One of my hobbies is making home videos, using my digital camera and video editing software. I have a lot of fun playing with photos and video clips to make them all blend together in an attractive short video.
Here are a few tips for producing great home videos.
Always carry your camera. You never know when you might be able to get a great video. For instance, I was at the barn the other day and another boarder wanted to turn her horse out with mine. I got some great video footage and photographs of them playing, and was able to turn it into a really fun video (which you can watch below). High quality camera cases enable you to carry your camera with you and still keep it safe. I personally prefer a sling camera bag because it enables you to keep your hands free when you don’t need your camera.
Find a video editing software you like. I am just doing amateur videos at this point, so I use Windows Movie Maker, but there are many more advanced programs on the market. If you plan on using Windows Movie Maker and your camera takes video in Quicktime format, you will also need a video converter tool, such as Rad Video Tools, to convert your videos to a compatible format.
Be careful of copyrights! If you are going to be using your video for anything other than home viewing — for instance, if you are going to be posting it online — be sure you aren’t violating someone else’s copyright. Yes, using a copyrighted song without permission is a violation! You can get around this by using music from the 1920s or earlier, as this is part of the public domain (which means you can use it freely). Also, if you are posting your video on YouTube, you can check their Audioswap feature to see what songs are available – the copyright holders actually give YouTube permission to use the songs, in exchange for advertising (a link people can click to purchase the song).
I think you will find, like I did, that making home videos can be quite addictive and enjoyable. Here is the video I was talking about — I stayed up half the night making this one!
The other day, my mom and I were talking about Somewhere in Time, our favorite of Christopher Reeve’s movies. When I looked it up online, I realized that the 5-year anniversary of Christopher Reeve’s death was earlier this month, on October 10th.
Christopher Reeve was paralyzed in a horseback riding accident in 1995. Despite how much he hated being compared to his role as Superman, he showed what an inner reserve of strength he had when his accident didn’t ruin his life — only motivated him to become involved in promoting neurological research in order to try to find a cure for those paralyzed by spinal cord injuries.
At the time of Reeve’s accident, I didn’t ride, so I never made any connection between his injury and what could happen to me. Now, however, I have a horse I ride regularly, and I’ve even had a few (relatively harmless) falls. When I think of how an accident could change my life and distort all my hopes and dreams, paralysis is the second scariest for me, right after blindness. (I love to read and I’m a writer by profession, so blindness would be the absolute scariest for me.) I don’t even know how we could operate a wheelchair lift in our parking area, or install stair lifts on our basement and porch stairs.
Would I be able to face such a life-changing injury with as much grace and inner strength as Christopher Reeve? I don’t know, but I sure hope I would!
After three and a half years of driving halfway across town to see a movie, a nice new state-of-the-art movie theater has finally been built near our house. Can we say, “FINALLY??!!!!”
It always interests me to see how new establishments deal with the handicapped accessibility requirements. As usual, this theater has the required handicapped parking at the front of the lot, so that a handicapped vehicle has room to operate a wheelchair lift. Also, there are those nifty handicapped buttons on the doors, and the handicapped seating is right in the front where it’s easy for someone to wheel over to — no stair lifts needed.
Other aspects of the theater are quite nice, too. The seating is quite comfortable, and everything looks and smells brand new. The screens are big, the sound is awesome, and the lobby and everything else is clean and attractive.
And of course, the biggest advantage is that it is CLOSE. How we ended up in such a black hole, where there were no theaters, I don’t know — but thankfully those days are over! We went to the new theater for the first time this weekend and saw District 9, and I have to say I’m very, very happy with the theater and the location!
Whether I’m watching a movie or reading a book, one of the things that bugs me more than anything else is when there are glaring errors that they should have caught — and would have, if they had done their research.
For example, in the movie Panic Room the little girl, who is diabetic, is crashing rapidly — in the middle of the night. You are more likely to crash in the middle of the night than when you are awake, so there’s no way she would be on a dose of insulin that would cause her to crash when she would normally be sleeping. They try to explain it away by saying that getting worked up makes her crash, but as a diabetic I can actually tell you that exercise makes you crash, while stress makes your blood sugar go high. But there’s much less danger that way, and it wouldn’t have made for quite as interesting a plot twist, so I think they purposely overlooked the inaccuracy for the sake of building tension.
There are other examples that I can’t think of right now. I often wonder how many mistakes are made in highly technical shows, such as the medical and lawyer shows that were quite popular on TV for a while. Like that show Nip/Tuck that was on for a while — did they get all of the details regarding plastic surgery and hair replacement correct? I’ll bet someone in the industry has a really difficult time watching those types of shows, because of it.
The other night my husband and I sat down to a movie, and I was horrified to see a preview of the movie Bride Wars, which as far as I can tell is the most stereotypical and UN-funny depiction of brides that I have ever seen.
The premise seems to be that these two young women, who have been best friends forever and shared the same dream of getting married in the same venue, end up with their weddings scheduled on the same day. So because the venue is apparently more important to both of them than their friendship (?) they start trying to sabotage one another’s weddings, ignoring the glaringly obvious solution of having a double wedding.
I really hate the whole bridezilla stereotype, and this one just seems to take the cake. The idea that women are so superficial that they would blow off a lifelong friendship over something so fleeting is just ridiculous. What annoys me most is that movies like this continue this notion — which gets so much support in society that it is, for some women, a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The wedding industry obviously is there for a reason — because brides realy do want to be a virtual princess on their big day — but I think sometimes it takes the focus off of what is really important. The custom veils and the wedding tiara are fun and special, but they are nowhere near as important as the vows that you are making, the relationship that you are celebrating, or the friends and family that are there to celebrate with you.
