Too Late Now...But I'm Learning...
Classmates and Kelly Means,
I'm battling my perfectionism by posting both the photostory and the movie, recognizing after I uploaded them here, that they have some flaws I would change if I had time. Everything uploaded here (except minor photo editing) was a brand-new experience for me, so ---being a grandmotherly old English teacher--- the learning curve was steep, to say the least.
The photostory represents my failure to find the scroll bar on the desktop icon for volume soon enough to un-mute the "mic-in" command. There I was, instead, screaming into the dead mic. I have no idea why even the shadow of my voice actually recorded. Maybe if you put on headphones, you can make out what I'm trying to say. Kelly, if it would help you to see a print-out of the text I was narrating, I can copy it here or to Blackboard.
My experience with Photoshop 4 had amusing moments, too. After I had edited the collage, the book instructed me to "click OK." I spent thirty minutes, scanning every pixel of the monitor to find an "OK" button to click. Finally, I went back to the book and noticed the file path began with "Select...." OOOOooooohhhhh....the "OK" was hidden in the drop-down menu of the top toolbar, hidden. Hmmm.
My experience with MovieMaker was grueling, only because I was determined to learn how to load, split, and edit old 8mm movies compiled by a professional videographer onto a 2-hour DVD, of course, in a format unrecognized by Windows. Long story short, after trying every program I had or could download for free, I remembered that I had been similarly frustrated last summer, trying to save, edit, and email tiny video clips from my Nikon (Apple platform) instammatic, using Windows --- clueless. I had purchased an upgrade of a free converter, but had never activated it. After plugging in the code, unlocking this bigger version, I was able (3-hour process) to convert the original DVD file to an email-size .wmv file that WMM would open, split, trim and edit. (Pause for my little victory dance...)
The other file conversion problem I solved came around when I had purchased an iTunes song from the Web, had to burn it to a blank CD, then rip it into Windows Media Player before I could copy/paste it into WMM. Many of these programs and steps are old hat to you young pups with your iPods, etc., but it was Greek to me.
My finished movie has some clips that last too long; others flash past too quickly; and in my credits frame I forgot to add info for the audio file: "For All We Know" - Carpenters - GOLD 1981. Also, for some weird reason, when I loaded it onto my blog site, the title slide didn't show first; instead, there's an incomprehensible frame of a later transition. Ugly. My movie audio (song) runs a little past the 2.05 min. because I didn't want to chop off the end of the song lyrics.
Also, I'm hoping the subject matter of the video is obvious enough, by the title and the song lyrics, that I have an adequate "introduction." At 3:30 am this morning, I was too tired to stress over it, though.
This has been a long week of ups and downs, but I feel like I've already gained my money's worth from this course after learning so many new tools and processes.
Bluestem
I'm battling my perfectionism by posting both the photostory and the movie, recognizing after I uploaded them here, that they have some flaws I would change if I had time. Everything uploaded here (except minor photo editing) was a brand-new experience for me, so ---being a grandmotherly old English teacher--- the learning curve was steep, to say the least.
The photostory represents my failure to find the scroll bar on the desktop icon for volume soon enough to un-mute the "mic-in" command. There I was, instead, screaming into the dead mic. I have no idea why even the shadow of my voice actually recorded. Maybe if you put on headphones, you can make out what I'm trying to say. Kelly, if it would help you to see a print-out of the text I was narrating, I can copy it here or to Blackboard.
My experience with Photoshop 4 had amusing moments, too. After I had edited the collage, the book instructed me to "click OK." I spent thirty minutes, scanning every pixel of the monitor to find an "OK" button to click. Finally, I went back to the book and noticed the file path began with "Select...." OOOOooooohhhhh....the "OK" was hidden in the drop-down menu of the top toolbar, hidden. Hmmm.
My experience with MovieMaker was grueling, only because I was determined to learn how to load, split, and edit old 8mm movies compiled by a professional videographer onto a 2-hour DVD, of course, in a format unrecognized by Windows. Long story short, after trying every program I had or could download for free, I remembered that I had been similarly frustrated last summer, trying to save, edit, and email tiny video clips from my Nikon (Apple platform) instammatic, using Windows --- clueless. I had purchased an upgrade of a free converter, but had never activated it. After plugging in the code, unlocking this bigger version, I was able (3-hour process) to convert the original DVD file to an email-size .wmv file that WMM would open, split, trim and edit. (Pause for my little victory dance...)
The other file conversion problem I solved came around when I had purchased an iTunes song from the Web, had to burn it to a blank CD, then rip it into Windows Media Player before I could copy/paste it into WMM. Many of these programs and steps are old hat to you young pups with your iPods, etc., but it was Greek to me.
My finished movie has some clips that last too long; others flash past too quickly; and in my credits frame I forgot to add info for the audio file: "For All We Know" - Carpenters - GOLD 1981. Also, for some weird reason, when I loaded it onto my blog site, the title slide didn't show first; instead, there's an incomprehensible frame of a later transition. Ugly. My movie audio (song) runs a little past the 2.05 min. because I didn't want to chop off the end of the song lyrics.
Also, I'm hoping the subject matter of the video is obvious enough, by the title and the song lyrics, that I have an adequate "introduction." At 3:30 am this morning, I was too tired to stress over it, though.
This has been a long week of ups and downs, but I feel like I've already gained my money's worth from this course after learning so many new tools and processes.
Bluestem
Comments
Kim
Love,
The Lone Ranger