Mount Sutro: An Electronic Periodical

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The Sweet Memory

Photo Credit: David July — Sun starburst in the mature hardwood hammock canopy along the campground nature trail near a marsh overlook at Faver-Dykes State Park, St. Augustine, Florida: 26 May 2013

Sun starburst in the mature hardwood hammock canopy along the campground nature trail near a marsh overlook at Faver-Dykes State Park.

Near 1000 Faver-Dykes Road, St. Augustine, Florida: 26 May 2013

part of the Faver-Dykes State Park album


A little over a year after getting the Canon EOS 550D/Rebel T2i, my building curiosity about its ability to film high definition video led to an experiment. Taking far fewer photos than usual, I instead used my time camping at Faver-Dykes State Park to shoot 114 video clips on Sunday, 26 May 2013.

Using the strap, I figured out a way to hold the camera somewhat steady but it was still difficult. Despite some footage coming out with a nice Steadicam-esque look, it was too easy to knock the camera and produce a jarring bounce.

On the audio side, the built-in microphone is remarkably good at capturing the soundscape. Unfortunately but not terribly surprisingly, noises such as focusing the lens and adjusting my grip are extremely loud and distracting on playback.

Photo Credit: David July — Atlantic marsh fiddler crab (Uca pugnax) at its burrow in the sands near the Pellicer Creek boat launch in Faver-Dykes State Park, St. Augustine, Florida: 26 May 2013

Nevertheless, I wanted to do something with the thirty-three minutes of footage from Faver-Dykes. Although the clips were shot as randomly as I would take pictures, I somehow managed to arrange a visual narrative of sorts and set it all to music by Blow Up Hollywood, naturally.

One of the more eclectic Blow Up Hollywood albums, Collections (2011) ends with one of my favorites, a reserved yet emotional song called "Sweet Memory". The selection of this song helped guide the video editing process and the atmosphere it provided was the perfect accompaniment to the visual style.

A work in progress since August 2013, I recently taught myself to process the video as I would stills for things like color and contrast. Finishing on Saturday, 31 January 2015, I rendered a final cut and then watched it on my television.

Sweet Memory
Blow Up Hollywood
Collections (2011)
Film by David July

 
Download MP4
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Download 1080p MP4

 
23.2 MB
41.6 MB
327.1 MB

Considering that there was no planning beforehand, no shot list and it was my first attempt at such a venture, I am actually quite pleased with the result.

The above embed uses HTML5 to stream a 474×268 copy in either MP4 or WebM format to your browser. You can also download one of these smaller files directly if the embed does not work.

These options are faster to download, should suit a casual visitor and help me from burning through my monthly data transfer allocation. That notwithstanding, the full HD 1920×1080p MP4 (327.1 MB) is also available to download and watch.

Enjoy the film and if you like the song, please purchase yourself a copy.

Blow Up Hollywood CD Baby Amazon iTunes

Photo Credit: David July
Photo Credit: David July
Video Credit: David July/Blow Up Hollywood

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