Sunday, October 30, 2011

Speeding up my Commute

So as part of the DS106 storytelling project, I have completed one of the assignments which had me tape my work day and speed up the video. Well I don't think my job would have liked me walking around with a camera strapped to my head, so instead I recorded my commute to work.

I ride my bike where ever I go. You will never see me on a train unless it's raining really hard or if I have a cold. Everyday on my commute to work I have countless close calls with cars and pedestrians. Mainly because these cars change lanes with out sufficient warning and people just step into busy roads thinking they are invincible. As a forewarning to this video I will tell you do not copy how I ride. In some cases I am being very aggressive by riding between cars and drafting behind trucks at high speed. I do this because after a year of riding Tokyo streets I have found that the faster I go the safer it is for me.

I made this video using Adobe Premier 5. I have never used this program before so it took me a long time just to make a simple video. Overall it was a fun experience, it never really occurred to me that recording my rides on camera could lead to some interesting things. When I ride, everything seems normal but when I re-watch my rides on camera, I think "how the hell did I ride there" or "a few more centimeters and I would have been hit by a car".

I hope you will all enjoy watching this video!

13 comments:

  1. This is really interesting. I also like your self-analysis of the ride and the different perspectives you took for the vid. Good job!

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  2. I love that you took the time to shoot multiple points of view of the ride, it definitely enriches the look of a speeding up the day video. Also I'm an avid city cyclist myself having commuted regularly in two major American cities, Boston and New York. The video definitely gets at the frenetic side of city riding. Love it.

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  3. Thanks! It was actually really fun to make this video and see the result. I figure I will do this again on some rides that are outside of the city so I can show people the best parts about touring on a bike!

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  4. Man, I don't know if you know how insanely awesome this is. I'm so glad you were able to overcome the corrupted file problem.

    If you do stuff of this quality from many locales in Japan you will have an enormously popular YouTube channel.

    How about the music? It's a perfect match. Is it through Creative Commons licensing? Might want to look in to CC Mixter if you want to use freely available music in the future.

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  5. This is magical. Something happens when you change the frame rate on video. Messing with time adds a whole new ethereal yet frenetic effect. Mesmerizing. I love the part where you stopped. The breathing is so rapid. Just matches perfectly. Yes, I would love to see more of Japan this way. Absolutely.
    I'm also with the prof on the attributing the music source, always proper form to cite!

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  6. I LOVE THIS. I could never ride in Tokyo, though. I'm pretty sure my head would asplode. Yikes!

    Here's the last commute video I tried making - I need to pick up a GoProHD :-)

    http://www.darcynorman.net/2010/01/18/winter-morning-bike-commute/

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  7. @scott The music was actually made by a TUJ student. He has his music open to anyone. He goes by the name Monowolfe. Check out his FB page, it7s got some awesome music!
    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Monowolfe/114850731872948

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  8. @D'Arcy your video was amazing! the sound speeded up sounds so interesting. At first I thought you had used a sound clip from mario Kart or something. It took me a bit to realize it was the real sound!

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  9. Wow. This is really awesome! I really wish I could do something like this, but I don't bike. I just really love the footage, it's great! Awesome job!

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  10. I really like this video. The song in this video really add something to the it.

    It makes me think of all the things I could do with video in Tokyo.

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  11. I love this video and also what you have shown us in class. I assume that you took a lot of time to create this video. How long does it take you to create this video???I don't bike anymore but I used to bike alot when I lived in Canada. Have you ever ride Mama-chari before? it is typical Japanese type of bike.

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  12. I'm not sure how I missed this when it was posted, but I'm glad that I was digging through the ds106 assignment archives.

    This is amazing! Way to take the speed up your work day assignment up a notch or two!. As Giulia said, the stop you took and the breathing that followed was fascinating. Nice work on an excellent piece of art!

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