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.

The background music was chosen from my private collection.  The song seems appropriate, and it makes this portion of the video easier to enjoy

Lesson Learned:
Titles are often needed to convey information to the viewer.
Music seems to smooth-over any defects in the video.

Suggestion:
Titles don't have to be fancy digital graphics.  Just point the camera at a sign, newspaper, or guidebook. 

Music Copyright Considerations:
The original edit contains at least a dozen well known popular songs, recorded from vinyl LP's that we owned at that time.  At the time of production I was blissfully unaware of copyright considerations.  There was no Internet; the edited video was intended to be shown to audiences in my own living room.  A few VHS copies were shared with family members.

Today it is easy to reach a broad digital audience.  We now have an equally broad responsibility to protect the rights of music artists'.  I own a fair amount of copyright-free music, and use it in my newer work.
These short excerpts of my old videos are intended for illustration and educational purposes only. Please understand that I do not encourage improper use of copyrighted material.


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