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A Movable (Picture) Feast

If you've seen the original Dallas Drummonds Christmas blog, you know that there's usually an "annotated" version for those who want more. Anne Marie, who doesn't like Christmas letters to begin with, wants the blog to be little more than a series of pictures. I, on the other hand, want to include lots more stuff, specifically video. Why just throw up pictures, when you can post moving pictures?

Last Christmas, Anne Marie (on advice from her sister Roey) got me what I've decided is the best (and Anne Marie has decided is the worst) gift ever: a hard-drive digital camcorder. This thing records directly onto a computer harddrive in digital format, and came with all sorts of software for making movies. The best thing is that any section of video can just be cut out and discarded, so there's no downside to recording anything and everything. Sort of like a digital camera, where you shoot as many shots as you want and never have to worry about wasting film. And when the camera is full, you just download it to your computer (or burn the video onto DVDs for later assembly).

Armed with this new technology, I started shooting video of just about everything. Mainly, it's the usual stuff -- the kids sporting events, birthday parties, trips, that sort of thing. But instead of five minutes of a game, I'd record the whole damned thing. I could go back later, play director and pick and assemble my clips; add in special effects, sound, etc; and produce a movie. I made a music video of Gina's school basketball team. Then I made one for her club volleyball team. I'm working on one for her Ursuline volleyball team. And then . . . well, most of my work is on the Jeff Drummond channel on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/jeffdrummond.

But I'm not the only budding Francis Ford Coppola in the Drummond family: Gina staged, directed, shot, edited, and produced a video of The First Thanksgiving using her sister and cousins as "the talent." Gina's 1st Thanksgiving video is here: