| And you thought I'd simply been wasting my life away during my prolonged Dayorama absence. From the creator of Dayoramoblog, the almost-live Dayorama audio extravaganza, I give you: viDayorama,
This roughly translates as "Ollie has a new video camera and has come up with a nice, gimmicky name under which to start filming stuff".
You can watch the first viDayorama, very much a testbed for future episodes, here:
Now, if you watched that, rest assured that you got off lightly. There was plenty more slow-motion dog footage where that came from.
The camera, for those who worry about such things, is a Sony SR190E. It fits neatly around your palm, records direct to a 40 gigabyte hard drive (so you simply copy your files across to your PC when you're ready), and yes, has a super-slow-motion facility.
This I only discovered while walking the dog around a nature reserve, which would explain for the dog why he suddenly received so much attention, at close quarters, with a camera crammed in his face.
So far I can find very little fault with the camera. It is incredibly light, intuitive, produces gorgeous colours and the sound is not as bad as it could be - and will only get better once the added audio kit I have ordered arrives.
My only gripe would be that it sometimes takes a little too long to auto-focus - oh and it took forever to find a decent video editing package for Mpeg-2 files, which the camera (like many others) produces.
Windows Movie Maker does not want to know, but in the end I discovered Mpeg Video Wizard. I have just put the first viDayorama together using the free 30-day trial, and it was as easy as using some of the BBC standard issue stuff at work - every tool I needed was there and it was easy to work out how to do everything. I really recommend it, even if it's going to cost me around £40 to purchase once the trial expires.
So, where next for viDayorama? I think you could well expect something from the MPH motor show in London this weekend, and from the Spaced event at the BFI on 10 November. But if you have suggestions for interesting events around London or the Home Counties, drop me a line and I'll see if I can mobilise...
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Comments so far: 1
Ollie,
Congratulations to Toby for some excellent camera work! ;)
That is, of course, when he was off-camera! ;)
Excellent picture and sound quality there, Ollie, though I noted you said the sound would improve once you had ordered some extra kit. :)
Very interesting to watch, and Toby is a lovely dog. :) He reminds me a great deal of our little dog Max, who died in September. Even though Max was a Cavalier King Charles/Yorkshire Terrier cross, he had very similar colouring to Toby, as well as the same sort of “I’m ready and waiting and you just know I’m intelligent, don’t you?” look – very similar body language. Very enthusiastic dogs. :)
Anyway, very interesting to see that clip – lovely scenery. :) There are some lovely views around here (hint hint! :)), as we back on to the countryside, even though Stansted airport starts just three miles or so on the other side! :) Running alongside the airport and a bypass is an abandoned railway, which has been turned into a public walkway called The Flitch Way, where wildlife has been able to flourish since the railway left. It is actually part of Essex County Council’s country parks:
http://www.essexcc.gov.uk/vip8/ecc/ECCWebsite/content/binaries/documents/Country_Parks/FlitchWayLeaflet.pdf?channelOid=null
Before the M11 came along, the railway used to run from Braintree to Bishop’s Stortford, where I live, and it is possible to trace its former route using Google Earth. Despite the track being lifted in between the 1950s and 1970s, there are some visible aspects left behind in Stortford, as well as some old railway stations that feature in The Flitch Way. It’s starts literally just off junction 8 of the M11.
There is also the River Stort and the Stort Navigation, which has some lovely scenery in isolated areas just outside of Stortford that I knew existed but which I had never seen! It was recently featured on ITV1 Anglia, where a whole programme covered the Stort from its beginning as a stream to where it meets the River Lea (also spelt Lea!) and then of course the Thames:
http://www.stortfordhistory.co.uk/guide11/river_stort.html
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