Despite a few obstacles, I’m back. Again. Again. Well, it was one month sooner this time, so, small victories, right?! I start out talking about a new baby, then changes to this podcast and all things AmeriNZ, and to me, too. Lots of things are changing! I have details.
Despite a few obstacles, I’m back. First, though, I give the end of the story I talked about in the previous episode: New Zealand got a government. Mainly, though, I talke about the several obstacles to my being able to podcast (or blog, for that matter).
We finally got some summer weather! We had pleasant holidays, but this time of year is very quiet and that’s both good and bad (probably mostly good). My birthday is tomorrow! That will keep me from paying any attention to the hoopla in Washington, DC.
The video above is a short video I made this evening as an experiment. I wanted to see how easy it was to make a video using iMovie on my iPad. On the whole, it was pretty easy.
I shot some video of the rain this afternoon with an idea that I might make a YouTube video with it. This evening I was playing with my iPad, remembered that it had iMovie on it, and I wondered how hard it would be to use.
The first problem was figuring out how to get my footage onto my iPad. It turns out, my videos don’t automatically share to iCloud (probably a setting I made at some point). So, I uploaded them to Dropbox, then opened Dropbox on my iPad and saved them to my photos on my iPad (often called a “Camera Roll”)
After that, it was just a matter of figuring out how to assemble everything. I expect phone and tablet apps to teach me how to use them as I use them, but sometimes I get stuck. Apart from having to Google how to get video onto my iPad, this time I had very little trouble figuring it out.
However, there were a few things I haven’t figured out yet, like how to shorten the duration of onscreen titles and how to adjust the level of the music track (the levels in the video were automatic; the music was included with iMove, by the way).
If I’d edited the video on the Mac, I’d have no trouble with any of those things, and I would have edited out the camera shake in a couple spots. But I wanted to see what was possible—or, at least, obvious—to do on the iPad. Some day I may shoot some video and want to get it uploaded quickly (interestingly, one of the templates was for CNN’s uploaded videos from amateurs).
So, all in all, it wasn’t too bad, though I’ll use the Mac for editing nearly all the time. Still, it was kind of fun.
This was my second video so far this year, and this video is actually part of the “soft re-launch” of my YouTube Channel. I’m posting similarly short videos up until the actual relaunch, which is coming soon.
And all of that will be shared here on this blog. Of course.
The Technical Stuff: The video was shot using a 20.3MP Samsung DX 1000, and the still shot of water drops at the beginning and end was shot with an iPhone 5c. The video was edited on an iPad2 using iMovie, a built-in template and built-in music. The final video was saved as a 1080 HD video, then uploaded to YouTube directly from the iPad (which takes a lot longer than from a desktop computer, BTW).
This is one of those rare crossposts with AmeriNZ Blog, something I forgot to share here, too.
Things I talked about last time have resolved themselves, and that’s where I begin today. New Zealand’s result in the ICC Cricket World Cup is first, followed by the Northland By-election. A peculiarity in New Zealand law caused some issues when I posted the previous episode. I have a personal development in NZ politics to share. Then, I talk about a couple new items in the news.
Today I have one topic: Marriage equality arriving in New Zealand one week ago today. I start by telling you about some of my impressions the night. I also give you my full impressions of what New Zealand’s far right did—and is up to now! After some slight diversion into other NZ politics, I tell you about what happens now. One thing I know for sure is that this battle is over: The rightwing cannot repeal or even revisit this issue. Kiwis just don’t do that. Finally, I tell you the background to that video of the vote.
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Today’s episode is all about catching up on a some of what I’ve been up to. I share a weird encounter with YouTube. I also have some updates about the Marriage Equality Bill. Then, I turn to some talk about Pride 48 and podcasting in general, introduced by a clip from Auntie Vera Charles. A voicemail lets me expand on a topic, and then I’m done for today.
It’s been cold in Auckland this week. Last week was my busy week—with a twist. I’ll be part of a new podcast, but it doesn’t have a name. Leave your suggestion in the comments or ring the comment line. I also talk a bit about Pride 48. Congratulations to Ramble Redhead for 500 episodes! After that, I talk about a blog project I’ve been taking part in called ABC Wednesday. A comment lets me talk a bit about the upcoming New Zealand Census.
Things have changed—a lot. That’s the main thing I talk about today.
