Gray Wolf Productions

Blog

  • When Is Done Done?

    grilling

    Has technology made it harder for us to know when something is really done?

    ​

    Personally, I think it has. In the old days with the typewriter it was done when I took the paper out of the typewriter because I hated typing so much that the words on the page were considered done.

    I learned to be inefficient writer.

    The same with videos and older cameras. Things were done when I took the tape or the film out of the camera. There were very few easy ways to edit and play with the product. I knew how to do things in a dark room and with older film editing equipment but it was so time consuming, it was easier to have the product done when it came out of the equipment.

    Now I can take digital pictures, digital videos, and type into a computer and then I can use apps to edit the photos and videos, and move words, paragraphs, and chapters around.

    Fiddling with the product makes it almost never done. I can look at it and say will maybe I want something to be a different color, or maybe I want to use a different word or maybe maybe maybe……

    So yes. I think technology has made it harder to say when done is done.

    And your take? Please comment below….thank you

  • Continuing On My Own Journey

    Here I am on day 24 of my 90 day challenge and nearing the end of my 30 day video challenge.

    I’m feeling good that I just finished video #24 and I think that now I will continue doing videos – probably not every day but more frequently than my random video production. I am remembering that I used to love to make videos and I think I will continue to love making videos in the future. This was an important part of this summer’s journey for me – to learn to love again something I had stopped doing.

    And I repeat, something I tend to do a lot of, you are never ever too old to start a new journey or restart a journey you were once on.

  • Baby Steps – but they go forward!

    Forward!

    ScreenFlow baby steps today. Forward moving baby steps and that feels so good.

     I actually made a longer video and then I clipped it so that all you see are the parts with me sounding okay. I trimmed out the part where I was setting up the keynote presentation and you could see me doing that. I also trimmed out at the end where I was finishing up the keynote and vocals that didn’t sound like they belonged.

    Apparently, challenging myself to do this every day has had some benefits. I figured out how to edit a clip. Next I will have to do transitions with keynote and also lessen the sound of my hitting the computer touchpad to do the moving to the next slide. I can automate that in Keynote but I forgot. Learning how to do ScreenFlow is one thing – adding that to the “I am still learning Keynote” is yet another.

  • Sometimes You Feel Like A Beginner; And That Is Good

    laptop with training wheels

    Sometimes you feel like a beginner.
    You know why? Because you are!

    ​

    And feeling like a beginner is really not a bad thing in fact it can be a very good thing. Sometimes we need to go back and understand what it feels like to be brand new at something. Especially something that other people do so easily – and for me that is using Screenflow and/or editing movies. It feels Iike using a laptop with training wheels…..

    I learned to ski as an adult so I knew what it felt like. But then for many years I was a ski instructor and taught adults who saw this little bump on the hill right after we got off a chairlift and panicked. It always boggled my mind because I had forgotten what it was like. Then I tried to learn to snowboard. I went up the chairlift got off with help went over to that little bump and panicked. I burst out laughing because it was a needed reminder that things feel different when you know how to do them and sometimes it helps to be the beginner.

    So here is my “snowboard attempt” number 2 at using Screenflow – and it to me it looks better than the one I did yesterday. [gives self pat on back]

  • Today I Say: I Will Learn Screenflow

    on air

    OK – did it. I said I would try to start using Screenflow and I did. 

    It has been on my computer for over a year and I have fiddled with it. I even have a few friends who gave me their video courses on how to use Screenflow. But for some reason it does not feel intuitive to me and I’ve been having difficulty figuring it out.

    I have no idea what I’m doing at time, but the point of all of these exercises is to get in the habit of doing. There will probably be a few more embarrassing moments like today, when I have no idea where to look. 

    I decided to use the “I’m looking down at the computer or something” as the thumbnail because I really I need to learn that it’s 0K to look like I don’t know what I’m doing.

    And it is okay for anyone to look like they don’t know what they’re doing.

    Why? Because if you don’t know what you’re doing you look like you don’t know what you’re doing.

  • When It Is Hot, Hot, Hot

    Puppy Energy

    Today I feel like I need a brain implant. I am still a bit tired but in infinitely better shape than I have been for the past few days which is good because it’s getting hot again. Today’s video is yet another dog walk because it’s the easiest thing for me to do and since I do it every day and I’m getting lazy..

    Tomorrow is mid-month on my 30-day video habit building and I promise I will do something different.  But for today you get me and the dog and the river

>