2009 Year in Review Video - Conceived & Edited by Lisa S. Amsell

During our Xmas Party on December 12, 2009 a video was shown that reviewed the year of 2009. I starting working on this video on October 18 and finished the last edit on December 9. I inserted covers, labels, and inserts on December 10. I burned copies of the DVD from December 10-December 11.

When I made this video, I had several goals in mind. 1. To convey the difference in feeling and music than the 2008 video. 2. Try to do something I've never done before in a video. 3. Tie in the whole year with a common theme 4. To introduce our current students to how much we do in one year before they started. Above all, this video emphasizes the concept of perseverance which became a reoccurring theme throughout the entire year whether it be our school in general, test boards, or outside visiting instructors.

I am often asked about the time I put into this video. It normally consists of 2 complete phases. This year it consisted of 3 complete phases. The first phase was to collect photos, color correct all photos, and crop every photo to fit into a TV screen size. That process takes no less than 50 hours. I cannot "batch" the photos since not all of them require the same crop or color correcting. I have to do them individually. The second phase was to put each photo in chronological order (by month), add music, add transitions, add motion zooms, render, preview, make it viewable on TV, and make the DVD cover and inserts. That process also took no less than 75 hours. The third NEW phase was to add in video. Since I have never tried to put in video before I wasn't sure how well it would come out. I used videos taken from Flip Camera, Samsung camcorder (that records to HC SD), Nikon Coolpix point-and-shoot camera, and 2 different cell phone cameras. Needless to say, there were some conversion problems as well. After our 4th Qtr. testing (with time now working against me), I had only 2 minutes left to completely finish the video and I was hoping to have it done quickly. When I tried to put in the new video from testing, my program kept crashing. I could not get it to restart. I ended up losing the entire video I made up to that point. Fortunately, due to Auto-Save, I was able to use a previous version and go from there. I finally figured out a way to make the video work and after 21 hours, I finished my 1 minute and 42 seconds worth of video. The final stats are: 547 photos, 95 videos, and the longest video ever made (22 minutes and 39 seconds).

Every project I take on, I do with complete and total dedication. But this one was different. I pushed the envelope on this one to really emphasize the feeling of perseverance. I think it was only appropriate that I had major difficulty while trying to do something different with this video. From losing it to the videos not working out as planned, this one was the hardest one I've ever had to make. I had to persevere while making it. I could not just take out the videos because that was an extremely important part of this video. It became more than perseverance shown with what's in the video. It became perseverance while making it as well. Not only has our school came so far this year from last year, but for me to go from only doing photos to doing videos was a big step for me.

I felt obligated to do this one right because every aspect of this video (from making it to what's in it) shows "how far we've come" and how much more we can do. It shows that as martial artists we must never give up. We keep trying. We "fall down 7 time and get up 8 times." That was my driving force behind this video and I hope you can enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it.

-LSA

 

In addition, we have our long-time colleague Master David D. Johnson (Fresno, CA) will be testing for 7th Dan, Black Belt by Grandmaster Yun. As some of you may know, Dave SBN has been working through a spine injury. He has started going through intense physical therapy due to cervical disc degeneration of C3/4 and Disc bulge/herniation C6/7. Even with his injury, he still plans to test. This is the essence of the true martial arts spirit and attitude. We want to make sure that all students and instructors support his test like he has done for our school for such a long time.

 

This is a very special time for our school and we'd like to see full support from our students & instructors to support Terry SBN & Dave SBN on their Path of martial arts training. As instructors move up the Black Belt ranks, their tests become further and further apart. If Terry SBN is promoted, his next test will be no sooner than 2013. If Dave SBN is promoted, his next test will be no sooner than 2017. You do not want to miss this special test board!