Coastal Imageworks » Video

Antarctica Timelapse

admin — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 17:55:06 +0000

During my last few trips to Antarctica, I focused most of my photographic energy towards capturing timelapse images of the many things that we do onboard the ships. This is from my last ‘Crossing the Antarctic Circle’ voyage on the Akademik Sergey Vavilov. Fun times! Created with a GoPro Helmet Hero

Music is ‘First Ride’ by one of my favorite guitar players, Don Ross

iMovie ’11 gives greater control over audio

admin — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 18:37:32 +0000

To anyone using Apple’s iMovie to edit video with, you will be excited to hear that with the release of iLife ’11, iMovie now offers much better control over audio levels. I’ve been using iMovie on and off since iMovie HD (version 6). When Apple redesigned iMovie in 2008, they severely crippled the access to audio editing functions. iMovie ’09 was marginally better, but we are almost back to where we started with this new release.

The main improvements include:
- audio waveforms are plainly visible now, so you can see how well your clips match up, and where they may be distorting.
- keyframing ‘aka rubberbanding’ allows targeted control over whole clips/music files. You can raise and lower levels visually right where you need to.

You are still limited to a small number of concurrent audio clips, but this takes users that much closer to getting their videos to sound (and look) like they want. I personally opt for Final Cut Pro when I edit my own videos, but we use iMovie to teach film classes with. I am so impressed with how functional iMovie is, given that comes free with Mac computers.

I think the new audio capabilities are worth the price of upgrade, which I think is around $49 or so.

Check out the upgrade here: iLife ’11

Documentary Storytelling

admin — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 04:22:10 +0000

In the Science Filmmaking workshops that Jeff Morales and I teach, we are always hammering home the importance of STORYTELLING. Our students get tired of hearing us say, “yes, but what is the STORY?”. But, we have to keep driving this point home, because Story is what makes strange, complex, esoteric, and reductionist science accessible to the general public. I’ve told our students that if they have a good story, they can make a great film with their iPhone.

I found a great book about storytelling for filmmakers, and I just had to pass it on. I’ve read only the first chapter, but I know that it is a fantastic resource for anyone who wants to understand how to tell stories with a visual medium. Check it out:

Documentary Storytelling, Third Edition: Creative Nonfiction on Screen

Great music by Daniel Lanois and Black Dub

admin — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 22:01:05 +0000

I’ve long been a fan of Daniel Lanois, both as a musician (see his albums ‘Acadie’ and ‘For the Beauty of Wynona’) and as a producer (U2, Peter Gabriel, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, and now Neil Young). Some of Daniel’s most recent albums haven’t captured my attention, but his new project, ‘Black Dub’, is not to be missed.

Along with Lanois on guitar and vocals, Black Dub features vocalist/keyboardist/drummer Trixie Whitley (who sings with style and passion that seem way beyond her young 24 years), star drummer Brian Blade, and bass player Daryl Johnson. Black Dub are ambient, rocking, soulful, and fun to watch. They have no albums out yet, just a series of live videos filmed in their rehearsal studio. I watch them all the time, here is one of my favorites:

Kelp stretching video with GoPro HD

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:51:17 +0000

I co-teach an ‘Ecological Adaptations of Seaweeds’ course each autumn in Bamfield. One of the fun labs that we do involves figuring out how much force it takes to break a kelp stipe. These giant algae are remarkably stretchy and can withstand quite a lot of force. I made a video to show what we do, so check it out. This was filmed at 720p (60fps) with a GoPro HD Hero helmet camera, and edited in Final Cut Pro. I converted the native GoPro format to the ProRes 422 codec for editing.

Kelp Stretching BMSC Fall Program 2010 from ScienceFilm on Vimeo.