So, I haven’t been making many movies lately. I do have a couple posted on my YouTube channel, but it seems like as soon as I got started with the documentaries, I fell off my bike, and had to take a break from riding (and documenting the riding.)
Continue reading “Another new hobby.”A new hobby?
Way back in the early mists of time, I took a film appreciation class at Olympia High School. Looking back, I think it was one of the most enjoyable classes I took. I still enjoy watching old movies, and seeing elements that are incorporated into newer movies. One thing I never really did back then was to make my own movies.
Very recently, I came across an ad for a used GoPro Hero 4 Silver for considerably less than the new purchase price. Wow! An opportunity to remember some old stuff, and learn some new stuff. It was an easy decision to buy the ‘new to me’ GoPro camera. It did not take too long to figure out it was a very good thing the camera was so inexpensive, all the accessories to go with it are doing their best to eat up any savings.
Here is my first movie with the GoPro:
I’m using a free linux program to do all the work of putting the various elements together to end up with a short film on YouTube. The software is KDEnlive. There’s a not too steep initial learning curve, and there is a wealth of capability still left to discover and learn.
For the technical details of what I did; there are four visual elements to the movie, an opening still shot for the initial title, a walk around of the bike (not sure yet the film-speak name for that shot) to introduce it, the ride itself, and then the end credit.
The opening title is a Slideshow Clip with one image, on Video track one. Video track two is a Title Clip containing the text of the title, animated to float up. They are joined together with an Addition. Video track three is the introduction to the motorcycle, and it overlaps the opening title by a couple of seconds. The opening title and introduction are joined with a Dissolve. Because I was shuffling around with a chest mounted camera, all the recorded audio from the introduction is removed.
The main clip of the ride is back on Video track two, and overlaps the introduction clip by a couple of seconds. They are also joined by a Dissolve. The recorded audio from this track is retained, since what is a motorcycle movie without engine noise?
Finally, there is the closing credit, which is another Title Clip. The opening title used a transparent background since it was added to the still shot of the house. In the closing credit the transparency is turned off, and a black background is used. The closing credit is back on Video track three, and again overlaps by a few seconds. The two tracks are tied together with another Dissolve.
For the music, I did a Google search for Creative Commons music. Creative Commons music, is music that is free to use, and will not come back to bite you if your movie becomes too popular and you don’t have rights to the musical score you selected. I picked an instrumental selection that came close to matching my feelings when I’m riding, and looped it to have it match the length of the video portion. The score is on Audio track one, and has a three second fade at the very end of the track to match the end of the video.
Once that was all put together, the last step of creation was to Render everything together into the final movie. When the rendering was complete, all that was left was to upload the completed movie file to YouTube under my own channel.
I shot the entire video sequence with the GoPro mounted in a chest harness. For the introduction, I had to hold the camera at a downward position to include the bottom of the motorcycle in the frame. This was definitely not ideal. The camera was bouncy, because I was walking sideways, and I had to walk sideways because the camera was fixed to my body at a 90 degree angle. The chest mount allows for some up and down angle, but no side to side angle. I should have had the camera off my body for that shot, but at this point, I could only hand hold the camera. As jumpy as the chest mount was, hand held would be worse. I will get better with all aspects of this with time and practice, but I also need a better camera mount system for this sort of shot. One YouTube Vlogger has suggested using a short handle mount, and resting the back of the GoPro on your chin. The idea is that your head is fairly steady when you move, and if the camera is on your head, the camera will also be steady. Additionally, your eyes are the viewfinder. So long as your eyes are looking forward, so is your chin.
The chest mount did work very well for the riding portion of the movie. The field of view was a little bit low for the motorcycle windshield. I’ll have to experiment with getting the chest mount a little higher to get a better view over the top of the windshield. In the future, I want to experiment with different camera mount positions. The chest mount is a good start, and gives a nice first person view, but only from the perspective of the motorcycle. I think either swapping to a future helmet mount, or having a second camera would allow for some interesting cuts to different perspectives. Perhaps add a camera mount lower on the motorcycle, to switch around the view a bit.
For no cost areas of improvement, I only need look at the titling. My objective in this first movie was just to get it completed, with a few basic elements included, and with that, I’m happy. But, the titling needs a lot more polish, and that is a matter of practice with the software. KDEnlive is capable of stunning results, all it needs is a good operator. All that costs is time.
Be my neighbor? Revisited
My previous post was about a home for sale. There’s a newly remodeled place down the way that is for rent. As you can see, close neighbors are not an issue with this place.
If you head left from this place, you get to the corner store about 100 meters away. If you go right, and go to the end of the lane, you get to our house.
We’ve been watching this place be remodeled since we moved up here. The inside was gutted, so it’s all new in there. While I have not been inside, there is supposed to be a big room, with an attached and enclosed kitchen out the back. The upstairs is divided into two rooms, with the upper balcony for morning coffee. The nice wall is only in the front, though the owner told Bua that when she gets renters, she’ll expedite replacing the barbed wire fence with a good wall on the other three sides.
No worries about neighbors on this side, since there is a massive pond full of water flowers. You can see some construction trash along the side of the house that is still in the process of being removed. At a guess, I think the pond is 60 meters by 60 meters, but I’m not sure. Too bad it isn’t stocked with fish, and a bit less clogged with plants. If it were, you could almost fish out the livingroom window.
This side shows much more of the construction waste that is in the process of being cleaned up.
You can also get a better view of the kitchen area at the rear of the house. I think once the surrounding walls get finished, this will be quite a nice Thai style home.
Here’s another view of the entry way, and the upper porch. In our entryway area we have a small cafe table and a couple of chairs. It really makes for a nice place to sit and enjoy the day. On this house, they should catch some afternoon sun, but the mornings should be shaded.
The owner also said she’s more interested in older, longer term renters. She’s putting a good amount of money into the house, and wants someone who is going to treat the house well.
I don’t have a name for the owner, but the Thai phone number is 087-951-4857. She told us rent was going to be 5000 baht, about $160 USD, per month. It looks like there was a DSL line to the house before, so Internet access would not be a problem.
Be My Neighbor?
Feel like moving to the country, while still being near the city? The house down the way is for sale, at around $22,000 USD or 700,000 baht. The road in front is dirt now, but within a few months it will be concrete, same as the recently upgraded road in front of our house.
I have no idea how many bedrooms are inside, but you can see it’s a good size home, with few neighbors of it’s own. At this point in time, the only near dwellings are behind it.
As you may have guessed, at just over $20K USD, it’s a bit of a fixer-upper. However, I know from recent experience, even with a house unoccupied for several years, it doesn’t take too much effort to get it livable again. Houses here are concrete and brick, rather than wood. Cleaning and painting, sure, but probably not any structural damage. Putting another $5K to $10K and you’d have quite a nice little house, and grounds.
It does have the basic form, just needs some polish. A boundary wall would be good, rather than the tin sheeting. Someone’s been keeping up with the greenery, so it’s not all overgrown like our house was. If the inside is in the same condition as the outside, I doubt all that much effort would be required to get it “farang-ready”. I didn’t see any air conditioning compressors when I was looking at the front of the house, so unless there is one in the rear, there is no air conditioning. For our house, we have three; two working and one broken, and so far we’ve only turned them on to test them.
Not that I’m all that frugal, but I do try to limit our use of air conditioning as much as possible. Unless it’s really awful, I’d rather use a fan, or passive cooling (open some windows for a cross breeze.)
So, like I mentioned, it would be cool so have some English speaking neighbors. I don’t personally know who owns the house, if it’s the bank, or an individual or company. There’s a fair amount of land in our community area repossessed by one bank or another. I’m not sure, but I suspect a bank would be more interested in turning over the property rather than speculating on how much more the land should be jacked up after the announcement of a second Ring Road for Udon.
If anyone is interested, let me know, and I’ll ask Bua to ask the Village Big Boss how to contact the owners.
Non-Thai citizens are not allowed to buy land. However, Thai companies can buy land, so if you have (or create) a Thai Company, that company can buy and own the land for you. If you’re married to a Thai national, it’s just a matter of buying the property for your spouse, and if you’re hedging your bets, leasing the house back to yourself for 30 years, with an option for another 30 years.