We’ve all had one of those moments.  Though not normally ever as intense as this video, we’ve all felt the equivalent at times.  When you gotta go you gotta go.

High Definition Download:

-Boom Boom 1080p (0)

I recently returned from Impact 2010 and it was one of the greatest serving experiences of my life. In this video blog I discuss some cool moments during the retreat as well as my general feelings after.

Download in High Definition:
-Download coming soon.

Every year at Impact Retreat, the camp rules must be taught to the campers. This year, we went the informative video route and I filmed and edited a short rules video. Expect everything from the Lion King to Pee Wee Herman!

Due to procrastination this video was filmed and edited in two days.

Download the Impact 2010 Rules Video in High Definition:

-Download coming soon.

Imagine for a second that you possessed a car that could travel at 7,000 miles per hour.  At that rate you could travel across the entire United States in about half an hour.  Unfortunately, no one possesses a car that can travel at that speed, but fortunately, a car with a camera mounted to it is capable of simulating what that speed might look like.

View Larger Map

Several weeks ago, armed with my 7D and my brother, I drove from College Station, Texas to Dallas, Texas – a distance of approximately 185 miles.  The trip took around three hours.  When the photos were all taken, after combining them all (and flipping the picture vertically and horizontally so it was right side up – I filmed with the camera mounted upside down), and editing the time-lapse of the trip came out to approximately One Minute and Thirty Eight Seconds (1:38).  Now, to travel from College Station, Texas to Dallas, Texas in One Minute and Thirty Eight Seconds (1:38) would mean that you are capable of traveling at 6,700 miles per hour, or with rounding, 7,000 miles per hour.

It was a fun trip, and the camera didn’t fall off the windshield so it was definitely a success.  All time-lapse filming was accomplished on the Canon 7D with a 8mm fish-eye lens. If you like the music in this video, check out The Phoenix Odyssey!

Check out the behind the scenes video below!

Download 7000 Miles Per Hour in 1080p High Definition:

- 7000mph-1080p-mp4 (25)

If you like this video, you also might like my first time-lapse short film, The Heavens Declare.

I recently had the epiphany that I don’t look enough like a young canadian pop star.  To rectify this situation I immediately made an appointment with my hairstylist, and upon arriving for my haircut, I promptly asked for “The Bieber”.  She proceeded to say, “What?”.  To Which I replied, “The Bieber, Ma’am…you know…the hairstyle that all the kids want these days?”  She still had no idea, but after saying words like “canadian, hasn’t hit puberty yet, tween heartthrob” etc, she understood.

What you see in the video before you is the aftermath of my haircut.  What do you think?

Download This Video In High Definition:

-Coming Soon

Mittens is back!  I really should include him in more videos.  In this video I discuss marketing, buffets, and Acts 3:1-10.

If you like this video, feel free to download it in HD (links below) or add me as a friend on Facebook.  Also, check out my previous video blogs, “A Brief Message, From Matt Johnson” and “You’re Eclipsing My New Moon In The Twilight“.

Download This Video In HD:

Download Link available soon.

Sure to be the favorite movie of giggling schoolgirls everywhere, Twilight Eclipse was unleashed into theaters last month.  In this video blog, I take a possibly sarcastic look at the world of twilight and give you an idea of what a giggling schoolgirl fan looks like.

If you like this video, feel free to download it in HD (links below) or add me as a friend on Facebook.  Also, check out my previous video blog, “A Brief Message, From Matt Johnson“.

Download This Video In HD:

Download Link available soon.

It’s been a while since I last posted an Impact video blog, so Waldo and I decided to step up the production values for this video.  We discuss the retreat, Waldo’s growing mustache, and how to be a “Tool” for God.  Feel free to leave me a comment letting me know what you think, and please check out our first two Impact video blogs, “Blogadiddy” and “That’s Trendy“.

I’ve recently realized my need to include more updates to my YouTube channel as well as implement a consistent upload schedule for videos.  Now, every Friday you will be able to watch a video blog created by yours truly on YouTube.  No longer will you have to wait for only one or two videos per month; you will get more videos more often.

This does not mean that I will cease to create artistic videos that are more than just me speaking to the camera, those will also be uploaded as well.  These video blogs are here to keep you updated about my current projects, keep me motivated about making videos, and keep us both entertained.   Because you love watching my videos and I love creating them.  Think of them as a supplement to my usual video creations.

In this video, I discuss an exciting project that I am working on involving timelapses.  You can expect a tutorial video in the future documenting how to create this effect.

I hope you enjoy this video blog, there are more to come in the future!

One day after uploading my video, The George Bush Presidential Library, I was contacted by their head of public relations asking if I could film a commercial that would capture the same artistic view of the library from the interior as well as the exterior.

Three weeks later, after a day of filming interior shots of the museum and many hours of editing, this video emerged.  Be watching for it on television, it should be playing now.  Be sure to check out the Bush Library’s website and my original TAMUtimes blog post!

Big thanks to The Heart is a Lonely Hunter for letting me use their music in this commercial!

Continuing upon the epic success of our last video blog, Waldo and I have how attempted to set a new standard for trendiness in America today.  Because Impact is trendy, and we want everyone to know it!

Check out our last video blog to catch up!

For a more serious video, be sure to see Impact’s Testimonies.

Download in a Trendy 1080p High Definition

-ImpactVlog2 Trendy 1080 (35)

Several weeks ago, my friend Toan asked me if I had time to help him film a wedding on June 5th.  My voracious appetite for filming anything coupled with my relatively few wedding films under my belt meant that I heartily agreed to help him.  A few days before the wedding, he informed me that we would also be utilizing a popular video technique titled the “Same Day Edit” (Or, SDE as all the cool wedding videographers are calling them these days).

The Same Day Edit essentially consists of filming the pre-ceremony and ceremony events and then editing them into a small masterpiece that will be presented to the wedding guests at the reception.  It is a high stress maneuver that, if completely properly, is a great success.

This is our Same Day Edit.  Toan and I filmed, and Toan edited the video.  I hope you enjoy it.  If you’re looking for a video like this or possibly having your entire wedding filmed(Like I filmed my friends Caitlyn and Wyatt’s wedding), please do not hesitate to contact me.

High Definition 720p Download:

-JanieBlayneSDE 720p (83)

My roommate and I are both members of a Texas A&M student group called “Impact”.   It’s a Christian retreat for incoming freshmen at Texas A&M and Blinn.

We decided that the best way to gain the attention of the freshmen and get them to attend the retreat would be through making exciting video blogs!  This is the first fruit of our labors.  We edited 12 minutes of thrilling video down to just 5.

Check it out and for more information visit Impact’s website!

Download in HIGH DEFINITION 1080p GLORY!

-ImpactVlog1Blogadiddy 1080 (36)

First Thessalonians 5:16-18 states, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

This is meaning to have a constant conversation with God!  When speaking about First Thessalonians 5:16-18, Charles Spurgeon stated, “Clear, then, is it from the text, that the voice, the posture, the place, the time – none of them enter into the essence of prayer, or else, in this case, we should be commanded to perform an impossibility, which we are quite certain is not after the manner of the Lord our God.” Clearly we are to pray constantly and it does not matter if we are on our knees.  Curt Vernon explained in his Revival Song video, how one of His friends said, “You really think when you get to heaven you’ll find out you prayed too much?”  There’s no such thing as too much prayer!

Why should we talk to Him? Doesn’t He already know what we are going to say, how we are going to say it, and exactly when we are going to say it? This illustrates to me how God is a person – He already knows our every thought but he still wants us to talk to him. He says to seek his face (2 Chronicles 7:14). We are to seek what makes God happy. We are to seek what makes God smile. Because the only reason we are here is because we make him smile and for His glory.

How do we go about turning ourselves into a mobile prayer room for God?  Here’s the insight I had shared with me by my friend Curt.  How cool would it be that if instead of us desiring to merely pray without ceasing, it was more of a desire to forget how to stop praying? That sounds like an awesome habit!  Charles Spurgeon in his great sermon titled “Pray Without Ceasing” states, “As we breathe without ceasing, so must we pray without ceasing.  As there is no attainment in life, of health, or of strength, or of muscular vigor which can place a man beyond the necessity of breathing, so no condition of spiritual growth or advance in grace will allow a man to dispense with prayer.” Constant prayer is as important to our lives as breathing!

Think about your daily thoughts for a moment.  Remember the last time you totally zoned out and weren’t thinking of anything productive.  I find myself constantly thinking of the future, or worrying, or thinking about myself.  Instead, imagine if every one of those moments of selfish thinking were instead devoted to God and prayer to Him.  It really would be an unceasing prayer.  Now I’m not saying that thinking is a sin, but I am saying from personal experience that I fully believe that time in prayer is much better spent than time in thinking selfish thoughts.

Think of it this way – instead of talking to yourself like everyone does, talk to God instead. Make God that target of all of your thoughts. Pray to Him in discipline of this. Ask him to make his word rise up in you like a fire (Jeremiah 20:9 I am weary with holding it in, – “If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name”, there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.”)  Spurgeon States,  “Wherever we seek the Lord with true hearts He is found of us; whenever we cry unto Him He heareth us.  Every place is hallowed ground to a hallowed heart, and every day is a holy day to a holy man.”

“The Lord always deserves to be worshipped. Prayer is a method of worship; continue, therefore, always to render to your Creator, your Preserver, your Redeemer, your Father, the homage of your prayers.”

Here is a quick tutorial showing you how to conform 60p, 60 frames per second footage to 24p, 24 frames per second footage on a PC or Mac using Adobe After Effects.  This is especially useful if you have a Canon 7D or T2i with the ability to shoot at 60 frames per second and you would like to slow it down.  Also, this tutorial works if you have a higher frame-rate of footage such as that shot with a GoPro-HD or Phantom.

As an added bonus, this tutorial shows you how to conform your footage all at once, instead of clip by clip.

If you have a Mac, Philip Bloom has an excellent tutorial for how to conform footage using cineform.

Unfortunately, PC users don’t have the option of using Cineform so we are more limited in our options.  Another difference of choosing this method over using Cinema Tools is that it does not permanently alter your original video file.

It is possible to do this easily with After Effects plugins such as Twixtor which may offer better results but with the Pro version coming at the cost of $595.00, I would rather not pay for something that I can do natively in After Effects.

Also I have seen video tutorials of people stretching their footage using After Effect’s time stretch feature but I have found these tutorials require calculations, frame blending, and motion blur to accomplish what this tutorial does without any of those requirements.

-Text Tutorial-

Open up After Effects (I’m using CS3 but this tutorial also applies to CS4 and CS5)

Now let’s say that you want to conform all of this footage at once.  Simple.

Import all of your footage into After Effects.

Select the First Video File. As long as they are all the same resolution it should not matter which one you select.

Right Click on it and Select Interpret Footage> Main> Go To Frames> Select Conform To Frame Rate >Type 23.976 into the box. (This will desynchronize your audio) >Select OK.

Now you have 10 or possibly more files that you also need to conform.  Instead of doing them all one by one.  Select the file that you have already told to interpret the footage >Right Click on it>Go to Interpret Footage> Select “Remember Interpretation”.

Now, Select all of your footage except for the one you already told to interpret >Right Click on your selection > Go to interpret footage > and the only selection it is possible to make is “Apply Interpretation”.

Now, all of your footage should say 23.976 when you right click on it and select interpret footage.

You could try dragging these files individually into their own compositions and rendering them individually but this takes a large amount of time especially when you factor in rendering time and the need to babysit the entire process.

Instead, Select all of your footage and go to Composition > Add to render queue.

Now, all of your files automatically put into separate compositions and are ready to be rendered one after the other.

Before you hit render, you will probably want to tweak some settings so you don’t have huge files.  I use a custom output format based on Quicktime JPG that saves a lot of space in comparison to raw uncompressed footage.  You can read more about it at Video-Copilot.

To set your default output module, when you are your output module from the drop down menu, hold the control key and select the one you want.  Then when you add your files to the render queue you do not have to select the individual output modules for each of your video clips.

The only other thing you really need to consider is where you are outputting your clips to.  To save yourself time with selecting your output location, especially if you have a lot of files you are conforming;  first open After Effects and just render one clip and save it to the folder that you want to save it to.  That way, when you are rendering all of your clips they will save by default to that folder and you don’t have to add each of them custom to the folder.

Render your clips.

Please feel free to post replies to my YouTube video or comments here with links to your videos that you have conformed using this method.

-Download this tutorial in High Definition-

-Conform 60p to Slow Motion (58) 1080p HD MP4

To see some examples of 60p footage that has been slowed down to 24p using this technique, check out my George Bush Presidential Library video.