One King video

I was at the Essential Skills Training event last week. My official role was Event Manager but I was also pressed into service as a trainer and as a videographer.

I had purchased new tapes to record the footage for the event but I forgot to check what was in the camcorder before I started recording. As a result I ended up taping over some of the footage that I shot at the Christmas Eve service. Fortunately I still had the footage of the song that we had learned, One King. After I watched that footage I felt motivated to produce a video out of it.

I shot that footage under low lighting conditions so I used the Night setting on the camcorder. The result is that the lighting and color looked low and dull. Furthermore, I had shot the entire sequence from a fixed location on a tripod with a fixed focal length. This means that there is little to no movement in the footage; it probably would make a dull video to watch as it was.

This called for experimentation with color correction and with some creative effects. I don't know if I've overdone the effects and made this look too cheesy but it looks much better than the raw footage.

Watch the video below.

Video journalling

I saw the movie Avatar a few weeks ago during the Christmas holidays. Saw it in 3D from the fourth row. Cool movie. The story was predictable, basically a science fiction remake of Dances With Wolves, but I thought it was told well. Awesome scenery and it all looked great in 3D. Even the subtitles appeared to float in the air in a space of their own. I don't know if I was supposed to return my glasses to the receptacles that they had by the exit, but I kept mine.

One thing about the story that I found inspiring was the idea of keeping a video log. I've done a lot of journalling through handwriting and on my Palm PDA, on various PC's, and I even kept a voice journal for a brief period. After seeing Avatar I got excited about the idea of keeping a video log. When i got home I did some googling and discovered an application called MacJournal. I downloaded and installed the 15-day trial version and started using it. I like using it, it's got that whole "Captain's Log" feeling, right out of Star Trek.

The 15-day trial period went by quickly. Did I really want to fork out the forty-something dollars to buy a registered copy? Well, three or four days after the trial period ended I was missing it. i had gotten into an almost daily ritual of recording into my video log and I missed it. Oh my gosh, it was like having withdrawal symptoms.

I bought it. Paid for it, got a license key, and resumed my video journalling. I got my fix.