Friday, August 31, 2012

Editing Tricks for Amateur Vacation Video #8

Greece 1992:  Crete

It apears that after two weeks in Greece, my camera work had improved a little.  This clip was taken at King Minos' bronze-age palace at Knossos on the island of Crete.  

Sound is natural, no music added in the edit.  Video picture from a guide book confirms the location.  Clip highlight might be the tour guide's narration, although it is probably too long for an entertaining edit. 

Deep Thoughts About Editing Vacation Video: Comic Voice-over

I found this video on YouTube.  Scott Markowitz [formerly the creative force behind  CreativeHomeMovie[dot]com***] created an example of how to use comic voice-over to breathe some life into an otherwise boring movie.

***UPDATE 9/26/2015 ***
"creativehomemovie[dot]com" appears to have been abandoned by Scott.  When I clicked it presented some sort of click & redirect mess -- fortunately no porn, but definitely an unsafe website!  So don't go there.
For some reason, his voice-over home movie still works.  Watch it below:


Thursday, August 30, 2012

Editing Tricks for Amateur Vacation Video #7


Greece 1992: On The Road, Athens to Larissa


If the video fails to appear on your mobile device, 
please play it on your desktop computer.

I have six hours of source footage from our tri
p to Greece in 1992.  This sample clip is mercifully only 2-1/2 minutes long.  
It's point-of-view, taken from the front passenger seat of a moving car.  There are glimpses of a map and a guidebook, plus appropriate Sirtaki mandolin music.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Editing tricks for Amateur Vacation Video - #6


Mexico Cruise 1991 - Cabo San Lucas

If the video fails to appear on your mobile device, 
please play it on your desktop computer.

I've rediscovered a couple of older edited tapes.  The Mexico Cruise had four hours of source footage, final version was 91 minutes.
This sample clip is point-of-view, bobbing and panning from a glass-bottomed-boat.  Copyrighted music was borrowed from Herb Alpert, and is perhaps its best part.  Once again the camera points to a travel brochure which provides titles.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Vacation Video Equipment: 27-LED "Worklight"

I bought one of these from Harbor Freight a few days ago.  It was $2.99 with a coupon, $3.49 on their website.  Here's a link.

3 front-facing LED's for a flashlight, and a 24 LED array for a floodlight.
Magnetic base and hanging hook on the back.  Comes with 3 AAA batteries which are supposedly good for up to 48 hours.
It's very bright, but color temperature seems a bit blue.  Certainly good enough to light a pathway, or maybe light a scene in an emergency.  It's earned a spot in my camera bag.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Editing Tricks for Amateur Vacation Video #5


Alaskan Cruise 1989 - Inside Passage

[This is the third of three clips that I have posted from the Alaskan vacation.]

This short example clip illustrates how a good choice of background music can set the mood, making your video memorable. 

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Editing Tricks for Amateur Vacation Video #4

Alaskan Cruise 1989: Skagway




[This is the second of three clips that I'll be posting from the Alaskan vacation.]
Editing technique consisted of playing parts of the original 12-hour video from my 8mm analog camcorder into a consumer VHS tape recorder.  Using the record/pause function on the VHS recorder I managed to create an edit that was just 1 hour 45 minutes.

This short example clip illustrates my earliest ideas for titles and background music.  
Titles were created by focusing the camcorder upon literature from the cruise line.  That simple addition tells the viewer that the ship was named MTS Daphne, it was Tuesday, and the port-of-call was Skagway Alaska.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Tripod Panning Technique - Editing Tricks for Amateur Vacation Video

I've been a member of The The American Motion Picture Society [AMPS] for several years.  This is a club for non-commercial movie-making enthusiasts.  They used to hold annual gatherings; those have now evolved into something that's more web-based.  I love the advice on their Film Talk page, and also found this great tripod technique on their Cinema page:

AMPS conducts two festivals for non-commercial productions.  Members who submit an entry into one festival gain automatic entry into the second.  I've just submitted two masterpieces:  "Mexico City 1995" and "Monsters of the Amazon".

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Editing Tricks for Amateur Vacation Video #3

Alaska Cruise 1989

We bought our first camcorder in 1989 in preparation for a family cruise to Alaska.   It was a Sony Handicam that used 120-minute 8mm analog videotapes.  I used six tapes during the trip; 75% is devoted to the shipboard entertainment and especially the showgirls.



HAH!!!  I'm glad I have nine hours of this stuff!

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Editing Tricks for Amateur Vacation Video #2

Home Movies on 8mm Film


Kodak introduced its Brownie 8mm Movie Camera in 1951.  These were priced affordably (about $30) ... the "real cost" was in the film's processing.  Many dads added the role of "cinematographer" to their job descriptions!

Serious hobbyists could splice their short 3-minute filmstrips into longer spools.  Some formed clubs and edited their home movies to create stories.  But in most cases the families watched their home movies in their original form.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Editing Tricks for Amateur Vacation Video #1

Kodak Carousel 35mm Slide Show



My earliest experience with an amateur vacation presentation must have been watching slideshows projected onto a screen from a Kodak Carousel Slide Projector.
These projectors had an automatic mode that changed slides every few seconds, or the presenter could narrate using a wired remote control to move forward or backward.  Entertainment value was directly proportional to the presenter's sense of humor. 

I hope you find this interesting!

I acquired my first camcorder in 1989.  Since then, my wife and I have dragged vacation gear around the world on our vacations.  That's hundreds of hours of video.  In its unedited form, most of it is unwatchable!

I'll be posting "Editing Tricks for Amateur Vacation Video", using my own work as examples.  The next post will talk about my earliest examples.  Then we'll step forward in time, as I attempt to edit with two VHS tape recorders then advance to the digital age.  

Perhaps, along the way, this writer and readers of heNBC.com will share some ideas that make sense!



Thanks for looking; I'll try to keep it interesting.





George


Editing Tricks for Amateur Vacation Video - Purpose of this blog.

A blog needs a unique reason to exist.
  • Maybe the owner is the world's greatest author.  
  • Maybe the owner is a celebrity.  
  • Maybe the owner is the village idiot!
Regardless, it's a place to share thoughts and images; more controllable than Facebook yet searchable on Google.


I have several reasons for creating heNBC:

Thursday, August 9, 2012