Castles, Crags & Fells - Northumberland 2009

Having extolled the virtues of Northumberland where my folks had holidayed a few years previously, this was a hearty recommendation for me to take them away for another going-over, and an induction for me. Now, I was out of sync with videoing, having completed only three videos after 2003, all on a borrowed Mpeg2 camcorder, for two family christenings and my folks Golden Anniversary. And despite the efficient nature of simply dropping clips onto computer via USB, I had to wait until time became my own again to finish them off. Not to mention a bunch of D8 tapes from a Wales holiday in 2004 which, for various reasons, would have to wait. 'Nuff said about that.
And then, this Northumberland sojourn was not videoed at all, only photographed on my then-starting-to-fail 2MP digital camera, for two reasons - one, more time would be spent with the folks, rather than taking time playing with my camcorder, and two - I might 'do something with it' afterwards. I regret not using my camcorder, but the decision was made at the time, so that was that.
I did 'do something with it' which turned out to be this epic slideshow, throwing in all I could to make it interesting, yet sustainable viewing. When I set out, I had no idea how long the video would end up, so a lot of planning went into this. Each clip was sent through either Magix slideshow creator or Microsoft's equivalent (I forget which), both of which had versions free to use by then. Motion effects were randomised, but making transitions just a simple crossfade and having the intro and outro of each clip set to stationary, I had options on cutting them together, either on static points or in motion which was rarely used in the end.
Now for the sound, for which there was nothing of course. To begin, sound effects and music were sourced from free-to-use websites where possible and layered up to match scenes or on occasion individual clips, sometimes three layers deep to obtain that unique ambience befitting the pictures. With videos scenes focussing on specifics like a church, museum, or just beautiful scenery cut to a bit of music, that's what I would do as the soundtrack normally picked up straight after providing a contrast. But that would have fallen a little flat with nothing to support it. The original plan was subtitles running through - but then that would distract from the pictures and eyes will tire from switching between main views and a ream of text at the bottom of the screen for anything over a few minutes.
The solution was be creative - a narration track. After wondering how to approach it, I just went for it by jotting memories and locations down in the order they happened, allowing me to work out how much research and writing was needed. I then started in earnest, matching info to the already edited scenes - I didn't need to revisit that as the pictures already looked good and flowed pretty well. Narration was read in a relaxed manner. If I made a mistake, instead of re-doing the whole paragraph, I rewound myself and just read that sentence again. The beauty was being able to cut at any point between the two sections to make on complete sentence. Superfluous material was eliminated, as were gaffes, and the odd sentence was lost to tighten things up or for timing.
And it all just works! This became the memories we would have had via camcorder, and Dad - bless him! - once remembered incorrectly that this was a video and not a glorified slideshow! I can say that, although other photo-only days have been turned into videos, narration has not been applied - i would approach that route with caution before tacking that due to the time it took. I'm glad to say that after this, video became the norm again