Making Movies

Confession: I'm a nerdy-techy at heart. 

I don't know how many of you saw that coming, but I actually love technology! Clarification: I love technology that WORKS CORRECTLY - don't get me started on fixing technological problems...all I can say about that is, "Put me on the phone with somebody who speaks English, please." So anyways, this year one of my "resolutions" was to get our home videos on DVD. We got a video camera last Christmas, and we'd been recording tons of cute footage for over a year, and I wanted a way for our family to watch it: 

1.) Easily

2.) On our TV

This is the part of the story that I'm actually very thankful that I have a Mac (up to this point it was an investment I wasn't sure was "worth" the extra $$$)...

First, I put our videos on our computer. Simple task - pretty much like putting pictures on a computer. 

Second, I edited the videos using iMovie. Thank you, Lord for Mac technology! 

This program makes it so easy to add text, backgrounds, transitions, etc to your movies. It's A LOT like creating a powerpoint - most of you have done that. I was also "trained" in a Technology for Education class in college how to use iMove - way back when! My good ole' Elementary Ed major came in handy there! 

After I had created my movies, I created a DVD menu using iDVD - again, thanks to Mac technology!

This program is my FAVORITE part of the whole process!!!!!!!!! Here's where you are remembering: I. am. a. nerd. :-) During this process, I get to pick out pictures to scroll across the screen and music to play to create my very own, custom, DVD Menu. You know what I'm talking about - the annoying menu that when you fall asleep plays over and over and over again 150 times until you wake up and realize that you have a cramp in your neck, you drooled on yourself, and you are REALLY TIRED OF THAT SONG! Here are some of the menus I have created for our family videos: 

This one plays a song called "Simple Phrases" by Carrie Jo - a local artist from Opelika, AL

This one plays "Little Boy Heart Alive" by Andrew Peterson, and YES, you can click on those selections at the bottom and watch videos from the respective months...I know - AWESOME!

This one plays "We Are FAMILY" by Sister Sledge

This one just has pretty classical music playing, and when you select "Beach Trip" it takes you to this screen: 

Which plays "Surfin' USA" by the Beach Boys of course :-)

...and if you click on "Carter's Various Skills" it takes you to this screen:

Which plays "I Get Around" by the Beach Boys - Ha!

If you can't tell, I have had a little too much fun with this, and Kevin would probably agree :-) It's fairly time consuming, but since I have taken the time to do this, we have actually sat around watching home videos for hours on several different occations, and it's pretty much our current life - ha! What a treasure these videos will be years from now! I certainly am not wishing the years away, but it's going to be so very fun to watch these in 10-15 years :-)