Wednesday, 2/3

 I must be a sucker for punishment. That's the only explanation.

As you may recall, over the past year I've used my laptop to produce 40-some short history video pieces, an hour long documentary on Third Street, and a 100-minute slide show with my pal Jack. Thanks to a purchase I just made, I think I've kind of committed myself to doing it all over again.

Oops.

I mean, it's not like anyone's sticking a gun to my head, or anything, and I've actually had a blast producing all the content I've been producing. And that may be why I went out and purchased an upgrade to my video editing software...a very big upgrade.

How big, you ask? Well, I answer, I went from version 12 of the program to version 19. And that's, like, a lot of upgrades, right?

The new version of the program is quite cool. If I had any talent in the area I could do animation, the editing aspect of it is much smoother, and if I chose to do so I could actually produce content in 4K Ultra HD.

Not that I want to, but I could.

So, what am I going to do with all this new capability? Well, to play around with it and see what it can do I'm planning on doing another series of those “Pieces of the Past” shorts. Not 40-some of them like last year, but a few, just so I get the hang of the software. Then, I keep telling everyone that one of my cancelled tours from 2020, “The Greasier the Spoon”, would make a great documentary, and I actually have done a little prep work on it. And for another “then”, then I could also throw together video versions of some of the older shows I've done for the History Center, both because I have everything I need and because, I suppose, they should be recorded for posterity. Or at least for someone to view in the future and laugh at just how much of a dork I was.

We'll see. I don't want to commit myself to anything concrete, and I certainly don't want to destroy what little is left of my brain by trying to out-do Ken Burns

But who knows. If I'm not a sucker for punishment it could be fun. Now if you'll excuse me, I suppose I should see if there's a book called “4K Animation for Dummies”.

(jim@wmqt.com), dummy. Or sucker. Take your pick.