No Straight Lines

One of my hobbies / interests is video production, though production may be too strong a word. Basically, I’m trying to put together the Miller family story using years and years of home video. As the kids have gotten older, I’ve also been documenting their various activities and achievements. iMovie has been my editor of choice (though with the help of the folks at Apple ProCare, I’m learning Final Cut Express), and I’ve been using GarageBand to put together some musical accompaniment.

I’ve also been playing around with YouTube of late as a way to share movies with friends and family without having to send them a DVD. My first test is a video of highlights of St. Louis Elite Tramp and Tumble from the 2006 Missouri State Trampoline and Tumbling Championships. (You may remember that last summer I wrote about the 2006 Junior Olympic National Championships in Chicago and my son Ian’s performance there. I haven’t quite gotten around to compiling that video yet.) This is a very basic edit, with a minimum of transitions and effects. I ‘composed’ the music that goes with it in GarageBand.

YouTube is extremely easy to figure out and use. My problem has been trying to find the right (best?) export settings from iMovie. As you’ll see on the video I’ve posted, the resolution is not very good. If I try to go higher on the resolution, though, the frame rate gets very choppy, almost unusable. Any suggestions are appreciated.

update: For those of you who are interested, I’ve uploaded the mp3 for the music in the video.