Last day of the Canberra Convention

The last morning of the convention was really (and I mean REALLY) interesting. Firstly we had a young man speak who talked about the cameras he used for different video projects. This was of major interest to all the “tech heads” especially when Patrick Gallagher talked about the really expensive high definition cameras and the little toy that has become so useful for adventurous video makers, the Go-pro (or some such name!!!!) The camera is tiny and can be strapped to bike handle bars or the toe of a surfboard or on the dash of a car that is dropped from a crane and it will survive anything that it faces. Several speakers through this week use one for awkward or dangerous angles.

After talking about the cameras used for short film making, Patrick went on to talk about the cameras that were used in Parliament for recording proceedings in the chamber. He is one of the camera operators and they work from an office below away from the proceedings and controls eight cameras with joysticks and buttons to change feeds from one camera to another.

The second speaker was one of the coordinators of ABC Open. This is an exciting project that is less than two years old and is in 45 regional centres around Australia. The program is aimed at both teaching people who have never used computers, cameras or the internet how to use them by giving projects and the means to complete them. The spin off is that there are now lots of fascinating stories of real people that can be accessed by the people who created them and the rest of the world too. I must find the web site and take a closer look at what has been done there – it all sounds so exciting that I want to be involved myself! I believe the address is http://open.abc.net.au  but I will check and edit this link if it is incorrect.

Colleen was waiting for me when the sessions were over and after lunch and farewelling as many people as I could we packed the car and set off for Taree. Of course we managed to strike the peak hour traffic but it was never stationary so although it was a long trip we made base by 8.20pm (we left about 2.00pm) After checking in we raced into town to the Chinese Restaurant we so enjoyed on our first stay here and luckily found it open.

We took a photo of ourselves as we waited for the meal to be cooked!

 Cheesy grins to a hand held camera from AJ and Colleen

The food was brought back to our motel room – which again is the same room we had when we first came through Taree! Room 16. There were real plates and metal cutlery so we dined in style! The family are all eager to have us home! The phone has been running hot! It took us eight hours to get here from the Gold Coast so I guess it will take the same length of time to get back there. That is including time for stops along the way – and lunch. It has been a great week.

AJ

Video talk

Being in Canberra makes me appreciate the heat and the humidity of the Gold Coast! Thursday morning was foggy – not foggy like I once encountered on the Yorkshire Moors where visibility was so limited I couldn’t see the other side of the two lane road or even whether there was a corner ahead, but foggy like steam on spectacles! I think I had my coat on for the best part of the day – and I was indoors! (complain, complain!) Sitting still does not warm you.
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A lot of “Official” stuff was dealt with in the morning. Nothing was changed and nothing improved. I really have no idea what my official role is supposed to entail. When the issue of judges was raised and the FAMM president asked if clubs would appreciate having twelve FAMM approved judges to pick from to judge their major video competitions there was a very negative reaction. So amazed was I by this response that I swallowed my own ideas on the subject. I get a distinct impression that these club members are unwilling to accept change and jump in to stop any suggestion of change. Sigh.
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There was a fair bit of discussion about music and copyrights. It is a difficult issue and a real problem for amateur video makers who wish to show their videos to fellow club members and most likely only shown the one time, without fear of reprisal. The majority do not like the Royalty Free music that is available because they need music that dominates the sound track and Royalty Free music is not designed for that, it is for creating a mood and is usually quite short.
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Videomakers need friends who can create music. I would imagine there are composers around who would love to try their hand at creating a musical sound track for a short film. The difficulty is . .. . . to find someone!

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Two excellent speakers gave inspiring talks to us. One, a young man with lots of passion and ambition is sure to go places because he has so much confidence in his abilities and so much energy to see that it will happen. I am sure we shall hear more about Daniel Sanguineti.
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Our second speaker is a scientist with the CSIRO and he also is responsible for a short (science)film festival. As well as showing some of the incredibly crafted videos from previous competitions he talked about the sorts of things that video judges looked for. It was a valuable talk.
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Later in the evening we watched more videos that had been sent in by the Video Clubs – each club sent along the five best movies from the past two years (the convention is held biannually) and when the lights came back on the winners were announced. One video was awarded first prize but the club that won the coveted FAMM Shield was the club that acquired the most points from the scoring of all five videos.

This year the shield went to Newcastle Video Movie Makers.

AJ

Last Day with Graham and Nola

Today was another indoors day for Graham and me; we were busy making a “This is my life” video, consisting of voice to camera. There is a limit to how much can be covered in one session, no only because of time restraints but also because of concentration. A tired subject means many mistakes and rather more confusion than when fresh.

Graham had put the video we made yesterday onto his computer the evening before and when we played it back we could see that it was not too bad at all – only a little editing needed to be done. Noticing that Graham was wearing a different shirt this morning I sent him to dig out the one he wore yesterday from the laundry basket! We needed to have continuity so that the video gave the impression of being made all at the same time.

Thinking it might make things easier I told Graham what I was going to ask him about so that he could think about what he wanted to say. Mistake! Yesterday when the questions were asked while the camera was running the answers flowed naturally and interestingly, this time Graham was looking into space obviously trying to see the notes he had made and the story was a tad wooden.

Unable to help myself I edited the video for Graham. Some of the stories had been told out of sequence and needed to be slotted together. It was easier for me to move the clips than for me to try and tell Graham how to do it over the phone from home – I am unfamiliar with his editing program. I could do it with the program in front of me but I would have been stuck advising on how to use it, without it! (Premiere Pro 1.5) I made a simple title and when Colin and I were saying our goodbyes the program was rendering the video so that it was ready to be put onto a DVD.

It was with heavy hearts that we waved our goodbyes. We have no idea when we shall have the opportunity to be together again.

Driving back to the motel we were stopped at a rail crossing. First came the flashing lights to stop the traffic and then the boom gate descends. The car in front of me dashed through even though the lights were flashing and was on the other side of the tracks when the gates came down. Once the train was through the boom gate rose but the lights were still flashing.

The SUV in the lane beside me was gunning his motor and would have driven through. He moved but must have noticed that I was still stationary because he looked over and stopped – and waited until the lights stopped! I guess when you do this run every day and have to stop for trains you get a bit blasé about the road rules.

When Colin and I were exploring yesterday afternoon I just had to take a photo of the trams. I have seen trams before but these ones were nothing like the Melbourne trams I remembered from years ago. The Adelaide trams look more like trains.

This particular tram was running down to Glenelg through crowds of pedestrians that kept streaming across the road and traffic that was inching forward a couple of metres at a time. I am not sure who would have been more frustrated!

We pick up my sister and her husband from the airport this evening and if the weather holds we shall have a weekend of exploring and photographing.

AJ

Australia Day in Adelaide

There was almost a howling gale through the night but by morning the wind had blown itself out and all was calm for Australia Day in Adelaide. This was another busy day for Graham and Nola and Colin too as AJ cracked the whip and got everyone working.

Graham was challenged to demonstrate he knew what to do with his new laptop.

Colin was given a hose and cloth and instructed to remove the squashed insects from the car so we could see the true colour of the vehicle once more.

 Nola was given the task of providing refreshments to the workers.

Once all those tasks were done we set up Graham’s video camera on a tripod and made a start on his “life story” video. This was a project that had recently been suggested to him and I said I would help him by showing how to insert photographs when editing his videos. To do this we needed some video – which is why we did a mini interview. Nola was a great help because she managed to unearth some photographs from the garage.

Tomorrow, our last day with Graham and Nola, we shall play with the editing.

It is Australia Day today and after leaving Graham and Nola we drove to Glenelg to see what was happening down at the beach. Although Colin hates both crowds and the noise a crowd makes, I thought it was amazing fun!

The beaches were generously covered with beautiful people – I think we were possibly the oldest people in Glenelg this day; the average age was around 20.

There is a jetty at Glenelg and it seems to be one of the attractions of the place – it seems as if there is a magnet that draws people out to the end and releases them once they get there!

I dragged Colin to a park near the beach where we had spotted a big crowd as we drove in. We were in time to see the vehicles that had gathered for the “Australia Day Ute Muster” leaving the grounds. Luckily for me there were still a few interesting vehicles to aim the camera at. The first one I am including attracted me because of the amazing quality of the artwork both on the back and on the underside of the torneau cover.

The second photo taken here is also because of exceptional paint work. An extra addition to the painting is a dog that does not need to be tied up so that it cannot jump out of the back of the ute when it spots another hound on the side of the road.

There is plenty to keep me happy on this trip!

AJ

showing off again

Yesterday I took my tiny high definition video camera around the garden to make a record of the flowers that I have in bloom at the moment. Today I put the shots together with some music.
I suggest you click on the title at the top left of the video embedded in this blog so that you can watch the video in Youtube.
The sides are trimmed off , which I find irritating!
Here it is


AJ

Video on the agenda

I do not have a photo to brighten this blog today because I have been busy with the video editing computer and with different video cameras. My latest treasure (had since Christmas) is a tiny little video camera the size of a mobile phone that takes full hi-definition video in NTSC format. I live in an area that is within the PAL system of TV so it does seem a little strange that I should have a video camera that is for a different system. The reason is that I bought (sorry, was given!) the camera for a specific purpose. That purpose is for taking short video snapshots to share on Youtube.
I have also found that this little camera is adequate for taking shots of my little granddaughters and putting the footage on DVD for them to play back over and over and over! They think it is fantastic!
On Sunday I used the Nikon D90 video feature to take video of the children when we had fun on the exercise gadgets for joggers in one of the parks we visited. This video is in PAL format and to be quite honest the quality is not a patch on that from the JVC pocket cam. The picture appears to be made up of colour blocks and although is supposed to be full HD I had to check the settings to be sure I had not set it at 720p rather than 1080i - but it was on 1080i. The sound from the Nikon is better than that from the JVC pocket cam and the kids will enjoy the content regardless of what camera was used. I wont be using the Nikon again for video after seeing it rendered to DVD.
The video I have just uploaded to youtube was taken with the pocket cam - and as with any camera with no viewfinder I was not always able to see what I was getting in the screen! I had not realised that I had some bad sun flare at one point but I left that bit in the video because I happened to be talking to the camera while shooting. Here is the link to that video. (just click on the hyper-linked words!)
I managed to make three short videos today. I can recommend "Adobe Premiere 9" as a very easy program to use - you can make a video in next to no time!  (after a bit of practice!)
AJ

A new toy

It was a big surprise when I opened one of my gifts from Colin on Christmas morning. The gift he had given me was the size of my flip mobile phone and was a JVC camera for taking blog movies! He and my son Paul had been aware of me checking out the results of the different blog cameras on youtube and with Paul's help - because Colin doesn't even know how to turn a computer "on" - a camera was purchased "on-line". It is actually a superceded JVC camera and very cheap, ($135.00) but what the heck! It is so much fun to use! This is my first attempt with it - imagine taking video with your left hand as your right hand is doing the chores, that is what I did!

Click on the video to view in Youtube - some of it has been cropped in this blog.
The results are far from perfect and the quality is not really all that crash hot - but it is better than the quality from Steven's standard definition hard drive camera.
The camera model is GC-FM1 and takes an SDHC card . I simply push the card into the laptop, use Windows explorer to move the video files (MOV) to my hard drive and then edit them with Premiere Elements 9. The voice over is recorded with Cool Edit Pro 2 using a Skype headset microphone.
Obviously the video would have been much better if I had been doing more than just making sure the lens was pointing in the right direction. But I wanted to share my "number one" video with my blog camera!

We have had so much rain just lately that the lorikeets have spent almost every morning pooping on our chairs! Once they have been fed we have to get the hose and wash everything down! Because they are nectar eaters the bird poo is just wet - but sometimes they have found some purple fruit and their squirts are rather showy! Mulberry season is a good time for multiple verandah hosings!

Hmm! Should I have shared that with you? !!!!!!
AJ

change of settings

Just sharing the results of changing the Settings in Steve's little Sony hd camcorder,the settings were on standard and everything was quite "woolly" even when viewed in the LCD screen, The camera is now set to High Quality and while it is still only VHS quality when viewed on a TV it is a lot better than when it was on the other setting!

This camera shoots in mpg format which is a compressed format. When any editing is done it is compressed even further. Digital video on tape is a large .avi file and is sharp, movement is smooth and the only thing better is hi-def. When digital video is edited and exported to DVD (which is the accepted format for sharing) it is converted to a compressed format - mpg and quality is lost.
The cameras are improving all the time but the better quality is lost once it is put onto DVD. By the time we can all afford blueray burners and players the shooting quality will once more be higher and the same annoyance will be there!
AJ

Elly

Here is a little snippet from a video I have just completed for a friend. I have extracted two little segments from it to show you what a vibrant person Elly is! We had a lot of fun making the video but when I came to put it all together the sound of her voice varies - it all depends on where in the room she stood - whether the sound bounced off one wall or two or whether it had no walls to reverberate from. Anyway. I hope you enjoy seeing it!
AJ

A day of learning

Accommodation Houses along the foreshore at Noosa Heads
The timber walkway has been replaced with a wider walkway and a boulder barricade put a little distance out so that the next huge seas do not cause the damage the last one did.
The little yachts are all ready for action for the River Carnival (on Sunday)

I am weary but it is a good weariness! I have just been listening and, of course, chipping in with Questions, to a speaker at the FAMM Convention. This speaker is from Bond University and was talking about many things relating to video, light, sound and objectives. Very stimulating!

Another of the speakers held more appeal to the (even) older conventioneers - is that a word? - as he was talking about and demonstrating his money earning video job - telecine conversion. In other words, transferring old movies to DVD. There was plenty of chat about film and video speed relating to "flicker" - a typical result of the film speed not matching the video speed and a phenomena of conversions done by backyard conversions as well as those done by camera shops that offer that facility. Anyway, I am not at all interested in that particular subject so sat quietly and behaved myself (for a change!)

During the morning the AGM was held so not all attendees at the Convention attended. At that meeting I was elected to the Board as the Queensland Directer. That sounds impressive but until I manage to raise my voice and encourage change I do not need any congratulations!

Visions members will be horrified to learn that I have also agreed to rejoin the Gold Coast Video Club and start to try and encourage more thoughtful video making.

After seeing the videos shown so far (only the one minute videos) I was so disappointed in the quality of the video making that I feel motivated to get on my video hobby horse once again and start stirring and hopefully start one group to get creative. As Qld Director I may be able to visit other Queensland Clubs and keep the enthusiasm flowing elsewhere too - but many people I am meeting are so cock-sure of themselves that they will be closed to any input from an outsider. They can quote the techniques and can possibly write excellent tutorials but they cannot make videos.

More videos to watch tonight so I had better get ready for them!

AJ