Making a Movie

I don't get to sit in The Director's Chair with a bullhorn by my side and dark shades and a beret that make me look like a Jazzy VIP. - or is it a celluloid visor they wear?  No, that's for poker players....

I do get to confine myself in the computer room though, - oblivious to what is going on around me and to the swift passage of time as the clock mechanism outraces the gears in my thinking apparatus and I am lost in puzzling creativity.

My elbows are getting all rough and chafed from leaning them on the computer desk, supporting my head on my hands as I try to locate directions and follow them meticulously so that I don't, by mistake, hit the wrong key and have everything disappear on me (as sometimes happens....)  I have some nice Planet Spa elbow cream that I rub in faithfully every night so that I won't be deterred by rough elbows from continuing with my movie making project.

Charles says I take far too many pictures, - ten, where one would do.  But one has to take advantage of the scenery when one is out 'on location'!  When I start trying to choose pictures for this wonderful movie I am making (which I am calling Indian Summer) I am inclined to agree with him.

I bring up the days' pictures on the screen and study them, - this one?  Or is that one (taken a smidgen of a second later) better?  Or the same?  Eventually I have made my choices and I turn to Movie Maker, the program, and request that they all be displayed in the media box.  Sometimes Movie Maker is in a good mood and humours me, but sometimes only a couple are sent, and I have to go back and retrieve the rest.

Then I drag them to the Timeline, and pretty soon I have a long line of cloud pictures, sky pictures, garden pictures, - all mixed up because I'm doing this project chronologically.  That's O.K., - I tell myself they will look just fine.

When all the pictures are in place it is time to insert a little transition between each one, - do we want to 'pan'?  (Oh, that word makes me feel quite professional) .  And should the picture flip, or fade or dissolve while the next one appears?  I discover that if I make the right choices I can Select All, and presto, there is a transition between each slide.  Wonderful....

Now to choose the music to go with the movie, in case someone who is watching gets bored and closes his eyes, the music will still soothe him!  Shall we have something lively, or a more classic concert?

I go through every last album I have that is even remotely suitable, - and finally I make my choice.  A little Chopin and the music will last the length of the movie, as long as I remember to click the little box that tells whoever runs this show to do this.

Done!  I am so pleased with the wonderful way the valley has cooperated in providing beautiful scenes that have produced the makings of a movie that is over an hour long!!

Now to save it, and burn it on to a DVD - a long process, I discover, that causes me to stay up long past my bedtime.  The moment of truth is when I slip the disc into the DVD player, fingers crossed, praying audibly.   Yes, yes yes!!  It works.  While we have breakfast the music of Chopin wafts through the house, - there are scenes of sunsets and sunrises;  glorious autumn colours of scarlet and gold and russet shades; lakes and streams, mountains and rills; the wedding, the shower, people who come to visit, dear Caspar and Callie and I am so pleased I think I might go out and invest in a beret and a pair of snazzy shades - and a bullhorn.

I would play this creation for you, but as I said, it goes on and on and on for over an hour, so you will have to come and visit and have tea while we watch.......