Home Movie Night

We're back with a GI Joe film!

bohus@xnet.com (Bohus Blahut) — Sun, 5 Mar 2006 23:33:00 -0800

Watch the Video

Here it is! Finally here is another installment of the Home Movie Night blog. To mark the occasion I made sure to grab a really good film, so this is a bit off the beaten path of a regular home movie. In this reel, some kids decided to make a film starring everyone's favorite plastic patriot: GI Joe.

Thanks to those of you who have stuck around and sent me encouraging emails while I sorted out the various technical issues I was having. I'm not sure when I'll post the next video, but it will surely be a lot sooner. Take care, and please let me know what you think by posting in the comments section. Thanks again.

Right click HERE to save video as Windows Media WMV
Command click HERE to save video as Quicktime MP4

Happy New Year! The blog will be back soon!

bohus@xnet.com (Bohus Blahut) — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:55:00 -0800

The year might not be correct in the picture, but the sentiment is the same. Happy New Year! All of you out there probably know what my top resolutions are going to be this year, right? Fix the blog!

The good news is that I've mostly fixed what the problems were. The many attempts at the repair of our video editing PC just wouldn't stick, so after many attempts I just took the darned thing apart and rebuilt it. Now it works just fine.

The remaining problem is that a client was kind enough to break some of my other video equipment for me. Once I've gotten that gear repaired, I'll be able to digitize video again and it'll be like a day at the races. I'm reluctant to set a date for when I'll get this blog properly started, since I've not been able to make any of the goals that I'd set for this project due to both technical problems and varied illness - but I'm hoping for February. I think that the right thing to do is to just relaunch the project in a few weeks and hope for the best.

In the meantime I've been writing for some other blogs if you'd like to check them out. I've posted a number of entries about old technology (including a Bolex super 8 camera) at www.retrothing.com.
I'll also be posting more at a blog more specific to video & film at Videothing as well. Please stop by and say "hi".

Mostly I wanted to say "Happy New Year" to my fellow home movie enthusiasts. Here's hoping for a great 2006 for us all.

bohus@xnet.com (Bohus Blahut) — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 20:52:00 -0800

Hi there! Happy Thanksgiving to you all! To those of you not in the US, I hope that you can content yourselves with my wishes for a terrific Thursday and Friday. :-)

This is that time of year that we are supposed to muse over what we are thankful for in our lives. I am choosing instead to be thankful for what the future may bring. For example, I'll be thankful when I get my editing computer up and running again someday!

Sadly there is still no video update on this blog because my edit machine still doesn't work. Unfortunately I'm no longer qualified for official tech support because of its age (I've had the edit card for five years - an absolute eternity in computer terms). It's amazing that in the digital world, five years renders my edit system obsolete and useless. In the film world, folks are able to get along with cameras and projectors built fifty years ago. Doesn't really feel like computers are much of a step forwards, does it?

I'll put my negative feelings aside and wish all of you a nice holiday weekend. Again, I'll be extra thankful this year if any of you out there are experts with the Matrox RT2000 editing system so I can start posting these films again (it's just a driver issue, I swear! Just drop me a line if you can help). Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

PS and for no reason at all, I'll mention that it's the 42nd anniversary of Doctor Who today! Happy Birthday, doc!

Welcome TimeOut readers!

bohus@xnet.com (Bohus Blahut) — Wed, 5 Oct 2005 20:26:00 -0700

This week's issue of TimeOut Chicago features an article on the upcoming Chicago International Film Festival, and I was a member of the roundtable interview. If you have come to this video blog because of my interview, thanks! You can watch a nice introductory video if you just scroll down the page a little bit and click on the picture that says "Home Movie Night".

If you're unfamiliar to this concept of video blogging, these blog webpages thrive on your comments. You can also subscribe to this video blog and get notifications of when we update. Please feel free to post your thoughts, and if you have any technical hiccups please post your question here or email me at bohus@xnet.com.

Thanks again for stopping by. We will have a fresh movie up soon.

editing computer meltdown

bohus@xnet.com (Bohus Blahut) — Mon, 3 Oct 2005 19:26:00 -0700

Shortly after posting the first home movie to this videoblog, our editing computer had a meltdown - and no, it didn't happen by accidentally aiming a projector at it! It is time to upgrade that computer anyway, so we will post movies again after the new machine is built. We are hoping to be back in action in the next week or so.

Sorry for the delay, but the new machine will make it a lot easier to meet our goal of putting up fresh films every week. Thanks for your understanding, and I hope that you enjoy our future offerings.

New home movie will be up soon

bohus@xnet.com (Bohus Blahut) — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 10:52:00 -0700

Hiya. First off, thanks for the great response I've gotten so far. I've received several notes both here and in my e-mail inbox - thanks so much!

A few of you have mentioned some technical glitches, so I'm going to try to iron those out before I post the next film. I think that I can have these problems sorted out in the next few days, and get the next movie posted really soon. Then hopefully I'll be able to maintain a schedule of releasing movies on Fridays.

That's the plan anyway...

Thanks again everybody for your interest and enthusiasm. I really appreciate it.

Home Movie Night - an introduction

bohus@xnet.com (Bohus Blahut) — Fri, 9 Sep 2005 19:00:00 -0700

CLICK HERE to view video - WMV
CLICK HERE to view video - Quicktime

It's a bit later than we would have hoped, but it's here - the first installment of Home Movie Night! This video will give you an idea of what home movies are about, and the kinds of things you can expect to see right here at the all new homemovienight.com.

I should mention that in the video, I did slip up on the script a little when mentioning color and sound in home movies. Despite what I may say in the video, there are plenty of home movies in color. It's the home movies with sound that are quite rare. Whoops!

This is a very new video blog, so if you encounter any technical hiccups - please let us know! Thanks for watching. We sincerely hope that you like what you see, and we are looking forward to hearing what you have to say about Home Movie Night.

Right click HERE to save video as Windows Media WMV
Command click HERE to save video as Quicktime MP4

Getting all technical

bohus@xnet.com (Bohus Blahut) — Thu, 1 Sep 2005 12:35:00 -0700

We'll be posting the premiere video some time over the next few days. We were hoping for a September 1st launch, but we are running into some technical problems that are taking longer than we thought to fix. We are anticipating having the first movie up soon, and a fresh movie this Friday. Thanks for being patient, and we hope that you enjoy the upcoming installments of Home Movie Night.

the premiere post

bohus@xnet.com (Bohus Blahut) — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 22:13:00 -0700

Hello everybody. You've found the all-new Home Movie Night videoblog. Every week we will feature a different home movie taken from 8mm, super 8, or 16mm film. Every film we share has been shot by amateurs, and many never have been seen by more than a few people. If all goes well, well start offering films on September 1st - this Thursday.

Amateur filmmaking joins the electronic age here at Home Movie Night!