... a revamp of a previous iMovie project. In this new version, I've added some background music, played around with the fading in and out of music within a scene, tried altering the look of a a photo and added a globe background.
Monday, June 13, 2011
PE2_iMovie
Transitions and effects were my favorite portion of the iMovie videos. Being able to manipulate a scene, a frame, the opening or the entire format of the footage gives a user so much control over the material. And preserving the source footage is also a great feature in this.
The themes and trailers give the videos that semi-pro edge when considering the quality of work that hits sites like Youtube.com on a daily basis. For a novice user, this can spark a lot of creativity, open doors into amateur video editing or propel someone into the big leagues with software like Final Cut Pro.
PE1_iMovie
Working as a videotape editor at a broadcast news station, I’ve spent plenty of early mornings rewinding, joggling, searching, spinning and playing back hours’ worth of raw video just to make a 20 second tape suitable for the news. iMovie ’11 back then would have made my job and my life so much easier.
As I watched the tutorial on Lynda.com, I realized how far editing has come. It’s simple to use, and that may be the case for me since I’ve had exposure to the harder way of doing things. Take the non-linear design of iMovie’s display.
Before, I had to watch between two monitors, turn a wheel to get the point in the footage I wanted to capture. But with iMovie, I can see most if not all the footage at once, roll over a scene with my mouse and select the footage instantly. I’m enthralled with the click and drag method of pulling footage from the event panel into the project panel. And all this takes place within one screen, love it!
The full screen playback feature is great for those of us, without X-Men-like vision, who want to get the full effect of a scene.
As I watched the tutorial on Lynda.com, I realized how far editing has come. It’s simple to use, and that may be the case for me since I’ve had exposure to the harder way of doing things. Take the non-linear design of iMovie’s display.
Before, I had to watch between two monitors, turn a wheel to get the point in the footage I wanted to capture. But with iMovie, I can see most if not all the footage at once, roll over a scene with my mouse and select the footage instantly. I’m enthralled with the click and drag method of pulling footage from the event panel into the project panel. And all this takes place within one screen, love it!
The full screen playback feature is great for those of us, without X-Men-like vision, who want to get the full effect of a scene.
The ability to rate footage for efficient use later is also good if you're in a time crunch and need to grab something quickly. I would be hesitant to get rid of or reject footage at this juncture. I’m not familiar with the previous editions of this program but so far I’m enjoying what iMovie ’11 has to offer.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
BP4_Penzu.com
Hello followers! This week I chose to discover Penzu, a secure, online journaling site that allows you to keep your entries private using encryption or to share them with others via email or by publishing them like a blog.
I’m in love with the diary style design of this site that looks like actual paper bound in a leather journal. Although Penzu is free for anyone to use, I found that there are more options available in the Pro mode. For $19 a year, users get offerings such as customized fonts, backgrounds, arrangement of pictures and so forth. Users can go mobile, adding entries on the go and also get the option of reminders sent to them, prompting them to add to their journal. This site takes me back to my 10th grade English class where one of our assignments each week was to write in a composition book about a topic of our choosing. If this web tool were available back then, I would have an extensive journal of my life by now.
I thought this site might be useful in my environment because often service members are restricted in what they can talk about, many times don’t know how to deal with various situations, military in nature or not, and need an outlet to simply express their ideas, opinions and experiences without fear of backlash. This is a great alternative to social sites such as Twitter and Facebook, which makes everything viral instantly. Penzu allows anyone to rant and rave, share and personalize his or her feelings in a secure environment.
A final, and encouraging note, there is no storage limit with Penzu, and, therefore, no need to abbreviate language or clip one’s words due to character limits. Welcome back, English language!
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