leastbest - but still one of the best
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Editing a life
posted Sunday, 5 February 2006
The past two weeks have been spent immersing myself into the world of video editing. I've read every book, website, tutorial and listened to every podcast I could find. I became an expert at Microsoft Movie Maker and moved onto Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0
I quickly realized the need for more hard drive space and now have two 300 gig external hard drives hooked up via the firewire ports.
I started out editing some easy footage; my daughter's second birthday party. Seeing her excitement when Barney the Purple Dinosaur showed up makes me smile. At the same time it was hard to see my sister there. She was at the party mere days after her first brain surgery for the tumor on her optic nerve that six years later would take her life.
I moved on to my grandfather's movies that were a mess. When they were compiled by Sears bits and pieces were spliced together and what was left was a chaotic stew. First thing I did was delete all the junk, like video of the car driving up mountain roads during his many camping trips. Then there were the parades and movies of his dogs playing.
Then I found the bits and pieces that I wanted. Small clips of usually less than a minute that mean so much. I found a clip of my older brother pushing me on a tricycle when I was a toddler. I found one of my older brother and sister playing in the backyard. Short clips of my mother sitting on the porch with her friends holding my little sister. The triplets running in the backyard stark naked; it was impossible to keep clothes on them when they were toddlers.
I gathered the clips into chronological order. When a clip was very short I would slow it down. There were a few clips of my father at picnics or outdoor parties. He was only 42 when he died and now that I'm nearing fifty he looks so young.
The odd thing is when I went back and gathered the movies of my grandfather and tried to piece that together. These images tell so little of his story. I decided to make a separate DVD of this and add still photographs. I'm going to take the time to tell his story properly. Since all of the video is silent I'm preparing a soundtrack and having a friend with a wonderful speaking voice narrate it.
The last time I saw my grandfather alive I was 21. I stopped by to see him and it was obvious the end was near. We sat at his kitchen table and he was drinking beer. Every once in a while he'd pour in a shot of whiskey. Then a little while later he would pour a little salt into it and the bubbles would rise.
I visited him often and he would tell me stories of growing up in the twenties. He didn't talk much on this last visit. Finally when it was time to go he said he wanted to show me something. He pulled up his sleeve and showed me his emaciated arm. The cancer and emphysema had taken everything from him and he looked like something from a concentration camp. When we said goodbye I'll never forget the look in his eyes.
Less than a week later he died.
The videos that I'm editing are a shadow of his life. I hope I can fill in the rest and do him justice.
I quickly realized the need for more hard drive space and now have two 300 gig external hard drives hooked up via the firewire ports.
I started out editing some easy footage; my daughter's second birthday party. Seeing her excitement when Barney the Purple Dinosaur showed up makes me smile. At the same time it was hard to see my sister there. She was at the party mere days after her first brain surgery for the tumor on her optic nerve that six years later would take her life.
I moved on to my grandfather's movies that were a mess. When they were compiled by Sears bits and pieces were spliced together and what was left was a chaotic stew. First thing I did was delete all the junk, like video of the car driving up mountain roads during his many camping trips. Then there were the parades and movies of his dogs playing.
Then I found the bits and pieces that I wanted. Small clips of usually less than a minute that mean so much. I found a clip of my older brother pushing me on a tricycle when I was a toddler. I found one of my older brother and sister playing in the backyard. Short clips of my mother sitting on the porch with her friends holding my little sister. The triplets running in the backyard stark naked; it was impossible to keep clothes on them when they were toddlers.
I gathered the clips into chronological order. When a clip was very short I would slow it down. There were a few clips of my father at picnics or outdoor parties. He was only 42 when he died and now that I'm nearing fifty he looks so young.
The odd thing is when I went back and gathered the movies of my grandfather and tried to piece that together. These images tell so little of his story. I decided to make a separate DVD of this and add still photographs. I'm going to take the time to tell his story properly. Since all of the video is silent I'm preparing a soundtrack and having a friend with a wonderful speaking voice narrate it.
The last time I saw my grandfather alive I was 21. I stopped by to see him and it was obvious the end was near. We sat at his kitchen table and he was drinking beer. Every once in a while he'd pour in a shot of whiskey. Then a little while later he would pour a little salt into it and the bubbles would rise.
I visited him often and he would tell me stories of growing up in the twenties. He didn't talk much on this last visit. Finally when it was time to go he said he wanted to show me something. He pulled up his sleeve and showed me his emaciated arm. The cancer and emphysema had taken everything from him and he looked like something from a concentration camp. When we said goodbye I'll never forget the look in his eyes.
Less than a week later he died.
The videos that I'm editing are a shadow of his life. I hope I can fill in the rest and do him justice.
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