"Cara a Cara" - Face to Face - (Adobe Premiere exercise)

I am testing and experimenting with video editing using Adobe Premiere.
I tried the split screen with the crop video effect and I also played with subtitles. Because the quality of the original audio was not very good I used voice over but I need to practice more with that.
In general the result is not perfect but I am quite satisfied with this first experiment. I don't have video editing training and I am learning all this on my own.
I welcome feedback and suggestions.
Is the middle line too evident? How do you make it disappear?
Is there any good trick to help the actor (me in this case) do each part of the dialogue so that it syncs later? Mine is a little off.
Thanks for all your ideas and suggestions!

paulino

Video for Everyman

And it did happen! My experience with new technology (more specifically the use of Flip Video Camera) was featured in an article called "Video for Everyman" by CHRISTOPHER LAWTON, September 26, 2007; Page D1 of the WALL STREET JOURNAL
Just to avoid any infringement of copyright I am not going to paste the text here. If you didn't get the newspaper you can read it online.

Or you can listen to an excerpt that I read in this video.

I speak so highly about the Flip Video Camera. May be Pure Digital Technologies Inc. will send me a new one! Since now I am kind of their unofficial spoke person :)

Spanish subtitles are here!

Well.. now that I am going to become an international person! (LOL!) I need to make my videos more accessible to different audiences. Let's start with a very important market: The Latino Community.

Here is my first attempt at adding Spanish subtitle to one of my videos.




or click here

My name on a major international daily newspaper?

Is it true? Could be true?
Paulino Brener mentioned in the Wall Street Jounal?

Yet Another MN State Fair 2007 Video

Yet Another MN State Fair 2007 Video

International Club is back!

Eight years ago I spent my first academic year in US. I was an Amity Scholar and I worked (or rather volunteered) at Brighton High School in Rochester, NY. It was a wonderful year and a great way to start my life in US. One of the things that made it great was that I had the opportunity to work with three interesting ladies who later became my friends. We were part of what we called the "International Club". I know, not a very original name but it was special for us. We all came from different parts of the world: Imke from Germany, Maeva from France, Veronica from Spain and Me from Argentina. We shared many adventures. Today, after many years and thanks to Skype conference feature, we had our "International Club" meeting. It was very exciting to hear the four voices back together. We even talked about starting a blog together and share experiences, pictures, etc and the seed was planted to have a "real" meeting (meaning in person) some day (possibly summer 2009 in London). :-)
Our of the four I am the only one who remained in US and even though I like it here I miss visiting other counties (mainly in Europe) and learning about other cultures. But now may be we can be back in touch and they can bring Europe back to me until I can go and meet them there.

Here we are:



Can you guess who is who? :-)

Say hi to "Paulexto Balut"

OK. So lately I've been pretty active on cyberland: myspace, facebook, youtube, etc. But I have been avoiding a biggie: Second Life. I did try it a few months ago but it didn't really get much of my attention. Now there is a language festival coming in September and I want to attend it so I gave Second Life a Second Chance.

This is the beginning of the metamorphoses of my avatar. I randomized all features (skin, shapes, etc.) and then adjusted just a few. I am sure I will make changes a few things here and there with time but for now I like being a blue man. After all blue is my favorite color. What do you think?

My videos in MNStories.com

Yay! A couple of my videos were featured as MNStories.com

Or you can just watch them here :-)

Ready for a ride?

Last Saturday I went to the Minnesota State Fair. I haven't been there for 4 years.
I went there with my friend Tyson and we had fun. Specially when we found, just by chance that "Forro For ALL" (a band that plays Brazilian music) was there! They are very good. It was supposed to be a short visit to look around but I ended up staying a little later to take some pictures and videos.

Including this video of the Skyride



More video and pics later. Enjoy!

Audiobooks discussion continues

This is a continued discussion about Audiobooks (see previous post)

Steve,

Hmmmm... you speak like someone who is trying to sell something and relies a lot on capitalism for that... Oh wait! You ARE someone trying to sell something! :-)

Steve, I am glad you are blessed with the wealth that allows you to afford all the comforts you deserve at your age. And mind you, I do say "at your age" with respect. I am sure you have worked hard (and continue to do so) in your life and you are able to purchase and enjoy your Argentine wine and Russian audiobooks. Great! Good for you!

Unfortunately (or fortunately) at this moment in my life I have other priorities and needs. I work in a small private school and the salaries are not that high. I am not complaining, I love my job! I have all the food, clothes and housing that I need and I even go out once in a while! :-) But I do live on a budget and I appreciate the opportunity to use free resources until I am able to purchase other type of resources. I know many people who are in the same (financial) situation or they are just frugal and don't want to pay for their audiobooks or anything else they can get for free. What's wrong with that?

I am not saying that librivox.org is the all fulfilling solution. It's just one more option. Options are good! It's good to have options! And you would be surprised. Some of what you call "second rate audio books produced by volunteers" are of high quality since some of those volunteers are in fact PROFESSIONALS! Many of them work in radio, voice related jobs.. and guess what?... yes! some of them are even readers for professional audiobook companies. Then why they do it for free? The answer is: promotion and marketing! Since all books that you find at librivox.org are from/in the public domain (i.e. very old books) so you won't find your recent bestseller novel there. For that, and I agree with you Steve, you should pay for the unabridged audiobook. :-)

Take and give care,

paulino

ps1: Since I work in a private school I am not afraid of any school district deciding to use volunteers. We are an independent school. :-)

ps2: Your title for this post has to a's in front of "good". You don't mind that a Non-Native Speaker of English points out your typos, right? May be you'll pay back and point out my typos, grammar mistakes, etc, etc, and then I'll learn from my mistakes and improve my writing. And believe me, I know I need to improve my writing skills!!!

ps3: I wanted to talk more on volunteerism and non-profit organizations but I'll leave that for another time.