Growing Pains

OK I suppose I'm growing as an instructor. I'm learning new techniques for working with videos and preparing them for uploading. Again, because we started off with unfriendly hardware (Sony handicam mini dvd) this process has been a PAIN IN THE BUTT!!! Previous blog entries discussed our issues of converting the files to some format that would allow editing within Apple's imovies program. That was fate's Christmas present to me. We found a free conversion program and spent the time between Christmas and New Year's finalizing minidvds, copying to larger dvds, converting the files from vob to mp4 files and transferring the files to the mac and then uploading them into managable imovie files. Then I was able to label and sort and finally start editing these files into imovie projects.

I have spent the last month working on over 14 hours of raw footage. Through imovies I was able to condense and title small projects (still not completed movies) which I tried to keep within the 3-5 minute range. I did this for a couple of reasons. First, student attention span is not very long. Heck, I struggle with videos online that are more than five minutes long. Second, the smaller files also mean smaller file size. The intention there was to help make the upcoming finalizing and uploading process quicker. But first I had to add some transitions, adjust sound and light levels (mostly sound--lighting was still difficult) as well as adding some text and still photos to the projects. Transitions and title pages had to have time allowances set and photos may be had cropping or effects added or deleted (mac automatically uses something called the Ken Burns effect which narrows or widens a picture--sometimes effective and sometimes it cuts out valuable parts of the original still shot). So all of this was time consuming. I figured it took approximately 4 hours for 30 minutes of raw footage. But that doesn't include the uploading time...

Uploading is a beast all it's own. We experimented with several file settings. Compressing and changing standard or widescreen options, keyframes and blah blah blahs...using quicktime and sending right to youtube or converting and saving first to the desktop and then exporting to youtube. We still lost alot of quality (seemingly) which is VERY FRUSTRATING! But it's February and I've been working on these projects for what seems like forever! So I think we have to keep moving forward, there's no more time to move backward. But let me just advise anyone out there looking at creating videos, podcasts or movies for your class or just for personal use--don't use the sony handicam minidvd. The movies I made with flip videos were so much easier and ALOT less time-consuming. You may give up a little sound quality but overall that's the way I will be going in the future.

Other frustrations from this past month:
Decided to go to YOUTUBE because as recommended to me by our Dean of Technology, the mere mass volume of videos almost makes it the most reliable and tech-up-to-date. Youtube is going high definition. I found this function on some of the videos I had watched and even on a couple of our test videos. Of course, now I can't find it--what the heck?

Because I'm limiting my videos to 3-5 minutes, I have ended up with hundreds of videos. I'm trying to keep the titles focused so it will be easy recognition--but that takes a bit of organization as well. Especially since I ended up saving my work on two different mac computers. My friend has graciously allowed me to take her second mac (a laptop) home with me in order to continue my work on the projects. This meant downloading the files a second time onto another machine. This worked great in theory until I filled up all the free space on the laptop. (At least that meant I had a couple of days off!)

I also seemed to have lost a couple of videos in my imovie files. One of the larger temples we visited does not seem to be listed anywhere on either computer. I was pretty sure I remember going through pictures from there so I just don't know where they could be or what I did to lose them. Maybe it had something to do with the full computer. Who knows.

Also, the Norwegian Lutheran is coming out in me and I'm getting concerned about putting the videos out into a public forum like youtube. So I took the responsible route and called Sami (who helped arrange our trip with his sister the Egyptian travel agent/business woman) and ran the idea by him. I explained many of the videos included pictures of the Egyptologists that had been our guides and our company hosts. We had gotten their permission at the time to film for my classes. I explained the situation of where the videos would be going and got the permission to put them on youtube. So I started the uploading process. UFF DA! It is painful--but at least we're moving forward and I must be growing somehow!