I’ve been trying to get this video finished and uploaded for a couple of days now, and just tonight I had finished it off but, before I had even uploaded it, obtained even more clips that really should have been added. Instead, they’ll be along within a few days – otherwise I’ll never catch up. And yes, this is more backyard pond video.
This is to note that I added the mounting plate to the bottom of the custom rig that goes on the bottom of the cheapo video mount/stabilizer, the bit that I forgot when designing it – it was a simple addition, permitting the use of a monopod or tripod with the flashlight mount. And it works quite well.
I made a small mistake in the main design, in that the flashlight needs a little more vertical play for best aiming, but otherwise everything works great. It’s also easy enough to handle and doesn’t require a few minutes of preparation like using the off-camera monitor does. I still need work on my smooth handling and especially shifting my grip (even if it’s just remembering not to do it while the video is recording, or editing that bit out when I do.)
Audio, however, is still under refinement. I tweaked my normal settings for the voiceover track here, possibly nothing that you’d notice but I think this makes it smoother and easier to edit – Audacity has a ton of settings and I’m slowly learning what works best, but I’ve cut my editing time in half while also improving the quality, so that’s a win. Onsite audio is another matter, and I’m toying with a couple of ideas. The clips I got tonight (that you’re not seeing yet) made me realize that I might want the parabolic dish instead, despite the fact that this cuts the lower frequency tones a bit. I also want to try out a couple of ideas for cutting the background road noise; one is to find the frequencies where it’s strongest and simply cut that band out (potentially making the audio seem strange,) and the other is to record a background baseline on another recorder, separated from the video rig, and use that to subtract from the audio track on the video. In theory, this will wipe out all of the background traffic noise, but in practice? Plus there’s the whole idea of setting up a separate recorder, and most especially, synching it to the video clips which would be started and stopped at will. This might be a stupid idea.
Overall, however, I’m pretty psyched that I can walk out the back door and get stuff like this. As long as I don’t encounter any bears…