I have more respect for the direct competitor in 2022 ➙ House of the Dragon on HBO. Though it can be hard to watch, I feel Dragons justifies the cost: under US$20 million / episode, far less expensive than Games of Thrones. Far less expensive than Rings of Power.
It begins during a time of relative peace and covers all the major events of Middle-earth’s Second Age: the forging of the Rings of Power, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the fall of the island kingdom of Númenor, and the last alliance between Elves and Men.
These events take place over thousands of years in Tolkien’s original stories but are condensed for the series. …
The final episode was disappointing. Though I did like the resolution of Meteor Man, aka the Stranger. That was original and surprising.
When pandemic cancelled all my travel and Gymnastics coaching gigs, I took the time to improve my video editing. It’s become my main hobby.
Three phases (so far):
Learning the technology. Experimenting with different cameras. And acce$$ories.
Story. Story. Story.
My personal style.
After posting myFrench Creek tribute, I declared I was GOOD ENOUGH at video editingtechnology for my purposes. I could sit down at a table with a professional video editor and understand 75% of what they were talking about. 😀
Far more difficult is to decide on what story to tell. And to tell it effectively. Many super skillful editors struggle finding their next story.
I threw this short video together quickly as a teaser for my How to Survive theWest Coast Trail videos. But in some weird way, it’s evocative of that wild and challenging hike. It tells the story well
Putting these together is incredibly time consuming.
I kept trying to find ways to improve my efficiency. And that ended up evolving into my personal style of video — as of October 2022, at least. Who knows what’s next? 😀
I posted Valencia, Spain in January 2022. My edits today are all similar. But I’m adding more personal drone footage rather than drone stock video.
What is my style?
Music driven
Landscape, not vertical (portrait)
Cuts are mostly on the beats
Mostly hard cuts
Use transitions sparingly
Use gimmickry sparingly … though I do love speed ramps 😀
Lots of drone footage
Normally no voice over
No ads
Social media pestering only at the end.
Challenging for me is finding the right music for each story.
One of my best edits was Norway Highlights. I credit the song — Odesza Higher Ground — as once I decided on the soundtrack, it was easy to decide where to put each clip. In the example, below, the colours are music blocks to be filled with scenes I decide upon later.
Increasingly I’m picking music first, shooting the video later.
Odesza is my favourite band right now. Very popular for YouTube edits.
I’ve been studying Colour Grading through a course called … Color Grading Academy.
It’s a very complicated process.
Some of the best video editors online send out their final product for Colour experts to finish. An art, not a science.
Things I’ve decided NOT to use:
Tracking
Hue / Saturation curves
… more to be added
P.S.
I posted the Englishman River Falls hike in November 2020 and again in October 2022. I’ve definitely improved.
Click PLAY or watch the Nov 2020 edit on YouTube. I was quite happy with it. But NOW I’m wondering what weird colour grade I was experimenting with at that time. 😀
Karmod Prefabricated Building Technologies is a leading Turkish company founded in 1986 and has since been running projects in more than 100 countries around the world.
In the near future we’ll have more refugees, not fewer. And they’ll be more desperate.
Afraid to return home. Willing to risk death to escape.
Of course each nation should have a system for handling claims for asylum. But only a small percentage will be granted entry. As populations are getting older, many nations — starting with Japan — need MORE young people to migrate.
BEST of many bad options for refugees not chosen for asylum is to stay on the border. Months. Perhaps years.
There are about 700 refugee camps worldwide, as I post.
Who should pay?
I’d first look to organizations like the Gates Foundation. And to other billionaires who have far more money than they could ever spend.
Life in camp should be minimal. But safe. Police. Schools. Clean water. Medical facilities.
Transportation home should be offered.
If possible, there should be opportunities to work and volunteer.
Some will be under age-18. They should have special protection as should anyone with physical or mental challenges.
Venezuela — 4.6 million refugees, asylum-seekers, and migrants
Afghanistan — 2.7 million refugees and asylum seekers
South Sudan — 2.4 million refugees and asylum-seekers
Myanmar – 1.2 million refugees and asylum-seekers
Trump and his political ilk around the world don’t want to help refugees. Instead, they use the problem to anger people — hoping to motivate them to vote for right wing political parties.
That’s much easier than motivating regular people to HELP refugees.
One weekend, while Andrew Mason was on a fishing trip, his wife, Brie, vanished without a trace. Most people assumed Andy had got away with murder, but the police couldn’t build a strong case against him. For a while, Andy hit rock bottom – he drank too much, was abandoned by his friends, nearly lost his business and became a pariah in the place he had once called home.
Now, six years later, Andy has put his life back together. He’s sold the house he shared with Brie and moved away for a fresh start. When he hears his old house has been bulldozed and a new house built in its place, he’s not bothered. He’s settled with a new partner, Jayne, and life is good. …
The legendary Head of ‘the Office’ (Mossad), Gabriel Allon, has finally retired.
A career in Israeli secret service that began in 1972. One of the team assigned to hunt down and eliminate those responsible for killing the Israel athletes in Munich.
He moved with his Italian wife and children to Venice. And goes back to his roots as an art restorer.
A well deserved retirement. Until he gets a call about an Art forger.
Many favourite characters from past books return. Including the Corsican goat.
Petrie planned to be a writer, earning a MFA in fiction from University of Washington. But couldn’t get his books published, to start.
This book, finally, was a huge hit in 2017.
I’m starting this series about Peter Ash.
Ash has been compared to Jack Reacher. But the two characters are quite different in most ways.
The writing is similar to Lee Child, however.
Eight years a soldier, Peter Ash came home from Iraq and Afghanistan with only one souvenir: what he calls ‘white static’, a buzzing claustrophobia due to post-traumatic stress that has driven him to spend a year roaming the Pacific coast’s mountains and forests, sleeping under the stars.
But when a friend from the Marines commits suicide, Ash returns to civilization to help the man’s widow and two young children.
While repairing her dilapidated porch, he makes two unwelcome discoveries: The first is a dog, the meanest, ugliest dog he’s ever laid eyes on, guarding a suitcase; the second unwelcome surprise is the suitcase’s contents – $400,000 in cash and four slabs of plastic explosive.
Just what was his friend caught up in during his final days? Ash will find that the demons of war aren’t easy to leave behind…
Nuseir Yassin is an Arab–Israelivlogger who is most notable for creating over 1,000 daily one-minute-long videos on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram under the page Nas Daily.
One reason I like Nas is his open-minded worldview. A Palestinian Israeli. With a Jewish American girlfriend.
With Nas Daily videos, he tries to bring people together.
Rick McCharles 