What I did on my Summer Holidays pt.1
Following on from my report of our trip to Portland, Maine in August this year, here is the video. I have split it into 2 parts. Once you have watched pt.1 (13mins) you can click on pt.2 (14mins) below.
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Notes for film...
I spent about 50hrs or more making this holiday video so thought I'd make some notes to point out stuff I'd forgotten or maybe isn't obvious on viewing. I hope the video reflects what a great time we had with our trail monster pals in Maine.
I worked on a timeline with 7 layers – 3 audio and 4 visual. The visual layers were video, still images, titles and a close up line for stills or movies. The audio lines were for video soundtrack, and 2 for mixing accompanying tunes. The software is Serif MoviePlus 5. It works well for about 10 minutes of timeline but after that, if there's a lot going on, the playback begins to skip and stutter making coordinating a singing dog accurately to the track, more tricky. Which was one of the reasons I made it in 2 parts, another being Facebook limits videos to 20 mins.
The typeface used was “Lazy Day”, a Billy Argel font and I also used a bit of “Sir Talks a Lot” to make up for the lack of numerals in Lazy Day. I also forgot to title the last trail run which was in the Camden State Hills Park overlooking Megunticook Lake into which we flopped after the run. Brilliant day out especially coming out the trees onto Cameron Mountain which was covered in very tasty blueberries.
I was very pleased to meet horseshoe crabs for the first time. Arthropods (more like scorpions or spiders) rather than crabs they go back 240 millions years or more and have 10 eyes depending on your definition of eye. Females bigger than males. I had never known what was underneath before or how they moved through the water so interesting to find out. Mostly just pincers/legs underneath.
Also the ghostly plastic-like small white flowers I am pointing to on Bradbury while route setting... Jeff who really knows his stuff saw me looking at them and told me they were Indian Pipes, a chlorophyll-free parasitic plant with such an unusual appearance (like the faded plastic plants of a road side wreath) that they are also known as Ghost Plant or Corpse Plant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotropa_unifloraThe wooden shacks at Sunset Point have been in Ian's family for generations and are utterly charming. I took great liberties taking photos of everything and then subsequently playing about with them. I forgot to ask him what's the story with the bathroom light that goes on when you get near it? It was a perfect antidote to the pressures of the race earlier in the day. (Which was run with temperatures in the 90's)
Back in Portland and a couple of things that whiz by too fast to notice maybe. Immediately after the big Turner truck (it was stood at the lights while I fumbled my camera out but drove off too quickly to get a decent shot – this kept happening) is a shot of Mary standing and leaning to our left. This is to mimic the building behind, the ground floor of which is well squint – I'm surprised the lower windows haven't broken. Just after this we went into Gilbert's Chowder House, a modest but authentic eating house where they do some of the best clam chowder in Portland. It came in a hollowed out loaf of bread and was excellent.
At the end of the Twin Brook session I was trying to photograph the giant dragonflies that were buzzing about at great speed. I got one but its very indistinct – I've no idea where they land or rest. However in the closing shots of Pt 1 as the camera pulls back from the setting sun one zips across from right to left in 2 frames.
I seem to have focussed on the slightly freaky stuff from Portland Art Museum. It is a great place to spend a few hours and has a good variety of art from old brown stuff to recent and modern. I don't know why a man with 5 o'clock shadow is wearing a nighty. I wished I had read the info.
The Wednesday night 5k was tough. You can't tell from the video but it was recorded at 88' which made the first mile bearable but mouths were kinda dry mile 2, and it was just survival for mile 3. A few folk ran season's worst times. Although the course is flat apart from a small rise over the bridge, the cinder path dusty surface makes for poor traction and slowish times. Great training loop though, with drinking fountains every mile, and markers every quarter mile. Mary and I did a couple of tempo loops later in the holiday.
The Keep Out sign on the Blackstrap trail was, we were assured, more for the Snowmobilers in the winter. Nobody ever gave us a hard time or fired shots in a country full of guns. The sprinklers were a welcome joy at the playing fields on such a hot day though I couldn't go under them as I wanted to keep the camera dry. In the film, I slowed the one shot down to coincide the pulse of the sprinkler with the beat of the music.
Mary and I were much amused to be taken into the running shop and find our photo (taken at the 50k we ran here in 2007) on the wall.
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is well worth a visit. Having opened in 2007 it is now settling into a natural look though there are more regimented areas near the entrance house. Ian and I were trying to track down whatever creatures were making the chirruping noises, but when you got close they shut up. With a bit of patience we noticed that it was a shy black cricket type insect hiding under a rock and not the frog we thought it would be.
The music at the end of Pt 2 is a mix of 3 tracks. Sakamoto's “Only love can conquer hate” starts the drone before “I remember it all” by Sparrow Orange comes back in providing the percussion. However Mary had downloaded a rather retro version of “Climb every mountain” by Betty Johnson a while ago which I hadn't much cared for but thought might add a certain something. With a bit of tweaking it sort of mixes and the off key-ness adds rather than detracts. (In my opinion!)
Emma (possibly Ian) and Mary also took photos but are uncredited.
Oh and I nearly forgot to mention the Aquapac - essentially a poly bag you put your camera in and it seals shut and keeps the water out. £20 as opposed to ten times that for a proper underwater casing. It seems to work quite well apart from a bit of distortion. And the camera remained dry.