We Can Decorate a Tree in 2 minutes… Can You?

Gator Bride – A Florida Gator Themed Wedding Blog

Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 4:39pm

Yesterday was my BIG HUGE SUPER MAJOR final jury for Grad 3. Boy, am I glad that’s over! I still have quite a bit to do for Thesis and a paper to write for another class, but I chose to take the night off and finally relax. Mr. Knight and I watched the Disney movie Up and decorated the house and our Christmas tree, while listening to cheery Christmas music. It was amazing, and relaxing, and I even got to wrap a few gifts for loved ones (did I ever tell you how much I love to wrap gifts? All the ribbons, and bows and paper… ahh I just love it!).

Mr. Knight and I thought we would have a little fun this year and share our major fast decorating skill-z with our lovely Gator Bride readers. So, turn up the volume, jam out, and watch us decorate (at super lightening speed!) to Jingle Bell Rock by Straight No Chaser. :-)

How to Decorate a Tree in 2 Minutes Flat! from Miss Gator on Vimeo.

Okay… it actually took us about an hour and a half to decorate but doesn’t this video make it look incredibly easy?

Over the holiday break Mr. Knight and I plan to have our complete invitation design finished, rings (possibly purchased) found, cake tested and ordered, and many little DIY projects accomplished. We put quite a bit on our plate, and I can’t wait to share with you all our journey through it all.

As for now, Happy Holidays my beautiful Gator Bride-ers!

Tags: video

Stacy Marie Says:
December 10th, 2009 at 5:00 pm

What a cool video! Do you have a video camera, and what editing software did you use? Good luck with the rest of your semester, you certainly deserve some downtime!
LauraLou Says:
December 10th, 2009 at 8:02 pm

Umm, SUCH a fun video! I love that you guys are in red and green sweaters, too! I love love love decorating for Christmas and wrapping presents! :) Enjoy your break!
Miss Rose Says:
December 11th, 2009 at 11:18 am

I second Stacy’s comment! What a great video! You/your fiance are skilled at editing. I have the same questions as Stacy…Which camera did you use and which editing software did you use? I’m looking to buy a new camera for the holidays and the resolution on this video is pretty stellar :) Good luck with the rest of your exams/papers!
Emily Says:
December 11th, 2009 at 5:29 pm

Very cute:) Mr. Knight’s sweater makes it!
Mr. Knight Says:
December 12th, 2009 at 2:41 am

@Miss Rose and Stacy: Miss Gator and I are big Mac geeks, so, naturally we did this project on Miss Gator’s Macbook Pro. So, to answer some of y’all’s questions:

(1) This type of video is called a “time lapse” video. It’s composed by taking several pictures and stringing them together in sequence to create the illusion of a video. Normal videos are captured and played back at 30 frames (like pictures) per second. Our “video” was captured at 1 frame per every 5 seconds and played back at 30 fps (with each picture lasting 0.1 seconds).

(2) We used our Nikon D60 DSLR. It’s a really great camera, and relatively inexpensive nowadays (as far as DSLRs are concerned, that is). We considered using our Canon Vixia HF10 HD Camcorder (also an awesome camera, btw…) but in the end decided it would be cooler and quicker to just use our still camera.

(3) Since the D60 doesn’t support taking pictures at set intervals, we actually had to keep the camera hooked up to the Mac and used a free application called sofortbild. I have no idea what that name means, but, the app is awesome… gives you almost-total control of your camera from your mac (including interval shooting).

(4) We had the camera shoot 1 picture every 5 seconds and had the program set to automatically import each new photo directly into a specified “event” in iPhoto. It was like magic.

(5) Once we were done, we pretty much just dragged the iPhoto event (basically, an album) over to iMovie and set each photo to show for only 0.1 seconds, added the title to the beginning, added a transition between the title and first video as well as some transitions at the end for “dramatic effect” (haha).

(6) Then we looked for some music and I remembered that I bought an album of that acapella group, Straight No Chaser (btw, very awesome). And it so happened that that “Jingle Bell Rock” song was exactly the same length as our video. It also worked out perfectly in that the song almost-perfectly matched the major “beats” of the video.

I hope that helps. Sorry I went into so much detail—I’m a total geek.

BTW, there are plenty of other ways to get the same effect. Just Google “Time Lapse Videography”
Aunt Theresa Says:
December 14th, 2009 at 12:44 am

You are a trip!! So proud of you and your creative mind! Not only did you decorate the tree but you built it. Growing up we always had the same old artificial tree so now that I’m all grown up I get a real tree. Bought it at Wallyworld this year cheap. Not as big as the one we ordered through Taylor’s school last year but you know once it’s decorated it really doesn’t matter does it? Love you SO much! PS Hi Kyle!
marina Says:
December 14th, 2009 at 6:50 am

Y’all are hired!!! What an awesome video! Love y’all!
Mr. Knight Says:
December 14th, 2009 at 12:48 pm

“y’all” is the best word ever. So useful. You get to type one less character and magically your sentence/phrase is southern, y’all.
marina Says:
December 14th, 2009 at 7:27 pm

it can also be singular or plural…how awesome is that? and when people from ‘up north’ try to say it, it’s hysterical.

Stacy Marie Says:

December 10th, 2009 at 5:00 pm

What a cool video! Do you have a video camera, and what editing software did you use? Good luck with the rest of your semester, you certainly deserve some downtime!

LauraLou Says:

December 10th, 2009 at 8:02 pm

Umm, SUCH a fun video! I love that you guys are in red and green sweaters, too! I love love love decorating for Christmas and wrapping presents! :) Enjoy your break!

Miss Rose Says:

December 11th, 2009 at 11:18 am

I second Stacy’s comment! What a great video! You/your fiance are skilled at editing. I have the same questions as Stacy…Which camera did you use and which editing software did you use? I’m looking to buy a new camera for the holidays and the resolution on this video is pretty stellar :) Good luck with the rest of your exams/papers!

Emily Says:

December 11th, 2009 at 5:29 pm

Very cute:) Mr. Knight’s sweater makes it!

Mr. Knight Says:

December 12th, 2009 at 2:41 am

@Miss Rose and Stacy: Miss Gator and I are big Mac geeks, so, naturally we did this project on Miss Gator’s Macbook Pro. So, to answer some of y’all’s questions:

(1) This type of video is called a “time lapse” video. It’s composed by taking several pictures and stringing them together in sequence to create the illusion of a video. Normal videos are captured and played back at 30 frames (like pictures) per second. Our “video” was captured at 1 frame per every 5 seconds and played back at 30 fps (with each picture lasting 0.1 seconds).

(2) We used our Nikon D60 DSLR. It’s a really great camera, and relatively inexpensive nowadays (as far as DSLRs are concerned, that is). We considered using our Canon Vixia HF10 HD Camcorder (also an awesome camera, btw…) but in the end decided it would be cooler and quicker to just use our still camera.

(3) Since the D60 doesn’t support taking pictures at set intervals, we actually had to keep the camera hooked up to the Mac and used a free application called sofortbild. I have no idea what that name means, but, the app is awesome… gives you almost-total control of your camera from your mac (including interval shooting).

(4) We had the camera shoot 1 picture every 5 seconds and had the program set to automatically import each new photo directly into a specified “event” in iPhoto. It was like magic.

(5) Once we were done, we pretty much just dragged the iPhoto event (basically, an album) over to iMovie and set each photo to show for only 0.1 seconds, added the title to the beginning, added a transition between the title and first video as well as some transitions at the end for “dramatic effect” (haha).

(6) Then we looked for some music and I remembered that I bought an album of that acapella group, Straight No Chaser (btw, very awesome). And it so happened that that “Jingle Bell Rock” song was exactly the same length as our video. It also worked out perfectly in that the song almost-perfectly matched the major “beats” of the video.

I hope that helps. Sorry I went into so much detail—I’m a total geek.

BTW, there are plenty of other ways to get the same effect. Just Google “Time Lapse Videography”

Aunt Theresa Says:

December 14th, 2009 at 12:44 am

You are a trip!! So proud of you and your creative mind! Not only did you decorate the tree but you built it. Growing up we always had the same old artificial tree so now that I’m all grown up I get a real tree. Bought it at Wallyworld this year cheap. Not as big as the one we ordered through Taylor’s school last year but you know once it’s decorated it really doesn’t matter does it? Love you SO much! PS Hi Kyle!

marina Says:

December 14th, 2009 at 6:50 am

Y’all are hired!!! What an awesome video! Love y’all!

December 14th, 2009 at 12:48 pm

“y’all” is the best word ever. So useful. You get to type one less character and magically your sentence/phrase is southern, y’all.

December 14th, 2009 at 7:27 pm

it can also be singular or plural…how awesome is that? and when people from ‘up north’ try to say it, it’s hysterical.

Gator Bride – A Florida Gator Themed Wedding Blog

We Can Decorate a Tree in 2 minutes… Can You?

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