"Nantucket Holiday
Series " 12/06 RATED "G". This could be called a 'vacation
video' but is more like a Travel Channel documentary about the island
of Nantucket.
JOIN
MIKEVIDEO ON A "NANTUCKET HOLIDAY ": "A MIKEVIDEO INTERNET
MOVIE SERIES"
When the very first MikeVideo page went
online in 1999, there was a
link to the announced MikeVideo entertainment called "Nantucket
Holiday".I had already created the VHS videotape, and I "offered"
it for sale as a one hour VHS videotape at $29.95. Now, finally, after
another six years, I am finally showcasing this early digital MikeVideo
in chapters on my YouTube
Channel The videos will be available for streaming here on this
page as they are created in the computer. So far, I have the first two
episodes of what will probably be a five episode "series"
online. The content is almost exactly as it appeared on the tape, and
although I never added the "whaling songs" introduction to
the tape, I do have music on the internet movies. The first song featured
is "Whaling Song" by Blackthorn and was downloaded from their
website.
Both "Renaissance Day" and
"Nantucket Holiday" were announced as my first two internet
video projects. "Renaissance Day" finally was finished in
2005. Now, with the nearing completion of "Nantucket Holiday",
I will have finished the videos I announced so long ago. Streaming technology
hardly existed back in the latter days of the past century, and what
did exist, was hardly watchable, as the resolution was so low. Now most
of the videos presented through YouTube are rendered at about 50 MB
with a 720x480 screen size, which enables a fairly sharp playback in
full screen.
"Nantucket Holiday" was fully realized while I was actually
taking the vacation. I chose Nantucket Island as a vacation destination
mainly because I was corresponding with a potential lovemate from my
Internet Lovesearch (documented on the
Lovesearch website on the Nantucket
pages.) Maxing out one of my credit cards, I purchased a two week
stay at a bed and breakfast Inn called the Brass Lantern. I figured
I would spend most of the two weeks with my potential lovemate, but
as a side project I would create a "vacation video" utilizing
my JVC digital videocamera and the JVC SHVS videotape machine, which
could be controlled by the camera, allowing me to edit onto VHS directly
from the tape in the camera. I shipped my SVHS machine to the inn by
UPS and I was prepared to create a masterpiece when I arrived in Nantucket
bleary eyed after a red eye flight out of Los Angeles.
Because the relationship with a new
girlfriend didn't work out, most of my time on the island was spent
with my videocamera. I rented a little scooter to get me around the
island of Nantucket, and I shot over three hours of footage on four
tapes. Although Maria, who I was to meet on island, didn't make the
cut in the original videotape, she does make a short appearance here
in Episode Two of the internet video series. During the second week
of my stay, I edited the MikeVideo in my room at the Brass Lantern,
and I even has to shoot "insert footage" later in the vacation
for inclusion in some of the early parts of the presentation where I
didn't have some of the shots I wanted. The video came out at just over
an hour, and I took the master back home with me, and made dupes for
distribution among my friends and workmates. Now, thanks to sites like
YouTube, and the fact that video streaming on the internet is becoming
ubiquitous, I can now split up the hourlong documentary, and present
it as a series of 10 minute "episodes'". I captured three
of the tapes into my computer on December 15, 2006 , keyed up the master
VHS track so I could watch the editing, and by Sunday afternoon, had
already uploaded the first two episodes to the internet.
Nantucket Holiday Episode One: The Calm Before the Storm
(1999-2006) The original videotape of "Nantucket Holiday"
is slightly over an hour long, and was mastered to SVHS. Using the master
as a reference, but going back to the original digital videotape, I
am reconstructing the video as a "movie series" of five or
more 10 minute episodes. In the first, Mike arrives on island just in
time to hear that Hurricane Floyd is fast approaching. The weather was
quite windy, and overcast with ominous clouds. I captured some of the
doom and gloom of the upcoming storm in the early sequences. The JVC
camera was an early digital model, and I am still surprised that it
came out before they had even invented firewire or USB for computer
connection. It did not have a stabilizer, and although I had been shooting
video on Beta and VHS for a decade, the digital "shake" is
by far worse than analog ever was, especially when using the zoom funcition,
which I tended to overuse in the beginning. Some of the footage is spectacular,
and some is less than average. I cut out the zooms where possible, but
I am narrating the documentary while shooting, so some of the meandering
shots are included because of the commentary. In the long run, especially
as I have now had the chance to re edit the entire video, I think that
most of my choices were good ones, and the video is not boring, but
is rather entertaining and informative. I read a lot of the history
of the island, since I've always been a student of history and a sailing
buff, before and while on the island. I did not work from a prepared
script, but just kept shooting "takes' until I had a usable segment.
Nantucket
Holiday Episode Two: Nantucket Architecture and Hurricane Floyd The
hurricane is approaching and Mike prepares for the worst, but first
tours the area out of town and comments about the singular Nantucket
architecture, enforced by building code to insure that all structures
on the island look as if they had been built in the 17th centrury. Most
of this episode details the "cape cod" housing and is all
handheld camerawork. I did edit some of the pans and zooms out of the
footage for presentation. Even though the hurricane passed up the island,
there is footage of wind in the trees and stormy consequences, which
eventually transform into some of the best weather I'd ever seen, and
which will be shown in Episode Three.
Nantucket
Holiday Episode Three: Brandt Point Light, Steeple Views, Whaler's Homes
and Widow's Walks Mike goes out with his ever present video
camera the day after the storm misses the island, and videotapes the
Brandt Point Lighthouse, a smallish but nonetheless iconic landmark.
Next he ventures into the steeple of the Congregational Church, the
tallest point on the island, with spectacular views, even though the
wind is buffeting like crazy.
Next a tour of North
Main Street, and a look at some of the mansions that the Whaling Magnates
occupied when they weren't at sea, which was most of the time.
IMAGE
GALLERY : Here are some selected
images from the MikeVideo "Nantucket Holiday". The images
below are all digital screen captures from the master tapes, captured
and output as jpg images through Pinnacle Studio 9. Click on the image
to see a full size copy pop up in another browser window.
This was one of the very first web projects
I started, although the movie was mastered to VHS tape back in 1999.
Images from the over three hours of footage I shot have showed up all
around my website over the past few years. I even have a
webshots gallery of Nantucket photos culled from the raw footage.
All the image captures were done with
my JVC digital videocamera, from 1999. It did not have removable lenses,
and the picture quality when converting digital/analog/digital is not
as good as my Sony.
"Nantucket Holiday" Image
Gallery: From top left: I prepare for my vacation, posing in the
video with my luggage. On the right is the view of the Brandt Point
lighthouse from the restored sailing sloop "Endeavor" from
the credit sequence of the original tape, which is duplicated in the
internet movie series.
From top left: The marina
in Nantucket Island. On the right, a view of the Brandt Point lighthouse
from the sea.
Left:
An antique auto lends authentic charm to Main Street in the town of
Nantucket on Nantucket Island. Every day during tourist season hundreds
of automobiles drive off the ferry boats and into town. Right: A flower
truck delivers early in the morning, driving down the cobblestone streets
of town.
Left: Sunset at Madaket
Beach, which will show up in the upcoming MikeVideo project, "God's
Movie". Right: Looking up into the center of town from the wharf.
JOIN
MIKEVIDEO ON A "NANTUCKET HOLIDAY ": "A MIKEVIDEO INTERNET
MOVIE SERIES"
IMAGE
GALLERY : Here are some selected
images from the MikeVideo "Nantucket Holiday". The images
below are all digital screen captures from the master tapes, captured
and output as jpg images through Pinnacle Studio 9. Click on the image
to see a full size copy pop up in another browser window. 
