[Jeff David]

Wow! Awesome John. Thanks for the beginners lesson! Ha. I’ve been 4 years off an on w SONY MS (now that I think of it more like 2 years as the first 2 years all I did was film part time) but not a lot of experience doing what is in this post so I guess I can still be a beginner – as far as this topic.

I had thought copying and pasting into Word was silly but thanks to you, I know I was not far off but I will take your advice and use the Gimp etc.

I see I am limited to what the best clarity is that I can expect so that makes me feel better too – just knowing that it’s not me but just the limitation.

The info about the size of the image or internet page and when rendered with 1920 by 1080 format was great – as all the rest. However I now realize my image quality will look even worse when rendered, however, this is just a small project I have to do for a job I am up for. So it does not have to be HD and I can render it in standard format.

The job has nothing to do w vid production but I was asked to do a Powerpoint as part of the interview. I figured I would go one better and make a video and wow the hiring manager. However, I see the image of the screen shots give up quality in the video format whereas they are clear in the PowerPoint.

I had doubts in my mind and was thinking I was totally wrong the way I was proceeding but thanks to you the uncertainty has been removed and I can move forward w confidence.

I’ll take your advice and paste into Gimp instead of Word. I really thought pasting into Word was totally wrong but I guess it’s not totally wrong just GIMP is better.

I am guessing GIMP is better then MS Picture Manager due to the ability to resize to the 1920 x 1080? My gut feeling is Picture Manger is just basic?

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this excellent lesson John!

I’m printing your, “tutorial” off and will follow your instructions!

An aside is – I just built a green screen. I built a wooden framework about 6 feet by 6 feet and got a fluorescent green sheet and hung it over the frame. Getting ready to try it out.

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit

[Jeff David]

I only just saw your last post John.

OK thanks.

Wow – I went into this whole project not having any experience.

Now I see what you are saying about the cost of the disks but I understand in the long run it’s cheaper to buy the machine, probably – well as long as the program sells, which I really don’t know if it will but it’s something I wanted to do anyways.

It’s been 4 years that I have worked on this, but only off and on due to other commitments like work, and for long periods I could not work on it at all.

I only have a little bit left to do on it.

Maybe redo some parts of the voice-over, green screen myself in for my speaking parts, maybe some other tweaks.

I am still shocked that I bought the rights to use that symphony music in my show. I really just can’t believe that I have the rights to use that music now for a small amount of money.

I was telling some of my friends how I was thinking how awesome if I could have John Williams do my score but of course Spielberg must pay that guy millions but the music I got from SmartSound is right up there with John Williams its just amazing.

SO I was joking w my friends that I have this whole entire orchestra working for me, on my payroll that I own then and give them orders what to do. lol. It’s really made my project much better.

This project is all of the historic sites around Boston, Mass., where I live – the entire battle route for Battle of Lex and Concord. The Lexington Battle green – I filmed from the church steeple on the green, I got special permission to go up there, the Old North Church steeple I climbed up and filmed the walk up the stairs which is not an easy climb. You know, 1 if by land 2 if by sea where the lanterns were hung, where Paul Revere crossed the Charles River, the North Bridge so they really are all the iconic locations.

Nobody else has ever filmed all the spots like this in one show so I am hoping people like it and want to buy it.

I read a good article too by a top video guy who said there is a big market for things like this w schools. This would be a great show for grade school kids who are just learning about the first day of the revolution to see all of the actual locations.

It was not an easy thing to climb the steeple in the Old North Church, and the people who hung the lanterns had to do it w just candle light, holding 2 lanterns filled w kerosene so it really was quite dangerous. Now, I had my camcorder set to auto focus so afterwards when I saw the footage it would go in and out of focus sometimes but it actually is better that way as it’s wobbly and conveys how difficult of a climb it was. But that’s how much of a beginner I was as I didn’t even know to take the camcorder off auto focus but I think it’s better the way it is – of course just for that part. The rest of the show is in focus.

Yes you really have a ton of good skills and experience.

I took radio and television broadcasting my first year in college but then changed my major but I’ll just get involved now. I have learned a lot, although I’m really still a beginner but getting better.

Anyways, thanks for everything and I’ll definitely send you a copy when it’s done.

Jeff

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit

[Jeff David]

Wow I may have found my soundtrack John!

This is prob going to be it.

I love it!

Wow amazing to think I can have use of this for such a pittance!

It’s epic. Sort of reminds me of the soundtrack from, “Last of the Mohicans” in that it’s so epic!

It makes my voice over sound a heck of a lot better, and once I redo it with more life and effort it should be good.

It really is amazing I can have this whole orchestra in my show working for me!

thanks so much John!

https://www.smartsound.com/royalty-free-music/library/Sad/Beauty+%26+Strength/Poignant+Reflection/

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit

[Jeff David]

Thanks for the info John.

It’s funny that the duplicator machine – the one at 2500 cost more than my camera and other equipment combined.

But that machine looks cool!

I took a look at your websites, you really have some heavyweight, serious skills! Not that you needed me to tell you that. Very impressive. You’re a rennasaince man! I know I spelled that wrong. I use to get A’s in English but the old I get the worse my spelling and punctuation becomes though they now have this software program, “Grammerly” that corrects everything, supposedly. I guess I’m in need of it.

I saw where you are a college prof too? I think? Impressive.

I am about to sign up for Skillsoft Online IT courses and want to train in Database or maybe Microsoft Exchange Server. I don’t know much about IT but I’m going to take the training.

Of course, I really would like to do Computer Generated uh what is it ? CGI Imaging I guess. Maybe later.

Thanks for everything John!

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit

[Jeff David]

Thanks again John!

Another mystery solved! I wasn’t sure why the color changed thanks for explaining.

When I first realized my sound clips were totally discombobulated, I spent close to 2 hours trying to get them back in the right spots and was not even making a dent they got so badly mixed up.

I was debating whether to just record the track over again, but finally realized I could go back to an older file where the sound clips were in right spot.

this time, I made a group out of all the clips, sound and titles one big group of the entire project.

Listening back, I don’t sound that good on the sound track so I’m going to redo it w more effort.

I’m going to send you a copy of my project when it’s done, being as you have been so helpful.

the video footage is pretty good I think but w out the right voice over, it appears amateurish. Of course, I am an amateur but I was hoping it would come off professional.

Maybe if I can ace the voice over second time around. Well I hardly have the equipment and resources of the professionals.

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit

[Jeff David]

As always – thanks again John!! Sounds good – I’ll check it out!

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit

[Jeff David]

I have a hunch what is going on based on what you said about the browser
All of the pictures from one of the books got saved to my c drive/Microsoft Office Picture Manager.
Now, I use Hathitrust and Archive.org mostly to look up old historical books. I was at those websites trying to figure out how you can save all the pictures from a book and could not figure it out.
However, when checking where the pictures were saved to, I see that I got them off of Project Gutenberg so I will be checking out Gutenberg to see if it has the ability to save all the pictures out of a book – it must have that feature as all of the pictures from one book did absolutely get saved.
I will be checking that out soon as I get time.
I found it hard to believe that happened but I just checked again and I positively see that every picture from one of the books positively got saved in Microsoft Office Picture Manager, so I am sure I am not mistaken (now(.
As you prob know, w Picture Manager you set Picture Manager to scan for all pictures on a drive. Now I didn’t even know that was how it worked.
I surmise I was in Project Gutenberg saving one picture at a time, i.e. saving each picture individually.
So apparently, I started the Picture Manger feature to scan my C drive.

I was not able to get the scan to work when in HathiTrust or Archive.org perhaps because I since installed Viper Rescue Scanner and I notice when I try to do a scan of the drive, it cuts out when it, “hits” the Viper Rescue.

SO I will uninstall Viper Rescue and attempt to scan a book that way.

Perhaps there is something special about Project Gutenberg that allows the scan or maybe the Viper is why it has not worked on the other sites.

I’ll update once I run the further tests.
Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit

[Jeff David]

Yes – I’ll recapture just the one portion of the tape that has the segment of a clip that flutters so as to save space on hard drive.

Yes – I try to keep my computer tuned up. It defragments itself automatically but I do know that is an important thing,

Yes on my older computer – Yup – had to defragment it manually, i.e. start defrag manually

Yes – I have not cleaned the heads in a while. I did study up on cleaning the heads before and knew not to use alcohol, (but it’s good you said that anyways as you never know what someone might know) – just the cleaner tape.

I dropped my camcorder – hmm it prob has been a year since that happened, and I sent it into Canon for repair and the replaced the heads but I am prob due to clean the heads now that you mention it.

Before when I read about cleaning the heads it was indicated to do it sparingly as if you do it too much it can ruin the heads?

I think they said to maybe just run the cleaning tape once per year and only for – mmm I think they said to run it for only 10 seconds otherwise the heads can be ruined?

Does that sound right?

Ok I can re-read the stuff and double check.

Lol – I’m going to list you in the credits when I finish my project unless you object! You’ve been so totally helpful coach! I’m prob about 8o% done.

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit

[Jeff David]

Yes, that undoubtedly is what was happening John.

I thought that once I set the mic to the usbat2020 under “preferences, audio devices” that it would always remain set at that.

I guess that was not too swift.

Thanks for the good advice again. I will always check, Preferences, audio devices, and make sure the right mic is selected.

I have 4 usb ports, 2 are 3.0 and 2 are 2.0 so that one port is not a problem. Also, it really is mostly ok even when using that port as it only cuts out if I move the computer around.

By the way, I meant to tell you, since I transferred all of my video clips to just one external drive – instead of having it on two external hard drives like I was doing before, I was able to successfully burn a blu ray w out MS crashing.

You may remember I was having no success buring blu rays as the program would crash. You told me that I was cutting the power in half by having 2 hard drives plugged in – well actually 3 as the blu ray burner has to be plugged in too.

So I went from 2 harddrives plus the blu ray burner to having just one harddrive plus the blu ray plugged in and everything went well when burning the blu ray.

I am guess the blu ray burner uses up a lot less of the resources? Anyways eliminating the extra hard drive really seems to have been the secret to success!

As always, thanks John!

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit

[Jeff David]

OK sure John. Np. I have been editing the way you suggested. Yes, I’m putting in the titles and text and have been doing it all on a separate track above the video track.

I may be mistaken about having the text show through when I placed the media generator directly on the video footage.

In retrospect, I prob am simply mistaken about that.

I am pleasantly surprised how easy it is to add the text. I thought it was going to be a difficult thing to learn and do but it’s totally simple.

Thanks for the coaching John!

Lenovo quad core i7 16gb of ram, Windows 8.1 MS 13 64 bit