In my quest to reduce my carbon footprint I am seriously considering installing solar panels. I am coincidently doing a unit of work on energy with my Year 7 Science class. Since our school is “learning from home”, I had time to play with some new apps and techniques to prepare a lesson for remote learning, I put this clip together as a bit of fun. Three parts learning new skills, 3 parts lesson prep and 4 parts just fooling around!
Video footage using my iPhone, screen capture using Loom. Music from Purple Planet. Adobe Sketch with an Apple Pencil and iMovie to put it all together.
This week’s short clip about the return of the Light Rail System (aka trams) to Sydney.
George Street is back in order and the new routes between Circular Quay and Central and Central out to Randwick are up and running as of the end of January 2020. The line going out to the Inner West suburbs has been operating since 1997, although the final extension to Dulwich Hill was not completed until 2014. This line follows the old goods line route.
The last of Sydney’s old trams ran to Kingsford in February 1961. They were closed down as the popularity of cars increased. In hindsight, not a great decision as traffic has become such a huge problem.
Thankfully, the ugly Monorail which operated from 1988 – 2013 has been pulled down.
The next step in Sydney’s transport system is the completion of the now under construction Metro System. If you’re interested in the old-style trams, visit the Tram Museum in southern Sydney near the Royal National Park.
The footage was filmed in March 2020, on my iPhone and edited using iMovie on my phone. In the voiceover, I mispronounce Circular Quay but I wasn’t going to do it again!!!!
PS: This may well be the last Mini Doc of the Week for a while! As I have said in previous posts the challenge is becoming too much of a challenge and causing me some unexpected anxiety. It may become Mini doc of the Month with some other things thrown in in the intervening weeks.
This week’s mini-doc looks at one isolated aspect of sustainable tourism. Millions and millions of people visit Niagara Falls every year. This obviously puts an incredible strain on such a beautiful area but is no doubt essential to the local economy.
A big part of the experience is a cruise up river to view the falls close-up. The ticket price includes a plastic poncho.
I’m left wondering exactly what do they do with all those ponchos? While I am sure some get kept as souvenirs, the majority would end up in the bins at the end of the gangway.
Are there other options? I don’t know what the answer is beyond getting wet. What did they do before plastic ponchos were invented? I guess people brought their own raincoats. Could Maid in the Mist (on the US side) or Hornblower (on the Canadian side) have reusable ponchos? Or sell heavier duty ones which were not single-use? Perhaps there could be a discount for people who don’t use the poncho and bring their own?
The footage was shot in 2016 and repurposed for this clip in March, 2020. Shot with a Panasonic FZ1000 and edited using iMovie on my iMac. Music from Purple Planet.
Canada was a spectacular place to visit and I could happily go back again. I have shared other stories about my time in Canada in these posts:
I’ve got to be honest with you dear reader, I think this video challenge is going to be too much for me to manage! When I’m at work full time and not enjoying school holidays, I don’t have much time to get out and make new content. But still I’m not ready to give up just yet so I am trawling my archives to use old footage in new ways.
This mini doc uses footage I took in 2015 while in Vietnam. I put it into this format in February 2020. I am hoping it makes you feel a bit edgy and chaotic. The traffic scenes are from Hanoi and the carrot carving happened on a boat in Ha Long Bay. I travelled with Intrepid Tours. I have written about the experience in this blog post.
It was filmed on a Panasonic FZ250 and put together using iMovie on my iMac. Music is from Purple Planet, a great source of free music.
Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is held in the first week of March. This year is the 42nd event. There is a lot of organisation (obviously!) that occurs behind the scenes and on the day of the parade a long lag time while everyone arrives, gets into their positions and waits for the parade to start. This is a great opportunity for photographers who are behind the starting line.
A few years ago I joined in on the Sydney Mardi Gras to celebrate diversity in the Emergency Services. It was a LOT of fun.
I have put this new clip together as part of my 2020 challenge to publish a mini-documentary each week. I am aiming to improve my video production skills. The only way I’ll do that is if I practice. So, here’s another practice run, this time fiddling about with repeating short sequences. I don’t think iMovie is the best software to use for that.
Hopefully, by the end of the year, I’ll be as good as George Lucas! Huh!! 🙂 If I last that long! It’s not as easy as the Photo of the Week Challenge!
I took the footage in March 2017 and put this clip together a couple of weeks ago. Shot on an iPhone 8 and edited in iMovie on an iMac. Music by Justin Mahar via MusoPen
Should we change the day we celebrate Australia Day?
This clip was taken down at Wollongong Harbour on Australia Day 2020. While offering no answers, it raises the question “is the 26th of January the best day for celebrating our nationhood?”
Should we choose a different date or should we commemorate it in a different way?
All footage on iPhone SMAX edited using iMovie and Spark Video on my phone.
You can find lots of information about this issue. This SBS News clip is a good place to start.
I have been investigating ways to reduce my grocery bills, plastic packaging and keep an eye on what is in my food. I thought I’d give making pasta from scratch another try. I’ve done it a few times before but still had more problems than I thought I would.
A little longer than the advertised 1 minute! I’ll get better at making shorter ones as the year goes by.
I hope you enjoy my struggle!
Recipe
600 g flour
370 g eggs (4 really big ones!)
Kneaded by hand for 12 minutes
Then mixed in an ancient Kenwood for about a minute
Rested for 30 minutes
Mixed again in the Kenwood!!
Another rest (for us both!)
Then struggling with the pasta roller!
If you want to have a look at someone who really knows what they are doing, check out this lady! She makes it look easy!
As it turns out, given pasta is cheap, lasts well in the pantry and tastes more or less the same as the homemade stuff, I don’t think it’s worth it. A packet of dried lasagna costs $A3.70. My afternoon’s efforts made the equivalent of 3 boxes for around $A5:00 – a saving of $6… let’s not factor in the labour cost! I did have some fun which should be factored in.
Shot entirely on my iPhone SMAX and edited using iMovie on my iMac.
Continuing on the theme of fires on the NSW South Coast. Once again this clip is from Narooma, a village about 4 hours drive from Sydney. I used to spend holidays there in my early 20’s. I have plenty of fond memories.
These areas rely on tourism, especially in our summer school holiday period so they will be doing it tough. The main crisis has passed now, but the people in this area need to put their lives back in order.
Support them if you can.
All footage on iPhone SMAX edited using iMovie on my phone.
Last week I finished up a full year of a Photo of the Week challenge. In the spirit of adventure, I am going to morph this into a video challenge. I am challenging myself to create a short (1 – 5 minute) mini-documentary each week. Or as I like to call them Chookumentaries! (It makes me laugh!)
To get a head start I will use some archival footage I have shot “on location”. Some clips will have already appeared on my Facebook page, so apologies to those who have already seen them!
I will most likely knock them together with my iPhone and iMovie so they may be rough and ready. I’ll use it as an excuse to experiment with a few other video creation apps as well.
Wish me luck! The theory is that I’ll get better with practice! Oh and I’ll make a new graphic for Week 2, I wanted to use the same one for this week before heralding the change in format.
