredible collection for my research and fundraising purposes. Filemaker makes it easier for me to organize all my eBay descriptions. I haven’t memorized all the various HTML commands yet, and with the template I’ve created, I’ve created buttons for simple commands that make it easy for me to drop in text formatting, links, and photographs. As I wind up selling similar items, it’s easy to duplicate similar descriptions, saving quite a bit of time.
My big thanks go out to the fine folks at SF Cutters and Filemaker Pro for providing me with this excellent contribution of this fine software!
And again, my thanks to Myke Destiny for the amazing collection of magazines! If you ever need to obtain some recordings by Legendary Stardust Cowboy, Cadillac Angels, Hellvis, or even CD/DVD dupes, Myke is the guy you need to contact! Highly recommended!