“Sunset #6” and Relaxation Video

I made some progress on my “Sunset #6” video and worked on a little side project for my personal use.

“Sunset #6”

I recorded the sounds outside one evening when it was quite windy out. I added that to the sound track of the sunset video I shot earlier. It turned out OK.

One of the problems with the sound was the extraneous background noises, like buses going by and some hot shot in a sports car speeding down Crowchild Trail. I had cut out some of the more obvious disruptive sounds, but didn't really notice the others. I may go back and cut them out, or I may try a new recording on another windy night.

I usually put my videos on a USB stick. I can plug that into my TV. With the sunset video after it plays for a while, maybe an hour, it hangs up. I have to unplug the TV to get it to work again. I use Premiere Pro CS4 for my editing. It is getting long in the tooth, so I wonder if it uses an outdated CODEC. I have been experimenting with ffmpeg lately, so I used it to reformat the mp4 file. The file was about half the size, and it worked just fine on the TV.

All the same, I wonder if I should upgrade my editor. I installed the free version of Lightworks, but found it difficult to understand. I'm not sure I would use Premiere Pro enough to justify the annual fee.

My new microphone comes on a stand with hand tightened screws on it. Some how I managed to screw one side so tight I couldn't move it. I had to get out my pliers to loosen it up.

Relaxation Video

I worked on another little project – mainly for myself. I had a video of water ripples I shot in Jasper back in 2009. I had recut it earlier to make it longer by cycling the video. Because I've been so tense and that was affecting my sleep, I wanted to add a relaxation exercise to it. I had a recording I got at a relaxation seminar about 30 years ago. I've used it off and on for many years. I added that to the video. I tried it out last night and I nearly went to sleep. I still was a bit tense when I went to bed, but I know that you need to practice it for quite a while before it real becomes effective.

I am not that happy with the video itself. Although I like the image and sound, the image quality is poor. It was in Standard Definition and I had to zoom in so I could move the image to eliminate my hand jitters. The resulting image is very fuzzy. I would like to reshoot it some time. My hand jitters have not improved, but I know better than to try to do these things hand held, and I do have a tripod. Three tripods actually.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog