Print this page
Friday, 26 April 2013 00:18

Making videos of the garden

Written by 
  • font size decrease font size decrease font size increase font size increase font size
Rate this item
(0 votes)

 

I’m really pleased with this video of birds feeding and bathing in my garden, cut in time-ish to a Strauss polka (watch the goldfinches and Blackbirds in particular). It’s an example of what I am learning as I create this Blog.

My day job is making videos for large corporates. I advise them on how best to tell and articulate their corporate stories on video – for investors, employees and other business audiences. Almost all of this video is online, so supposedly I am online video savvy. But my role is to think, advise, direct and produce – all bossy talk and no physical action! I am never behind the camera and I sit beside the editor as he/she creates the finished piece with me.

For this site, it has all had to change. I have to be able to do it all myself. I can’t wait for a cameraman to be free when a bee is in a flower – I have to film it. I can’t wait for an editor the other side of town to be free so I can create a piece to show you what’s happening in the garden.

So last year a bought a digital SLR that shoots HD video (Canon 6000D) and a GoPro to create the Welcome video. My editor Mike edited the Welcome video with me but everything else on the site I have created.

On the filming front I was relatively confidant. I take pretty OK still photos, understand light and have been in creative, visual industries all my working life and in video for the last 12 years. And I think visually.

The editing was the problem. All my guys work in Final Cut Pro on Macs. I work on PC and needed to find a suitable, cheap but effective, editing programme. I tried all the free ones. No good. I trialled a number of others and even tried to trial the expensive Premiere for PC but it entirely failed even to download.

This program I am using, which I am thrilled with, is from NCH and cost me $38 Australian dollars – almost free! It looks and works just like Final Cut to the extent that, after years of sitting beside editors, I can use it intuitively and have bought the software with no support because it is very user-friendly and has good online help. It has a timeline and sequence view, you can layer on lots of video and audio, and it has a reasonable number of effects. The only problem is that it crashes quite often – and sometimes crashes my whole computer – so you just have to make sure you ‘ Save’ a lot and bear with it if you have to re-boot. But I think it’s worth it for $38.

So, in my eagerness to film more and better for you, I am also planning to buy a macro lens for insect and flower details, I am investigating microphones because I may start doing some pieces to camera – if I feel brave enough - and I intend to improve my editing skills – so keep watching this space!

Read 55244 times Last modified on Wednesday, 01 October 2014 09:22