Living My 60th Year - Film Making

A couple of years ago, I began to volunteer at our local Community Access Television station.   Let me say, it is fun and sometimes frustrating.

I started out make a program, subject - lace, making it, some history, interesting tidbits and the such.  I made up a list of programs, who could I invite to be a guest on the program and such.  

On a show that is produced at the studio, Common Sense CT - I did an interview on lace.  With a bit of social media, blew it out across the globe to lacemakers everywhere.  It received the most views for a show ever.  I was laughing as the host, Gary Byron, said we couldn't talk about lace for an hour show.

Fast forward to this summer.  Sometimes, despite the 'gang', you need to take the camera by the lens and go out an film an event.  I did, my first one was a meeting and I had all sorts of difficulties.  The second one, pictured here came off pretty good.  It took so long to edit it.  Find an opening and closing, then find royalty free, fee free music for the beginning and the end.  Learn to make graphics, called the bottom thirds.  Oh did I say of course learn the editing software?  

I'm glad to say that last week, it was finally done and approved to be shown on TV (you need to live in Newington to watch on TV) and at our website where you can watch on-demand at http://www.nctv.org/specials/ .

My third had to do with the Town Hall Renovation project.  It was a hearing  to get feedback.  Let's say, the majority of the residents that spoke out, were not in favor of the plan the then current (now ousted) Town Council.

The last one I was able to do was the Kiwanis Speaker Meeting.  I was there to only watch and enjoy myself.  Low and behold the guy from the studio was nowhere to be found.  Our MC was not happy, and not having any time to get back to the studio to get a camera, I took out my phone and began filming.   I could only film about 15 minutes on my device and graciously the MC gave me his phone to continue filming another 45 minutes - all without a tripod to steady the camera.  November 30, 2015 show if you are interested.

So back to the studio and attempted to join two different videos (matching the audio), add the beginning and end, make and add the graphics and even a slide for "technical difficulties" as the speaker had begun before I could hit record button.  

This program is Scott's baby and he usually does the editing.  He's an expert when it comes to editing!  So we finished and as we sat back to send the video through encoding, he said, paraphrasing, despite using the phone to video the event, I did a pretty dang good job on editing.  He had written me a review on them with items I had to correct.  I'm going to keep them and actually write up some suggestions to "newbies" like me, to make it easier to learn the edit side.

Am I ready for Sundance or Hollywood?  Not yet, though debuting my work is pretty dang special !

PS - the lace program hasn't happened yet.  The studio has made progress in getting techy stuff in order so folks like myself can make movies!  I did make a movie on my snowflakes which you can watch here on my YouTube channel.

Here's to a year of catching the dreams you chase,

doing what makes you smile,

and loving the life you live.

Living My 60th Year - A Pot of Gold

Fun is... when you come out of a long meeting to be able to see a rainbow end on the roof of Lucy Robbins Welles Library.  The pot of gold lies within this very place here in Newington.   Somewhere in the universe, the rainbow said to me that we will be able to continue to create one of the best libraries in the area.  

I've been focusing on the library and its expansion plans.  While a trustee, I'm not on the facility committee, though I would attend the committee meeting as a 'guest' had I know when it met.  One of my pet peeves with this group is lack of communication.  

The Town Council finally got around to formally starting a building committee. The LIBRARY RENOVATIONS/ADDITION PROJECT BUILDING COMMITTEE (LRAPBC) (that's a mouthful) was formed back in April, five of seven members approved in short time, and the last two members approved at in July.  They finally had their first meeting on July 27th.  I was there and taped the meeting.  I'm planning on being their to video tape their meetings.  I did request, to the Director, after the meeting, that the LRAPBC hold their meetings in the meeting rooms that have mic's as the audio was a very, very poor quality. 

I did say I video taped the meeting!  Yeah, I signed out a camera and tripod from NCTV (our community TV station) and will start to do live shoots.  The only way to learn, in some cases, is just to get out there and do it.  It is a very boring shoot.  The room was to small, so I couldn't focus in on the individuals speaking.  I did the Library meeting on Monday night and the Parks & Rec Informational meeting on Wed night.  The P&R went better as they met in a bigger room and allow me to focus on the speakers.   

Now I need studio time to transfer the files up to the edit machine.  That took a really long time.  Note to self - need to find a better way to transfer the files.  So while I was waiting the transfer, I began to make the graphics for the bottom third.  Our expert, Scott, was there and he was able in a quick few minutes to instruct me what to do, some good points about software we use, and how to work the layers.  Great start.  Unfortunate part, I need to be at the studio to work the editing at this moment.  The studio has limited access at this time.  We shall see how that changes in the near future.  This opportunity to video is like a kid in the candy store to me.  It's only the beginning - maybe some gold dust will fall on me.

The Shelby - I've been working on this blanket for just too long.  Having had the opportunity to visit with Shelby (niece), she was able to try it on for size.  She was so excited.  Ahhh - it needed to be expanded in length.  Maybe one more row or two?  We settled on two more rows.  Over the other weekend, I had almost an entire day to work on the blanket.  

What a joy to work on this blanket especially since Shelby was here.   It's tying in so many of the rows, adding the balance of the squares and really see it take shape.  What was really nice - was working outside and having the sun as my light source.  Looking forward to getting this completed by the end of August!

These two weeks have been filling my pot of gold - helping in my community, learning a new discipline, and seeing my work appreciated.  Cha ching!

Here's to a year of catching the dreams you chase,

doing what makes you smile,

and loving the life you live.