HD DREAMS is here!

This is my latest labor of love, a look at the Southland through the lens of my new HD camera, edited on my professional editing rig, and available for all to enjoy! (For some reason I can’t get the actual video embedded here on Xanga. Drat. But the following link takes you to YouTube!

http://youtu.be/-YUw1lX3qPI

Back in 2006 I found a use for dozens of unattached shots from miles and miles of DV footage. I made a pastiche internet movie called “Arbitrimage Dreams”. part of my “Dreams” series of art videos. The title was compressed from the words “Arbitrary Images.” The purpose of these vids was to present interesting imagery, matched through editing and music, to make an overall impression. Either spiritual or intellectual, I sometimes didn’t “get” my own projects until after spending hours editing the “footage”.

HD Dreams, my very first overall 1080p full HD MikeVideo Production, is sort of like “Arbitrimage Dreams”. Not only do I use a series of seemingly arbitrary places and images (although the overall video is sort of a valentine to my “hood”, the whole of Southern California, for the most part.)

I’ve made the comparison in writing quite a few times over the past decade or so that for me, creating one of my little “Internet Movies” is the closest thing I, a single man who’s never sired children, been a woman, nor married another person, can get to the experience of giving birth.

My artworks, whether a drawing, a computer generated composite image, a stunning photograph, or an “Internet Movie”, are my children. I’ve got hundreds, thousands, perhaps millions of artistic endeavors, virtual “children”, which, thanks to advances in digital imaging technology and the emergence of the internet and social networking platforms, are easily viewable and available, and which, when complimented on their art or entertainment value, give this single old bald guy a almost motherly aura, and help me to immerse myself in the process of creation.

I feel creation is the most important thing mankind can energize, behold, and pass on into the future.

I realized I was a wee bit behind the times when I upgraded to Sony Movie Studio HD Platinum, and could create full blown 1080p HD movies, but the images from the antiquated DV tape camera I was using weren’t even recorded in HD, but merely 480i, so the images were SD! I put off videomaking for a while until I could upgrade to a powerhouse modern camera. Plans were also made to upgrade to the professional Vegas Pro 12. In late September, Sony offered Pro 12 (Studio) for half price ($250.00). The LCD screen on my old DV videocamera whited out at about the same time. I decided to upgrade to the pro video editing program, and get a top of the line HD videocamera online. The prosumer Panasonic camera, coupled with the editing program, has afforded me the chance to create in sharp, bright full 1080p HD for the first time.

The video lasts a bit over 13 minutes, and is actually about half a dozen “segments” which I edited separately, then coupled together. The images shown in this post are actual screenshots from the 1080p YouTube version of the video. When watching the vid on YouTube, if your computer and monitor can support full HD 1080p without problems, go to the little gear icon on the lower right corner of the video display screen, and click “1080p” at the top of the scrollbar for the best presentation. It looks real good in full screen!

It took me about a month to shoot, assemble, and edit the new video, and I’m proud of my efforts. I hope you like it too.

Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool

(MikeVideo for over 25 years!)

Now Showing! CLICK HERE: http://youtu.be/-YUw1lX3qPI

I don’t think I even posted a News and Notes for last month.  Lots of stuff going on in life and at work. Nothing seems to be going on at Xanga. (for me, anyway.) One comment on my previous post. Oh well, no need to complain. Here’s a rundown real quickly, as I’ve got a lot of work to do.

HEALTH: Two months ago I mentioned the pain in my left arm and shoulder. I’m pretty sure it’s bursitis. I didn’t go in to the doctor for pills. I seem to remember this has flared up before. I just stopped weight training altogether until such time as the pain goes away.

I think I’ll go in for my yearly checkup either this month or next month, so I can get a flu shot ahead of the season. (I didn’t get one last year, so I’m susceptible, and this season is going to be as bad or worse than last year.) I’ll talk about my shoulder, and perhaps get a cortisone shot if that’s advised. I won’t train until I hear from my doctor. I’m not in pain now, and have a full circle of rotation, but I can tell that pain is evident. I passed the due dates for both referrals from my last physical. I have been taking my cholesterol pills, and keeping my diet, but I didn’t go in for new spectacles (cost issue, mainly, the retro horn rimmed “Buddy Holly” specs I want are “back” but they’re a premium buy, and I’ll get them next year.) The colonoscopy can wait too.

WEALTH: I’m buying stuff with my own money. I am using credit cards in “emergency purchasing situations” (see MikeVideo below) but for the most part, the budget is good. I’ll have the consolidation loan paid off in March, granting me the equivalent of about a week’s pay in my pocket each month. Didn’t refi the car. I found out I’m already underwater on the loan. Oh well, it’s only two years old, and I drove my last car for 11 years, so I still feel like the Lancer is “new.” I’m feeling great about my chances for leveling my personal economy and in fact actually saving money, and perhaps begin to travel next year, and this  morning the government of the U.S. is shutting down. Hopefully, this too, shall pass.

MIKEVIDEO: This section contains my latest and greatest news.  I got a new top of the line computer a couple of months ago.  I aimed to purchase a top of the line Pro video editing program, plus an HD videocamera as soon as possible, now that I’ve got a current (well, Windows 7 Home Premium is from 2008, but I didn’t like Win8 and feel blessed I found a new computer with 7premium) operating system, since most programs nowadays don’t even “recognize” Windows XP.

When Xanga announced they were perhaps “going out of business”, I considered subscribing to Adobe Creative Cloud, which adds web hosting, blog hosting, and access to all those great Adobe video and image programs (like Photoshop and Premiere) for $49.99 a month. Too pricey right now, and my budget didn’t allow that option. The program I’ve been using for video for the past five years, Sony Vegas Movie Studio, has a “big brother”: the professional video editing suite called Vegas Pro.

Vegas Pro costs $599.99. That’s a lot of money. I figured when Sony Creative Software offered a “half price sale” later in the year, I’d get the program then. They sent me an email just last week, announcing the sale. So I jumped at the chance. (I’m  so “old school” I wouldn’t download the program into my computer. I wanted a “physical” representation of my purchase, so I had them send me the DVD-ROM. I just couldn’t get my head around paying even $250.00 for something I couldn’t “touch.” LOL.

I got a new videocamera from Amazon.com . Here’s a link to the Panasonic HD-720.  It’s my first all HD videocamera. It even takes stills with more information than the two cameras I have now! (Although I’ll have to do more investigating to find the best picture settings.

I’ve been playing around with the camera and the editing program all weekend. I spent over four hours creating the 9 second opening credit sequence! I’m back in my element, and shall hopefully begin to post some amazing footage. HERE’s a vid of a sailing ship I shot in “miniature mode” (a special effects mode in the camera) from about a 1/4 mile away on zoom. (At 1500X zoom with a tripod, I’ll be taking some beautiful moon shots too as soon as it’s full!)

MikeVideo is now fully “21st Century.” (I think I can make “3D” video too! There’s so much to learn!)

XANGA: Still amazingly disappointed in “the new Xanga”. I can post, like I’m doing now. Thanks to some fellow Xangans, I’ve learned how to import photos. Xanga itself doesn’t seem to be of ANY help. The standard things one should be able to do with a blog program (like add a header image, my personal pet peeve) are not available. Nothing seems to have changed with “themes’ or the “dashboard” since the changeover. (Meaning there are no themes and some controls which are shown on the dashboard won’t work!)  There still is no “front page” or “top blogs.” A lot of Xangans seem to have developed groups of social networks. As usual, I don’t feel a part of this because I don’t blog as much as most folks. I did “answer” all my comments from my last PhotoPost, which got quite a few, but only one comment on my ElectricPoetry post.

I’ve taken much too much time writing this post. And I don’t want my frustrations with Xanga to trump my excitement about my new video capabilities. My next post will hopefully have some links to YouTube videos I’ll be posting. So far, only two snippets have made in online to Facebook (including the one I link to above.) My YouTube Channel is linked in my haphazard “header post” at the top of this blogpage, so if you subscribe, you will get updates when I post new video footage on the channel.

Pretty soon, I intend to have a lot of great stuff online.  The latest MikeVideo is called “HD Dreams” and will, of course, be presented here on my blog, (with “director’s commentary) as has been usual over the past 10 years. (Another thing I hate about paying for this “new Xanga” is that all my videos have disappeared, and I just don’t have the time to re-insert the YouTube links and embeds on dozens of old posts!)  Well, the less I think about Xanga the more I think about my new video capabilities is best.

I can’t even end this post with my usual emoticon. Here…..I’ll have to “type” it.    :)