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| Video Projects | |
| Created: 25-Jun-2004 |
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Unlike Kallahar, I used a 100% digital process. Using my Apple iSight camera and Boinx Software's iStopMotion running on my PowerBook, I filmed a quick little drive across town, edited it in iMovie, and then uploaded it to my .Mac account.
I was pretty happy with the results. The iSight has a couple of limitations (you will note as you watch the videos that infrequently there is one overexposed frame), but it's a good camera and well suited to the job. I have noticed that the focus is a bit "soft", likely the result of the focusing mechanism locking on to the glare. In future videos, I'll probably set the focus manually before departure.
The camera is mounted on the dashboard of my car. I just duct-taped one of the standard iSight mounts down, and stuck the camera on the mount. You will notice on the videos that there is some glare from the windshield.. sorry, there isn't much I can do about that at the moment. I'm thinking I might try to add some kind of polarizing filter to the front of my iSight to cut down on the glare.
I just realized that between the original Kallahar video and my subsequent filmings of trips, we now have a complete photographic image of I-5, almost from border-to-border. I plan on filming the missing pieces on the northern end this summer (which should include Portland, and the section of I-5 between Seattle and the Canadian border), or at least once the weather improves enough...
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This is the first video I shot: a short trip around Phoenix. It's basically a 30-minute drive
compressed to an under-30 second video. For this video, I took one frame every second. While it's short, there are a couple of neat things you might want to catch on this one. First off, if you look carefully you will notice that one of the red traffic signals "blinks" in the video. Secondly, see if you can spot the point at which I almost run a red light (oops).
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So, I couldn't sleep.. so I grabbed the laptop and took a 45-minute loop trip around the
eastern half of the Phoenix Metro area. This was shot at a frame every 2 seconds, and it's
played back at 30fps. Some things of note: Boy, Arizona does a good job of lighting their freeways. Except for the new part of the Loop-202, the entire trip is decently lit. And, please don't ask about the annoying RV. Yes, I know the Squaw Peak Parkway isn't technically called that anymore. And, no disrespect to Lori Piestewa and her family, but I will continue to call it Squaw Peak Parkway out of protest to a certain Governor's misguided "political correctness" and political pandering. 'Nuff said. As far as the video is concerned, QuickTime's codec seems to have a whole lot of no fun with dark images. I plan on trying to re-encode it at a higher quality. Oh, yeah, and.. sorry about the "Star Trek Angle."
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This is a complete trip from Phoenix to Orange, with a little bonus: a short tour of
Phoenix. The day I took this trip, I-10 was closed in two parts in Phoenix, so I chose
instead to take surface streets through Phoenix. Some interesting things to watch for in this video include driving by Bank One Ballpark, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks; the seemingly ubiquitous Valley Metro buses; and me hastily beating feet to the bathroom once I get into California. When I took this video, I was a little unsure of how much disk space I would need, so I changed the frame rate through the more "boring" parts of the trip. From where I get gas to around "Banning, CA" the video was taken at a frame every 4 seconds. The beginning and the remainder of the trip were shot at a frame every 2 seconds. Also, those of you who are really paying attention will notice that I took one additional stop and edited it out. See if you can guess where that stop is.
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Well, here it is, the trip from Yreka (just a little south of the Oregon state line) to Lake
Oswego. Yeah, I stopped a few miles south of the actual city of Portland... Don't have much to say about this one, other than, it's kindof neat to watch the forests of the Northwest fly by. It's certainly more fun the actually DRIVING the six or so hours...
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Continuing further north: here's the segment of I-5 between Portland and Seattle. It begins
with the annoying (and typical) heavy traffic on the Interstate Bridge, and ends in the
equally as annoying (and equally as typical) heavy traffic heading into Seattle's northern
suburbs. It ends at the Studio 6 in Mountlake Terrace. For whatever reason, there were a lot of dropped frames on this one, hence the somewhat jerky video towards the end..
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Lastly, if you want high-res versions of the above movie, just drop me an E-mail and let me know. I can arrange to send you a nice DVD-R video disc (with iDVD title screens and the works) of the main movies (I don't have the source files anymore for the "Phoenix Test" movie, so it isn't on the disc). It's a lot of fun.
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