Exploring Inside Lanterns w AKASO EK7000 Action Camera

This camera (AKASO EK7000) does a lot of kool things. I had been exploring with it, because its so tiny, and can shoot wide angle and macro.

And, here's some Misc Video Clips from when I was testing it out... it's very Boho:

Again, thanx for coming to my Blog!

Inside My IKEA Lantern Exploring with a new AKASO EK7000 Action Camera Camcorder

 I wasn't sure what I wanted for Christmas, and mostly I got nothing on that day, aside from a vaporizer, and some candy. But, my little brother sent me some cash which I held onto, and eventually my Aunt also sent me some stuff, including cash... Honestly I REALLY wanted to buy TOON BOOM HARMONY's software but I was $100 short to get a permanent license.

Since I'm a DP/DoP (Director of Photography) on an independent film now, cameras are even more so my life than ever. I had NO IDEA that I would end up in this position, and I'm always still learning as a filmmaker.

So, I really wanted a GoPro "Action Camera", because my father also wants to take my daughter & I to Ft. Lauderdale FL in March. But, those are  easily $400 a pop. Luckily, I know how to hold out and shop for deals on Amazon in Jan-Feb, and 3-day weekend national holidays (USA). That's how I buy nearly EVERYTHING I've ever invested in for camera equipment since 2010.

Action cameras are tiny camcorders, that also shoot stills. You can take them underwater, wear them, commit espionage (tee-hee), etc... So, I found a really comparable that in some ways was a bit better than an actual GoPro on Amazon: The AKASO EK7000 which shoots in 4K, but also can shoot 1080 at high speed up to 120 FPS! It has various exposures and ranges as well.

Inside my LANTERN:


I recommend most people DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME.

The timing on this was CRUCIAL!!!

A flaming candle is VERY HOT, and the camera is made of PLASTIC which can melt.

I literally only had less than 2 min to shoot this, and if it weren't a deep freeze WINTER, I would NEVER had attempted this.

First I tested to see if I could set the camera inside,
I set up the wireless configuration to my iPhone,
Took a test shot,
Lit the candle,
shot the video of myself closing the lantern door,
stopped recording, quickly switched to photo mode,
shot the stills,
abruptly opend & blew out the candles,
Then removed the battery to allow camera to cool down....

There's a SLIGHT mark where the flame JUST started to become a full sized candle flame, and began to melt it....

Action cameras DO CLAIM to handle extreme weather... but NOT FIRE.

Candles take a little while for the flame to become full sized and are usually small at first.

Again, I it were summer I would have NEVER DONE THIS. 
NO WAY.  

Actually, I don't think I will EVER do this again... but, I did get the shots...

2nd Blog Feature on Blogging Fusion

I thought this was kind of unusual.... I kept getting this email from Blogging Fusion that my blog was featured... That's strange, since I'd been featured last year... I klicked the link, but NOTHING was there... Nothing of mine... Yet, I KEPT getting these emails. I got them all day on the 25th, again on the 26th I got one, and still nothing...

Was I being pranked?
Was it a glitch?
Were the hacked???? 

-then today, I klicked it and something ACTUALLY showed up.

So, THERE it is.

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Thanx for coming to my blog.

Nytrogen Rave Creative Commons Vintage Techno of Jamendo

Jamendo is a French website that's been around almost as long as YouTube has.Much of the music is cheap to license, or there's some of the older archived stuff that is still licensed to Creative Commons.

1 of my favorite recording artists there is a French DJ Recording Artist Nytrogen. He still has an entire album  "Trance Planet" up from the GW Bush Ear for FREE and it's licensed to Creative Commons.

I've used a number of his tracks in some of my videos over the years. I actually used 3 different tracks in some of my video art this year.

As an artist, I also like to publish some of my works to Creative Commons for FREE, usually for educational purposes, but this year I had published more stuff to Creative Commons than ever, and with almost no restrictions. I will continue to be publishing some of my work to Creative Commons.

Wanderlust Bohemian Meditation Autumn Foliage Ambient Video

A small dream/goal of mine was to make some ambient Meditation video art, and cut it to my own audio design music. It was something I had dreamed up a few years ago while walking in the woods, dealing with severe depression.


Most of the footage was shot all over South Weymouth including my own neighborhood, South Feild (Union Point), other neighborhoods, and a Colonial Graveyard near the South Shore Hospital down the street from me. I shot most of the footage on a CANON XA10 camcorder, often with experimenting with my own lens filters, and even a fisheye lens attachment of my own. Much of this footage also ended up in my other films I produced in 2016 including "Boho Light Journal" and "Smattering Thoughts Also Flow".

I can tell, by working on the editing that my camera work as improved a lot since I shot this footage in October 2016. This was the video camera my instructor told me to start with, and I've moved on since then to more SLR types since upgrading to HD from the old analog.

My mind is apparently at high speed, so I remember shooting this, and actually thinking I was doing it slowly... I was waaaay off, plus I was spoiled at shooting for Instagram styled content which is lightning quick. But, since it's a Wanderlust theme, it fits.

The actual melody in the music is a variation on a melody I wrote when I was 6 years old. I usually just called it "The Blue Fairies Song" or "The Blue Fairies Melody" because I composed the song at the house of my elderly neighbors in the 1980s, Mr. & Mrs. Walter Blue (Mt. Laurel, NJ) on their antique piano, whom were in their golden 80s.

Part of the ambient-ness was partly inspired by an experimental ambient track by Kerli titled "Journey Through The Elven Kingdom"  but also inspired by Blümchen's 1995 Trance/Techno track "Herzen habben Flügel" (Hearts Have Wings or the English version "Where Hearts Have Wings" by Blossom") as well as several styles of music like "Breath" by Chang Jing, or anything Yoga, Ambient, and Meditation audio found all over the place like Amazon, and YouTube.

Here are is the Song FREE DOWNLOAD:

I still have other B-ROLL footage I shot left over from last year, but it was lanterns, candles, a tea setting, and other stuff I also shot this year... I was originally going to cut the footage with the same ambient song... but I realized it was TOO DAY-TIME-ish, and need to recut the audio with evening sound/audio mixed in instead... So, I spent quite a while compiling audio since last night for that. I'm not sure whether to go exactly the same or in a new direction, if not both, because I have all of my original vocals that I'd recorded. I even have an Arabesque version of vocals.

Kerli's experimental track actually is composed in segments of audio that flow one into the next, and I also have other tracks like that as well. Even tho' I've messed with audio editing & audio design since at least 1994, I don't feel like I'm a professional nor a true audio/music person, even tho' I like it, but more of a hack at times.

So, I would like to work on the new audio tracks, and cut some more mediation videos for my audio design/recording art stuff. Just a few of them, and have a small portfolio/album of them.

The Making of DIY Boho Whimsical Antique Teapot Lantern Crystal Wire Wrapping Project VIDEO

I'm wrapping up my semester (probably my last one) at UMASS Boston. For my Cinema Studies Class "Experimental Film" we had the option of doing our own original work, so I made a condensed version of my documentary plus some other commentary to go along with my oral presentation. I was very very sick when I had my presentation, so there's no video footage of my presentation. But, I do have the clip.

Here's the Documented footage video I made:

And here's the clip I did for my UMASS Boston Presentation:

I actually also brought the lantern with me to the University for the presentation.

Boho Raver Lounge Videos [UMASS]

Here's an example of how editing can completely change a concept, and how things get changed.
I'm ALREADY a picky person at times, for my art and artistic creations, so when my instructor hated everything I liked, and my best stuff, and I constantly was trying to please him, I shot so much stuff, and was left with a whole lot of stock footage (B-Roll). Anything I loved, and everyone else loved, he hated, and anything that was ghastly and awful, he liked it.
Who can understand geniuses sometimes?

We'd just had a new sexist president sworn in, so Pussy Hats and hand gestures on Instagram, and winter sports were all the rage, including internet memes of people writing stuff on their hands.
And, women were treated as creatures and not human...

So, I came up with THIS:

The 2nd version

All of my female classmates loved it! So, naturally, he HATED it. So contrary! He just seemed to really enjoy making me work-work-work-work! So stressful!
So, head home AGAIN in the middle of multiple blizzards, not good for my back, and start all over again... Well, I made the mistake of SHOWING him my work.... better to NOT show him. 

He said my concepts were too big, or the idea was too big... 

So, I went with THIS as the final version:

Well.....

I still had a lot of this footage, and there was quite a lot of it that I was QUITE liking a lot! I don't have a model, and my daughter refused to model for me. :( So, I had to use myself in these, and my old lens worked GREAT! I actually shot using several different cameras, multiple lenses, lens filters, and on various weekends or durring severe storms which forced us to be stuck indoors.

And, it BEGGED for another EDIT. I edited this WITH MUSIC since the original assignment was SILENT.

I was SO PICKY about this, and I re-edited it from scratch several times, and even went through a few different song choices. This music is by a French musician Nytrogen from way back in the GW Bush Era of Jamendo. This song is called "Fly". I've often used his music going way back to the early days of YouTube.

I have my own techniques I still use that work very well. And, I rendered this out several times to make sure it was exactly what I wanted.

It's VERY ME. I LOVE Rave culture, and psychedelic themes, but also the Boho vibes, and all that stuff...

Actually, I'd still like to create something more down tempo with all the lights and candles I shot as well...

I actually have different makeup from different evenings of shooting, and in the close-ups of my face in the DJ lights, I was wearing no makeup at all. Different lenses give my face a different look or character. I'm really glad I went with my old CANON lens for the best shots. But, I did use a number of SIGMA lenses. ALL CAMERAS I used were CANON. I lost count of how many I used.
I MOSTLY shot on CANON 70D a personal favorite of mine, but I also used a CANON 6D, and come CANON Camcorders (plural) . I also like SONY but they don't have SONY for video at UMASS.

BTW, this is NOT actually shot a lounge or night club. I just TRICKED U! It's just my living room, darkly lit. I didn't have good lighting, so I used it to my advantage.  THAT was why I went with the clubbing, raver, boho chic lounge vibe...