Thursday, October 29, 2015

Editing Tricks for Amateur Vacation Video #162 - Scandinavia Cruise (#7 of 10)

Scandinavia Cruise 2005:  Rostock, Germany (#7 of 10)

Chapter 6 (St. Petersburg) was very entertaining.  Now we are challenged to maintain viewers' interest during the four remaining segments, beginning with Rostock, Germany.

There's a bit of real educational history in the narration, accompanied by some worthy video and stills.  We watch our friends Steve, Maureen, Dave, and Becky take the ships tour to Berlin, then Gloria, Matt, and I enjoy the main street of Rostock take the public trolley to a nearby beach community.
Peter Sellers and President Reagan make a reappearance, and Matt is subjected to more on-camera questions.  Some German-language signs create opportunities for puns, and the final spoken words from Dr. Strangelove close the video.

Comments:  
  • Scenes "borrowed" from external sources provide some continuity to the style of the previous chapter.
  • This was a rare opportunity to see the interior of an automated German public restroom.
  • There are some decently composed video and still photo clips to accompany the inane dialogue
  • This edit provides a reasonable transition from Chapter 6's frenetic pace, while maintaining watchability.  However there is some room to tighten it up.

Lessons Learned:
  • We had fun mis-pronouncing and mis-translating the German-language signage.  When the trip video was posted several years ago I was surprised to see comments from German-speakers who didn't understand the humor and helpfully corrected the translation.
    So I guess the lesson learned is that not everyone understands my sense of humor.  So my choice is to restrain myself or ignore the criticism.
    (After being married for 35 years, I can truthfully say "ignorance is bliss"!)

Suggestion:
  • Pay attention to the emotional flow of your video project.  For instance, these ten chapters are presented in their natural chronological order.  I could easily have swapped the position of St. Petersburg (Chapter 6) with Rostock (Chapter 7).


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, October 22, 2015

Editing Tricks for Amateur Vacation Video #161 - Scandinavia Cruise (#6 of 10)

Scandinavia Cruise 2005:  St. Petersburg, Russia (#6 of 10)

At over eight minutes this is the longest chapter in the Baltic Cruise collection.  
St. Petersburg has a real challenge to keep my audience's attention.  So I kick the chapter off a little differently:  Three introductions:  What do tourists expect? (a montage of post cards); What does Scott think he saw? (lots of naked women); and What did we really see? 

There are extraordinary sights and sounds to record in St. Petersburg, but the video reveals that much of the beauty was obscured by crowds.  Well, this is obviously not a Rick Steves production ... we were tourists among throngs of tourists. 

Nevertheless this was an action-packed and exciting two-day port-of-call.  To give the audience a taste of the fun I relied on a few running gags:

  • Scenes from Norman Jewison's brilliant Cold War comedy, The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming (1966)
  • Scenes from Stanley Kubrick's brilliant Cold War satire/comedy, Dr. Strangelove (1964)
  • Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale who are parodies of foreign spies in in Jay Ward Productions' side-splitting The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show (1959-1964) 
  • Clips illustrating the way our tour group was "Rushed" in "Russia"
  • Making fun of my nephew Matt
  • My typical "witty" narration

Comments:  
  • There are some fades and page turns but I especially enjoy the well-timed simple cuts.
  • One "pretty fancy special effect" that viewers seem to enjoy occurs at 5min53seconds.  A silver basin with the "Arms of Baron Stroganov" morphs into the muscular "Arms of Schwarzenegger".  I have no idea what gave me that goofy idea! 
  • I love the inclusion of Ronald Reagan's joke about bombing Russia.
  • My favorite cut transition occurs at 7min05seconds.  Jonathan Winters punches Paul Ford (The Russians are Coming ...) which seems to cause Russian ambassador Peter Bull to fall into George C. Scott's lap (Dr. Strangelove).
  • Music was mostly recorded in-camera while filming local musicians.  Also, the tour company gave us some souvenir music CD's and you can hear those traditional Russian tunes in a few scenes.

Lessons Learned:
  • What's the old saying ... "When it ... make movies"?  I was very worried about this chapter.  Although the raw footage included a few moments of nice video, I knew that there was great risk that the final cut would still be too long.  I've watched it dozens of times now -- thankfully I'm still happy with the final result.
  • Yes there is copyrighted material included in this chapter.  Not making excuses, please see below.

Suggestion:
  • Invest the time necessary to pre-plan your edit.  It took several months to capture external video from YouTube, toss out my unusable footage, and create a storyline from the remaining assets.  I remember laughing to myself at possible ways I could put the thing together.


Next up:  Rostock, Germany ... East Berlin's port city.



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, October 15, 2015

Editing Tricks for Amateur Vacation Video #160 - Scandinavia Cruise (#5 of 10)

Scandinavia Cruise 2005:  Talinn, Estonia (#5 of 10)

Looking through a porthole, Steve wonders "What's the name of this city?"  Our typical newsreel music is missing, replaced by the instantly recognizable introduction from Bob Dylan's Rainy Day Women #13 & 35.  As this two-minute video continues you'll notice the music is karaoke style with no vocals.

You'll be interested to learn that thee original version of this video included Dylan's "melodious" crooning.  As I was creating this chapter, I wrote to Mr. Dylan and Dwarf Music (his publishing company) several times for permission to use his original recording.  They chose to ignore me.
Although I'll earn nothing from this video, I would have gladly paid a small fee.  Even an outright denial would have been gentlemanly.  But being ignored really ticked me off.  
So don't kid yourself, Dylan has "sold out" to "the Man."

Naturally I wasn't able to post the original on YouTube; instead I hope you sort-of enjoy this karaoke+subtitles.  Have fun, sing along!  

Estonia is emerging from the Soviet economy; one of its great successes is the warm-weather transformation of walled city Talinn into a medieval village.  While this music creates a slower pace when compared to the preceding chapters, there are some fun scenes, cuts, and surprises.  Note the cynical copyright notice just before the video ends.

Comments:  
  • The opening video was not actually shot through a porthole.  It uses the editing software's vignette feature.  Sepia color is an editing software video filter. 
  • My subtitles differ from the words that Dylan actually mumbles in his recording.  If you know the original lyrics or listen to Bob singing while watching my video, there are some plays-on-words that are pretty funny and make this chapter worth watching.
  • I like the original version, which included Dylan's voice.  This sound edit is a poor substitute that was created solely for the benefit of HENBC.com readers.  I hope it  provided some continuity and completeness, and perhaps you've garnered some good while watching the crippled video.

Lessons Learned:
  • Don't lock-in to music that might not be available.  When you can't get copyright clearance, your choices are limited and often unsatisfactory.
  • " 'Estonia' sounds like 'They'll Stone Ya' "  It's such a perfect play on words that I couldn't dream up an alternative.  That's one of the reasons it took seven years to edit the raw footage!

Suggestion:
  • If you own a copy of Dylan's Rainy Day Women #13 & 35 try playing it while watching this video.
  • I admit failure here.  What if you are in the same situation?  When you hit a brick wall, can you abandon your original editing idea and move on?


Next up:  We "Rush-in" then "Rush-out" of Saint Petersburg, Russia.


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.  That group sees my productions unencumbered by copyright legalities,  For internet purposes, I have removed identifiable music that would otherwise be used without permission.  
Copyright compliance can be a real pain-in-the-neck; I try to comply but the system often presents unreasonable challenges for no-budget amateurs.
I own several hundred tracks of royalty-free music via SmartSound that I try to use in my productions.  There is no easy way, no safe harbor for little guys like us who need permission to use a bit of commercial music to create a fun little non-monetized movie.  Is it any wonder that many in this situation choose to go to the dark side?


Thursday, October 8, 2015

Editing Tricks for Amateur Vacation Video #159 - Scandinavia Cruise (#4 of 10)

Scandinavia Cruise 2005:  Helsinki, Finland (#4 of 10)

Within sixty seconds we've been given three options for getting the "Hell" out of Helsinki,  and the Finnish people have been insulted at least five times.  Then the stairs in Senate Square are too much of a temptation for Scott, who becomes a Rocky-wannabe.  Scenes from around town are interspersed with hilarious external video from Finnish Tourism Board and Monty Python's Spamalot.  Before you know it, the Helsinki chapter of the trip video is over.  

Comments:  
  • Once again, no fancy editing tricks were used in this chapter.   Skills required: capture a YouTube video and import into your editing program; simple titles; apply background music; simple cuts and fades.
  • The Fish Schlapping Song provided perfect background music for the second half of this chapter.  Earlier scenes are enhanced by choir music that was actually captured in-camera at the church seen at 0min52sec.
  • The Spamalot video was captured by someone in the audience who posted it on YouTube.  I'm sure Monty Python cares about copyright violations. VisitFinland.com probably doesn't mind that I used their video, but I didn't ask.  (View my disclaimer about copyright at the bottom of the page.)
  • Did you notice that this chapter was 4-1/2 minutes long?  Probably not.  It's entertaining and well paced.  And the Queen of England makes an unexpected appearance to end the show.  (I'm getting a lot of mileage from that "wave the hand" gag!)

Lessons Learned:
  • A well-edited and fun vacation video helps to guarantee that you won't have a restless audience.  We have a friend who asks for a blanket as her eyelids droop ... that didn't happen with this one!

Suggestion:
  • Even though this chapter is well-paced and fun, a couple of gags don't work (i.e. the "sardines" and maybe the "hanging suitcoats".  Once again, that honest friend who's not afraid to tell you what to cut is extremely valuable.
  • Obviously my videos are not a rigorous look at all the good things a country has to offer.  Take a look at The Official Travel Guide of Finland — VisitFinland.com for a sampling of beautiful images, videos, and vacation ideas.

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.

Next up:  The medieval city of Talinn, Estonia

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, October 1, 2015

Editing Tricks for Amateur Vacation Video #158 - Scandinavia Cruise (#3 of 10)

Scandinavia Cruise 2005:  Stockholm, Sweden (#3 of 10)

The familiar newsreel footage announces our arrival in the capital of Sweden.  A military band accompanies changing of the guards at the palace; surprisingly good sound provides music for the entire video.

Comments:  
  • Lots of gags here:  the floating finger, the Muppets, meatballs and candy fish.
  • Some pretty good cinematography for a change.  Scenes of the military band, the horse carriage, and bocce-playing residents are nicely done.
  • I really like this 2-1/2 minute chapter.  It was created in 2012 -- frankly, this is close to the best I can do my current skill level.  
  • The Muppets scene was found on YouTube.  See copyright comments below.

Lessons Learned:
  • Use external sources of images to sell your story/narration.  

Suggestion:
  • Give your audience something familiar.  Most of my friends and family have not traveled internationally, their mental image of Sweden was formed by television programs and candy shops.    But they sure didn't expect to see the Swedish Chef, Swedish Meatballs, and Swedish Fish in my travel video!
  • Nevertheless, there is some educational value.  Changing of the Guard?  I had forgotten there was a King of Sweden!


Next Up:  A "hellish" day in Helsinki!


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.