The basic goal of the fish camera is to take a still photo at a fixed interval, put on a time/date stamp, and send the photo via FTP to my blog. I use the same name for the photo every time, so the old photo continually gets overwritten by the new photo. Very basic, and very simple. From my old Weather days, if you wanted to do some sort of SkyCam, it would work exactly the same way.
Continue reading “Fish Cam – Basic Software”Another new hobby.
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.
Singapore!
Because of the timing of the flights, we ended up needing to spend one night in Bangkok. May 20th we flew from Udon Thani into the old Bangkok airport. Most of the domestic carriers operate out of Don Mueang Airport. One of our frequent flier friends suggested staying at the Amari Airport Inn which was a great idea, if only for simplicity. The Amari is connected to the airport via an overhead walkway, so it is very easy to get to, without needing to fight with traffic. And while it’s quite the high end hotel (at least to us), if you happen to have your Thai speaking partner with a Thai National ID card book the reservations, you’ll be able to get a better price than anyone using English to book a room. The hotel is quite nice, and the bed was one of the most comfortable I’ve slept on in a long time.
In the morning, after a stop at a full breakfast buffet, we walked back to the airport and off to our gate to wait for the short flight to Singapore.
Our one minor mistake negotiating Singapore Immigration was not having return flight information on our person when talking with the security personnel. They seem to be fine with letting tourists into their country to visit, but want to make sure they are going to be leaving their country too. As a Thai, Bua got a 30 day stamp on arrival, and I got a 90 day stamp on arrival. Once in the airport, we bought a local telephone SIM card, with a data plan, and changed over some currency for the local variety. Next task, was meeting our friend Will at his office in town. In with keeping things simple, we grabbed a cab for about $20 and we were on our way.
As an aside, if we do this again, one of the things I’d do differently, beside carrying a printout of our flights, would be to buy the Singapore Transit Tourist Pass. It’s $30 for three days, and allows you to ride on any Transit train or bus anywhere they go, and as often as you like. Public transportation in Singapore is outstanding, and the Transit pass made it simple to get to where we wanted to go. And we actually did get transit passes later, I just wished I’d have known about them earlier and gotten them earlier. You can buy one trip cards, but if you’re going to be looking around, they can be both expensive and time consuming to get.
One of the things that was great about choosing Singapore was that our friends Will and Kelly offered the use of a spare bedroom in their apartment while we were visiting. When the flight was booked, they were still living in Viet Nam, so it made for a happy coincidence when they moved to Singapore. Will and Kelly have a nice two bedroom apartment, just off a transit stop, in Little India. Not having seen them since they were living in the US, it was wonderful to be able to catch up a bit. Unfortunately, as the timing worked out, while we were in Singapore for vacation, Kelly was in Thailand for a retreat. Hopefully next trip in either direction, Kelly and Bua will be able to meet.
Our second day was pretty much a travel day. We spent some time at Will’s office, then grabbed a bus, and then train out to Little India. After a quick bite, and some conversation, we were off to bed.
We rode the train to the Harbourfront shopping mall, and then caught the monorail out to Sentosa Island. (the monorail is not included on the Tourist Pass public transit card.) Our first stop, the absolutely huge Merlion statue that looks out over the harbour. When I was buying monorail tickets, I also got Merlion tickets, and S.E.A. Aquarium tickets. While you can walk around and look at the Merlion for free, with the tickets you get a trip through a small blacklight illuminated display, and you also get to take the elevator up to the top of the Merlion’s head. The view from on top of the Merlion is amazing, and I think well worth the ticket cost. You’re just not going to get the same view of Sentosa or the harbour from anywhere else. You also get a chance to spend more money; when you’re looking out the lion’s mouth, you’ll have a staff photographer take your picture. Once down in the lobby gift shop, you’ll be offered the chance to buy souvenir keychains, magnets, and 8 x 10 copies of your Merlion experience. (And yes, we did buy the big touristy photo.)
After the Merlion we took a stroll downhill to the away side of Sentosa. I was looking for the aquarium, but my 50/50 direction sense was off. Still, it was a nice walk along the fountains and water features. At the base of the hill, we caught the monorail back to the first island stop, the correct stop to go off looking for the aquarium.
Following the marine tour, we walked a bit around the shopping and restaurant mall. We were able to find a Thai place to stop and eat for a little taste of home. When traveling, exploring is good, but so it a bit of the familiar. Thai food away from Thailand seems to be about the same–you pay around $10 a plate for what would cost you $1 a plate back in Thailand. It was still worth it though. Our main diet was new to us Indian food, most of which we had no idea what it was called, and late lunches at Thai restaurants.
After most of the day at Sentosa, it was back on the monorail to the city, and then on the train to Chinatown. I had an idea about finding some sort of Thai area, and maybe Thai street food. We did get to People’s Park, a huge several story block size market complex. And there was a mostly Asian food court in the basement, but it was primarily Chinese. Even so, it was more familiar than the Indian cuisine we’d been having for dinner. I thought about coming back for a dinner later, but we never did make it back there. Once we finished with the Chinese market, we hopped the train back to Little India to wait for Will to finish work. When Will got back to the apartment we headed out for what turned out to be our usual adventure into Indian foods. After we finished and got back to the apartment, it was time for coffee, a bit of conversation, and then off to bed.
The next stop on getting the most from our visit, and from the transit pass, we were off for a long ride to the Chinese Gardens transit stop. The Chinese Gardens are a short walk away from the transit station, and are a free attraction. It’s an easy walk, with historical Chinese statues, architecture, temples, and ornamental gardens. Once around the park and we were pretty much done. It was back to the train, back to Little India and the apartment, off with the shoes, and taking it easy until Will got back from work.
Day Five was a take it easy day. While there were still things that would have been nice to see, we had done a lot of walking the day before, and we were more than ready to take a easy day. So, not far from the apartment is Mufasa Market. (I think that’s the right name.) It’s multi-block, multi-floor, pretty much everything. We wandered around and did the little bit of shopping we wanted to do in Singapore. After the brief shopping spree, it was back to more rest and relaxation in Will and Kelly’s apartment and our last night in Singapore.
Day Six was our travel day home. We got up early, and was at the train station waiting for it to open. This turned out to be another thing I’d do differently if I’d been to Singapore before. Using the trains, it would be simple to get to the airport, or get from the airport if you knew about them before hand. I didn’t, so I booked our return flight too early in the day. We ended up taking a $20 cab back to the airport. While more expensive than the train, we did get there with plenty of time to go through Immigration and catch our flight back to Thailand.
Just around dinnertime we were back in Udon Thani. The car was just where we left it, in free airport parking. A couple of minutes drive and we were back home again, and looking forward to the next trip, wherever that will be.
The Flickr album of our trip is located here.
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