This time of year when things slow down I try to finish my previous projects. In my travels I see lots of things to blog about. Often I take lots of photos with good intentions then they sit on the back seat when newer stuff comes along. I still have unwritten stories & thoughts from last year which have already been archived, never to be seen. I take a lot of video clips but time is tight and I am sure most of you don't know how much time it takes to produce a 5 minute movie. It is much easier to snap a dozen photos and write a few paragraphs, than to spend all night pretending to be a movie director. Although my video clips are recorded in full 1080p30, my computer is not up to the task of rendering even though it is a core2 duo it is running around 4 or 5:1 ratio right now, which is very poor. This means that to render a 5 min video my computer takes 20-25 minutes to render. A fast computer could render 1:1 so the 20-25 minutes would be reduced to about 5 minutes.
This is not counting the time it takes to view all the clips, decide which ones to use, and then edit into your predetermined sequence, complete with transitions and perhaps add an audio track. I plan on adding more camera angles thus adding more video and audio tracks to my projects which adds complexity.
I recently had the misfortune of recording a Celebration of Life for my friend Paul Cassells who passed away. He was a fellow rider and my insurance agent. I asked his family if they wanted me to compile a video as a remembrance. My cameras record in AVCHD which is a container to capture the video, it is not an editing format, so it has to be converted to something that is understood by editing software. It took about an hour to convert 45 minutes of AVCHD codec.
Well, enough of this rambling . . . Last week I was going over some "footage" from our trip to China and decided to post them to Youtube. It was as if the Copywrite Police were waiting to ambush me. Within a millisecond both of my videos were already "tagged", the one on the previous post, and the one below.
The previous one was a Live performance at a temple, but I think the artist had a small tape recorder playing background music at a low volume level so she could play her Erhu in accompanyment and keep in time.
This one I am at a loss as to why. I did a google search on "Music Publishing Rights Collecting Society" and got some interesting results. Again, sorry for the ads, There was an ad displayed when I played it
So what did the 'copyright' police do? Did they tell you that you had to take it down? All of this political correctness and copyright craziness, I get that artists want to be paid for their work, but you have to wonder what the purpose of selling CD's and sheet music is if you get nailed for playing the music you have purchased.
ReplyDeleteThe video was very interesting. How much did the gong cost? So when Mrs Skoot goes near a gong in the future are you going to take the stick out of her hand? lol. It looks like you had an excellent time.
About the editing, do you think you are going to have to upgrade your computer so you can edit more easily? We have a mac and apparently they are good for that sort of thing. Would love to see more travel videos!
No ad for me when I played it on my phone. I'm not really sure what they would have "finger printed" in the audio track. Maybe the lounge singer. Your videos are appreciated, both the moto and travelogue ones. Encoding has always been a task best done in the background or after hours. For work related video work, I set up an XGrid for video encoding. Once you are done with your editing, you submit the video and the encoding takes place on other machines. For home or personal use, we just leave the machine running overnight. 20 minutes isn't too long to wait. Two days is a bit long...
ReplyDeleteRichard
Very touching rendition of "Memory" - I assume that you have sent Andrew Lloyd Webber his royalty payment And I presume that the singer had paid for a performing licence?
ReplyDeleteThis copyright thing is misconstrued, on the one hand if you copy and distribute for financial gain taking away the livelihodd of the owner that is understandable use of the law, but to spy on innocent youtube footage is something else! .
Dear Bobskoot:
ReplyDeleteAs a writer who has had stuff stolen a number of times, I am gratefdul for strict copyright laws. However, I am occasionally suspicious when I see stuff grabbed or censored from YouTube.
On the other hand, I would like to make a suggestion. Get rid of your PC. Get yourself an Apple MacBookPro fully bundled with all the options, including semi-professional video and movie options. (A nice 15-inch laptop that will fit in your panniers will run about $3200.00.) Don't think twice about the money. Then take a course and discover which video camera links seamlessly with the Apple programs.
The next time you plug the cable from your camera into the Apple, it will either set the whole damn thing up in 30 seconds or less (ready to edit) ort require a two step process that takes 2 minutes. Since there are no onstructioons for the editing, unless you get an aftermarket book, that could be an adventure.
But you will find yourself looking forward to being creative, as opposed to dealing with code, and all kinds of other bullshit. Make your retirement fun. Get the right toys.
Fondest regards,
Jack/reep
That's weird re the copyright police from youtube. I didn't get any ads either.
ReplyDeletedom
Redleg's Rides
Colorado Motorcycle Travel Examiner
inglym
I'm wondering if the YouTube copyright search algorithm is picking up on the melody of the song rather than the actual performance of it. The melody, tune, or whatever it is (I know zip about music) would be copyrighted and the artist performing it in a commercial setting would be responsible for paying for the use of the music (as Nikos noted). Google/YouTube doesn't seem to be making much room for "fair use" of works for non-commercial purposes though.
ReplyDeleteI do have some sympathy for artists who's work is appropriated. I found two my my photos on commercial sites this past week with the copyright mark trimmed off. Not much to be done about it as I don't have Andrew Lloyd Webber's copyright lawyers at my disposal, but I'll bet YouTube knows them.
Bob,
ReplyDeleteI didn't get any ads when I watched the video either.
The Gong sounds like a true tourist TRAP...
I feel your pain when rendering a video, as I too have a Core2 Duo in my laptop. I have found it very difficult working with the HD video. I don't mind the long rendering times as I can let it run over night, but It is very tedious setting the in and out of clips and transitions. I'm currently building a video editing PC, I let you know how it goes.
A few years ago I would have agreed with Jack and said buy a Mac, but they have truly priced them selves out of the hands of the average person.
Dar:
ReplyDeleteI've gotten emails before from EMI and Columbia Records so I am very careful with copyrited music, but these were vacation photos in a country that doesn't respect copyrite laws so I am surprised.
We had a big argument with having to pay $10.RMB for each Gong so it cost around $10-12. Cdn We can laugh about it now.
RichardM:
I think it was a false tag as what I have been reading by doing a Google search, but nothing I can do about it. I try to limit my videos to between 5 to 10 minutes so rendering isn't too onerous but lately my computer is having some problems which require a re-boot
Nikos:
We were in a country where copyrites are generally ignored, and the singer was in a lobby of a hotel entertaining the guests
Jack:
You may be right, you get what you pay for but I know nothing about Macs and no one I know has one, so I would be on my own with no help
Charlie6:
somehow an ad showed up when I first looked at it, but then it went away
Doug:
grabbing photos on the web and using it as your own is something that is hard to detect. I am surprised you happened to find it by chance. I may have some out there too
682202/GAW/Gord:
For that Gong, there was a sign which said $10RMP for each gong, and in the video I counted 10, but the keeper said he wanted $80RMB and there was no way we could escape by not paying. It was a tourist trap and we didn't notice the sign. I wanted to snap a photo but it would have cost another $10RMB
My Core2 Duo Toshiba is only 2 years old and really, I can live with the render times as my videos are short. I also have a newer i3 which is about the same speed as my Toshiba. I may probably buy an i7-2670QM 4 core if I find a deal after Christmas. I have a system and finding in and out on the clips and adding Transistions goes very fast.
I have a friend in the computer business and I could build one up, but I prefer to have something more portable.
@Bob and @Jack
ReplyDeleteWhen all else fails, restart the MAC, if you don't know what I'm talking about, ask Jack :-)
Yea, video editing is a pain. With one of my cameras I first have to convert the video before I can add it to other camera video.