The newest iMovie has templates for trailers. I knew I wanted to give it a try when we went to Kentucky for Thanksgiving. I finally sat down and put one together last night. Click through to the post if you’re unable to see the embedded video in your feed reader.
Since I’m not going to get either Maddie’s letter or Cullen’s letter finished tonight, I thought you might enjoy a cute video of Cullen-Man playing the piano. Click through to the original post to see the embedded video.
I think not! Click on the original post to see the embedded video.
Last week, Cullen officially became a crawler! He’s mastering the army crawl and seems to be getting quite good at it! He’s fast and repeatedly goes after anything that is not a baby toy. He has a strong preference towards Maddie’s toys. Maddie is having to learn to share with her brother (if you count him playing with her toys when she isn’t looking as “sharing”). Click on the original post to see the embedded video. His technique is a bit different from his big sister’s pull-flop method.
I put this together shortly after our July 4th trip to the mountains. The girls love dancing to Viva la Vida by Coldplay, so I pieced together some of their dances. I initially uploaded the HD version to YouTube, but wow, that takes forever to download. Lesson learned. I uploaded a much smaller version, so it shouldn’t be a pain to view. You may see some ad information at the bottom (blocking my titles and captions), but you should be able to close it. I was instantly flagged with copyright material and banned in Germany.
My favorite part of the video starts around the 2 minute mark. Love it. Click on the original post to see the embedded video.
I have had this video ready to post for almost a month now. I have been overwhelmed with managing videos of the kids. I get behind on photos every now and again, but then I can look at hundreds of them by browsing thumbnails and sort through them in a fairly efficient manner. Video is just so time consuming. I often have long clips with very little usable material. So, I was excited about having video and a way to edit it on my iPhone.
The following embedded video (click through to the post to see it) is my first movie shot and edited entirely on the iPhone. This was also my first HD movie upload, so be patient while it loads… And did I mention that I’m a really bad videographer?? I cannot seem to hold the camera still. It doesn’t help that my subject is moving all over the place.
It is nice to be able to put together a polished video anywhere anytime, but I don’t think that I would use iMovie very often for that purpose. It’s more likely that I would use it to make a very short video clip for sending to grandparents. I did this just before going to the beach with Gabe’s mom. I made a very short clip of Maddie telling Grandma that she loves her and is looking forward to going to the beach. It was nice to be able to splice together a few clips right there on the phone.
iMovie on the iPhone is very, very basic. I expected it to have a few more features, though it’s possible that some features exist and I just haven’t been able to find them. The biggest feature that I would like to see is the ability to split a clip for titling purposes. I was able to achieve multiple captions on a single take of video by importing the clip multiple times and splicing them together seamlessly. That was a bit of a pain.
I thought that the built in “titles” were a bit chunky for the way that I like to use them. I like to put little explanatory captions on the clips to say what the kids are doing or saying, like I did in the video I’ve included. The titles I used were the only ones that weren’t too big (thereby blocking too much of my cute daughter). As always, more themes to choose from would be nice. I feel the same way about iMovie on the Mac.
iMovie on the iPhone allows for importing of videos, photos, and music. Transitions can be added, and there is minimal control over this and all of the various features. Very simple captioning is allowed, but it was a bit of a pain to do what I did (adding multiple captions for one clip). Apparently captions are not possible for images.
I think that I will probably most likely use iMovie on the iPhone for trimming videos for emailing to Gabe or grandparents. I’m not sure how often that I will want to use it for creating a polished video, though that could be useful on vacations. It might be nice to have the videos already put together and polished so that I don’t have to take the time later to filter through all the clips.
iMovie for iPhone is a good start, but it needs more features. The ability to split clips and add simpler titles would be great. More themes (preferably ones that do not take up so much real estate) would be nice. The way that you do video clipping is nice, but it is a big of a pain when you know you want to clip out a large chunk. There might have been a shortcut to doing that, but it was not immediately obvious to me. It would be nice to be able to not just drag the ends of the movie clip but also to specify a start or end time as a shortcut.
Overall, I’m glad that I downloaded the app and look forward to future upgrades.
The posts have been a bit Maddie-heavy lately with all the potty training adventures and talking and such. I thought it was time for a little Cullen adventure. I have tons of video clips of the kids. It’s so overwhelming to actually do anything with them. I put together a few clips of Cullen in the Jumperoo. No, it was not taken or edited with the iPhone. I’m going to have to give that a try soon, though! Click on the post to see the embedded video.
Since we didn’t have too many plans this past weekend, we decided to start the transition to Maddie’s big girl bed on Friday night. Friday night went very well. She didn’t seem to have trouble going to bed in her new big girl room (complete with mural). She did wake up a couple of times, including once when she sat up a bit disoriented and fell off the edge of the mattress. We just have a twin mattress on the floor for now. Based on what Gabe saw on the video monitor when she fell, we are glad that we decided to keep her low to the floor! It seems that she has no memory of the event, which is a very good thing. I didn’t want her to be scared of her new bed. Maddie went right back to sleep after a little patting. The second night went even better. She did wake up a little earlier both times than she would normally, but hopefully that will change once she gets adjusted. She hasn’t quite figured out that she can get out of the bed herself, and we’re not going to let her in on that little secret!
She was very excited after her first nap in the big girl bed on Saturday. Click on the post to see the embedded video. This was the first video taken with my new camera!
I get overwhelmed managing all the photos that we take, but that doesn’t even compare to how I feel about managing video. I don’t even take that much video, and I find it very overwhelming! These clips were taken about a month ago when we decided that Cullen was intentionally rolling over. He rolled over a couple of times when he was just a few weeks old, but we were pretty sure he wasn’t doing it on purpose. About a month ago, just after he turned 2 months old, we decided he was definitely doing it on purpose. For the past month, almost every time we put him on his belly, he flips to his back. Guess he found a way around that dreaded tummy time!
He has a different style than Maddie. When she rolled over from her belly to her back, it was not at all graceful. It happened in one sudden movement and usually startled herself and everyone around her. Cullen is a bit more graceful. He uses his head to start the roll and then just sort of wiggles over with a little kick. This video was taken in those first few days. He has since refined his technique. Click on the original post to see the embedded video.
Maddie was just out of Daddy’s sight, and he asked, “Maddie, what are you doing?” Maddie replied, “I’m doing the Maddie dance.” I don’t know where she comes up with this stuff. A little while later, I was curious about what she might do when asked to demonstrate the Maddie dance. Gabe and I were surprised and amused that she really did have a specific dance in mind. She demanded that we do the Maddie dance as well. The video shows Maddie showcasing her moves. Click on the post to see the embedded video.
Not too long after this video, she got into the princess “bucket,” put the lid on her head, and said, “Maddie’s in the bucket!” Followed shortly by, “I’m too big for the bucket. I not fit.”
