Editing Tricks for Amateur Vacation Video #54

France 2004: Bayeux - Normandy

This is the 5th of 23 video chapters edited from our trip to France in 2004.

We arrived in Bayeux a month before the 60th anniversary of D-Day, then toured the Normandy battlefields and cemeteries.  The visit was moving; I found it emotionally difficult to edit this video.  Needed a lot of breaks to pull myself together.

A few highlights:

• The use of slow-motion in opening scene of a waterwheel helps to slow the expectations of the audience.
• Vangelis' music is suitably somber and heroic.
• I composited newsreel footage over my own video clips.  Incredibly, with little conscious editing effort, the ghosts of soldiers appeared to walk the same locations that we witnessed sixty years later.  This was the single most incredible, almost supernatural, thing that's ever happened to me at a computer!
• President Reagan's address from the 50th anniversary of D-Day always leaves me speechless.

This is not a typical home-video narrated look at World War 2 battlefields.  This is not a video that draws applause from its audience.  It does command silent, reverent attention.  I think it is a great success.

Lessons Learned:

Use material gathered from different sources.

Allow the subject of your video inspire you.
It's rewarding when your inspiration also impacts the emotions of your audience.

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.