Category: Video Shooting, Editing and Production
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Our Truly Amazing TV Debut: Behind the Scenes
A few months ago, we got word through the Dhaka expat network that someone was looking for “foreigners” to play roles in a Bangladeshi television show. No acting experience or Bengali language experience required. It turns out that this “someone” was none other than television personality, writer, producer, comedian, voice actor, and singer Hanif Sanket.…
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New Project: Mini-Documentaries on Madagascar’s Informal Sector
I’m excited to be working on a new and admittedly somewhat ambitious project: a series of short documentaries examining some jobs in Madagascar’s informal sector. I plan to describe the work itself, but also spend some time thinking about why these jobs exist in Madagascar (and probably other developing countries), but not elsewhere. I’ve played…
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When 2000 Giant Ganesha Idols are Immersed in the Sea
My Indian friends who grew up nearby tell me it wasn’t always like this. They say when they were growing up, during the festival Ganesh Chaturthi, they would have a small clay statue of Lord Ganesha, one of Hinduism’s most important deities, which would be dissolved in a pond or a container of water at…
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Drones, Kingfishers, and Joey Cook’s Ukulele
Goa, India’s diminutive state on the west coast, enjoys a certain reputation as a party destination, full of backpackers and bikinis, in search of yoga or outdoor sports. But it also has its wildlife – especially birds. I wrote about our visit to Goa’s Dr. Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary about a year ago when we…
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“Blessed:” My Entry for the “India Is” Video Contest
All living things love their life, desire pleasure and do not like pain; they dislike any injury to themselves; everybody is desirous of life and to every being, his life is very dear.” – from the Yogashastra (Jain Scripture), from around 500 BC. While on an early morning photowalk at Marina Beach in Chennai, India, I…
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It’s always hardest cutting your own video…
Why, other than a few hardcore fans, is a film’s director the only one who likes the “Director’s Cut” better than the movie that was released to the public? It’s hard to delete the footage you worked so hard to get, or even sometimes to eliminate scenes altogether because they don’t help the “story” along,…
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Driving in Chennai: Timelapse
In time-lapse photography, it’s common to keep the camera pretty still and let the subject do the moving – or if at all, to move the camera very slowly. But it can also be fun to do a moving camera time-lapse, especially when you want to convey something about the sometimes frantic (at least to…
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What is it with computer company customer service these days? (I’m talking about you, Toshiba and Dell!)
I’m seeing a lot of reports these days lamenting lagging computer sales, and theorizing why that might be. I’m of the opinion that a big part of the reason is customer service. These days, it seems that more and more, when you speak to computer companies’ customer service and sales departments, you’re confronted with people…
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My Destination’s “Biggest Baddest Bucket List” and Namibia
Here’s a great idea for a video contest: make a 3 minute video about a favorite destination, write a few hundred words about travel, and send three photos. What can you win? a six-month, all-expense-paid trip around the world, and fifty grand in cash when it’s all over (presumably to make up for lost salary?)…
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Meh. Who Needs Pixar?
Remember the technological wizardry, engineering know-how, and computing power it took to make Toy Story? Well, a couple of teens (and a whole bunch of their friends) decided to see if it was possible to make a “live action” version. And here it is! It seems they’re getting all sorts of positive press, both in…
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Free Jungle Sounds
Every now and then I come across some sounds that might be of use to other video hobbyists. These are pretty clean, high quality recordings taken with a Rode Videomic. Feel free to download the sounds and use them for whatever you want. Frogs Sound – the sound of African bullfrogs croaking. Recorded at Kempinski Mokuti…
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The Right Music for a Video. But Not Quite.
Sometimes finding exactly the right ‘feel’ music for a video is the most fun part of video editing, and other times I dread it. Because I already know that it’s going to be impossible to find music that won’t be too depressing, won’t be too happy, too distracting, irritating – in short, that won’t even…
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Tired of Shelling Out Ten Grand to Sing “Happy Birthday”?
What’s that? You’re not paying Time Warner, the copyright holder, for the rights to sing “Happy Birthday to You” in a public place? You could be opening yourself up to a lawsuit! That’s apparently what they charge. It’s probably just enough to earn a coupla million a year, but not quite enough to prompt a…
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Underwater Videography: Things I’ve Learned
If you’ve ever managed to take along a camera snorkeling, you probably had the same reaction I did when you got your finished footage home to the computer: “It looks nothing like it did when I was actually snorkeling.” Colors are washed out, everything is a dingy blue, all the fish you saw are nowhere…
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Madagascar on 12.12.12 part II: the Snake
For my second installment in the “One Day on Earth” project, in which filmmakers around the world are invited to contribute footage which may be used in a feature-length film, I was also in Madagascar’s Andasibe-Mantadia National Park. Technically, we were in the “Réserve Spéciale d’Analamazaotra,” and we were watching an indri (the largest kind…
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Madagascar on 12.12.12 part I: the Lemurs
If you’ve been following this blog, you’ll know that I have been pretty excited about 12.12.12. Why? Because that’s the day the third “One Day on Earth” film is to be recorded in every country around the world. The first film, recorded on 10.10.10, was in my Christmas stocking this year (you can order yours…
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Still Needed for “One Day on Earth” by 12.12.12
I’ve blogged before about the exciting worldwide film project to be filmed on 12.12.12 – see One Day on Earth’s website for more details. As we approach the final few days, please spread the word that the organizers still need a few more countries: Europe: Luxembourg, Andorra, Bosnia, Liechtenstein, Macedonia Africa: Guinea-Bissau, Djibouti, Liberia, Cote…
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A Day in Lüderitz – Two Different Soundtracks
Recently my daughter and I took a trip to the small, somewhat odd Namibian coastal town of Lüderitz. I say it’s odd because we arrived on a Saturday afternoon, after driving a long, winding road which seemed unable to keep the sand dunes at bay – at several points the dunes were slowly making their…
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One Day on Earth: the 12/12/12 trailer is here!
On 10/10/10 and 11/11/11, filmmakers all around the world collaborated to create a film that captured life on earth on those specific days. The trilogy is going to be completed on 12/12/12 and the best news is that you can take part! First, take a look at the trailer, then I’ll explain what needs to…
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My Entries in FVAP.gov’s Video Contest
I decided to go out on a limb and enter another video contest after a long break. FVAP.gov, the federal absentee voting site, is hosting a contest wherein people can win $1,000 in five different categories. Unfortunately (but fortunately for me) it doesn’t seem to be too well publicized. And it’s one of the few…
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2012 Project Reason Video Contest Winners
Check out this year’s winners of the Project Reason video contest. I worked on en entry for this a few years ago (when the contest first started and there was still a chance of winning) but now the entries have gotten too good for an amateur like me. Winner gets $10,000! More information on the…
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21 Sunsets – a timelapse project
I love doing timelapses – especially of natural phenomena. But I admit it can be a lot harder than it first appears – if you want to do it right. But moving to Namibia and finding housing on a westward-facing hill – I knew that would be a great opportunity to hone my timelapse skills.…
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“One Day on Earth” Music Video
The “One Day on Earth” project, which collected video from all over the world on 11.11.11 (and also, by the way, on 10.10.10), has stitched all their footage together into a full-length film, which is to be screened at many venues worldwide on April 22 – Earth Day. One of the benefits of contributing is…
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Best music for hanging out with giraffes
When you’re editing vacation videos, it’s always fun to come up with the best music – ideally one that conveys the right mood, maybe something that relates to the place you’re visiting. But sometimes the best music to convey the mood is no music at all. In this video, we managed to get awfully close…
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iPad for video and music creation
Although you can’t beat the price for video and music editing software when it comes to iFilm and GarageBand for the iPad, trying to create a video from top to bottom using nothing but an iPad 2 still leaves a bit to be desired. Probably people who have never used any other video or music…