Reflective Sun

Back in the spring I visited the New Orleans Museum of Art Sculpture Garden. While wandering around I walked across a bridge over the pond in the garden. The reflections of sunlight intrigued me enough to shoot video of the rippling light. I played with the music and let this project sit. Well here it is. The music was assembled in Garage Band '09 Version 5.1 (398).


1 min 11 sec

Jukebox

This is my first video since installing iMovie '09. I used the new stabilization feature. The video music was assembled in Garage Band '09 Version 5.0.1 (358). The jukebox was filmed in a bar in Bay St. Louis, MS.



1 min 22 sec

New Software

For some time I’ve been on the fence about this particular blog. My original intent was to place my experimental videos here. But with the release of iMovieHD I no longer had the unusual filters, playful titles and speed controls for editing. I attempted to edit in the old program and then import to the new one – since I have two Macs. Unfortunately I ended up with a strange black box around two videos – much to my chagrin.

With the release of iMovie ’09 some of the unusual filters, playful titles and speed controls for editing are back. There are some new ones. In addition I have purchased Final Cut Express 4. Friends have told me it is very similar to Final Cut Pro. It’s a program that is in between iMovie and Final Cut Pro. I still need to become more familiar with both programs.

iMovie HD vs. iMovie

When I found out there was a new upgrade for iLife I decided to look at the presentations on the Apple site. Of course I wanted to learn about the new features. Well, that had me sold - at least initially.

All excited, I went ahead and purchased the new software. I installed it and was looking at the tutorials. In the newspaper I noticed a review that stated that new version of iMovie left out some features included in older versions of the software. Later when I checked, I confirmed what the review said. There are fewer titling and credit options and no fun filters.

On the upside, the new version has more precise tools for editing and a new Adjust window menu – like the one included in iPhoto. The handling of sound looks easier for making transitions between sounds – that really irked me in a recent video I made using the older version.

Fortunately I have two Macs. So, now I have the new version on one Mac and the old version on the other Mac. That is not ideal, but it gives me the ability to build a project using both machines. Hopefully this step backwards will be rectified. It is irritating when this kind of trade-off is made. Recently, I used two special effects included in the old version of iMovie to make the movie posted below.

Road Home Highway

This was filmed as I drove home on I-10. The video footage was manipulated in iMovie HD. Then "Breakbeat", music from iLife, was added.


2 min 8 sec

Gallery Spin

Last fall I shot this video at the Westwego Art Center. I had gallery duty and I was bored silly. When I got home I wasn’t that thrilled with the footage I shot. Since then I played with special effects and finally settled on “ghost trails.”

Last night I played with sounds for a bit. This afternoon I finally settled on the music combination that you hear. This it I kept it simple.

On the morning of December 22nd this space was covered with water because of a flash flood. I blogged about the flood on pic folio.


1 min 32 sec

Pine Rotation Effect

This is the pine tree behind my house. I played with "iMovieHD" and "GarageBand 2" software to make this.


1 min 4 sec