Friday, November 27, 2015

Editing Tricks for Amateur Vacation Video #165 - Scandinavia Cruise (#10 of 10)

Scandinavia Cruise 2005:  Return to London, England (#10 of 10)

It's time to celebrate or be saddened ... this is the last chapter of our Baltic Cruise movie!

Just 49-seconds.  The ship on our title map does an about face ad races back to London.  Then still photos show all seven travelers.  The narrator [in my most-serious voice] proudly tells us that we've watched "everything there is to see on a Baltic cruise!"  
Suddenly, he's gotta run -- to put out a fire.  It's those darn Vikings again!

Comments:  
  • Personally, I like the ending.  If you watch all ten chapters, the ship-on-fire pulls the whole thirty minutes together.  If this is the only segment you watch ... oh well.  It's only 49 seconds!
  • One version of this chapter included the return of waving Queen Elizabeth II who welcomes us back to England.  preferred this version with a burning Viking ship.
  • I am not presenting the closing credits here to protect friends' privacy.

Lessons Learned:
  • Be sure that your vacation video includes one last image of everyone who traveled with you.
  • Roll credits at the end.  Thank everyone who traveled with you and who helped you with the edit.  That includes thanking artists who created copyrighted work you "borrowed", and also the sources of royalty-free music/images.

Suggestion:
  • When the final cut meets your approval, the editing is over.  Publish it to DVD and/or the Internet and move on to your next project.
  • Today I see all sorts of glitches and bad editing decisions in the 2002 production.   But ... it's good enough.  In fact it's better than that; it was the best I could do at the time I did it!  So be proud of your work, and use past mistakes as learning experiences for your next edit.  

FYI:
All of the Scandinavia trip chapters have already been loaded onto YouTube.  Individual chapters may be viewed on one of my YouTube channels: HENBCtravel
The combined 30-minute video is also available here.

Copyright Considerations:
This original audience for this video was friends and family who would view the DVD in my living room.  It contains identifiable music and commercial video that is regrettably used without permission.  
Today, with digital distribution, artists' rights deserve more attention.  Since this video is intended for non-profit illustration and educational purposes only, I believe that valid arguments can be made for its "Fair Use" in this situation.  Please understand that I do not encourage improper use of copyrighted material.

Friday, November 20, 2015

Remember the OWC Video Contest?

You probably remember the fun and goofy video "commercial" I created last summer for the OWC Video Contest.  Others with bigger social networks got the most votes, and won the two major prizes of video editing system upgrades.  
Today the contest sponsor www.macsales.com delighted me with a beautifully wrapped & personalized thank-you gift:
 
Envoy Pro Mini (external SSD drive)
It's an engraved external SSD drive.  I'll put this 120GB of fast storage to immediate use in video production.  Special thanks to Larry O'Conner, OWC's owner, for remembering the runners up!

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Editing Tricks for Amateur Vacation Video #164 - Scandinavia Cruise (#9 of 10)

Scandinavia Cruise 2005:  Oslo, Norway (#9 of 10)

What do you think of when someone mentions "Vikings"?  ... Norway?  ... A football team from Minnesota?  ... Or Richard Fleischer's 1958 spectacle that starred Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, and Janet Leigh?
Based upon my past history, you've gotta' know that I will borrow liberally from the the video and soundtrack of The Vikings!

Orson Welles' narration is well used to accompany us as we sail in a fjörd, visit the Viking Museum, and explore the Vigeland Sculpture Park.  But why are those Norsemen shooting flaming arrows?  (It's a flashback ... we also saw that in Chapter 1.)  We're also hearing one of the best movie theme songs in history.


Comments:  
  • It's easy to make a vacation video when you borrow half of it from Hollywood!  (See copyright comments below)
  • Actually, the scenes are nicely intercut, and you get a fair picture of how we spent our day in Oslo.
  • Not too many jokes in this chapter.  That's not a bad thing; it really feels like the vacation is winding down!
  • Take a moment to enjoy the photos of Vigeland's distinctive sculptures that depict all sorts of human emotion.
Lessons Learned:
  • It's easy to make a vacation video when you borrow half of it from Hollywood!
    (See copyright comments below)

Suggestion:
  • If you want to see beautiful scenes of pristine Norwegian waterways, as well as authentic Viking vessels under sail, The Vikings is well worth the time.  One of my favorite highlights is the celebratory "oar walking".  Larger-than-life actor Kirk Douglas performs his own stunt; he accidentally fell into the icy water while the cameras were rolling, and that footage became part of the theatrical release. 

FYI:
All of the Scandinavia trip chapters have already been loaded onto YouTube.  Individual chapters may be viewed on one of my YouTube channels: HENBCtravel
The combined 30-minute video is also available here.

Copyright Considerations:
This original audience for this video was friends and family who would view the DVD in my living room.  It contains identifiable music and commercial video that is regrettably used without permission.  
Today, with digital distribution, artists' rights deserve more attention.  Since this video is intended for non-profit illustration and educational purposes only, I believe that valid arguments can be made for its "Fair Use" in this situation.  Please understand that I do not encourage improper use of copyrighted material.

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Editing Tricks for Amateur Vacation Video #163 - Scandinavia Cruise (#8 of 10)

Scandinavia Cruise 2005:  Copenhagen, Denmark (#8 of 10)


Copenhagen's Erotica Museum has closed, but it's immortalized in this video.  And I guess the "Erotica" theme put us in the mood for some lewd humor when we visited Tivoli Gardens.  Closing with a clip from immortal Danish comedian/pianist Victor Borge this Chapter is a quick and enjoyable three minutes.

Comments:  
  • One "fancy" editing trick, reversing and changing the speed of the roller coaster.  This was supposed to enhance the punchline of an off-color joke ... I wonder if it worked?
  • Most of the music was captured in-camera from street performers and during a dance performance at Tivolii.
  • Victor Borge's famous "Phonetic Punctuation" monologue was captured from YouTube.

Lessons Learned:
  • if our audience is watching the entire "Baltic Cruise" experience, then they have been sitting in front of the screen for about twenty-five minutes.  I'm very conscious that they may be getting restless.  This is the home stretch ... it's time to close this out and keep them happy! 

Suggestion:
  • Three of us had camcorders on this trip; unexpectedly this resulted in quite a bit of reasonably well-shot raw footage from Copenhagen.  However, to maintain pacing I included very little of the available video in this final cut.  That's great for most viewers, but our seven travelers might enjoy a longer version.  Next time I'll consider editing two versions: an "Internet" cut and a "Travelers' cut.


FYI:
All of the Scandinavia trip chapters have already been loaded onto YouTube.  Individual chapters may be viewed on one of my YouTube channels: HENBCtravel
The combined 30-minute video is also available here.



Copyright Considerations:
This original audience for this video was friends and family who would view the DVD in my living room.  It contains identifiable commercial video that is regrettably used without permission.  
Today, with digital distribution, artists' rights deserve more attention.  Since this video is intended for non-profit illustration and educational purposes only, I believe that valid arguments can be made for its "Fair Use" in this situation.  Please understand that I do not encourage improper use of copyrighted material.