Doing Free Video Work for Friends
People following me know that I took a short break and went to camp. Back From Camp!
While I was at Prepper Camp learning new stuff, I also took my camera out to film some of the things happening at camp. I had brought my camera in thoughts that we might do a show and I wanted to film it for the YouTube channel and as it happens, we ended up being the Keynote Speakers. Politically Correct : Live at Prepper Camp 2017.
It is always good to prepare for anything.
Anyway, since I had my camera, I asked my buddies Survivor Jane and Survivalist Gardener if there was any particular speaker they wanted me to film while I was filming stuff. Jane suggested that I just get a few seconds of the speakers, because she wanted to put together a short film about Prepper Camp. Jane assumed I was taking video with my phone, which she was trying to do unsuccessfully. After she explained her problem, I pulled out my Canon XA20 to show her that I wasn't just using a phone. She was a little jealous.
I had also brought my tripod and a boom microphone, but I didn't want to lug them around. Because of this, my shots weren't as smooth as they could have been. The camera does have a hand shake dampener feature, but it doesn't have a full body movement dampener. Maybe if I had planned on filming the speakers in advance, I would have brought the tripod and maybe setup some different shots. However, Adobe Premiere does have a feature to reduce some camera movement and I used that to some success.
Premiere also has new Titles feature, which has some default options, but I still ended up using Adobe After Effects and some scripts from Envato Market to make my titles.
AUTHOR Effects Master FFX has plenty of drag and drop effects for text and other effects. They are also adjustable, so you don't have to limit yourself to the default look. Because of scripts like this, it is just easier for me to create my text and add the effect. I tried to add effects to all of my text, but since each snippet was 5 seconds long, I figured that would make it too busy. Initially, I had the text a darker green, which matched the Prepper Camp logo, but that was hard to read, so I used a lighter green from the logo. Matching that was as simple as pulling up the logo in Adobe Photoshop and using the eye dropper tool to get the color code, then putting that code in the text color back in After Effects.
After I got the video to where I wanted, I went back to the Envato Market and picked out some music to play in their Audio Jungle section. I found a music kit for business presentations that seemed to fit the theme I was looking for. I am still not very good at splicing the music tracks and even though the kit came with multiple track options, it still isn't as smooth as I would like it to be. I'm sure I could have dropped it into Adobe Audition and fixed it, but I am still a novice in using that tool.
Here is my unplanned commercial for Prepper Camp. Jane really liked it and said it captured the essence of what it was all about; education.
Enjoy!
BTW, I enjoy using Adobe Cloud and I respect their need to adjust their business model, but sometimes I feel as if the monthly payment is just a bit too much.
you have a nice camera nice work i wish i can video with camera even if i won't be an expert.
I'm not the best. It takes a lot of practice.
I'm much better at telling someone else what I want shot.
This is all great info. My wifes dad wants to get into aqua/hydropanics (forget which one has the fish in the water). He's done a lot of research on it and would have already started on his farm if he didn't have to go back to work. I saw a couple of classes in there I'd be interested in (think it would be interesting to learn to pick wild mushrooms)
Aquaponics has the fish.
A lot of the mushrooms can be grown in a aqua/hydroponic system. The more expensive ones, like morels, can't.
The guy at PrepperCamp had a portable aquaponics system. It was solar powered and self contained.
Yeah we talked about setting up a small one and letting local restaurants come in and pick whatever he's growing and just make it an honor system on paying and have the prices poster per pound somewhere. With a credit card / crypto set-up we wouln't need an attendant and would assume 80-90% of people would pay what they were supposed to especially if we limited it with a lock and the key given to local interested merchants.
Thought it would be a good selling point for local restaurants having farm -> table local ingredients.
If you haven't heard of Curtis Stone, you should check out his videos.
I wouldn't trust an honor system. One of my sisters has a plot in a community garden that she works hard at. Someone has been stealing her produce. You would just end up with a bare garden and no funds to show from it.