Hummingbirds

It is hummingbird season now. This year there seem to be dozens of hummingbirds around.

I wondered if these speedy little birds would make a good muvee, so I grabbed my camera and stood outside for a few minutes and filmed. I find it more inspiring when the finished product has a point or theme, and I wanted to try something focused on one thing.

The music is very short (just over a minute) and I found that when I highlighted too much, I had more highlighted than the music. I went back and only highlighted the true highlights. I find that when I have highlighted a part, the program favors footage near my highlighted section.

Walking

From the time I started taking videos, I have sporadically pointed the camera at my feet as I walked along, always intending to gather them together and make a video of Walking. It is still a work in progress.

A few days ago, I had made a muvee of my videos from October last year. I had a few of these walking videos in it and muvee Reveal had stitched them together so well I decided to go back and gather together all of my walking videos. I used David Archuleta's "Touch My Hand" so far, but intend to look for a good Walking song.

I realize now that I should have more videos of more varied paths. Watching this you might think that it's winter here for 3/4 of the year, when in reality it is barely more than half! So when I see something good to walk on and film, I will add to the video, keeping in mind that I already have enough snow.

Mountainview Elementary School

The next week Marcio was at Mountainview Elementary School, again taking videos to put into muvee Reveal. The teacher suggested a few songs, the only one that I had was "It's a Beautiful Day" by U2.

This video just made itself - no tweaking for the style or adjusting the Magic Moments. This video turned out so good with such little work, and the program has worked flawlessly - never crashing or having problems. It inspires me to try out a bunch of my older videos, and when I'm taking videos with my camera, I sort of have muvee Reveal in the back of my mind.

Jules Verne Elementary School

My friend Marcio was at Jules Verne Elementary School in Laval. He took some videos and the Principal suggested using "Octopus's Garden" by the Beatles for the music. It was straightforward to put the video together - excluding some scenes with Magic Moments and including others, but it somehow lacked something.

I played with the "Pump it Up" style and set it to go more with the music, and set it to be more energetic (one of the controls). It still wasn't quite working. Then using the Personalize settings, I set it to play the video at its original speed (no slowing down or speeding up). That worked very well and I think we have a very nice video here.

Congratulations Marcio and the students of Jules Verne Elementary School!

Shawinigan High School

My friend Marcio was at Shawinigan High School last week. He kind of promised a video to the teacher who really wanted it for next Wednesday night for a function. I was nervous because I have had problems with muvee Reveal crashing and hanging up. However, I have just updated to the latest version and it worked smoothly.

The big challenge was finding a song that worked with the videos. I used the catchy tunes that I know in the earlier videos. Faster paced songs seem to work better. The students suggested Cat Stevens, and he does have a few lively tunes. No matter that he music is thirty years old.

I have received some comments that some of the videos are too fast and energetic, so I was aware of this and chose a style setting that is energetic, but with normal paced cuts. I was quite prepared to do some tweaking with Magic Moments, but when the video came out, it was just fine!

Un Caracol en Córdoba

The title translates as "A Snail in Córdoba".
It was my second visit to Córdoba (I was here about six years ago) and we stayed a couple of nights. The first time I left with the impression of a cultured, pleasant city that safeguards some heritage treasures. This visit reinforced that feeling. A glass of viño dulce at Bar las Palomas just out of the train station on our arrival at 10:30 am. A liesurely stroll through subtropical parks on our way to the historical core. A quiet room in Hostal Maestre, immaculate, marbled and tiled. Gardens, fountains, monuments, the river, courtyards, parks and proud handsome people that if they weren't so friendly, down to earth and speaking Spanish, might make you think you were in a little Paris. While looking for a place to eat, we came across a stand selling food and drink, and when we asked for the menu they said, "Solo caricoles." (Only snails). In the gardens of the Castle of the Christian Monarchs we came across a snail sliding to take a drink from the flowing waters feeding the plants. I felt that pace of unhurried life in this monumental town - like un caracol en Córdoba.

We shot a lot of video - the train ride from Malaga, gardens, fountains, castles, the Mezquita, ducks, flowers, trees - even a few people. I added them to a new project in muvee Reveal, chose a few songs, and again it wasn't the video I wanted. I asked my friend Carlos from Fuengirola if he could recommend some typical music from Córdoba (like Seville has it's Sevillanas) and he said there are no Córdobesas, but suggested Paco de Lucia's first composition that made him famous - "Entre dos Aguas".

I really took the time to make use of the interface that this program gives you. Once you add the videos, the music, the titles, credits and choose the options of the style, it will play back the video in a small window, and as it plays, it highlights the original video it was taken from. I went through all of the video highlighting the critical parts and excluding the ones I wanted left out.

Play the muvee. Tweak the Magic Moments. Play again. Tweak again. It took about twenty iterations, but with each one you could see what you were looking for starting to come out (and you also become very fond of the music). And finally the video that evokes my visit to this majestic, quiet city was ready. Enjoy Córdoba.

Skating on Moffat Lake

On a sunny Sunday afternoon in February, five of my friends and I went skating on Moffat Lake, beside my home. I had just started playing with muvee Reveal and intended to take some videos to play around with. When it came time to make a video from them, the song that popped into my head was "Hockey" by Jane Siberry. When I made it I was impressed how well it all went together. Jane was singing about skating on the frozen river on a Sunday afternoon and it all seemed to fit so well. The one little problem was that we had not taken very many, or very long videos, so the final result ended cutting off the end of the song (we had only shot a total of 2 minutes 36 seconds of video, and the song was 3 minutes and 58 seconds long). Yet it still produced a very nice movie.

So I got permission from my friends to put it up on YouTube. Within hours I received notice that the song may be owned or licensed by WMG and the audio track was removed.

I've already mentioned that high speed internet is not available to me at home, so YouTube is something I had only heard about, and these are my first experiences with this medium. When I had done a few of my initial videos, my friends seemed to enjoy them and suggested I put them up on YouTube.

I had wondered about copyright and privacy issues - I don't want to violate anyone or anything. Videos for my own viewing don't really concern me - it should be no different than any other music on my computer or mp3 player. My friends said that there are lots of videos on YouTube using music and they didn't think it should be a problem and if it is, YouTube would let you know. I try to include the music in the credits (but the program only gives you a limited amount of space for credits), and one friend suggested that may just trigger a copyright complaint, but I felt it was better and fairer to give credit - they deserve it.

I have limited experience with copyright and licensing issues, but I do work with artist Marcio Melo who regularly receives requests to use his paintings (for CD covers, in books, in blogs, for background projections, etc.). We have basically made up our approach as we go along, but it boils down to this - the artist is flattered that people want to use his imagery (and in a way it is in his interest to expose it to as many people as possible), but being an artist is his career - the way he makes his money. So we look at each request, For non-commercial uses (blogs, personal use, some school applications, etc.) he gives the license at no cost. For commercial applications he uses the guidelines set out by Canadian Artists Representation Copyright Collective Inc. (CARCC) (their fee schedule can be found at http://www.carcc.ca/feeschedules.html) as a starting point an look at each request on its merits.

I consider the videos that I put on YouTube as being non-commercial (if you know of a way that I can make some money from them, or would like to buy one, please let me know).

As for privacy we always try to seek approval from those in the videos (with footage of students I think it is necessary), but I didn't ask anyone in the crowd in the Carnival in Torremolinos if it was okay (I hope it is).

My first few videos on You Tube were fine, (Thank you Coldplay, the Killers and Angela Burke!) but when I put up the video for St Johns School, I received a notice that "I Feel It All" by Leslie Feist may be owned or licensed by UMG and would be removed from the video in several countries but would still be able to be seen in Canada (which is most important for the students of St. Johns School in Quebec).

I did want to try and resolve this, so I searched for some contact with Leslie or the UMG. UMG's website did not seem to offer a contact to inquire about licensing, and Feist's self-named website doesn't seem to have a means to contact her. So Leslie Feist, or UMG, if you are out there I would like to discuss getting a license for the use of your song "I Feel It All" on my YouTube video.

At first when I received notice about Jane Siberry's "Hockey" being muted, I was starting to wonder if it was some Canadian thing to be so uptight about seemingly trivial copyright violations since it was only songs from Canadian artists that caused a problem.

I decided to try to contact Jane Siberry or her company, and it was easy to get her email from her website. I explained the situation and hoped that I might get permission to use the song. I was pleased as punch to quickly receive an email from Issa (the artist formerly known as Jane Siberry) explaining that WMG had the copyright restriction and there was nothing she could do about that, but she generously sent me a live version of the song which she owns and gave me permission to use it. I was thrilled since Jane Siberry has been a bit of an idol/star to me and whose music I enjoy immensely. Thank you very much Issa! And the legal song produced a better version of the video too!

Carnival in Torremolinos 2009

I was so pleased with the success of my video efforts that I wondered if the program might be able to take my 1 1/2 hours of videos from my trip to Spain in 2007 and produce something entertaining. It couldn't (and maybe my computer is more to blame than the software) but I did go and exclude some of the less interesting footage and was finally (after crashing many times trying to save the final video - and even them it took a long time to save the results) able to produce a 10 and a half minute video. However, I tried opening the project and making changes, but was unable to save it afterwards. I'm happy to watch the results, but don't think anyone else would want to, and my video is longer than the 10 minute maximum on YouTube. I then produced a 16 minute video of my visit to Spain in 2006, which again is not perfected greater than YouTube's 10 minute maximum.

I would like to explain that the world of blogs and YouTube is very new to me, since at home highspeed internet is a distant fantasy (even though I live only 35 miles from the capital (Ottawa) of Canada, I am in a very rural area) and the dialup connection is pretty pokey also. However right now I am spending a month in Spain, and am able to have highspeed on my laptop. I am taking full advantage to upload to YouTube and many other things impossible at home. It is like a different world.

So Spain, where life has a different pace and instead of birds and trees there are people and centuries of culture. I am staying in an apartment overlooking the central plaza area of Torremolinos (Malaga). On the second day here my late afternoon siesta was interrupted by a commotion outside - sounded like a band and a lot of people, so I got up to have a look. It seemed lively so I grabbed the camera and went down to Calle St. Miguel and was in the middle of the Carnival parade (yes, their carnival seems to be during Lent instead of before it). I was immediately caught up in the music and the costumes and the sheer joy around me. Now being from a small town in Canada, the closest event like this would have been Halloween, but it pales in comparison. I have also jumped with the crowds in Carnaval in Recife and Olinda in Brazil, but there, there was always that cautious perception of imminent danger - you always had to be on guard. Here, everyone was really having fun. Sure, I kept my hand that wasn't filming in my pocket with my wallet, but there was nothing threatening about it at all. I had a big smile on my face that lasted a few hours afterward.

Making my video was fairly straight forward, until I uploaded it to YouTube and it was rejected because it was too long, so I just went back and chose one song that was a minute shorter, tweaked the "Magic Moments" to include the walk through the confetti, and the result is what you see above.

L'école de la Petite Bourgogne

Marcio next did a mural with the students of l'école de la Petite Bourgogne in Montreal, Quebec entitled "Personnage de la terre". This one required a lot more work in excluding certain parts - the program seemed to favour one large blank wall. It took a bit of fiddling to get it to include the part at the end when everyone falls down, but not more - it just seemed like a fitting end.

Sherbrooke Elementary School

The week after Symmes Junior High, Marcio was in Sherbooke Quebec at Sherbrooke Elementary School and made a mural with the students entitled "Healthy Lifestyles". Having seen the results of Symmes, he honed his videos with the end result in mind.

While I can't say putting the final video together was routine, it was almost a push button operation - pop in the videos, choose a song and push a button. However, after the first try I tried out many variations using different styles. The end result is little different from the first one, but I spent many hours trying out many different possibilities. I'm starting to understand more how the program works.

Symmes Junior High "Dali meets Gaudi"

My friend Marcio did another mural with the students of Symmes Junior High in Gatineau (Aylmer), Quebec entitled "Dali ", and this time he did some videos of the process and the students with our friend Marc Gaudet with the final video in mind.

This time I decided to try out the program muvee Reveal, which while similar to muvee autoProducer, seems to produce a more chronological series of clips, and somehow seems more stable on the computers I use (of course my next computer will be geared to the higher demands of processing all this video).

I had been exploring some of the capabilities, and took the time to exclude certain portions and highlight others. My initial video was very nice, and then I just thought I might try the "Pump it up" style, and was entranced by the results. Even after seeing it so many times I still enjoy watching it. Another side effect of doing this is that I almost feel like I know the students, although I have never met them and know no one's name. Great job you students, and of course kudos to the art teacher and Marcio! And special thanks to Marc Gaudet for your video contributions and all the tips.

St. Johns School

This was the first video I did, and came across the program muvee autoProducer 6 quite by accident. I was looking for software that would allow me to burn my videos to a DVD that would play in my TV DVD player. I had a look at this software that had come with my computer, and while the free version I had would not burn to a DVD, from the beginning window, I wondered if it might do something with my videos.

My friend, artist Marcio Melo, had just completed a mural project with St. Johns School in St. Jean sur Richilieu, Quebec, Canada (visit www.marciomelo.com to see more of Marcio's murals and his paintings) and had a few small movies of the three day project. I popped them into the program (the version I had would only allow three input videos) and pushed the button, and immediately saw the power that the software had.

It had analyzed the content of the video, and played back an editted version that I would be proud to have made. Then I saw that you could add music, choose from different styles and tweak things like response to music and the pace. This movie is the result of a few minutes play.

The Tractor Fire

In August 2007, a neighbour`s tractor caught on fire about a kilometer from my home. After calling 911 and grabbing my fire extinguisher (which may have slowed it`s progress by 10 seconds) all we could do was watch it burn (after unhooking and saving the bailer) and watch our local volunteer fire department put it out.

For being in such a remote area, the Bristol, Quebec Fire Department deserves much credit for a job well done.