Friday wasn't the only day for putting up hay, but it was the first day I tried out my new phone. First point to make...I love my new phone for all the reasons I never thought I would. Because I usually have Mike at my beck and call for photos, I never thought it a "big deal" to have a phone that could take pictures like a camera. And even after seeing what this phone (a Samsung S5 by the way) can do, I can say that Mike's "big camera" does a better job! At least in his hands!
However, when I headed over to the barn on Friday afternoon, I wasn't PLANNING to take pictures and video! I just wanted the car! And the picture above was the only one I thought I'd be taking...it was on the way and I had my shiny new phone in my back pocket!
But, I found out they were right in the middle of the hay production in the Overbrook Pasture. So I went on down to see the newly acquired (just got it this year) hay equipment in action for myself. The guys probably think I'm crazy because I feel the urge to cheer when the baler throws another bale into the wagon!
And it was gorgeous! Mike wasn't taking pictures because he was helping with the hay...at least when it come to the stacking! So no way he was going to be taking pictures. And even though he's been coaching me on the finer points of using his "big boys camera", I hadn't brought it with me so here was the perfect opportunity to give it a work out!
I can remember telling Mike that I really, really hoped that these were going to actually look like what I was seeing on the screeen!
As much fun as the photos were, it was the video function that shocked me!
So here it is...my first video with the new Samsung Galaxy S5! Since I posted it to facebook, a couple of people have asked me about editing, and that's really still Mike's job, except for a very few basic functions that I've learned to help speed things up (or not, if I do it wrong...I'm still a newbie, but I haven't actually lost anything yet).
First step (if we want to put various video clips together, add stuff or take anything out) is that the footage that's been shot is downloaded to the computer so that we can use Adobe Premier as the work horse for that. So, the title pages in front of the video (if those are included, they are build by Mike separately), the addition of the music and the title at the end...that's all done using Adobe Premier.
In very oversimplified terms, once you've decided how you want it to look and how you want it to sound, Adobe has to "mash" it all back together (called rendering) and then the video needs to be "exported" as whatever kind of a file you'd like the finished product to be. Youtube accepts a wide variety of types of files and sizes. For my training videos, we don't use a super high quality out put. Why? Because the higher the quality you want, the longer it takes to do the export.
This "Hay Video" project really made me appreciate the "how much long it takes" bit. Because the video that the phone got was so amazingly clear and the colors were so vibrant, I wanted to see how close we could come to showing that on the youtube video. So, Mike chose the highest level of quality for the export...and for a 5 minute video it took AN HOUR to EXPORT it!
That does not include the time to upload it to my youtube channel. I didn't actually time that part...but I know it was a long time because youtube doesn't want you "messing with" your computer while that upload is going on....so, my house is a little bit tidier and the laundry got done....okay, partway done...because you just have to "walk away" while that process is going on!
On the topic of music, I knew exactly what I wanted for this...especially for the second half where they are stacking the hay! It's a piece by Aaron Copland called "Hoe Down". Many people think of it as the "Beef...It's Whats for Dinner" music, but it was originally part of his score for the ballet Rode in 1942. While we were searching for a version of Hoe Down in Creative Commons (an online resource for finding versions of music that are okay to use for your own projects) we decided that Fanfare for the Common Man, also written by Copland in 1942 would work for the first half of the video. This piece of music is now commonly thought to have been written for the Olympics, but once again, it's much older than that! There are guide lines and rules for using material found in Creative Commons and there's ALOT of information about what they want done, but it's not exactly easy to find out how to do it! For the most part, folks just want proper credit when you use something they've created! I'm all for that! So in the youtube description of the video, I "attributed" the versions of this music I used. However, to do it REALLY properly, we need to add a "credits" page to the video itself, which we will do...then have to do the hour long rendering and upload it again! But for now, I think we've complied with the spirit of Creative Commons!