It’s been awhile, but we finally made our trip out to CA to see Dr. Michael Goldberg.
While we go on a regular basis regardless of what’s going on, this time we were motivated to go because Maximus has been having issues staying on his clean diet. While it’s true that every kid (and most adults) have issues staying true to good eating, it can have some serious health consequences for Max. So when he got to the point of cheating every single day we knew we had to do something.
This came about after several months of trying pretty much everything we could think of and making no progress at all. We were getting very frustrated and part of the problem is that Max does not always make the connection between his choices and the outcomes. He tends to blame others instead of taking responsibility. Some of that is maturity for sure, but sometimes he’s a complicated by to figure out too.
In brief, the visit went very well. Unlike any of the past visits, this visit was 90% between Max and the doctor with me just being present to clarify details here and there. He responded very well to the questions and there were even some insights into his thinking and some things that were bothering him. He talked to the doctor about some things he has never brought up to us, so I was pretty blown away a few times by the answers that Max gave.
All in all, I think a lot of positive changes will come out of this. What was really clear to me is that we need to do these visits more now that he’s older. Twice a year would be awesome if we could swing it. And I also think his siblings would have benefited from being part of the same discussion because it would have helped them understand a lot of the details that are lost on them day to day.
For me, the best part of the trip was having that one-on-one time to bond with Maximus. We always have such a special connection when it’s just the two of us, and even more so when it’s out of our normal environment. I just love the little guy.
Maximus preferred watching the live map of our travels over using the iPad. He kept letting me know what state and cities we were passing over.
Arrival at LAX.From 35 degrees in Chicago to nearly 100. It was awesome.Car for mom?A friends restaurant that closed a few months earlier.We stayed at a nice AirBnB that had a outside patio. We used it in the evening to just hang out.No visit is complete without a visit here. The smell itself was hard to resist.Returning our pimped out ride.Once again, coffee all over my socks. The same thing happened on the last trip so clearly it’s me that has a problem.
To kick off the first days of summer vacation we spent a week in Michigan visiting family and doing fun activities. Mini-golf, Dave & Busters and seeing a movie are just some of the highlights.
While everything I was shooting was supposed to be for this year’s “Summer video”, I couldn’t help myself and created a very short video of our Michigan trip.
For the first time in my video editing career, I was asked if I could create lasers for an upcoming project. And if so, how long it would take to do a bunch of lasers as 2 people ran through the building. That’s something you don’t get asked every day – if ever.
I gave what I thought was a good estimate, but also knew that regardless of how much time I said I needed, we only had 5 days to complete the entire video. That included shooting in multiple locations, so really 4 days. I found this all out on Tuesday or Wednesday the week before it started.
I always like to be prepared and try to under promise and over deliver as much as possible. At worse, you give them at least what you promised. So the weekend before the project started I grabbed the kids and had them run around the yard “shooting” at each other. They didn’t know exactly what it was for and knew nothing of the story. They just knew they were supposed to take my direction and do what I asked while I shot some video.
So I grabbed my GoPro Hero 3 and started shooting. The entire shoot with them took no more than 20 minutes.
That evening I put together the video featured here as a proof of concept for the video the client asked me to do.
While there were no big surprises, I felt a lot more confident walking in on Monday knowing that I could in fact do it in the time specified.
The other big takeaway is that this sort of laser shooting is very forgiving. I wasn’t sure if I would need to camera track or do any other kind of motion tracking, but because the laser shots are only 4-12 frames long you can do it all by hand. It turns out it’s pretty easy to trick the eye with this effect.
One thing that helped make this really easy to do was the relatively new plugin Saber from VideoCopilot.net. While it’s real strength is creating light sabers as seen in Star Wars, it can be adapted and used in many different creative ways. And what’s amazing is, it’s a FREE plugin for After Effects.
So I ended up with a fun video for the kids, and walked in on Monday feeling like I was as ready as possible for the job. (Which in the end, was done almost a full day early).
I knew I would be taking the summer off to spend with the kids. While I was probably over ambitious at the onset about what activities we would do over the summer, one thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to do a video with them. It’s something I’ve been thinking about almost since the moment they were born.
Not only would it give them something to enjoy and relive for years to come, it would keep me practiced and allow me to push a few boundaries for myself. It was also a good test of how far you could push an iPhone when all you have is an iPhone. I was both pleased and disappointed with my iPhone only experience. More on that later.
So with a loose plan, iPhone 6s Plus and plenty of time on our hands, we set out to make a summer music video. Here are some of the BTS details and lessons learned.
I’m finding that doing these videos on a regular basis is getting more and more difficult. And that’s too bad because the process of making these videos is so satisfying. I feel like I’m smiling the entire time while making them.
But time is always in short supply, and keeping priorities balanced is always a challenge.
This video took a long time because I was trying something new (I won’t go into it) and after several months of experimentation it didn’t work and I had to cut my losses. So the video itself is very simple and does not reflect the time I actually put into it.
At the end of the video is a special dance performance by Andrew. It may seem like a weird addition to the video, but it happened after her birthday celebration and nobody else danced that evening so he’s the only one that got the love on that. I think Sydney is secretly not happy about it.
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