Week 50: Why do I think I need to film everything?

Why do I think I need to film everything?  Well, my life really doesn’t need filming, I guess.  I never did end up getting a new camera.  For now I think I’m going to start out with the cameras I have as I do have quite a collection of them.  Christmas time did eat a bit into my savings this year, so a new camera might be a bit excessive.

It might be different for some people in Orlando, Florida.  I watch videos on YouTube of some guys who go to Walt Disney World, or some other theme park every week.  And it’s fun to watch them, but there really aren’t any theme parks here.  Maybe I’ll have to exaggerate some of my life?  I am going to learn how to do a few special effects while filming.  Maybe more than a few effects.  Maybe I’ll be able to make things fun enough that people might just want to watch me each week?  I’ll have to put some thought into this.

So how do you know what people would like to watch?  Well, I’ll have to go with what I enjoy.  If I like it and think a video is fun, maybe everyone else will, too? I have a few videos I’ve done a while ago, but I think they would be too large to insert here in the blog.  One video has two of me sitting on a couch talking about two books.  I thought it was pretty clever and looked pretty good!  I checked and the file is around 6GB.  I think if I wanted to try and insert that here it would take a couple days to upload it.  And then I’m not sure I can just post videos that large into my blog.  Oh well, maybe I’ll get it out somewhere in another video one of these days.  Old footage sometimes comes in really handy!

I could edit some video from a few theme parks.  I do still have quite a lot of video that I’ve taken back on past trips.  I’m not sure whether my weekly videos should be about what’s currently going on in my life, or maybe show some of my past if that’s more fun?  We’ll see what I can cook up.  From what I’ve been seeing though, if I put my mind to it, I should be able to make some theater quality stuff if I just take my time and learn a program or two in depth.

You might be surprised what people would like to see.  I’ve looked up grocery stores in the UK before and was amazed by the videos I found!  It was thrilling for me to see what shopping was like across the pond!  Should I maybe show where I shop and what it looks like inside?  Would anyone in the UK, or anywhere else like to see that?  I do have friends from all over the world on my Facebook account and that’s probably where I’ll post the links to my videos after I upload them to YouTube.  Hmm, again I guess I’ll just have to gage my audience as I learn film making.

I’m currently waiting on some things to arrive.  Once they do, I’ll have to get started and learn what I can before my first video in January.  I’m pretty excited already!  So why do I think my life needs to be filmed?  Because it’s just something I want to do!  And it will be something left behind when I’m gone!

So until video one comes out, keep asking why.  One other thought, what should I call my video series for next year?  52 Weeks of Life, maybe?  I don’t know.  If you have other suggestions, let me know.

Week 48: Why I love cameras and wings.

I need a new video camera.  Ok, that’s not really true, I already have quite a collection of cameras that can take video, it’s more like I WANT a new video camera.  I’ve decided that I want to do a video a week instead of a blog for 2018.  52 Weeks of Life.  How does that sound?  There are a few reasons for this.

One reason is that while growing up and even into adulthood, my father would always tell me stories about his life.  I loved them.  I would hear about his time in the U.S. Air Force, bits about when he was in high school, and how he grew up on a farm.  I loved the stories and still remember quite a few of them.  My father passed away back in September and now I don’t get to hear the stories anymore.  Anyway, back before he passed on I asked him if I could set up a camera and he could tell some of his stories.  I got a resolute “NO!” to that.  He didn’t want to do that at all.  It was his choice and I respected that.

But now I’m in my 50’s and writing a blog is nice, but you don’t really see anything that’s going on during the time.  You just get to read whatever I write.  Now granted if I do videos you’ll still only see what I want to film, but still the visual medium is much more fun than writing sometimes.  When I was pretty young I knew my Great Grandmother on my mother’s side.  I even used to write her letters (She lived up in Montana, far away from where I was at the time.).  Imagine what it would be like if I could sit down now and watch videos of my Great Grandmother when she was in her 50’s.  That would still probably be back in the 1930’s or 1940’s!  I know there are some old reel to reel movies, but I’m not sure who the people are on them and they don’t have any sound.  Not as much fun without sound!

Ask yourself what you did last year.  Do you remember what was going on in each month or week last year?  I may not if you ask me, but I can go back to this blog and select any week of the year and after reading what I’d written know how I felt, and what was going on at the time.  Imagine being able to go back when I’m in my 60’s and watch, or even show someone what was going on in my life in 2018 with videos!  I can’t pass that opportunity up! 

And this will not only teach me about filming and editing, I’ll hopefully learn more and more each week about how to edit and process videos.  Will I be much better at filming by week 22 next year?  Who knows?  But I think it’s still a fun thing to do. 

So why do I need a new camera if I already have a bunch of cameras that could probably easily do the job?  I’ve decided I want one with an attachable microphone.  It’s just something I want.  I probably don’t need it, but I think sound will be an important part of the videos.  Maybe a new camera that I can screw some kind of lens on if I need it? (What the hell would I need a different lens for if I’m just vloging?  *chuckle*)  Being honest, if I’m going to do this, I should do it to the best of my ability.  I don’t want to just post crap on my YouTube channel.  Well…maybe it’ll be crap, but hopefully it’ll be good crap.  *chuckle* It can’t possibly be worse than some of the other crap that’s on television now!

I’ve looked at some cameras tonight in a shop called Best Buy and they are outrageous.  Anywhere from $400 on up and those are without attachable microphones!  I’ll check a few other shops next week, but I’ll probably end up ordering something from Amazon.  They have some very nice looking cameras with microphones starting at around $110.  I’ll see what I can find and hopefully be ready for all of this on Week 1, 2018!

Moving on to wings, I love chicken wings!  There is a place near where I live called Wing Stop.  They pretty much serve two things: chicken wings, and French fries.  There are all kinds of flavors of wings and one of my all-time favorite thing about this place is that I can order and pay online and then just drive over and they hand me a bag with my order in it! 

Now it’s not just the convenience of ordering online that I like (that’s actually really fun! *chuckle*), the wings are always fantastic!  The people working there smile and greet me happily.  I love the place!  It’s a bit on the pricy side, but still I do think the food there is well worth the price.  You can take a look at my order right here:

I ordered 15 mild wings and they smell wonderful!  A very nice treat for my weekend.  So off I go to eat my wings and finish up relaxing before my return to work.  While I do that, everyone keep asking why!  And think how nice this will be next year when I don’t just write about getting wings from Wing Stop, I'll actually show some video about it!  *chuckle*