April 28, 2006

• Video Blog #3: "Welcome to Albequerque"

   

  VIDEO BLOG #3: "WELCOME TO ALBEQUERQUE"

  Whenever I put the finishing touches on one of my "internet movies" nowadays, or when I finished the original Beta "MikeVideos" years ago, I feel almost as if I am metaphorically giving birth, and as
  I wait for the sometimes unweildy and always unstable Pinnacle Studio software to render and create my latest masterpiece, I feel the mix of anticipation that future fathers and mothers must feel
  when they bring a new life into the world.
  I had planned to write of the wonders of digital moviemaking for the masses, utilizing computer software and the latest streaming technologies utilized by Google and YouTube, and about how we
  can all, with an inkling of talent and a lot of effort and enthusiasm, become virtual Stephen Spielbergs. I had planned to write about that. And then I got home from work yesterday, put the finishing touches on "Welcome to Albequerque, the latest "WhenWordsCollide: "Mike's Video Blog"" offering, said a little prayer, and hit the "render" button on the program.
  Four or five hours later, I didn't feel too positive about the future of internet moviemaking, as my Pinnacle software, being the bit*h that she is, decided to only render about half of anything, and then
  stop. Neither shutting down the program, nor rebooting the computer, seemed to produce any reasonable improvements. I could see the slider pass across the created video screen with fits and
  starts until it stopped, stalling like a tin lizzy in the desert of computerbs. "Creating Video file....Please wait....." I waited. Patience is not one of my virtues, but computerbs has instilled a sort of
  false calm before the storm that I settle into whenever things "go wrong". Which, as we all know, is often. I kept hitting the "render" button into the wee hours of the night.
  Because I'm home sick today, I began the arduous task of trying to finish creating the new MikeVideo, and spent another three or four hours needlessly pushing little buttons on the screen. "Cancel"  was the one I hit almost as much as "render". Sometimes I needlessly pressed the little "x" at the upper right hand of the screen to no avail. Rebooting the computer at one time had to be done with the actual pushbutton. As the hours dragged on, I was trying to establish a sort of zenlike communication with the computer gods, but they weren't listening. You know when you do everything you  can about a situation, and you know there's nothing possible that you can accomplish until the tool you're using is either replaced or starts working again. The computer usually "starts working" again after a while.
  And a while more.
  My dreams of posting a blog entry today started to fade.
  And I put away the "essay" I was writing, which contained the following:
  Now, of course my meager video offerings are certainly not as important as giving birth to a child, I did say "metaphorically", after all. But I do feel that this is important work, and since I'm childless I
  have always expended a great deal of energy and cost in pursuing my video hobby. The internet is really speeding up the process, and while most people are turning the cameras on themselves after
  being inundated with over a decade of 'reality' programs on TV and the media, I was making audio tapes in the sixth grade, and was at the forefront of personal videomaking when the cameras and
  the tape transports were two different pieces of equipment, and the battery alone weighed 15 pounds or more.
  In fact, when my neice Autumn at age 12 in 1987 saw my 90 minute "The Uncle Mike Story", my autobiography up to the time tailored for a 12 year old who didnt' know me, she asked why I wasn't
  on "America's Funniest Home Videos", since that was one of the early benchmark home video series.
  That's where I stopped writing.
  The next paragraphs were going to laud the arrival of "easy video creation" for the people, and about how we'll all have our own television stations on the web. Perhaps we'll all die of old age while
  making these video programs. Well, I hate to tell ya, making these videos isn't exactly easy yet. I have increased computer memory four times while pursuing this hobby, and maxed out a lot of
  credit cards in the process of my "experimentation." I'm glad I am childless, because their clothes, food, shoes, and schooling cost money which I, like an "eternal youth" without any hair, have
  squandered on digital skullduggery and narcissistic dreams.
  I did finally finish the latest Video Blog #3: Welcome to Albequerque. I'm uploading it to YouTube as I write. It is now almost 1PM. I'm still sick, although in front of the puter and not in bed. I finally
  had to use part of the previous half completed video, another half I was able to render, and complete the last two minutes including the closing music credits in Windows Moviemaker, a pretty good
  free program which comes with Windows XP and creates windows media files. Because the Pinnacle Studio saves both MPEG and WMV but only opens MPEG, and the Windows Moviemaker doesnt' open MPEG it took a lot longer than anticipated to create the movie.
  My latest Videoblog is what I call a 'travelblogue". I found an hour's worth of footage I shot in 2000 in Albequerque when visiting Regina on the Lovesearch. It was taken with my original digital
  videocamera which didn't have wide angle or digital inputs and outputs. I didn't remember shooting half the footage until I watched it a few times. (When creating videos, you watch the footage many
  times while editing, and the editing process can take a long time. I took three months to shoot and edit the 90 minute "Uncle Mike Story" in 1987 with three videotape recorders and a camera. I took
  three evenings to create the this Videoblog. I had already created the credit sequence, and I added the music after I edited the images. The previous MikeVideo, "Pacific Coast Highway Slideshow"
  took about a month to put together because I edited each individual photo or "shot" to the music beat, and when I added or deleted a "shot" I had to adjust the rest of the shots to the audio again.
  I should warn you that this Video Blog, which probably should have been made as a regular MIkeVideo Internet Movie, lasts nine minutes long. I take you to old downtown, the KiMo theater, Church of San Felipe de Neri,  the Petroglyph National Monument, Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, the Tinkertown Museum, and end up in the Sandia mountains. Lot of ground to cover, and I edited it down as short as I could, without leaving out anything. Adding the new "Credit Sequence" to the Video Blog, which makes it look more like a professional television show, and adding my own "introduction sequence" adds two minutes to the "film". I hope you enjoy it.
  I apologize for the lower resolution than usual. I had to lower the image quality in order to get the length of the video intact. Just don't play the program full screen and it should give you a pretty good view alongside me as I travel around Albequerque and environs.
  As is usual with these "internet movies", which stream from my YouTube site, sometimes they are quite slow, especially on older computers, and depending upon the amount of users for YouTube
  at any given time, and they have LOTS of users. If you hit play, and then pause, and wait a while (could be up to 10 minutes on real old machines I understand) till the light gray slider is at least half
  way across the little screen, then most of the buffering is complete, and you won't see the video stop and then take a few minutes to start again.
  

  • 4:50 pm
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