we were at the park today and i just felt the need to make a short video. i remembered that i could shoot and edit the whole thing on my iphone and decided to do just that. i had the whole thing finished by the time i got home, and here are the results. how cool is that?
So, I just downloaded iMovie for the iPhone and this is a test using that last video that I shot. For the uninitiated, iMovie is the basic Mac movie editing software that, for a basic editor, blows the doors off of Windows Movie Maker (no offense to any WMM lovers out there). Well, they made a scaled-down version for the iPhone 4 that’s actually really cool. It took me 5 times longer to make this movie than it would have on a PC, but then again, this is all being done on a phone. Pretty impressive in my book.
EDIT: I just realized that my song was a little too short for the video. I suppose I should have proofed it first. Oh well.
I just wanted to test out the video new iPhone 4 (which just arrived today). I have to say, for a PHONE (that’s right, this thing is a PHONE) this is the best video I’ve ever seen. I’ll still be using the Canon when I’m shooting my masterpieces, but I have no reservations about pulling this thing out when needed.
this is the first year that we’ve asked asher the birthday questions. while asher’s been a little slower in learning to talk than our other kids, he’s decidedly more bashful than normal in this video. we assure you, he’s generally more chatty than this.
buyer beware: several of the questions in this video go completely unanswered (i’m not counting his sound effects). while I thought about changing the questions to suit his age, i decided against it. the purpose of these interviews is about showing the development and growth of our kids more than pure entertainment. so, bearing that in mind, here’s asher sparks heller.
for those that are unaware, every year on each of our children’s birthdays, we set them down and ask them a series of questions and film it for posterity. we hope that someday we can look back over these little videos and see how much our children have grown. now, i’m not going to lie, for this particular video we actually filmed it 2 days after lily’s birthday (schedules were hectic) but i think that the content wouldn’t have changed. so, here you go…
Lily 6th year Birthday Questions from RaisingHeller on Vimeo.
a family that we go to church with has a six year old daughter that got very sick recently. they didn’t know what the problem was and very quickly were told that she needed a liver transplant. fortunately, everything went well and she’s still with us. the downside of this whole story is that this whole process was very expensive for them and they now have a financial burden that they (and Annie) will carry for the rest of their lives. they enlisted my help in creating a video to tell their story and try to raise money to help cover Annie’s ongoing expenses. you can visit www.COTAforAnnieR.com to learn how you can help. they have a goal to raise $10,000 by June 30th. watch the video below. warning: it’s a bit of a tear jerker.
warning to parents: you can probably tune this one out…
musically speaking, i’ve had 2 experiences that fundamentally changed my life (once again, musically speaking). the 2nd was sitting in melissa garriott’s car. she told me she had an album that i just HAD to hear. i can’t tell you the number of times that i’ve heard that only to be met with some crap that i knew i would soon forget. she threw in fevers and mirrors by bright eyes. after getting over the shock of just how good this music was, i remember thinking, ‘oh man, this changes everything.’ and it did. for a while, at least, until bright eyes (and conor oberst) went to crap.
the first experience occurred about 12 or so years ago. a fairly new found friend of mine, ethan smith, introduced me to pedro the lion. well, he told me about pedro the lion. i never actually heard them. but he swore that i would like it. ethan seemed to have some musical creditability so based on his suggestion i bought their debut album, it’s hard to find a friend. once again, after a couple of listenings i was hooked in a BIG way. i knew that this album was going to be in my personal rotation for years to come. the band continued to release albums (and i’ve loved each one) but recently disbanded. the singer, david bazan, continued to release solo material. this wasn’t a big deal as bazan wrote all of the music for the band (which was just a constant rotation of his friends) anyway.
i’ve been heavily into his newest release, curse your branches. thematically, it’s pretty heavy as it’s about bazan becoming disenfranchised with modern Christianity and questioning all that he was brought up to believe. that having been said, it’s a GREAT album. in support of the album he’s been touring, but in between tours he’s been playing these small house shows. they sell a max of 40 tickets and it’s usually in a large living room or some other very intimate setting. well, i saw that one of his upcoming house shows was in renton, wa, our town. i knew i couldn’t resist seeing him on home turf so i bought tickets for jana and i. apparently not a lot of people like to make the trip to renton as we were among about 14 other people that were there at the show. i set up a camera (Canon 5D Mark II) and shot another angle with a hand held camera (Canon T1i) and managed to catch the whole show. i’m really happy with how it turned out. i’m posting it here for your enjoyment (or curiosity). though you can see the videos below, i HIGHLY recommend you view them here: http://vimeo.com/album/187646 so you can view them in their original hi-def glory.
once again, watch them here: http://vimeo.com/album/187646 in hi-def.
so, to those unaware, i was in a band called sir jackson and the long ride for a while. we were incredible. below are several videos (10 in total) from a house party that we played.
this is the band that we played with at that party called the loose. these guys are AMAZING.
just sing it and feel it. you know you want to…
not sure if this is an official music video or not, but it should be. i’m sure it’s not, but i want to give props to whoever did this and the fact that they chose the perfect font for this video.
we decided to take the kids to mcdonald’s for a tasty treat on this particularly rainy night. no one would say that they’re the cleanest, but you can’t argue the fact that they sure do enjoy a good ice cream cone. this is one of my favorite videos that i’ve shot using our new canon t1i. i really am pleased with that camera. i have full control over pretty much everything. i shot this using my canon 50mm f1.8 lens. it’s got a great depth of field that seems to work well in these videos. i’m still really trying to get a grasp on shooting video with the t1i, but i’m getting there. anyway, enjoy!
Ice Cream! from RaisingHeller on Vimeo.
