I Thought a 4K Monitor Would be Enough

True to my word I am trying to stay busy during my Holiday break. This morning I got up early and skied for an hour at Alta before it started getting crowded given how many runs are open. I did do a bit of exploring so that when we get a lot more snow, I know what other parts of the mountain look like. I also managed to see an old family friend, Junior Bonous who turned 100 in August and he is still making it up to Alta for some turns.

I came home and got some food before heading to the ski tuning room to scrape and brush a pair of skis for Christmas eve. Then I headed to my office and put together a ski video describing the early-season conditions at Snowbird. It is a bit different than my usual videos.

One comment I have received is that I sound so monotone as I narrate my ski videos. Today I opted to create the video first and then add the narration afterwards without a script. I'm not sure I will do that again as I think it took a lot longer to create the soundtrack than normal. I also wanted to say a lot more and ended up leaving many of my comments out of the video.

Creating the narration track at the same time as the video required me to have both Garage Band and iMovie running at the same time. My Mac has a 4K monitor and so one would think I have more than enough space to do everything. That is not the case. I like to use iMovie so it takes up most of the screen. I do the same with Garage Band. A second 4K monitor would really be useful but I don't have one readily available.

I remember when I first started using the 4K monitor. It is the same resolution as 4 HD monitors running at 1080p. I thought it would be easy to divide up the screen into 4 sections and have them act as 4 independent screens. Nope. Once you have a high-resolution monitor, you use it all. I like being able to have my web browser take up more than a quarter of the screen. I also reserve extra space for my e-mail window. It just goes to show that no matter how high a resolution monitor you have, you will use it all. 

Top 5 Steepest Ski Areas in North America

Last night I was putting the finishing touches on my latest video, the Top 5 Steepest Ski Areas in North America when I realized that I needed one more picture for the video. I mentioned High Rustler at Alta but didn't have any pictures of the iconic ski run. I had already shown pictures of the trail map and knew that a quality photo taken from the road would convey the right message.

My daughter is a ski instructor at Alta and I asked her if she had any pictures of High Rustler. She didn't but did have today off and so we drove up to the resort together. Before getting to the parking lot, I pulled off to the side of the road and she took a beautiful picture with my camera. We then spent the morning skiing on our World Cup GS race skis carving high-speed turns on the beautifully groomed runs. A few hours later, we headed home.

Dropping the photo into iMovie was easy and it made for a dramatic scene in the video. High Rustler is really one of those steep runs that even advanced skiers have nightmares about. When I first started skiing it in college, I would have to force any fear out of my mind or it would paralyze me at the top. Today's photo captured that. If you are interested in seeing it, just watch the link at the top of the post.

Done with my Latest Hackathon Project

This week I have had the pleasure of participating in a Hackathon for work. Unfortunately I can't describe my project as we have been asked to keep them secret until after the judging has completed. Six months ago, I didn't worry about sharing my project as it did not relate to my job at Sony PlayStation at all. This project is actually a good idea that would benefit the company as a new product idea as well as being a good corporate citizen. Perhaps in the future I can point to an actual product or service and say that started as my simple project.

As with the Hackathon 6 months ago, this one ended up being completely virtual. That means I spent a large amount of time getting video of myself building the project. When you have to plan everything you do around a video camera, it really slows down the work. I also had to take time to create the 4-minute video that will be used to judge my project. I started this morning at around 11am and the video still isn't complete. Fortunately I am rendering the video and just waiting for iMovie to spit out the file that I will upload to the judges tomorrow morning. It has been rendering for the past hour and I hope it completes shortly.

Creating a 4-minute video is incredibly difficult if you want to do it correctly. For starters, there is so much to say about the project that it is tough to keep it under 4 minutes. I had to leave a lot of the details out. Some of those details are what makes the project spectacular and so you want to include certain things and then leave others out. Assuming you have all the footage from creating the project, you then have to narrate the process you followed. It took me about an hour to get all of my audio recorded. Then I had to sync the audio with the video and still images.

I have to confess that I prefer still images over video. If you need an extra second or two, it is easy to add with a photograph. If you have important steps you are showing in a video, you have to make sure the narration matches exactly. There are tricks you can use but it is not as simple as using pictures.

Ultimately I am glad I participated in the Hackathon as I learned a lot. I also had a significant amount of fun and think I did something worthwhile. I hope the judges agree.

Growing Importance of Video Editing

There are a number of changes that have taken place in the world because of COVID-19 and more changes are coming. One of the changes I have noticed recently is the growing importance of video editing skills. It used to be that specialists would be responsible for such tasks. Now more and more people are having to put together videos as we are restricted from meeting in person because of the pandemic.

I first noticed videos proliferating as a form of communication within my community in Utah. Once a month I am being sent a link to a video. That video is very high-quality and provides updates on the local COVID-19 situation along with a message of encouragement in dealing with all of the various situations we are facing.

Now I am starting to see a number of presentations being done at work with videos instead of PowerPoint. The reasons for this are many. Some people feel more comfortable creating a video instead of speaking live. Others are trying to ensure time constraints are followed. I'm also sure others feel that video allows for a more flashy presentation. Ultimately video has some distinct advantages with more and more people taking advantage of them.

Several years ago I started putting together videos as a self-improvement project. I figured it would be a nice skill to have and have put together 4 videos so far that are available on my YouTube channel. I am in the middle of writing the narration for my next video about when I sailed a 37-foot racing sailboat from Hawaii to Los Angeles many years ago. Hopefully I will have it finished soon.

Here are some of the lessons I have learned creating my videos and hopefully they will help you:

1. Find a video editing tool that works for you and stick with it. Most tools have a number of features and it takes a bit of time to discover the full capabilities of the software you have chosen. I prefer using the Mac over Windows and so I use iMovie as it comes preloaded on all Macs.
2. Try to continually improve on your work. When I went to put together my most recent video, I went back and reviewed my 3 previous videos and made notes on what I could to improve. My 2020 Yurt video is my favorite because I fixed quite a few shortcomings found in the other videos.
3. Have people help review your videos. One of the most difficult things for me is to ask for someone to review my videos. While most comments I get are how well they look, I cringe when people find problems with them. Unfortunately those are the comments that will help you improve. I have one of my coworkers who is great at this and provides very useful feedback. He isn't malicious but sincerely wants to help me improve my work.
   
4. You don't have to use all of the features in your video editing software in every video. When word processing software began widespread use, some users felt obligated to use every font possible in a single-page document. In the end, it detracted from the work. The same can be said of video editing software. You don't need to use all 50 video transitions in a single 2-minute video. Make sure the features you use add to your message and don't detract from it.
5. Keep track of the settings for what you did so you can use what works or make things better for your next video. I feel like every time I go to create the narration for my videos, I have to relearn what settings I used on the last one. Now I keep copious notes during the video creation process so I don't have to relearn the various tools I use. 
   

Hopefully these 5 tips help should you want to start creating your own videos. As I get more experience with my next video, I'm sure I will be able to provide more hints and tricks.

Trying to Decide on a New Computer

This evening I find myself seriously looking to replace my 10-year old desktop in my home office. When I got the original machine I made sure to get something that would last. After 10 years I can say, "Mission accomplished." With work providing me a laptop to bring home every weekend I have not really had a need to get anything special. Now that I find myself working from home for the foreseeable future, I can justify an upgrade.

I want to put together some more adventuring videos and so my new desktop will be used to edit video. That means I need to get another powerful machine. In the past I have used iMovie on the Mac to build my videos and it works amazingly well. So should I focus on getting a powerful machine or spend the same amount and get a less powerful Apple Mac?

My oldest son seems to be invested in my decision as he has provided me with a number of references to help with my decision. Unfortunately that has only made my decision more complicated. At one time I expressed an interest in building a Hackintosh, which is a PC that is capable of running Apple's MacOS. My son ran with that idea and sent me a video of a machine that will run MacOS out of the box. Yes, there is a bit of a software configuration that I will have to go through. There is also the chance that future updates of the operating system won't work and I will have to modify things again. However you get a machine that runs circles around the latest hardware from Apple for about a third of the cost. I can also set it up to run Windows, Linux, and MacOS.

I have some time to decide and so I won't make a decision tonight. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to make a comment and let me know what you would do.