Ok - just had to share. I think I'm falling in love with the Flip Video! I spent about 30 mins yesterday exploring how to use it. It's very easy. I opened the velvet pouch it came in, installed the batteries, and read the 6 panel graphical instructions. That's it. I was making a video in moments! The Flip Video camera plugs into your computer via an attached USB plug. The software is in the video camera. My cousin came over to install java for me - as it wasn't on my computer already.
This morning I braved the rains and went to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum - and shot eight or so quick video snips ... front of the museum, inside, Harriet Powers quilt, etc. There's a mike already in the camera - so I had a couple voice overs. Came home within an hour and plugged the video camera into my computer.
It was EASY to edit the snips to take out terrible scenes where my hand shook too much or the film just ran too long. There's Help links to walk you through any steps. Then, I just pressed the Make Movie link, highlighted the snips I wanted in the "movie" - selected with or without music in the background... and the software makes magic! The various snips were aggregated to one movie. The total time from editing to final movie was about two hours - but that included me figuring out what to do the first time. Then - it was upload to YouTube. Again, just a button.
Technology, in this case with Flip Video, IS changing the way to document quilts, quiltmaking, and our process of creating quilts. What do you think?
