Grandpa Richards Kids

I purchased a Flip Camcorder the weekend of my grand daughter’s party and “shot” about 45 minutes of video. I finally got to doing the edit portion of the job, and ended up with a 17 minute video. Probably a bit long for a simple home movie, but Jasmine will probably watch it a number of times, despite its length. I could always make a more popular 5 minute version later.

Video editing is EXPENSIVE. I probably spent at least 3 hours doing it. Probably closer to 4. Cutting, splicing, transitions, sound effects, adjusting volumes of voices that were too close to or too far from the camera, adding music tracks.

I just watched the final version on my TV. It worked flawlessly, and despite the price and size of the Flip, I was very pleased with the quality.

I have to admit one small flaw. I had to reach for the kleenex! They were, however, tears of joy. The joy of seeing my grand daughter having an awesome party, and of me being there and being able to capture most of it on “film”.

Can’t wait to visit them in the next week or two, making some popcorn, and watching our movie.

If you do not have a video camcorder, or the one in your regular digital camera is not very good, consider getting a Flip. The size is right, and the quality is good. See more comments about the Flip Camcorder by clicking on its name 7 words back. Here in Canada it was only $158 + taxes, and it can store 1 hour of video. Plenty for a birthday party. Then learn to use the basic video editing programs that come for free with newer Windows PC or Mac computers. It takes a lot of time, but the results are so much fun to watch.