Category Archives: Video (misc)

Green screen with CamTwist

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Greenscreen

I finally figured it out. Sort of. If you can count stumbling on the right configuration and being unable to do it twice in a row "figured it out." But I now know that it can be done. (The background image is lobby of our new offices in Dallas.)

My setup is pretty crude. Two flood lights from Lowe’s and a few yards of green felt on the basement wall. It’s pretty clear that lighting is critical for this effect and I might have to come up with more or better lights before I try a video background.

And streaming (over the wifi) from the basement isn’t gonna cut it. Too slow. Gotta get an Ethernet jack down here or set up in the upstairs office. But hey, that’s what weekends are for, right?
I’m proud to say I PayPal’d the CamTwist guy $50. It’s worth far more than that.

Early green screen effort

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One of the new features (toys) in Leopard I’ve been most excited about is the addition of green screening in iChat and Photo Booth. This is the effect they use on The Daily Show (and the evening news) to make it look like the reporter is standing in front of the White House or the Supreme Court.

Mr. Jobs left me with the impression that I could put a still image or video behind me and have hours of fun. You can see the result above. I think I could get the lighting and the green screen working but the sound is off for some reason. One hopes this is fixed in a future update.

Night Snow

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Looks like we have about 4 of our predicted 6 inches of snow and it’s still falling. But we have a nice fire going and Lucy and Ripley are snoozed out. Barb made a big pot of chilli and all is right with the world.

Where we live there’s no traffic sounds or city lights and nights like this are peaceful and beautiful. I couldn’t resist sharing a minute with you. If you listen closely you can hear the wind chimes just a couple of feet from where I was standing.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

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Long-time readers might recall I’m fond of Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. It makes me nostalgic for a time and a government that probably never existed. Usually leaves me depressed because it reminds me how venal our real-life congressmen are. I’ve posted clips from the movie going back years and decided to put them all in one post. Just watch the movie.

Rick & Ryan’s All Geek Marching Band

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I’m hanging out in our new sports operations center and hear the haunting sounds of someone playing the mouth trumpet. I was surprised and delighted to discover our own Ryan Kormann riffing away. About this time, Rick Kennedy steps out of his studio to join in with Musical Hands. He insisted that he wasn’t warmed up and was a little nervous, but his musical gift was obvious.

Concrete TV

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“Concrete Ron describes himself as “perhaps the greatest video editor of all time”, and anyone who’s ever caught Concrete TV on Manhattan public access television over the last decade or so probably wouldn’t argue: a typical episode incorporates vintage porn movies, 80s aerobics videos, car crash footage, Hong Kong shoot-em-ups, old commercials, beefcake reels, pro wrestling smackdowns, cheesy B-movie moments, sex education films, random explosions, wet t-shirt contests, and plenty of “raw emotion, euphoria, physical collision, glee, fantasy, despair, and discomfort” in one noisy, violent, sexy, and brilliantly edited pop culture/infoporn mashup.”