Video Clips. Part 1

My typical movie making setup is shown in the picture: the digital camera is placed in a waterproof case, mounted on a minitripod, and put on the front deck of my canoe or kayak where can I reach it from the cockpit. It would be interesting to construct some sort of remote control device to press shutter button in the waterproof case. Then the camera could be placed in the bow or stern of the boat.

I started with some freeware software for editing video clips, but, soon invested in Adobe Premiere. It is expensive but a lot of fun. You can combine several tracks of video and audio, add titles and transition effects. I am still learning ...

The built-in microphone doesn't provide very high quality recording, especially, when the camera is locked in the waterproof case. In most cases, you just record a noise of wind. Nevertheless, I am using recorded sounds including water and birds in my movies. For my first video clip, Boyd Lake I recorded flute music played by my wife Connie. Next, I used the music from SmartSound Quicktracks included with the Adobe Premiere and soundtracks from Narrator Tracks. There are a lot of places on internet to buy a royalty free music, but it's not cheap.

I am combining movies with my still shots and other pictures, e.g., maps of Everglades Challenge. In addition to Adobe Premiere, I am also using Adobe Photoshop.

During the first seven months of my video adventure, I prepared seven video clips, mostly from a local paddling in northern Colorado: Boyd Lake, Horsetooth Reservoir, Arapaho Bend featuring my new outrigger canoe, South Platte River, but also from Pyramid Lake paddling in Nevada, 2002 Texas Water Safari, and 2003 WaterTribe Everglades Challenge in Florida.

All video clips on my website are presented in 320x240 resolution in avi or wmv (Windows Media Player) formats. These are relatively big files up to 12 Mb. Some clips are also prepared in a lower resolution/quality for faster downloading. It is a real editing challenge to make these movies small enough for the internet.

Canon PowerShot camera reviews: S40, S45, and S50 at the Lumineous Landscape: Has the Digicam "Arrived"?