Video Project Almost Complete

The By this Name video project that I have been doing on and off for the last couple years is coming to completion. I am in the process of finishing the subtitles for the video and getting them on the DVD. Subtitles are a very tedious job, and thankfully, I’ve had quite a bit of help with them. Some of my co-workers drafted their three teenage boys to come in and over three days they pushed through most of the text entry. This usually involves watching a video clip over and over and over and over and… you get the picture. The video is watched repeatedly in four second increments as you type in the words said, then move on to the next four seconds. Then the text must be cleaned up, with better breaks in text so it can be comfortably read on screen and correctly timed to match what is being said. The screen shot above shows the DVD authoring software with a menu, as well as the subtitle program.

One day as we were working through this task (did I mention it was tedious?), a gentleman from Africa came through our office on a tour. When we showed him what we were doing he pleaded that we do it accurately because it really helps him when he watches videos. We know this to be the case with many others as well, so keep pushing on with the job. Not only can these subtitles be helpful in English, but they can be the basis for future translations and subtitling.

There have been quite a few technical challenges to overcome recently. For example, during this stage of putting the DVD together, we realized that my video monitors were not showing me some problems with the video. A few people were testing the DVD on their HD TVs at home, so I had to go back in and fix quite a few videos.

As I write this, my main video editing computer is once again giving fits. It is an older machine, and always seems to have problems right when I am at a critical stage in production. Please pray that I can complete this job without any further delays or distractions. I am already past the deadline we had set for getting these matched up with the books which are being printed.

Here is a sample from the upcoming book (Complete with subtitles!):

“By this Name” – Chapter 8-A Self-Righteous from GoodSeed on Vimeo.

It’s Summer

This summer seems to be busier than usual, but we are trying to get out and enjoy it too. We have had many bike rides, a camping trip with family in Banff National Park, a trip to Fernie, BC, a new splash park in town, hiking, and a lots of food growing in the greenhouse. Here are a few pics of the fun.