I’m keen to get a better grip on my video editing software and to begin incorporating better sound tracks and so I used a selection of paintings from one of the earlier exercises to play around with transitions between images and to experiment with adding sound files. I’ve been a little bit rushed (self imposed) with previous films and as a result not really trying out anything new, so the idea was to really rummage around and see what could be achieved with this piece of kit. There’s an upgrade on the horizon, will it be worth the extra outlay? A question to answer.

Other questions included finding a new source of sound files, especially sound effects rather than music and, checking out a friend’s latest video (Janet Lees, filmic poet, just marvellous) I noticed she used the BBC sound archives. There is a fee and although it’s cheaper for personal use than commercial, there doesn’t seem to be an education option. I have a free trial at the moment but I can feel it in my bones that I’ll not be cancelling!

This is the video:

I’ve discovered this time how to (sometimes) act on one track while leaving others intact but not yet how to avoid other tracks sometimes being snipped into sections when I move something on another track. Quite often I have to move everything along if I slow down a sound or extend a fade, but no doubt there’s a way of shifting one thing without subsequently having to shift everything else to fit, I just haven’t found it yet.

Post script: the upgrade has an entirely different interface and keeps crashing. Not rushing to buy it for now!