It's been a while since I posted.
Here is a brief update on what has happened in the last few weeks:
My Kodak Z710 has been mostly out of commission, it will work if I don't use the zoom lens. Blogging has been more or less the same. It's an odd feeling when I'm out at an event taking photos or video and have people ask if I'm Thunder Pig. That is happening more often these days, as are the invites to record meetings and events, both public and private. I don't charge for the public events if the admission to get into the event is free on the theory that I can recoup my expenses by increased web traffic and click-throughs on ads.
The last event I recorded was the forum for candidates in the NC-11 GOP primary hosted by the Young Americans for Liberty at Western Carolina University on December 7th [video].
I've got a new laptop and the difference between it and the old one is astounding. Of course, the old one was manufactured in 2003 and had only 512 MB of RAM and a 40 GB hard drive. The new laptop has 3 GB of RAM and a 250 GB hard drive. Editing video is going to be a lot faster than before. The new laptop will make it much easier to do live webcasts from events due to the increase in processing power.
The old laptop took an average of 25 minutes to render 1 minute of HD (1280x720 @ 30fps) video. I tested the new maching on 30 seconds of footage and it took 7 minutes. I'll be testing it out on a longer video today or tomorrow...which brings me to the new video editing software.
First, a little history. From 2005 to the middle of 2007, I had no ability to edit video other than keeping videos under the 10 minute window for You Tube. No titles or anything else. This was a problem because most people speaking at events don't fit their speeches to under 10 minutes. During the stop and start of my camera (the trusty Kodak Z710 recording 320x240 @ 30 fps), I would lose about 20 seconds maximum of the action. I tried to identify a pause or applause line to minimize the loss of content.
In the summer of 2007, I discovered One True Media [link], and began to use it to cut longer videos and to add title sequences. This video of then Lt Governor (now Governor) Beverly Perdue speaking is an example:
I was a couple hundred feet away, and the video zoom on the Z710 was very limited.
In October 2007, at the Vance Aycock Dinner, Richard Bernier gave me some video editing software. It was MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 12.
Now, I could do much more with my videos. Of course, the learning curve was steep. Here is an early example from the 2007 lights & Luminaries at Dillsboro, NC:
I eventually upgraded to Movie Edit Pro 15 sometime in late 2008 or early 2009. I didn't blog about it, so I'm not sure when that happened.
Over time, I got better. In March or April of 2009, I got a Kodak Zi6 HD pocket camera. That camera has been a workhorse like the Z710.
This past week, I upgraded to a new laptop and (since I had given away the install disc to MEP 15) took the opportunity to upgrade to Movie Edit Pro 15 Plus. I also received almost 9 GB of Sound and Video Pool in a Christmas sale via the MAGIX website.
I've already taken the opportunity to revamp my Intro and Outro title sequences, and can't wait to put them on new video projects.
I hope to be more regular in posting updates in the future.
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