Thursday there was a ray of hope:

Finally, today I have some hope for this week! I have a tremendous amount of work due on Friday and Sunday afternoon, but because my test went well this morning, I think I can get everything done.
Of great assistance was @Cogdog (my professor). I’d nearly given up, my iPhone was being so recalcitrant. This week 2weeks’ worth of video projects are due, and I’d been taking cool clips of video on my phone to sew together into exciting, informative vids for the past week. However, the program I used to use for moving pictures and video to my computer, Preview, no longer recognized my phone as a external drive. I think it had to do with the recent iPhone software updates. But Prof. Levine pointed me to Image Capture, which has the same function, but would still recognize my phone! Yesterday, I thought I’d have to re-take all my video clumsily with my laptop’s webcam, today I’m just thinking on what other footage I need to complete my videos.

Friday afternoon hurricane Video Overload hit:

Much as I expected, my computer has run out of space. Without more free bytes, I can’t edit video or much else – my Mac’s response speed is much slower. I thought I had a solution, however. I found the program Disk Inventory X. It analyzes the sizes of files on the computer and visually organizes them so that it’s easy to target the largest files to free up space. So then, I could move the files to my external hard drive and delete them off my computer to free up space.
However, I got the Error Code 0 message when attempting to move the files – indicating that my hard drive is formatted in FAT32, which won’t hold files larger than 2GB. Since there’s no way to back up the contents of the external hard drive so that I can reformat it, I just have to delete the large files to make room.
It’s not as tragic as I expected. These 20+gb files are the quicktime movies as saved within imovie’s backup for my time-lapse movies early in the semester. Phew, soon, instead of 22.6 gb free, soon there’s 47.5, and 52.78. It’s a little concerning that one file is refusing to be deleted… a quick restart solved the problem, though. Even more time spent not working on cool projects – this is so frustrating. Now I have 80+ GB room and the largest files are the videos I’m working on now.

Saturday was edit, edit, edit.

I’m glad that I planned my video stories in such a way that not too much editing was necessary. It’s easy to forget that it’s a naturally time-intensive medium, especially working with iMovie. It takes time just to import and convert movies to the format that can be altered by the program. Sadly I can’t use my computer to do anything else while this process is in progress – the last time I attempted it, iMovie froze and my computer had to restart in order to restore its functionality.
I meant to work on editing over the week, but I ran into several setbacks. First the usual program that imported image and video files from my iPhone, Preview, stopped recognizing my phone. I searched online for other options, but all the recommended ones required Dropbox or some other internet-based program like iCloud. After I realized DS106 might have a solution, Prof pointed me to Image Capture.
I was then able to take footage from my phone and have room to take more. Now it’s just waiting for it to convert and save – there’s so much time that feels wasted sitting and watching a blue bar slowly progress.

Sunday brings you VIDEO EXTRAVAGANZA!:

First, I bring your attention to the most useful and cost-effective sculptural material!

Second, I would like to bring your attention to the most practical of human interface devices!

Thirdly, I’d like to introduce you to a dear friend.

I’d also like to share a few tips on my most frequent physical exercise:

Then share some cookies with you:

And many of you may be familiar, but those of you who purchase your diurnal caffene infusion may be intrigued:

I’ve ranked the above from least to most favorite.  Several factors influenced my decision: how much fun they were to make, how well I think they turned out, and how informative and practical I think they are to others.  I’m most proud of the Coffee and Cookie movies because they both were time-consuming and challenging to film, but the result is helpful to others.  They were definitely both my most ambitious endeavors in this medium thus far.  They’re also in the genre in which I’d be most likely to continue making movies – I love to try different media, and sometimes a video is the best way to illustrate a technique.  I attempted this with the Lint Clay vid, but it’s closer to a nature documentary on the Bog of Eternal Stench than a well-explained tutorial about a medium.  With that and the Keyboard review, my lack of experience and universal plan to not have the narration in the raw footage led to a less cohesive, informative, or visually compelling result.  Having only a vague idea and not a loose plan harmed the final results of those videos.  The step-by-step structure of the others (baking cookies, making coffee, telling a story) supported my creation of more interesting movies.

Before this week, I hadn’t edited a movie.  I’m glad I now know the Command-Shift-S keyboard shortcut for splitting clips.  I was able to use my graphic tablet to easily select precise segments of video and then snip!  I like it when the interface doesn’t get in the way.  However, I’m not going to do too many more videos this semester: most of the hard drive space I freed up for these projects has been refilled by their creation.  Though if I do have a good idea that would be best presented in a video, I now feel confident enough in filming and editing to make it happen!