I have posted two videos so far at my gabTV channel, both consisting of a series of photographs, photographs taken without any thought about turning them into a video. That idea came months later.
On the day I took the photographs of the hawk, and after the close encounter was over, I took the time to record my thoughts about what just happened on my cell phone, without anticipation for it ever becoming a part of a public video. It was just notes for my use, vocal practice to let me get comfortable talking on video. In preparing to make the hawk video, I realize that note-taking video might make a good introduction to the series of photographs.
I learned how to split the clips and how to cut out the parts I did not want to show. Some of those edits are pretty obvious in the video. What the video does not show is my terrible blunder right at the end. Just as I was describing what it happened and pointing my cell phone at the remains of the crawfish, the hawk returned and landed directly in front of where I was standing, while I was pointing my cell phone near where he landed.
I did not expect to see him again. I panicked. Instead of continuing with the video, I turned it off, stuck the phone back in my pocket, and raised up my camera to take a few photos.
That took too long. The hawk was gone.
The original cell phone video showed the hawk landing, slightly out of focus, with me commenting “there he is again.” I chose to leave that part out of the video.
One hurdle that I must jump, or at least find a way to negotiate around it, is what do you do in a situation like that: do you continue with the video, or stop to take photos.
In this situation, I wish I had continued with the video, especially considering how long it took me to get the camera ready to photograph the hawk. I recently rented the Nikon Z9, a powerful new camera. It does both stills and video extraordinarily well. And to switch from one to the other, provided you have your camera already set up for both, only requires the flick of a switch. Of course, the decision of which is more useful in the moment, stills or video, will take quick judgment, a skill I will have to develop.
After a fade in from black, my video consists of a timeline, including the cell phone video introduction, followed by a series of photographs, with a black screen at the end, indicating the end of the video as it fades out. There are also a number of VoiceOver segments, recorded through my PreSonus Revelator microphone directly into iMovie. I used the stock Broadcast Male microphone preset to enhance my voice. I also included a soundtrack that I found online in my YouTube Studio. If I continue this video creation journey, I will probably subscribe to one of the many online sources for music and sound effects for video.
When I mentioned the VoiceOver segments,I was reminded of one of my concerns. I don’t like how I look on video or the sound of my recorded voice. I was never classically handsome, but the years have been tough on my face. And my voice, once strong and confident, has grown weaker from lack of practice and my advancing age.
I noticed a few things about recording VoiceOvers. The most frustrating part was trying to get a few phrases, even just a few words, spoken clearly and correctly, and without a script. I tried reading from a script; sounded too much like I was reading from a script.
I think that my speaking style may improve with practice. But my face ain’t gonna get any cuter. I’ll have to either overcome my vanity, or just stay off camera. Stay tuned for that; I don’t know which way I will decide.
IMovie has video color balance, color correction, cropping and stabilization. I made lite use of the first two in my cell phone video sequence. I learned about the range tool, where you press the letter R and then select an area to which you want to apply some effect or remove a portion of the clip. That made editing a lot easier.
I learned how to apply transitions. That worked well with my chopped up video sequences, but did not seem to do as well between my photos, so I did not use transitions there. I learned how to change the transition duration, quite useful if you know how to use it.
I made a small mistake in my intro. I just realized this a few minutes ago. The Titles in the opening scene are a little hard to see, but if I were to have extended the fade-from-black time for a few seconds, the Titles would’ve been displayed with a black background long enough for the viewer to read them, followed by the scene opening with the title still showing for a second or two. That would’ve looked better.
One of the things that I learned was how my judgment deteriorates when I’m tired or when I’ve spent more time on something than I intended. This project took many hours across a couple of weeks. I watched the video several times before I exported it; no issues were apparent. I exported the video and watched the finished version a number of times before I began to see some of the problems.
There is probably some sort of step-by-step procedure to help you find problem areas at the most advantageous time. I’ve watched a lot of iMovie tutorial videos; haven’t seen one that addresses that issue. I feel certain that some of the time I spent editing was wasted, due to my inexperience with sniffing out the problems in video creation.
Getting the levels right for background sounds, my VoiceOver, and the background music, proved quite a chore. Matching the captured audio on the cell phone video to the VoiceOver was quite difficult. Also, the audio from the video segment changed slightly at one point. Apparently, I had changed the position of my hand as I held the phone, partially blocking the microphone port. No way to fix that.
I used the audio preset Voice Enhance in iMovie to make my voice sound clearer. I also use the reduce background noise preset to remove some of the room sound.
I learned how to fade out and fade in audio, and how to use the Range function to change the audio level in specific areas when needed. Looking back, I should’ve used the range function quite a bit more in my audio segments. Unfortunately, I often had my audio as high as it could get, but my vocal technique failed me and let certain words trail off too quickly. By the time I realized my error, I was too tired and frustrated to want to re-do the VoiceOver.
Earlier, I had imported all my photos into My Media in iMovie. But before that, I spent a great deal of time editing those photos in Lightroom and then exporting them with a preset that gave them the same name plus a sequence number, which proved beneficial. In iMovie, I selected all the photos at once and dragged them down into the timeline. Because of the sequence number, I’m assuming, they appeared in the exact order I wanted.
The next chore was to decide how long to display each photo. If I remember correctly, the default was four seconds, much too long for my purposes. I tested a number of durations, and decided on 7/10 of a second for each photograph, with the exception of the final photograph which stayed onscreen for two seconds, primarily to make some space between the end of my final VoiceOver and the end of the video.
What I neglected to do was include a call-to-action on the final screen. That would’ve been an excellent opportunity to ask folks to subscribe to my gabTV Channel and to click the thumbs up button. The thought of that makes me a little uncomfortable, but that’s something I’ll need to incorporate in the future.
This video is okay as a first try. I learned a lot. I’m sure I’ll do better. I’ll have to concentrate more on my VoiceOvers, and be prepared to let the video rest for a few days if I get frustrated. I have no plans to create a video schedule. That would be a foolish endeavor for me, considering my fluctuating state of mind, my waxing and waning of creative energy, and the less-than-perfect state of my health.
One thing is certain: the reward of completing a video comes in more than one package. To do this project I had to spend many hours over the years learning my craft of photography, including taking the photos out in local parks and editing them back at home, all much healthy fun.
Video is another way to display them. Before, with few exceptions, I had only posted my photos to my group — The Good Morning Brigade. The process of learning video creation exercises my brain, giving me something complicated to think about and figure out how to do. Coming to the end of that process and seeing a finished product is a bit of a boost to the ego.
But reading comments from the folks who watched the video and enjoyed it is the most rewarding part.
I love that feeling.