A Video Update

Well I finally got around to  finishing my videos of our Spring 2017 cruise to Desolation Sound and the Gulf Islands. I have been working on them since we got back, but could never bring myself to invest the energy to just finish them. As a result the final product looks (and sounds) a little rushed and unpolished. But they are done in time for me to start contemplating 2018 videos…so that’s a plus.

A few notes. I wanted to use maps and realized that technically speaking I couldn’t use anyone else’s without violating copyright. So I decided to build my own BC coast map based on several sources. A fun way to refresh my Abobe Illustrator skills. Then I animated them using Adobe After Effects. After a lot of hours, I came to the conclusion that I was doing things the hard way again. But c’est la vie — I learned a lot about what not to do. And they worked out pretty nicely. The whole thing was put together using Adobe Premiere.

I shot everything on my iPhone 5, Nikon Coolpix L80 and SJCam GoPro knockoff. I then used my iPhone 7 for the voiceover. I tried writing a script, but it came out worse than if I just winged it. So I wung it. And it shows. I was however, surprised at the quality and if I concentrated when actually speaking it was pretty damn clear.

Our cruise was 8 weeks so I divided the videos up into 1 week episodes (except for the week on the hard), so 7 in total. I also shot footage on a very sporadic basis because I was often too busy enjoying myself to remember.

Anyway, I now have even more respect for all those YouTubers out there. Enjoy.