Movie Maker Wannabe..

LOL! With apps, software... (the term 'software' sounds so archaic now),  it's easy to do a lot of things these days. And a movie maker (wannabe) can be one of them! Been keeping a rather frenzied pace the last few days;  capturing memories and making sure that I am at home too for my boy since his exam is still not over.

There was a wedding and Other Half and I were the videographers... minus a camcorder! Since it was a last minute thing and our cameras take better movies than our camcorders (which cannot capture in HD), we decided to stick with the former. It felt kinda awkward doing video shoot with a small cameral! LOL! But it's amazing what one can do with a camera these days. And so armed with 2 Canon point and shoot cameras, each of us took our positions and captured away. The old church looks very nice now that they have added a mezzanine floor.

This time around, we decided to take from 2 angles and merge them. Merging them was easier said than done cos I ended up with hundreds of clips! Coming up with a short video presentation two and a half hours after the church wedding, using the video clips was probably the bigger challenge. I found myself having to plan ahead, multi task and sit glued to the screen. But we did it! With half an hour to spare! LOL! Being a meticulous freak, I actually went through almost all of them, edited them so that clips taken from both angles come together as one movie... Amazing how technology has come this far!

Well, the final product is finally done today. And because I hung around a lot during the preparations, I also put together a pre-wedding clip; of happenings which I'm sure is endearing cos those were scenes in the background, the labour of love, usually acknowledged but not quite seen.

Also, going through our own collection of old movies which we took when the kids were small the last few days has also impressed on us again that it's worth capturing moments in our lives. Though at that particular point of time, it may not be such a big deal; given that human memory fails... it's nice to be able to relive those moments; even if it's only on screen. Cos, in reliving those moments, we are also reminded of many other things in life. Sometimes, our minds play tricks on us and make us believe in things we choose to believe. To be able to see captured wonderful moments does wonders in dislodging that which we think is truth. Some also serve as reminders of painful truths too...

Anyway, I use iMovie. It's a remarkable app cos non movie-makers like us can be turned into a movie maker wannabe. Anyone can make their own home movies... and these days, sometimes, can be better than those 'professional' videographers (from small towns like ours) one calls in to capture those special moments. Most of the time, they just capture and give you everything, cos they don't quite know what you want. 

With iDVD, burning a DVD is a breeze. But all these are just tools to help us. To get a worthwhile movie up, one still needs to sit for hours (till the eyes pop out sometimes) and pore through reels and reels of clips. It still boils down to us.... tools are just tools. What makes a tool great remains our persistence to finish what we started. And as in every undertaking, there are always new things picked up. This time around, one of the things I learned was how to rip the themes from other apps and use them for iMovie. And I learned too that Firewire 9 pin to 4 pin DV cables are hard to find. We had to call so many shops.... some have not even heard of it!

Anyway, this recent flurry of activities of this particular sort has gotten us looking at Canon Legria range of camcorders cos in the final analysis, to capture good clips, one still needs a tool that is able to capture the happenings clearly in low light. Most good stuff still takes place indoors. So, here's drooling for one of the Legria(s).