Video 17 - Good-bye Barceloneta

This is nothing serious, just a souvenier video of our favourite places in Barceloneta, the neighbourhood in Barcelona where we lived for the semester. It's a tiny triangle that juts out from the old city into the ocean, and it still has that working class feel, at least in the narrow streets behind the main tourist drag. We'll miss the market, the main square, all the little shops, Vioko - where they make their own ice cream just upstairs, and for sure the beach. After a year or two away, we might even miss the women who offer you a massage every five minutes or the very insistant coconut men. I wish them well, but I'd rather just sit quietly and stare off into the waves. It's almost good-bye Barcelona.

Video 16 - Beach Volleyball

I came across these players on the beach early on a Saturday morning. The sun was so warm and the light just perfect. It was a fun situation to use to practice making film sequences. The group is looking for more players if anyone is interested. Barcelona should be a beach volleyball city.

Video 15 - Open Data Day

Sorry, I realize this isn't the best video ever, but I'm trying to figure out what kind of videos fit into a reporter's workday. In some contexts, I think interviews would work but it has to a simple topic. The push for open data is far too complex. Plus, although shooting this video only took about 10 minutes, editing it still took me nearly two hours because it was difficult to pick the right quotes and find ways to join them that didn't look awkward. The video has to appeal to a large enough audience to justify the time spent. And I definetely need more experience making this process smooth.

A special thanks, Javier, for being so willing to let me try. Open data really is a cool movement. I totally recommend checking out the website, www.opendataday.org. They give some good examples of what can be done when the government releases more of the data it owns into the public realm. You can trust the creativity of the masses.

Video 14 - Orestad, Copenhagen

Tour of three projects in the new development of Orestad, just outside central Copenhagen in Denmark. All three are by Bjarke Ingels Group, a Danish architecture firm. We visited November 13, 2010.

Video 13 - It's raining at the Pantheon

Trying to narrate a video has given me new respect for TV journalists. It's not so easy to be real on camera, and you only see my best takes on this video! Fred was laughing as I processed the raw footage. Anyway, welcome to Rome's Pantheon and I hope you enjoy the tour.

Video 12 - Smørrebrød in Copenhagen

The guidebook said mention Smørrebrød to a Dane and their eyes will light up. It's true! I got the recipe from a Danish friend and then when I told the hotel clerk about our plans and he was excited. He let us use a table in the lounge and brought us plates and butter. We shared our bounty with him afterward : )

To all Danish people watching this, sorry for being so terrible at your language!

Video 11 - The Pope visits Barcelona

I got up early Sunday morning to catch el Papa in Barcelona. Crowds were smaller than I was expecting, but it was still a lot of fun. And the best part about shooting video in Spain - without editors or deadlines - is that when the last interview subjects invited me out for a breakfast of hot chocolate and churros, I could say yes. Delicious.

Video 10 - Sangria and Park Guell

I thought this would be a video about Park Guell but it's really a video about my friend Michael and my trip to Park Guell, since we only really saw a fraction of this famous spot. I'm working on another video about the rest of it and its significance. This was shot October 29, 2010. Thanks to Michael Schout for his patience. He's a friend of mine from Holland. Hopefully this will be a fun souvenir of his visit as well.

I got the names of the musicians, but I've forgotten them at home as I post this from studio. I'll have to update later.

Video 9 - Fishing in the dark

If I lived in Barcelona, I think I'd have to take up fishing. I've never seen anything so peaceful as this, fishing at night of the empty Barcelona beach. This is Alberto, who was kind enough to let me interrupt him. He gave me the Spanish and the Catalan name for the fish he was catching, mabra or herrera. My Spanish/Catalan (I mix the two up all the time) is pitiful, but it gets the job done. I'm slowly improving.

Video 8 - El Fossar de les Moreres

The inscription at the Fossar de les Moreres is taken from the first line of a poem by Frederic Soler:

Al fossar de les moreres
no s'hi enterra cap traïdor;
fins perdent nostres banderes
serà l'urna de l'honor.

In English it means, "in this grave of the mulberry trees no traitor will be buried. Because we lost our flags, this urn will be our honour." The mass grave is located in the old medieval city just outside the church Santa Maria del Mar, which was built by the lesser guilds of Barcelona.

The video was shot November 3, 2010. My thanks to David, my language exchange partner, who agreed to let me record his explanation.

Video 7 - Fahey Shop

David Thompson fled his corporate life in England for a new start Barcelona four years ago. He and his partner recently bought this shop on C. d'Avinyo in the Barri Gotic neighbourhood of Barcelona. I met him while wandering the narrow streets and love his vision, and then I just had fun trying on very Spanish styles. I shot this video October 27, 2010.

Video 6 - Grace's Flowers

Grace Coulter, a University of Calgary architecture student studying in Barcelona, was looking at the relative success of different physical indications in public squares for an essay project. She decided make her own attempt at changing people's behaviour in a square, in her case with flowers. This video tracks the result. What you can't see, is that her original idea was to try to same technique with eggs! I can only imagine . . .
The video was shot October 18, 2010.

Video 5 - Frying wild mushrooms

October is the season for wild mushrooms so we bought some in the Mercat de la Boqueria in Barcelona, Spain. I have no idea what kind of mushrooms these are and the son of the mushroom man only knew the names in Catalan so good luck. But they were delicious! I recommend them.

Also, thanks to Fred for helping with this video. It's tough to shoot yourself. Where you see both of my hands, he's holding the video.

Video 4 - Hiking in Costa Brava

One Saturday we set out in a rental car for the Costa Brava, about an hour's drive north of Barcelona hoping to go sea kayaking. When we got there, the sea was too rough so we went hiking along the cliffs instead. The challenge in this video was to tell a story without narration. Shooting the video was a challenge as well. You can see near the end of the clip how amature I still am. My nerves aren't steady enough for the waves!

Video 3 - Foggy road

This video was shot on the way to the Costa Brava north of Barcelona where we were hoping to go sea kayaking. I should have used the light on my camera at one point here, and I need to figure out how to use the manual focus. But I enjoyed patching together different parts of audio and video.

Video 2 - A human statue on Las Ramblas

This video was taken late on the afternoon of October 6 and I edited it late into the evening. So much was happening around me it was hard to keep the camera still on one face long enough. Maybe more planning would help. Also, I can't figure out how to choose which image appears as the tag image in YouTube. Still, I like this one as try number two.

Video 1 - A walk in the former brownfields

Trial number one on the video blog: I joined Fred's class as they took a tour of a former brownfield industrial site that Barcelona is changing into usable public space. This one I took and uploaded on the same day, but I'll try to do a better job of estimating shooting and editing times for the next attempts. Victories for today: creating my own Youtube channel and uploading ; )