Some of my grandpa's old films I recently discovered--awaiting editing!!
I thought I’d share five software programs I find essential for making shortform films. Here they are in order of pre-production to post:
1. Celtx: Organize all your pre-production materials with this one. You can write your scripts, create storyboards, create production schedules and share project files. And it’s free to download! Believe me, it will save you a lot of time.
2. Final Cut Pro: When you’re ready to create a movie out of your footage, this is the non-linear editing software to use. It’s intuitive, gives you a ton of creative options and makes it easy to edit quickly on your laptop.
3. Color: This software allows you to create “looks” or a style for your film and can be a great way to highlight the mood of a place or person you’ve filmed.
4. Compressor: A really easy drag-and-drop way to encode your film and create industry-standard files for a variety of delivery formats.
5. DVD Studio Pro: Another really easy program to use to create DVDs and to view real-time playback before you hit the “burn DVD” button.
I’ve been a bit remiss in posting lately. Cosette and I left San Francisco on Monday and are on the road again headed back to Bisbee and The Shady Dell, home to vintage travel trailer paradise. If you’d like to learn more about vintage travel trailers (or at least see some fun pictures of them), check out this audio slideshow (My Sexy Vintage Travel Trailer) I produced for World Hum, the Travel Channel’s sister website.
And here’s a picture of one of Ian’s culinary creations. Yes, it’s a vintage travel trailer cake!
The mighty Frito, Cosette’s peskiest foe, is back! My neighbor Ian just sent me some more photos of Frito, the kitty he has sort of adopted but refuses to officially ADMIT he’s adopted. He’s had the kitty since last August I think, has been buying her toys and catnip, snaps pictures of her, and even walks her around on a leash sometimes–so yes, I think he’s adopted her. Enjoy the pictures!
I’ve discovered that I’ll be returning home to Bisbee just in time for several exciting Valentine’s Day weekend events! First up is the Mystery Ball, a costume ball on February 13th to raise money for the Central School Project, a local non-profit center for the arts.
The Bisbee Yoga Expo is also scheduled for that weekend. I’ll be teaching the kids’ class this year on February 13th, so stop on by!
And finally, there’s the Chocolate Tasting Festival going on at the Copper Queen Library, Arizona’s oldest public library. Amateur and professional chocolatiers from around town will be offering samples of their chocolates.
I thought it was time for another dog-related post—primarily because I just can’t get enough of dogs. My brother, who knows all too well my infatuation with dogs, sent me this National Geographic video about an orangutan and a hound dog who became best buddies.
And here’s a link to a recent World Hum audio slideshow I created called A Dog And Traveler Love Story. It features some of my favorite pictures of my dog!
So today’s Travel Tuesday on Twitter–oooh, I love the alliteration. And in honor of the day I’m posting my Top 5 Tips to creating great travel videos:
1. Hold that camera still!! Use the pan and zoom very sparingly. For instance if you’re filming your dog running on a road trip, hold your camera still and let your dog run towards you. If your dog runs out of frame, so be it.
2. Consider investing in a small tripod: This will help prevent those wobbly shots. Joby makes a great, flexible little Gorillapod perfect for travel.
3. Closer is almost always better: Close shots are beautiful shots. For instance if you’re filming the outdoor market you’ve found on your trip, don’t zoom in on the yarns and the antiques. Take your camera and actually place it right next to those baskets of yarn and antiques. You’ll get great shots of people’s hands sorting through the yarns, and perusing the antiques and through these kinds of details you’ll produce a much better impression of the locale.
4. Pack lens cleaner and a cloth: Because nothing is more distracting when you’re looking at a beautiful shot than the water and dirt specks that show up in the footage as a result of an unclean lens.
5. Think about framing: Instead of just holding your camera out in front of you, take a moment to think about what kinds of lines, angles or elements might accentuate the shot. For instance, maybe you’ll see the converging lines of a road to place in the viewfinder, or some scrollwork details on a bridge or building that could serve as an unusual “picture frame” for you images.
Filming the Blue Ridge Parkway Fall Foliage Guide With Cosette
I am truly geeked up today because the Travel Channel launched their redesigned, super sleek new website and I must say, it’s RATHER IMPRESSIVE!! Now of course, as one of their web filmmakers that might seem like kind of a biased opinion, but of all the travel websites out there I’ve NEVER seen one with this many free video guides, travel destination suggestions, practical travel info, fun facts, historical background about travel destinations—the list goes on and on. And that’s all in addition to the short videos and travel tips on the site from Samantha Brown, Anthony Bourdain, et al.
The new website has all the info I used to have to hand over $20 for in return for a bulky guidebook to stuff into my backpack. It’s like a free travel video and travel article super-library! But don’t take my word for it. Check it out and let me know what you think!
Here’s an example of the new video guidebooks that I filmed and produced–it’s the Destination Phoenix guide to help you plan your next trip to the Southwest! And here’s a picture of one of the masterminds behind the redesign:
Danger Dog and Cooper Pup are back in action in this short video I filmed for OutsideK9. The scene about 20 seconds into the video where the dogs “play-tussle it out” wasn’t planned. We were just initially having a bit of a hard time getting them to calm down. They saw the snow and wanted to play, so I turned the camera on because it was kind of comical. Check out the Making of a Ski Dog article that accompanies the video for some additional tips on winter fun and precautions to take to help keep your dog safe!
If you’re looking to travel to a hidden gem of a town in northern Arizona, check out Flagstaff. This is a destination guide I filmed there last summer for the Travel Channel. If you watch closely, you’ll see that my dog, Cosette, manages to make it into a few scenes! I took her with me on the assignment, and she rode along in the car while I filmed at the various locations around town and she slept in the back in a special “nest” I made for her with her doggie bed and a bowl of water. I used a Canon XHA1 to film this piece, and to film the scenes in which I appeared in front of the camera, I used a tripod.
To film the final scene in which Cosette and I “disappear,” I filmed the landscape twice: once without me and Cosette in it (Version A) and another time with us walking away (Version B). Then, I layered the Version B clip on top of the Version A clip in the Final Cut timeline and gradually faded out the opacity of Version B. And voila! We disappeared!
