Pickup Moves (How to Pick up ... a Dog!

BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU PICK UP ANY DOG!  Some dogs don't like to be picked up and might snap or bite you! Never attempt to pick up a strange dog or a dog you are not familiar with.

Be careful when you pick up any dog, because you might hurt yourself or, worse yet, hurt the dog.

How do you pick up a dog?  Different rules for Shitzus than for Newfies.

Okay, my philosophy on this one is that you shouldn't over do it.  All of our dogs will tolerate being picked up, but they can seem a little hesitant if we do it more than once a day.

Also, if you can't lift a sack of potatoes, don't go thinking you can lift a squirming sack of potatoes.

Take a medium-sized dog, a 40 lb Border Collie.  Think about making a cradle with your arms.  One arm will go around the front of the dog's chest and the other arm will wrap around the dog's back legs, basically gather the dog's legs in your arms so that your hands meet on the other side of the dog.  Lift with your legs.  Support the dog's hind quarters lower than the dog's head, as necessary.

If you're a busted up old fool, like me, stick to tricks like sit and stay.  Sit in your easy chair and stay there.

Always be very careful.  Always have fun with your dogs. If the experience is not positive, change the experience.

Make a funny dog video and send it to me ... I'd watch it for real and probably comment with something nice like, "Woof."

This video was made using an iPhone 4s and iMovie.  The voice over was recorded in garageband.  I do talking dog videos once in a while, but never very well.  So I took a little longer and bite off smaller pieces on this one.  It's almost like a real talking dog video, huh?

Jim Jump March 2012

Dumb Dog-tography

UPDATE:  March 20, 2012

Hey, this Dumb Dog Trick got some interest from our friends in the United Kingdom for a show called "Talk Back" that is produced at Freemantle Media.  Totally cool, huh?

Linkage: http://fremantlemediauk.com/our-labels/talkback/

Really awesome and respectable production company.  They basically offered an option, which may restrict my ability to use this video for other purposes or projects for the next two years.  During that two years they can buy it outright for a stated amount.  Could my future include Euros direct deposited into my Paypay account?  Oh, yeah!

This was an early video for me.  I believe I used a non-HD flip cam and prayed for decent picture quality.  Then I edited on this really cheap, awful laptop in Windows Movie Maker.  Having fun, learning a little bit about video and sharing my darling doggies.

I so hope this video is used in a UK television show.  That would really make me happy.

Believe it or not the art and science of dumb dog tricks continues to this day ... featuring the comedy and acting styling of Red Dog, Blue Dog and their new sister, Zoozoo.  Here's a link to the playlist:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_D6_H6ZqEw&list=PL97572117418FCBC3&feature=plpp_play_all

Instantly make your dog look more intelligent with glasses! It must be the weekend somewhere, so let's get the festivities started with

A STUPID DOG TRICK

Awesome Dog Trick

Julian and Dodger performing indoors.  Dodger is getting up in years, but can still kick it with the young dogs.  I would call the first trick a "back vault mouth toss."  The second trick is a more traditional "leap in arms," which this team does a really nice job of.

This was at the Seattle Kennel Club dog show in Seattle in March of 2012.  It's a little bit odd because our group WOOFD2 (Washington Owners of Flying Disc Dogs) is all about rescue and foster, but the kennel club is breeders.  Anyway, it was an indoor gig and it was a lot of fun.  Met some cool people too!

This video was made on my iPhone as I was madly dashing about announcing and performing with my dog.  I edited the video on iMovie, then tweaked it further in Final Cut Pro X.

Iphone 4s Review:  decent image quality, given that I shot it with backlighting (see that gargantuan window on the left) that wanted to heaving darken out the rest of the image.  I had some trouble finding the buttons on the camera and recording when I thought I was recording, but that will come in time.

The sound was awesome that day, no copyrighted music to worry about, just a voice and crowed reaction.  I really wish I had caught more video.

The backlighting issue was resolved in Final Cut Pro X, where I color balanced the video and tweaked it bring up he detail in the floor and the audience.  It looked bad before I did that, but it looks pretty good now.

The slow motion segments are at 60%.  Yeah, 80% would have given me a better frame rate (24 fps rather 18 fps) so that's why there's some streaking lines through the slo mo.

I was also really glad to catch some nice video of J and Dodger, because they have been my friends for a number of years.

Peace and love,

Jimmyjumpnive

Couch Gymnastics (and a Video Editing Software Review)

My Final Cut Pro X review.  This is the first video I have made using the new and improved Final Cut Pro X.

Yes, I did say improved.  And, yes, it is more like iMovie.  Where I differ from most reviewers is that I think the simplification and compatibility with iMovie is a plus, not a minus.  Here we go into IMHO land from here on...

Understand, gentle reader, that it is advisable to rough cut a video in iMovie before importing into Final Cut (old or new version) anyway, so why shouldn't the interface between the two be similar?  Get a project into decent shape and then go to town with the titles tweaks, audio fixes and effects in Final Cut.

But the new Final Cut is far more intuitive for an intermediate-level iMovie user, and much easier to use than the old Final Cut. I think they went into the old Final Cut and looked at all the stuff nobody could use because it was super hard, and they came midway towards making it super easy.

Before you do it, I'll do a self critique on the video above.  The voice mix isn't right and my voice does not sound warm and full.  Solution:  Do the voice overs in iMovie, do the tweaks in Final Cut Pro X. There's a typo in one of the titles.  Solution:  no, really, there is a typo in one of the titles.  That's totally sub-par but the step back to fix it seemed daunting at the moment I uploaded.  Solution:  A small amount of effort will overcome this as I determine what software works best for what.  Crappy Canned Music.  Solution:  I also hate crappy canned music, so no excuses there.  I'll make my own crappy music, thank you very much, and apply polly logies for this one indiscretion.

I apologize for the gratuitous swearing, but I figure that the word "crap" and any derivative words thereof are almost not real swear words anymore.

Jimmyjumpnjive March 4, 2012

Final Cut Pro X Review (part 2)

Click Here for a Dumb Dog Trick Video!


Apple Final Cut Pro X review (part 2).

Most of what you see in this video was created in iMovie.  Most of what you can hear has been manipulated fairly heavily in Final Cut Pro X.

This time my focus was on voice over and sound quality.  I started in iMovie and roughed out the project.  I left a blank section for the first title, which was then created in Final Cut Pro X.  Then I went to work on improving the quality of the voice and the mix between the voice and ambient sound.

The sound (voice and ambient) were auto tuned, bass boosted and adjusted with the hum and noise reduction options.  I would have added some echo on the voice, but couldn't figure out how to do it.  I had already done a loudness adjustment in iMovie and the other mentioned tweaks in Final Cut Pro X.

The end result is okay.  Next step will be to focus on the mixing of sound -- voice over and music -- to see what the best way is to do it.  I am totally thinking to mix it in iMovie then tweak it in Pro X.

I really had to steer myself away from the image-effect options.  Two of them were really drawing me in -- this video almost ended up with either a "fish eye" effect or a "geometric block" effect.

I will definitely come back to the video effects pre sets in Pro X.  The video camera effect was good.  The distortion effects were also interesting.  Many ways to improve projects or catch moods and some odd scrambling effects.

Next time it's full onto mixing a bumper sound, a voice over, and a song.  Not sure if the song will be original, but an original song will probably be a bigger challenge in that I tend to crank the distortion when I do rock music in Garageband.

So far so good.  This is my second day using FInal Cut Pro X and I am beginning to get a good feel for how to improve or attempt to improve videos.  Honestly, though, this may take a month or so to fully get a passable working knowledge of the program.

Jimmyjumpnjive March 6, 2012.