Videoblogging

July 19, 2004

I'm experimenting with ways to publish video on the web. To view the video, you need to have installed the Macromedia Flash Player, available here.

This first effort was labor-intensive:

1. I started from a video clip I recorded from TV to VCR years ago, and digitized some time later to MPEG 1, using Adaptec's then-current VideOh! device. The original file was about 20 MB, not great quality.
2. Today, I used Windows Movie Maker (included with Windows XP) to compress the video, per instructions found here. The file squeezed down to 6.1 MB.
3. I then used Macromedia Flash, again following the instructions linked above, to create a streaming video (that is, video that will play directly from a web page) in Shockwave Flash format.
4. I used Macromedia DreamWeaver (as usual) to create a new page for my site, this one you're looking at, and place the SWF file (still about 6.1 MB) on the page.
5. Posted the page to my website as usual.

NB: In Dec, 2004, I reduced the size of this video (240x180 pixels) in order to conserve disk space and bandwidth.

Why This Video?

This clip is the end titles of an Italian TV program called "A Sua Immagine" (In His Image), a weekly sermon by a Franciscan monk. Sometime around 1996 they redid the titles, featuring video portraits of a variety of people, I assume to show that we are all made "in His image." The overall effect is lovely and moving.

I can't claim credit for anything in this video except at the very end. The last face you see is my daughter, Rossella.

I assume the copyright belongs to RAI TV; if anyone gets mad, I'll take the clip down. I don't know who did the music; Italian programs repurpose music from all sorts of sources. This piece sounds like Patrick Doyle to me.

How I do it today