Today is Thanksgiving, a time to cultivate and honor a positive, gracious attitude toward our blessings, large and small.

As families in our country and worldwide experience tumultuous times, I strongly believe that maintaining a positive attitude is one of the most effective ways to weather any storm.   Regardless of one’s exterior circumstances, joy comes from within.

For me, it is important to celebrate whatever blessings I am lucky enough to possess EVERY DAY SINGLE DAY, not just on Thanksgiving.

24-7-365.

I cherish everything from the lovable doggies that make me laugh to the snuggley blanket that warms me through the cool nights, to the incredible career opportunities afforded me by internet video production.

In a spirit of sharing the Thanksgiving holiday with you, I present my personal motivational mind movie. I produced, wrote, and edited this video based the philosophies I have developed over the years to helps me maintain joy and inner peace.    Even when the sky is falling!  (Some days are better than others.)

This video is a holiday gift to you, there is nothing promotional about it.  Take a break, relax and let this video boost your spirits like it does mine!

One of the things I am grateful for is my growing list of readers who write me kind emails thanking me for my video production tips! I got a nice note the other day expressing surprise that my emails never contain sales pitches, just practical advice on every aspect of video production.  I explained that was my goal.   Personally, if I subscribe to a newsletter I insist on quality information, I’m not going to waste my time reading nothing but sales pitches so some marketer can buy himself a new BMW.   I assume anyone who signs up for my newsletter feels the same way so I try to deliver!

HOW I MADE THIS VIDEO PRODUCTION

A STEP BY STEP GUIDE

To make this motivational movie, I first wrote the script, expressing myself with colorful words written in a concise, logical progression.   I always write at least two or three versions of a script until I am satisfied.  My favorite writing motto is “I’m not necessarily a good writer but I am a good re-writer.”

I then opened Final Cut Video Editing software and created a new project.

I recorded the voice track into that project with a hand held microphone plugged directly into my computer.  I use a special cable that has an XLR audio connection on one end and a USB connection on the other.  I plug the XLR connection into the microphone and the USB into the Mac Pro computer by Apple.  I am able to record the audio directly into my video editing software, Final Cut.  I do not need a separate audio program.

Once I had a voice recording that I liked, I selected some music that captured the tone I wanted the video to convey.  I used a cut of royalty free music from musicbakery.com, one of my favorite places to buy royalty free music.

Then I scoured iStock photo to find some video that I felt visualized the emotions and words of the script.  I downloaded the shots, renamed them something logical and put them into my Final Cut Project.

Then it was time to assemble the video by editing. I did the audio portion first.

In my timeline, I mixed the voice track with the music.  Each audio track fills up its own line in the timeline.  I brought the levels of the music up and down in order to not drown out the voice.  I mixed it until I considered the audio done.  On to the video.

I selected a gorgeous background out of Live Type, a program that comes bundled with Final Cut.   The background I selected reminds me of a visual rendition of the divine.  It is high energy and strong.

I then started placing my shots from istock  on top of this background.  Each video clip requires a separate video line in my time line.  I place the shots in order, left to right in the timeline.  I place them in a logical and visually appealing progression and match the words when appropriate.   I try to match the tempo of the music.

I added keyframe animation in order to make the video shots move and grow.  I also added drop shadows and some borders to the shots with both feathering and the border filter (bevel option.)

I mixed, fiddled and played.  I can get a bit fastidious when editing video! I spent about 3-4 hours editing this one- minute video.  That’s a normal amount of editing time for me to do something this fancy.  Key framing is time consuming.

Once the obsessive-compulsive artiste in me felt satisfied with how everything looked, moved and sounded, I exported my finished movie as an MPEG4 file format set to default specifications. I am able to do this compression and conversion in my Final Cut software, I do not need separate digital video conversion software.     That’s one of the things I like about working with a more sophisticated video editing software program.  It performs every function you need.

I use MPEG4 for my final version because it gives a really small file, much smaller than a Quick Time file. I upload the MPEG 4 video file to You Tube and other video sharing sites.  I then use the embed code to display the video on my blog, video production tips.com.

I hope you enjoy watching this special video and learning about how I made it.  Why don’t you make one for yourself in the same way?  Watch it every day and share with friends.  They’ll appreciate the boost and you will too!

I love hearing from readers.  Please drop me a line at videoproductiontips@gmail.com and let me know if you liked the video.  I’d also like to know what video production related subjects you would like for me to cover.

Thanks for reading!

Lorraine Grula

Internet Video Gal

Related posts:

1. Everybody loves a good story! Storytelling for Video Production
2. Green Screen for Video Production
3. Video Editing Techniques- Keyframing