Editing Tricks for Amateur Vacation Video #50

France 2004: Introduction

If you've read/watched some of my earlier examples, you'll understand that I'm not afraid to use some wacky extraneous material to grab my viewers' interest.  Such was the case here.  Serendipity played a huge role, as I was experimenting with digitizing broadcast television by passing it through my camcorder's firewire to the computer.  A horrible movie from 1962 called The 300 Spartans found its way onto my hard drive.

Slashing & burning, sex and depravity ... that seemed to describe the group of friends we were traveling with!  Experimenting with green screen I masqueraded as a serious documentary videographer and created a totally fictitious introduction that left those travelers with gaping open-mouthed smiles when they saw it for the fist time.  Folks who view my videos today are much less surprised by this type of craziness.


The trip to France was documented in a series of twenty-three short vignettes, which became both the "best of" and the "beginning of the end of" my WindowsXP/Adobe Premiere editing experience.  One year later I took the plunge and bought my first Mac, hoping to escape the constant series of computer and software crashes.

I first experimented with the "vignette" concept when I created video chapters for the DVD of our 2002 trip to Africa.  (See blog posts for heNBC's History #35 through #45.)   More professional software allows the France movies to feature better compositing, titling, and audio.

Lessons Learned:

Have fun.  Try something crazy.  Don't be predictable.

It might not be perfect, but your audience will appreciate that you tried to entertain them.

One chuckle from your audience outweighs a thousand yawns!

Suggestion:

I posted this video to YouTube three months ago, but didn't look at it until today.  Surprised to discover that the sound is totally out of sync!  So I've had to delete and re-upload.   Make sure that you always check your on-line postings before providing the link to your "fans".

Music Copyright Considerations:

This is a short excerpt from one of my older edited videos.  It contains some identifiable music that is regrettably used without permission.  But remember the time this video was created; in 2004 the audience for this production was usually sitting in my living room.  "Fair Use" allowed me to use the music without consideration of copyright.

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.

Let's rescue your horrible vacation video.  Turn it into something your friends will enjoy watching!

France Europe Travel Crazy Unexpected