My Experience With Digital Video

My previous post describes the problems I had initially with my video clips, however once I mastered the conversion process, I realized the rest of the process would be relatively easy. For my first production, I convinced my two children to by my actors. I thought they did a superb job, and of course I edited out the "are you done, yet" comments. Since my group did their presentation on MovieMaker, I was pretty familiar with how the program worked. If anything the process was tedious because the program had trouble running with all of the clips I had imported and added to the storyline. I was definitely saving after each change because at times the program would run so slowly that I had to stop and restart my computer. Overall, I gained an incredible appreciation for the video editing process.

My second assignment for video production stirred quite a few emotions, from apprehensive, to scared, to excited, and then back to worrisome. Since I am working on a project for Dallas Children's Network, we decided to shoot some footage of the area in which which the project is focusing, South Dallas. South Dallas is a low-income area of Dallas where crime is one of the highest in the city. Dr. Springer and I were headed down to the area to meet with the executive director of the Jubilee Center and we decided this would be a good time to shoot our video as well. I started feeling apprehensive about the shoot prior to our meeting because I wasn't sure I would be able to get decent video. Driving around in South Dallas makes me nervous. We made our plan after our meeting to drive around, as slowly as possible, without drawing too much attention. I took quite a bit of video and got quite a few strange looks from pedestrians. At one point I will admit to being scared and I was very close to saying I had shot enough, even though I knew I wanted a few more clips. South Dallas has very little economic development, boarded houses are common, and men walking around at 10 a.m. with drinks in brown paper bags are more than one would like to see. After getting decent footage of boarded homes and boarded businesses, there was one shot I definitely wanted to shoot. Directly across the street from DISD's Lincoln High School is a local nightclub. I thought this pan shot would tell a great story in my movie. The only problem was that I wasn't willing to get out of my car to shoot the entire shot from one side of the street to the other. Once I arrived safely back home, I converted the clips using my free download of DivX and got to work with MovieMaker. I worked with what I had, edited as well as I could, and was overall thrilled and excited about how the clips were coming together. Although I'm very happy with my movie, I do wish I would have felt comfortable shooting the video outside the confines of the car. So, this is where my worry comes in regarding my assignment. I didn't complete each of the four requirements, however for Dallas Children's Network, I think my movie tells a good story, and one I want others to know.

I knew how to switch it on and press record....

Sure, I've got two children and I have recorded various memories of them with our digital camera, but I simply turned it on and pressed record. My husband also usually confiscates the camera often because he attaches it to his race car and then comes home and studies the lines at the track. Therefore, he usually downloads, stores, and deals with all of the videos. I consider him very tech savvy, and I'm quick to pick up the phone or call him to deal with my computer problems. He's also a professor of finance at SMU, and has been integrating multimedia projects into his classes since we lived in Bloomington, Indiana almost 8 years ago. So, I usually trust him when he has technology advice.

I had all the knowledge I needed to shoot clips for the two assignments we were given. I got this part of the assignment finished, sat down to download the files, found a hole in my computer where the chip would fit and transferred the clips easily. I viewed the clips and they looked great. I opened MovieMaker, and this is where my problems began. Every time I attempted to import the video I received a horrible error. I did some Internet searching found out I needed a codec to turn my mod files into avi files. At this point I decided to call my husband to see if he had experienced the same situation. His answer was, "I hate to tell you this, but I've spent days and weeks working on this same problem, and I have never been able to download the video into MovieMaker." My spirits dropped, I asked him if he had ever tried DivX, and I thought to myself, I'll give at least one converter a shot and then I will give up. After a quick download, I was converting files within 10 minutes. Hahaha, I did it. I was so pumped and excited, to be honest. I had mastered a technology problem and felt quite empowered. I spent the next 5 hours converting files. It was very tedious, but I was able to get it done. Now my first assignment is complete and I'm ready to work with my clips for DCN's website.

P.S. If you are wondering if I called my husband back to rub it in that I was able to convert files he had tried for weeks to do......of course I did.