Monday, May 19, 2014

LIVE! From Your Computer! It's The Latest Film!

At long last, you can view the latest film from my recent 541 mile trail run across Wisconsin and Michigan.  I tried to pack in more details about the in's and out's of the run in addition to the folksy format you've come to love and expect from me.  I hope you enjoy it!  Feel free to spread the word!

Brian

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0kr6E3V05w




Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Edit, Render, Convert and Import: Not Your Everyday Runner Jargon

The past 200 hours of my computer's life have been eaten up trying to finalize my latest film about my recent 500 mile run across Wisconsin and Michigan. If there ever was a doubt, there isn't one anymore: I have moved beyond iMovie.  Not to geek out on you too much here but I've learned that it encodes in 32bit but needs to render in 64bit.  Basically, when you create a video more than 10 minutes long, filled with voice-over narration, background music, captions and transitions it all becomes too much data to sort out at the very end.  Turning to good ol' Google, I found discussion threads on how to complete my film using various tricks and finally found one that worked. The film got "finalized" or finished after more than 2 weeks of failed efforts at 20 hours per day.

But then I had to get it on Youtube.  It is just over 16 minutes and Youtube prefers videos that are 10 minutes or less, and some people get up to 15. To have permission for more than that you have to have a good track record of honest use on the site and a verified account.  After a few more data conversions, shrinking down the data and voila - it went live.

It was an incredible feeling of accomplishment, getting a short film uploaded to Youtube, like completing a second ultra (from my couch) after jumping into Lake Huron (on the run).

I learned a lot about using my new GoPro camera and iPhone5.  I hope you enjoy the results! I plan to use my filming skills to make an even better video on my next run across Oregon and Idaho in July 2014.  Enjoy! And if you'd like to come along and support this project, have a look at my new Kickstarter page to tag along.