Beta blogging

OK, in the interests of experiments, this blog has changed to the "beta" version of blogger.

Metacafe

OK, to be fair, have just received an email from Miri at Metacafe admitting a "mistake".

Still can't figure out why they need more than ten "reviewers", but such is the way of this world.

Comparison - P40 Kittyhawk

OK, have just uploaded the same clip into youTube. The upload took 95 minutes.
P40 Kittyhawk

(addition - Jan 1 2007)
Am slightly unsure of the background, but it most probably belongs to Alan Arthur.

This aircraft was constructed from a New Zealand P40 (NZ23125) at Wangaratta and Deniliquin over the past five years. The Allison engine was reconditioned in the USA. The entire project was shipped to Pioneer Aero Restorations in New Zealand for completion and was finished just in time for the Wanaka Airshow this Easter.

It was then brought to Australia, and the Jamestown Airshow was its first public appearance in this country

Curtiss P40 Kittyhawk

Metacafe are giving me the irrits at the moment. Apparently there is some sort of "review" system before a video gets released to "the public". Have just received notification that the "Inverted aircraft .." video in the post below has been "rejected" as one of their "reviewers" has " seen it before" .. so there is a "duplication" and the video has been withdrawn from "public" view. This is a whole load of crap as there is only one, and it belongs to me.

When I first uploaded them, the videos "hung" under "review" for several days. There is no information as to how many "reviews" it needs, nor how long, nor what they need as a rating, so had to email them to find out how long it would be before they were released. I did, however receive a very nice email from one of the staff, and the videos were relased soon after. Am a little bemused, considering some of the crap that makes it into their "public space".

So far youTube has the best management system. (and no bloody "review"system. When it's finished uploading .. there it is, available for "public" view and embedding.)

Actually, now that I think of it that may well be the problem with the Metacafe system. The URL was available to me shortly after the upload, so I put it into this blog. Unbeknownst to me it was not actually "available" to the Metacafe viewing public but was also being distributed to the "reviewing community". In the meantime, someone must have found it on this blog .. or something.

I sent an email of enquiry this morning, but have heard nothing back. Meanwhile, this is probably the only place where you can access it.

So, am still experimenting. This one has been uploaded to photobucket. Am not all that impressed with them, either. They apparently organise and handle "still" photos extremely well, but the "video" section is new, so the "management" screen for the upload is a pain in the proverbial. The upload took just under an hour.
This clip is 1 minute 38.

The quality of this one, while still a compromise, plays and looks quite good on my Windows Media Player, but am not now sure of the quality of replay here, as photobucket have changed the file extension. It was originally rendered and uploaded as .WMV with the setting "Windows Media 8 best quality based VBR for broadband" whatever that means. I did try several experiments with rendering it into AVI and MPEG4, but the playback in the Windows Media Player was crap, so went back to what seems to work best.

Jamestown Airshow (3)

Chris Sperou and Warren Stewart do some "close quarter" flying. Just over 2 minutes.

Chris Sperou Aerobatics - video powered by Metacafe

Chris Sperou. Ribbon cut, Inverted. 1 min 12.

Inverted Aircraft cuts ribbon - video powered by Metacafe

Jamestown Airshow (2)

Haven't really had time to write up the whole day, but here are a few pics. They all flew (except the tank :-), which actually got "blown up" several times with some speccy pyrotechnics), but anything actually in the air is on video. Am trying hard to edit stuff (i do have a 'day job') so have only managed a couple of short clips which are now on METACAFE, but probably not available to the public just yet, as they have some sort of "review" system. Will include the links in a further post.

General Grant tank
T-28 Trojan

P40 Kittyhawk

T-6 Harvard (one of three)

CA-18 Mustang
(background)

DHC1 Chipmunk (there were three)

Tiger Moth (one of several)

Douglas DC-3 (was supposed to, but didn't fly)

Stampe

(Dunno)

Jamestown Airshow (1)

Well, made it there and back in one piece. A very enjoyable day. Have just over an hour of footage, including some speccy aerobatics by Chris Sperou in his Pitts special. Other aircraft include a Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk, CA-18 Mustang, Chipmunks, T-6 Harvards, YAK-52, T-28 Trojan and a surprise visit from an FA-18 Hornet which did three low level fly-pasts. Did my best to keep it in frame - but those things are FAST!

Will have to do a series of short clips, so will take a week or so. In the meantime, have fun.

New challenges

Am off to the Jamestown Airshow this weekend. 450Km round trip. Given the unpredictability of motor vehicles and road trips - if I make it back, should have something interesting to post... later.

In Memoriam

This is another experiment. Am becoming more familiar with MAGIX movie edit pro-10. It gives me 12 'tracks' to play with.

Can 'record' or 'transfer' everything from the video recorder, and it generally 'recognises' each 'take' as separate, depending on when the camera is turned on or off. (needs choice). One of the things that am finding difficult and time consuming, is figuring out how the whole thing works.

OK, given 12 tracks, i generally 'drag and drop' the 'takes' into track 1, have a squizz, and see what happened. After that it is a question of figuring out the timings. Very easy to 'snip' takes at whatever point one chooses, as well as 'delete' the beginning and endings of takes without altering the originals. “Timing” takes time.

After that, it is very easy to 'drag and drop' any other “object' into the other tracks.

“Objects” are anything that you can find on the hard drive – still photos, music tracks, Special Effects .. Magix has many useful 'scene changes' and Video FX. Just 'drag and drop' onto the top of the Object.

One of the most difficult (and time consuming) things, have found, is trying to “find” them amid the plethora of 'drop down' menus.

So, as I said, this is an experiment using the various facilities within the Magix movie edit program.

It also gives me the choice as to how to 'render' the edited video. There are 20 or so options ranging from straight .wmv to choices regarding 'dialup' and broadband.

For this one i chose broadband save, even though the 'screen size' is smallish, as the 'dialup' option created a very crappy version, the technical quality of which, was not prepared to allow. If, however, there are interested 'dialup' people, can create a version just for them (gee, am i considerate, or not? Heh)

And yer, underneath all this cynical crap, am a soppy sentimental .. heh.

Sunday Markets, Broome.

OK, have just finished another quick edit. (I love Magix.) Began at 6pm this evening, loaded the Hi8 (digital record) footage from the tape of the Sony TRV355E via USB into a Compaq 1.8 AMD processor, 512 RAM, 80 Gig hard drive. Did the edit. Saved as .mvd (some sort of Magix file extension).

Used Magix to "save the file" as .mpeg

Uploaded file to youTube. File uploaded in 3 seconds. ?? think I. Waited a while but after 3 minutes message from youTube came back "file extension not recognised".

OK. Rethink. Saved file as .wmv. Uploaded to youTube. The 'upload' took 9 minutes.

The whole clip should be 1 minute 45 seconds.

Spending the whole day at this wonderful experience seems to be supplanted by 'speed of experience'.

And yes, I have "manipulated these images". But they are all "real", and belong to that day. I hope that you enjoy.

Cable Beach, Broome.

This beach used to be a favourite "hide-away" for backpackers and hippies. As far as I understand, it is no longer possible to 'pitch a tent'. As with most things 'pristine', the "developers" have 'discovered' it, and the 'value'of the real estate has skyrocketted. It's still a nice beach, though.

Crocodiles. Broome.

These are just some short scenes, taken while at Malcolm Douglas' Crocodile Farm in Broome. May 2004. Am trying to keep things short. Is also an experiment, as Magix Edit allows me to "mixdown" the edits into different file formats. The previous were saved as Windows media files (.wmv). This one has been formatted as Quicktime (.mov).

Barra fishing trip. Remix, try 2

Am trying youTube. Have re-mixed the previous video of the Barra fishing trip down to just under four minutes. Simple upload system (though this one took almost an hour. Hope that it doesn't take that long to 'buffer down'.)


The post about the day is back here.

Baby blues (2)

OK, looks like I may have to "go with the flow"and latch onto the "most popular".

Have uploaded this one to youTube, and the process was quick and easy. The whole process took about 15 minutes from go to whoa.


(Have a funny feeling that the subject, now age 32, might kill me if he ever saw it .. heh.)

Have deleted the previous post with the Revver video screen. At this point am not happy with some of the technical processes and glitches .. buut they are still in "Beta", so will try them again later.

Video screen for Post below.

The clip is six minutes in length. Read through the post while waiting for it to buffer down.

OK, will try this. Click on the thumbnail which should take you to the relevant Video on Revver.

Barra Fishing Trip. Ord River, North-western Australia.

(PS. This post is still under construction .. heh. Am finding that embedding a video screen in the post is a little more complicated than first thought. Might have to separate video screen from blog. Or just put a link to it. Dunno yet. )

Well now. Have completed a six minute version of the day's fishing at Macka's Barra camp on the Ord River and uploaded it to Revver.
The other post and 4 minute remix on YouTube is here.

There are several video hosting sites, and a review of ten of them can be found here.

I chose Revver as they put a “clickable” Ad at the end. This is all very “experimental” at the moment, and am still discovering the trials and tribulations.

I feel that the camera work is only so-so, but had only recently purchased the Sony TRV355E, and had much trouble with wind-noise in the in-built microphone. Would really have liked to have spent several days there. It's difficult trying to film an “expedition” while taking part in it; so missed quite a few good photo ops of some of the action. Will have to keep the clips fairly short, as this one took nearly an hour and a half to 'upload' on to Revver, and even with Broadband, takes some time to “buffer down” before you can view it.

THE TRIP.

Had gone up to Kununurra in May 2004 for another event and, due to some cock-ups with arrangements, found that I had a spare day. Well, it seemed silly to travel all the way up to the Kimberley Region in North-western Australia and not have a crack at the mighty Barramundi.

Scientific Name: Lates calcarifer

Barramundi are protoandrous hermaphrodites: they start life as males, reaching maturity at around 3 to 4 years of age and later change gender and become females, usually at around age 5. Small fish are almost exclusively male with the percentage of females increasing with overall length.

Distribution
Distribution map of Barramundi

L.calcarifer has a very extensive range in tropical and semi-tropical areas of the Indo-Pacific. Its distribution extends from the Persian Gulf to southern China and southwards to the northern Australia. Within Australia its range extends from the Mary and Maroochy River systems in south-east Queensland northwards around the entire northern coast to Shark Bay in Western Australia.

I was very fortunate to get on this particular trip, as it was pretty much a last minute decision.
So, with the Barra dream of every Australian worth his salt in mind, went to the Tourist Office on the Monday and made enquiries. They gave me several brochures, but no advice.

Umm, think I, then made tracks for the nearest Pub. Y' know how it goes .. "G'day, who's the best Barra guide in town? Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit..". After about six conversations, many beers and much differing advice - counted up the votes, and found that Macka's Barra Camp came out 4:2.

Macka's Barra Camp has become an institution when it comes to big barra in the Kimberley. In fact, one of Macka's specialties is catching the extra big, meter plus Barramundi. Even experienced Barramundi anglers can go a lifetime without cracking the magic meter long mark, yet at Macca's many such anglers have achieved this goal in one trip.

One of the strengths of Macka and his team of guides is that they ensure no effort is spared to see that you have a most exciting days fishing.

Macka picks you up at Kununurra, and soon after you are fishing aboard his 6 meter long craft which is specially designed for barra fishing, and includes all first class tackle and associated gear.

As the name suggests, Maccas Barra Camp it is not only day trips, you can stay overnight and extend your trip for several days or more.

For more information call 08 9169 1759 or check out his website
Macka's Barra camp

O.K... rang the number, found that there was one spot available the next day (Tuesday), and booked a spot on a day trip.
So, was duly picked up from Kununurra backpackers at 6.00am by Macka in a rather battered Toyota Troupie containing three other 'hopefuls'.

It is always a risk, taking a trip into the 'unknown'. They could have been hoons from the 90's, buuut, found myself in company with three similar age nutcases. Merv; life of the party, always with a comment, quip, quote or joke. Brian; quiet, reserved. Michael, likewise.

The bitumen disappeared about halfway into the hour and a half trip, through a gate, then bumped and tossed our way to the "camp".

One of the interesting things about some buildings in the 'Top end' is their relative impermanence. There are two seasons .. the "wet", and the "dry". The "dry" lasts for about nine months, and the "wet" IS. While cyclones are not all that frequent, they happen, so the general attitude is "why build anything permanent, when most likely will have to build it again next year".
So, we arrived at the camp, and were introduced to Andy, 'guide:boat driver:cook:mechanic:expert in pretty well everything.'
(there are always 'dream' jobs, somewhere.. and as Cher says, ".. if I could turn back time”.)
A fast zoom down the Ord river until Andy decided that it was 'bait time', pulled up at a quiet spot about halfway between the camp and the River mouth, and set off with his cast net.
Barra will take anything, but generally prefer live bait. These are called 'popeye' mullet.
Another fast zoom down toward the estuary, where Andy decided on a 'likely' spot. We moored, were instructed in the intricacies of 'bait casting' with this particular reel. (I had been used to a Penn 500, and these, while similar, seemed tinsy and tricksy).

After several trial casts resulting in over-runs, patiently sorted out by Andy, we settled down to anticipation.

Ten minutes later, there was a quiet pull on my line, and watched it travel out into the centre of the stream. Huh?? think I. Then the penny dropped, I flipped on the drag and hauled back on the rod.
Barra are fighting fish. It breached, thrashed its head from side to side, determined to rid itself of this annoyance. It dived, swam toward the boat and away, breached again. At all times one must keep tension on the line; at all times, anticipate .. let it run .. pull it back.
Unfortunately the person who picked up the camera to record this event left it on “full zoom” so there isn't a lot to see of the tussle except a lot of out-of-focus muddy water. Have tried to edit in some of the more recognisable images while keeping the relevant sound track.

After twenty minutes, it was close enough to have a net underneath, and lifted onboard.
It was a mighty tussle, and at the end of it I was shaking like a leaf in an autumn wind. This fish was 1.1 metres in length, and a female, so was required to return it to the water.

It was, in retrospect, an anti climax. I landed it at about 9am, and then caught another smaller Barra some 20 minutes later. You will see in the video that Brian “hooked” another fish, but Barra have a habit of “throwing” hooks, and he lost it. Try as he might, Andy could not find another fish. Mine were only two fish landed that day. From 9am until dusk we searched, tried several spots. Proving once again that wild fish are .. well .. wild. there are no guarantees in nature.

I think I was lucky (though prefer to think of it a superior skill heh heh). The other three were probably envious as well, but didn't let on.

Since the expense of getting up that way was considerable, I don't think that I'll be doing a "repeat" any time soon... but it's nice to have that photo on the wall.

Editing system

Am using MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 10 silver Demo version, which came on a CD included with a magazine. At the moment I find it excellent, and much more flexible than Windows movie maker.

The Demo version is missing some of the functions of the "full"version, but is quite adequate for the experiments that am making. The ''full"version costs 30 or so English pounds (roughly $85 AUD) so haven't gone to that expense just yet. Will also search around to see if there is a better system somewhere.

[UPDATE; 14 Oct 2006] Have purchased the "full" version. One mistake was purchasing in English pounds. Found later that USDollars was cheaper, oh well. Have also purchased the "Music Maker" program for creating "background music" but the technicalities of that one are far too complex at the moment. Will just concentrate on figuring out how to best use the Video Edit system.]

Am finding the editing process very time consuming. Have almost an hour and a half of raw footage depicting the fishing trip on the Ord river, and am gradually whittling it down to some sort of comprehensive version that should give the 'flavour' of the trip, without making it too long to upload. This is difficult.

The 'first'version ended up at 29 minutes. The next version came out at 12 minutes, and am now working on a 3 minute version.

Broome

The visit to Broome will appear in due course.
As will the visit to Kununurra North Western Australia and ..
Truscott Airbase. A long forgotten, but vitally important piece of Australian history - circa 1942 - 2006.

Initial post

this blog has been created as a vehicle to show some of my videos. At this point, have not decided which "video hosting"provider to choose, but it looks like either Revver or YouTube.

Stay tuned, but don't hold yer breath.