Next Meeting - Tuesday 16 August - 10.00AM

Hi Members,

We'll be visiting the Port of Brisbane on Tuesday 16 August at 10.00am NOT 11.00am

This will be a great opportunity to capture the activities of an operational port. Hopefully there will be some ships in the port at the time. We'll meet at 10.00am at the Visitors Centre, from where we go up to the top floor both to the viewing area and cafe.

The Port of Brisbane is on Fisherman Island 

Map of the Port Area

We'll meet at the Visitors Centre

View of the Port Area

We will not be allowed to film on the ground floor, only from the Observation Deck on the top floor.

Bird Area

There is a fenced off area for which we'll get the key to enter the enclosure where usually migratory birds settle for visits. 

The lagoon at the Visitors Centre always holds good numbers of waterbirds including Black Swan, Australian Pelican, White Ibis, Royal Spoonbill, Great and Intermediate Egret, Chestnut Teal, Grey Teal, and many other well known species. Pink-eared Duck, Buff-banded Rail and Australasian Shoveler have also been seen here. 

The car parking area is a great spot to see and photograph Mangrove Honeyeater, Brown Honeyeater and Rainbow Lorikeets, particularly when the Grevilllea and Bottle-brushes are in flower. Striped Honeyeater, Eastern Spinebill, Scaly-breasted and Rainbow Lorikeets, Spangled Drongo, Superb Fairy-wrens also visit the flowering native shrubs in the car park.

Cooking Challenge

The challenge for last week. Members were asked to produce a 1-2 minute cooking video for the class to admire. We can't show all of them but here are a few submissions.

Here is Will's PIZZA KING movie, including blood and bandaids.



Here is Anton's SANDWICH PROJECT movie. I can honestly say, I have never eaten such a masterpiece of a sandwich.



Michael showed us how to cook Chinese Sausage in his movie, CHINESE COOKING DEMONSTRATION, a mouth-watering meal.



Diane who claimed she can't cook, showed us how to poach an egg in her movie, DIANE'S QUICK LUNCH.  Just to prove that she can cook, if only an egg.



Bill devised a quick method to cook a chook in his movie COOKING A CHOOK THE MOVIE. Not recommended in timber dwellings. The kitchen renovations are nearly completed and Diane started talking to him again.

Next Meeting - Tuesday 2 August - 11.00am

Hi Members,

How did you go with the challenge for the week, producing a 1-2 minute cooking video? Hopefully you had some fun coming up with a masterpiece.

So, we'll start admiring them first up on Tuesday.

The main topic will be on the subject Diegetic and Non-Diegetic Sound in films and videos, a vast but very important subject in filmmaking.

We'll be discussing how we can enhance our videos drastically by applying sound and sound effects.

SEE YOU ON TUESDAY

Today's Meeting

Hi Members,

It was great to see so many wonderful videos presented by members. The challenge to show interviews utilising cutaway shots was taken up my most who showed their productions. Well done.

The main topic was a demonstration of Final Cut Pro X.

We looked at basic editing techniques, adding, moving, trimming clips.

We had a look at the Optical Flow function, unique to Final Cut Pro X.

Then we had a look at Final Cut Pro X Chroma key (Green Screen Effect)

And finally we looked at adding a cinematic effect to our videos.

The challenge for next meeting on the 2 August:

Produce a 1-2 minute cooking video. Make it funny. 

Next Meeting, Tuesday 19 July -11.00am

Hi Members,

A new U3A term has started and we meet for the first time on Tuesday at 11.00am at the library.

Hopefully you all have some short videos to show us, especially of the exercise we talked about at the Roma Street Gardens, that is, an interview with cutaway shots. Looking forward to see those.

In this term, I'll try to look at some of the many editing systems available these days. We already saw a demonstration by Roy of Adobe Premier, last term.

So, on Monday, we'll examine Apple's Final Cut Pro X.

FCP-X Colour Board

Video Scopes

Neat Audio Functions

SEE YOU ALL ON TUESDAY

Interviewing

Over the last year, we have been discussing lots of video techniques we can employ in our own videos to make them more appealing to our viewers. The time has come to put some of those techniques into practice. So from Term 3, starting 19 July for this club, we will start each meeting concentrating on video subjects and topics we have set as challenges. I do hope that more members will from now on participate not just the few who have in the past. If  you need help with these, please talk to me.

At the last meeting, we looked how a BBC documentary was constructed. Including interviewing techniques, especially using cutaway shots make a lengthy interview more interesting. 

So, on Tuesday when we go on a video shoot at Roma Street Parklands, the challenge will be for members to include a short interview either from another member or a voice-over from the videographer while shooting. 

Use either a tripod or a steady handheld method

Then when you are editing your footage in your editing software, insert some cutaway shots to break up the interview.

If you are not totally sure of how this is done, feel free to come and talk to me.

SEE YOU ON TUESDAY 11am

AT THE MELANGE CAFE

ROMA STREET GARDENS.

Next Meeting Tuesday 7 June - 11.00am

Hi Members,

Bring along your short videos for us to enjoy on Tuesday morning. For the main topic, we'll closely examine the structure of a BBC documentary and look of how it is put together and what we can learn from it in our own film making.

SEE YOU ON TUESDAY