Vidz

What's with all these videos lately? My hard drive is full of all this random footage from car rides, bike rides, animals, scenic panoramas, and secret shots of people talking or eating. I've been collecting them for years, always with the idea of putting them into music videos, but through college I never really had the time. Finally, though, I've come to a place with free time in abundance, and can splice some of these scraps into watchability. Putting music to the moments and setting them side by side with each other seems to bring a sort of magic quality to ordinary life. It's like seeing my life in a movie, realizing how precious and exciting it all is.

After making almost 10 different ones, it's getting to be a pretty simple process. If the videos are all from one event and in the same folder, it only takes about 2 hours to come out with something satisfactory, and another 45 to save and upload it. Other times it can take up to 5 if I have to spend a lot of time hunting down files in my bajillion folders, editing the music, or restarting after unsaved crashes (fiiinally starting to learn my lesson there).

Overall, though, it's a pretty easy formula. I either start with a song idea or a group of videos, then search for the other to accompany it. Open up Windows Movie Maker and drag-drop the files I wanna use. Start right off by plopping the music into the Audio Bar, then play around with putting in the videos, muting them from the get-go. With this you just have to start from the beginning and work forward, making sure each part is exactly how it should be before adding in the next. Otherwise it will mess up all the timing to go back and change things. The best part of basing it around music means that there are obvious places to cut to the next clip without making it seem like a jumbled mess. I make liberal use of the fades and Speed Ups, and try to make sure there is some kind of movement in each part. Rewatch from the beginning a few times throughout the process, play around with transitions, add credits at end, and wala!

I don't presume to say I'm any pro at amateur music videos, but it is a fun little hobby. Perhaps if I were better at talking behind the camera like Nic or Mom, you'd get some real sound and commentary. As it is, though, I hope you enjoy my little projects! :)

Here is my latest one from the Tsushima Festival in Kagawa. More info in the dropdown under the video.