I have spent at least 10 hours in the past week getting up to speed on using our new Canon FS100 video camera, and learning how to edit and post those videos on YouTube and some of the new blogs I have also created in the past week.
The primary motivation was our friends Jenn and Cole getting married on Friday April 30 at a winery in Denver - Bonacquisti Wine Company. The wedding was a home-grown wedding, and friends and family took on some of the roles like catering and photography. While they did find an official professional photographer, it gave me the opportunity to take more pictures and videos than normal without being too annoying.
One of the things I enjoy about doing this for friends at a wedding is that you get a unique opportunity to introduce yourself to people. "Hi, I'm Andy. Can I take your picture?" was my standard introduction, and it allowed me to break the ice in a less awkward manner to friends and family of the bride and groom. But, with a video camera, I can also get "confessionals" that end up covering a spectrum from sweet to comical.
Here's a slideshow of the 283 pictures that Deb and I snapped at the gathering.
The confessionals were generally 5 to 30 seconds long, and often began with "Is it on now?". This required me to not only learn how to import the files from the camera, but to edit out the parts that weren't part of the intended message. It was a little clunky at first, but eventually I learned how to drag the border overlaid on the movie frames to begin or end the segment exactly where I wanted. Once "clipped", I then dragged the finished segment to the project window, where it followed previous segments.
What I haven't learned yet is how to put a clip into the middle of two other segments - something for another day. So, I was required to work sequential to my final work. Not too big a deal for a short 10 minute video.
I was able to upload the movies directly to YouTube using the iMovie software - a native function of the software using a pull-down menu. It allowed me to put a Title and Description on the YouTube video prior to upload, as well as tags.
I decided that since this movie was personal, I needed to have a new personal video account on YouTube, so as not to mix it with videos for our business. While this might be a problem for some programs, apparently iMovie has overcome this obstacle before, and you can actually have it remember multiple YouTube accounts. Makes me wonder what the rest of the world is doing with videos, needing multiple accounts.
Overall, I was impressed with the quality of the Canon FS100 camera, as it captured the sound of my subjects very well - even in the noisy gathering of a wedding. It even worked well outdoors, later in the evening, when the bride and groom gave Darcy (arguably the Maid of Honor) a scooter due to a wager placed years ago on who would get married first.
While I know I have a long way to go in video editing, I was proud to have accomplished this small project, and get the basic skills necessary to do more frequent video promotions of the products we sell at debnroo.com. I made a video on Saturday for the Wall o' Water Repair Kits that turned out well - even at sunset with super-bright light. I even did a short video of Wilson and Sunshine in the OctoGarden with the music of Thievery Corporation playing from our Bose speakers sitting on the air conditioner. Again, the quality of the sound pickup from this cameral was impressive.
I'd love to hear comments from any of you videographers out there who can judge my initial work, and perhaps offer tips. I feel like I have so much to learn, but am proud of the fact I can at least deliver content to our sites and our blogs.
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