DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY: On Sept. 8th I journeyed to the Orange County seaside burg of Dana Point to view the "Tall Ships", large three masted schooners, some of which were to have a mock sea battle in Dana Point harbor. I got to the location at 10am and it turns out the sea battle wasn't going to be until 5:30pm that evening. There wasn't really much to see after about 3 or 4 hours, and I was hungry at 2pm (and there weren't many good food booths either) so I left the Tall Ships Festival with about 45 minutes of footage shot on the five moored ships (there were seven scheduled, but only five showed up) which weren't moving.
My vision for the "movie" was going to of course include footage of the ships in "battle". The tickets to board the battling ships was a whopping $65.00 and taking footage from a ferry which was going to be alongside the tall ships doing battle cost $30.00. I wanted to evoke those old Warner's swashbucklers starring Errol Flynn. (Or those pirate movies starring Johnny Depp as Captian Jack Sparrow) My initial plans were dashed, and I had to re-envision my "movie".
When my entry about credit card woes shot to the top of Xanga's front page, and I began to get a lot of visitors, I figured to post a "MikeVideo Internet Movie" as the next entry, and had some footage from Griffith Park in the computer, but got another epiphany about how to use the "tall ships" footage. While staying indoors Saturday (our first rainstorm of the season hit right at the autumnal equinox) and "replying" to the dozens of comments on the credit cards entry, I began to upload the footage from two tapes into the computer. Since I need a faster memory card this process took a while, and I was finished at around 8pm. I opened a fresh project file in the Sony Vegas moviemaking software, and imported the files I had just uploaded. I did some elementary positioning, but by 11pm I was in bed.
Bright and early Sunday morning (it was actually dark when I awoke at 5am) I began an image search for "tall ships", "sailing ships', "three masted schooners' , and "sailing ship paintings". I had rethought my video, and I figured I'd use the on ship footage I shot for "close ups" and use the images of sailing ships throughout the video. I still had some sea shanties music files from my
"Nantucket Holiday" series of videos, and by combining these elements, I hoped I had enough for a short video showcasing "The Tall Ships".
It turns out I had much more video footage than I thought (as usual, but this is a much better problem than having too little footage.). I had shots taken aboard all five tall ships, plus footage of Dana Point itself, with the harbor liesure boat traffic and dogs frolicking in the sand. I also shot some footage inside the Ocean Institute, which hosted the festival.
It took most of the early part of Sunday to assemble the footage into a "movie". I still have a lot of images and photos of tall ships that I could have included, but wanted to post a finished "film" by early afternoon, in order to get comments from return visitors to my site on whom I'd already commented. As it happened, most of the return comments went on the credit woes entry because I wasn't ready with the video.
I don't like to "rush" anything, especially a video, and I had to clean up some errant pixels (I'll have to figure out where this problem is coming from, which affected my last video as well. Might be cheap tape on which I'm shooting) and find a suitable music track. There were two sea shanties I'd downloaded but hadn't used on the Nantucket videos, but I couldn't find the credits for the music. I usually am pretty good about listing the sources for all the elements in my videos that I don't create myself. As with the video
"Clowns" (2006) which uses lots of web based material I merely assembled into a video slideshow, a lot of stuff might or might not be copyrighted. I put a disclaimer on the video in the end credits, but I am sort of ashamed that I can't identify the music.
I shot some footage at the Festival of a guy and gal singing and playing on one of the ships, but I photographed the playbill at the stage in the park, (of which I ended up not using any footage or music) and I neglected to ask the singer on the boat for his name. As with my Renaissance Day videos, I'm shooting "actors" in "costume" and at the Faire there are too many to list. The singers in this Tall Ships video however are featured prominently , and I'm now sorry I didn't get them credited.
The video is 7 minutes and 37 seconds long. As I edited it, I took out most of the footage which wasn't shot directly onboard the tall ships. I'm actually very pleased with the results. This does give the "feel" of a swashbuckler. As usual, I utilized "movement" on the stills so that they seamlessly mix with the live footage. The other song prominently featured in the video "Way Down Rio" was obtained from a websearch last year and I sure wish I could locate the name of the English group who sings it. Similarly, the French ditty I use is not credited.
Somebody mentioned in a comment that the "fish" looked out of place. That's the only bit of footage of the inside of the Ocean Institute that remains, and it 'belongs' because there are fish in the sea on which the tall ships navigate. The sound quality using the singers onboard the Exy Johnson vessel is bad in a few places, especially when the wind kicks up. I didn't realize there was that much wind that could be heard when I shot the vid or else I would have cupped my hand over the microphone. Also some of the tourists onboard can be heard over the singing. I didn't think I'd use as much of that performance as I did.
The "profile pic" I'm using on this entry is the one I created back when I had my eyepatch from the cataract surgery. The pirate's hat is digitally "photoshopped" onto my head.
Presenting A Brand New MikeVideo Production:"The Tall Ships" 7:38 minutes"The Tall Ship's" is my 20th video addition to my Xanga Video Section.DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY: On Sept. 8th I journeyed to the Orange County seaside burg of Dana Point to view the "Tall Ships", large three masted schooners, some of which were to have a mock sea battle in Dana Point harbor. I got to the location at 10am and it turns out the sea battle wasn't going to be until 5:30pm that evening. There wasn't really much to see after about 3 or 4 hours, and I was hungry at 2pm (and there weren't many good food booths either) so I left the Tall Ships Festival with about 45 minutes of footage shot on the five moored ships (there were seven scheduled, but only five showed up) which weren't moving.My vision for the "movie" was going to of course include footage of the ships in "battle". The tickets to board the battling ships was a whopping $65.00 and taking footage from a ferry which was going to be alongside the tall ships doing battle cost $30.00. I wanted to evoke those old Warner's swashbucklers starring Errol Flynn. (Or those pirate movies starring Johnny Depp as Captian Jack Sparrow) My initial plans were dashed, and I had to re-envision my "movie".When my entry about credit card woes shot to the top of Xanga's front page, and I began to get a lot of visitors, I figured to post a "MikeVideo Internet Movie" as the next entry, and had some footage from Griffith Park in the computer, but got another epiphany about how to use the "tall ships" footage. While staying indoors Saturday (our first rainstorm of the season hit right at the autumnal equinox) and "replying" to the dozens of comments on the credit cards entry, I began to upload the footage from two tapes into the computer. Since I need a faster memory card this process took a while, and I was finished at around 8pm. I opened a fresh project file in the Sony Vegas moviemaking software, and imported the files I had just uploaded. I did some elementary positioning, but by 11pm I was in bed.Bright and early Sunday morning (it was actually dark when I awoke at 5am) I began an image search for "tall ships", "sailing ships', "three masted schooners' , and "sailing ship paintings". I had rethought my video, and I figured I'd use the on ship footage I shot for "close ups" and use the images of sailing ships throughout the video. I still had some sea shanties music files from my "Nantucket Holiday" series of videos, and by combining these elements, I hoped I had enough for a short video showcasing "The Tall Ships".It turns out I had much more video footage than I thought (as usual, but this is a much better problem than having too little footage.). I had shots taken aboard all five tall ships, plus footage of Dana Point itself, with the harbor liesure boat traffic and dogs frolicking in the sand. I also shot some footage inside the Ocean Institute, which hosted the festival.It took most of the early part of Sunday to assemble the footage into a "movie". I still have a lot of images and photos of tall ships that I could have included, but wanted to post a finished "film" by early afternoon, in order to get comments from return visitors to my site on whom I'd already commented. As it happened, most of the return comments went on the credit woes entry because I wasn't ready with the video.I don't like to "rush" anything, especially a video, and I had to clean up some errant pixels (I'll have to figure out where this problem is coming from, which affected my last video as well. Might be cheap tape on which I'm shooting) and find a suitable music track. There were two sea shanties I'd downloaded but hadn't used on the Nantucket videos, but I couldn't find the credits for the music. I usually am pretty good about listing the sources for all the elements in my videos that I don't create myself. As with the video "Clowns" (2006) which uses lots of web based material I merely assembled into a video slideshow, a lot of stuff might or might not be copyrighted. I put a disclaimer on the video in the end credits, but I am sort of ashamed that I can't identify the music.I shot some footage at the Festival of a guy and gal singing and playing on one of the ships, but I photographed the playbill at the stage in the park, (of which I ended up not using any footage or music) and I neglected to ask the singer on the boat for his name. As with my Renaissance Day videos, I'm shooting "actors" in "costume" and at the Faire there are too many to list. The singers in this Tall Ships video however are featured prominently , and I'm now sorry I didn't get them credited.The video is 7 minutes and 37 seconds long. As I edited it, I took out most of the footage which wasn't shot directly onboard the tall ships. I'm actually very pleased with the results. This does give the "feel" of a swashbuckler. As usual, I utilized "movement" on the stills so that they seamlessly mix with the live footage. The other song prominently featured in the video "Way Down Rio" was obtained from a websearch last year and I sure wish I could locate the name of the English group who sings it. Similarly, the French ditty I use is not credited.Somebody mentioned in a comment that the "fish" looked out of place. That's the only bit of footage of the inside of the Ocean Institute that remains, and it 'belongs' because there are fish in the sea on which the tall ships navigate. The sound quality using the singers onboard the Exy Johnson vessel is bad in a few places, especially when the wind kicks up. I didn't realize there was that much wind that could be heard when I shot the vid or else I would have cupped my hand over the microphone. Also some of the tourists onboard can be heard over the singing. I didn't think I'd use as much of that performance as I did.The "profile pic" I'm using on this entry is the one I created back when I had my eyepatch from the cataract surgery. The pirate's hat is digitally "photoshopped" onto my head.
Comments (26)
Just wanted to congratulate you on making featured the other day. I smiled when I saw your name.
i love tall ships - they have come through here on Lake Erie.
Very nice. I recently started editing video. I use Pinnacle Studio. The editor is pretty easy to use, but the main reason I got it was so I could burn the movies I make onto dvd and this feature apparently does not work with Windows Vista (I should have gotten a Mac, I guess). I can still upload things to the internet, though.
Ryan
I had an opportunity to visit a Tall Ships Festival once. Missed it.
re: Haha, wow -- all I can say is: Here's hoping I someday manage _your_ level of improvisational skills. Well done, sir.
wonderful! I too smiled when I saw you there.. I hope all is well and you are happy
how much do I LOVE that profile picture???!!!
I'm diggin' the video. Also, cool profile pic.
To your post below about not receiving comments: I try to come your site but your blog slays my computer with all the links, videos, music, etc. I read your posts from my sub.s page but I don't visit much for fear that my computer will crash again.
Avast ye filmmaker, looks like this event just missed the talk like a pirate day by a week...
So trying to get your video creds, huh? Maybe you will be discovered?
Well since I ragged you, I guess I'll try viewing the video....
I lie to myself and say I never get sea sick....but ships, boats and ocean water at sea condition yellow or red, hate my freakin' guts literally. The lake with my jet propulsion racing boat is on the other hand...perfectly fine for some reason. Salt water hates me too. So I was never a sea mariner, but lake mariner...yes.
Mike, Thanks so much for your comments, I am glad you liked "Blueberries on the Mountain."
I agree with you that the less political the art the longer it lasts. Have a great week and I like that profile pic with the pirate hat, cool!
Thanks for the nice comment. I see you're an awesome person and will subscribe to you
Dear Michael F. Nyiri,
Thank you for your comment.The tall ships are classical and I like those.
In Chinese History,there were many famous philosophers and poets. I have learned a little of their philosophy.
If you like,we could discuss it.
for L. poon(weak sheep)
i'll be back today to watch and leave a comment about it, i pinky promise!
but i wanted to say that the thing that surprised was that i had footprints of visitors from your site to all three of mine. and jerjon (my short story site) rarely has visitors- which is ok bc i don't use that one often. i just thought it was a funny little happy thing! it's also a bit "odd" that you had soooooo many comments right after you post about xanga being quiet! lol! fate- it can be a funny funny thing. and xanga fate... seems even funnier sometimes! 
i wonder how many of your new readers will stay? that'd be interesting to see! 
I do love ships. Your posts are always inspiring and your a great writer.... I wish I was. Everyone around me writes about some great things....
Yep I think I do have a stalker and hates it. He shuts his sites down after he realizes I block him and send john after him. The problem is he has created two or three sites already and they are nasty ones. I had messaged john and told him once again I am afrad he is looking at the kids and that my dear aint gonna happen. That is why I went to xanga lock and wont ever be featured.
Have a good one and sorry to vent but he is nasty.....
thank you.write peoms myself you know
Hi Mike,
Excellent job you've done of your video! :coolman: It's a shame the "sea battle" wasn't going to be staged until much later in the day. Boy it was very expensive to board those ships! I suppose taking into account insurance costs these days etc, it's not that surprising. The Tall Ships look magnificent!! There have been exhibitions of them in Sydney on numerous occasions and it's always fun and inspirational to see them.
You have a very good site here. Lots of bells and whistles, not to mention some decent writing and poetry. I plan to stop back when I have more time. I recommend that you stop by Prometheus site. He has been blogging in Xanga since 01 and has a lot of good stuff in his archives. Keep up the good work on your site.
Thanks,
MB
Hey, thanks for the comment on my blog! It's been awhile since I got one so I was a little surprised! But most of my entries lately have just been me venting about personal things no one wants to read about. But perhaps my entries will change in the future. The last two have been good. No venting, which makes me happy! I actually had a friend who had to be the head of the house even before he was 21 because his Dad had left and his mom couldn't find a job. I still have no clue how he supported her and got through college at the same time! And that's great that you managed to get around LA without a car! I can't imagine that long of a commute on top of a long work day! Ouch! I think I heard of another car sharing program that might be out there. I know there is another one called Flex Car I think, it's a little different, but essentially the same thing.
That's funny that you mention Jack Sparrow since I just watched Dead Man's Chest last night! And that's an awesome video too! I love the music, even if the wind is kinda loud. I see someone mentioned lake boating in a comment above...and as much as tall ships are really cool, I love canoeing on a lake, and have recently discovered kayaking! I've also discovered that it's a lot of fun to sit out in the middle of the lake in either boat and write in a notebook for awhile, nice and peaceful really. And hey, I can talk to myself without anyone thinking I'm weird, or overhearing me!
Well, anyway, work is calling me, but I'll be sure to come back and visit again! You seem to always have something interesting to post about! -QL
Nice profile pic for this one. i just found your site from a featured.
I'll leave a comment: I'm so sorry you had to wait so long to get to the fair. :jealous: That just wasn't fair! (pun intended)
oh god blesss you for trying to respond to everyone's comments!
lol, and it was nice getting one from you.
ah, and yes, being a waiter/waitress isn't for everyone,
i can def understand that, sometimes i think it's not for me either.
but it's just nice to walk out directly with money,
and just another way to get money and quick.
thanks again!
stop by anytime
lol most of my blog entries are not that profound, all I ever do is whine and bitch because none of my friends can take it. lol jk. I actually don't blog all that often, usually once or twice a month whenever something of emotional intrest comes to mind. Lately they've all been depressing and 90 percent are of me reflecting upon my life. I wish I could write more but if I force it, my writing just becomes shallow and superfical. I do enjoy reading your blog though its very interesting. I'll have to check back more often. Hope you do the same.
Love the pirate get up. Our metro area of California is San Francisco in the Tenderloin Neighborhood. Wherever and however you support the Army is appreciated - and if you're willing to be a volunteer bellringer that can help too since the more hours we can cover at a kettle the closer the goal is to being raised - being creative at kettles is always a hit including costumes, muscians... whatever fun and foolery you can come up with. Think about it. Thanks for checking in, nice to meet a new character on Xanga.
ryc: I was taught there are two kinds of pride: one says "with hard work and the grace of God, I have done this thing," which is good, because it acknowledges that all things are done through God. There is a second kind, though, that says "look at what I did, how wonderful I am, I did this and no one helped me," which is wrong. It is this kind of pride that is considered sin. Thanks for commenting!
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When I look at your blog in Opera, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping.
I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other then that,
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