Keeping up with all your tech and gear can feel like drinking from a firehose. If you don’t pay attention to the constant changes, upgrades and advances, you can wake up feeling like a Luddite.
I just reviewed a bit of what I’ve discovered over the past year and then shared on my blog.
And here are ten ways I’ve learned how to skill up. (Each title below is linked to my original blog post.)
Thanks to the magic of ChatGPT and Google Veo 3, I have created this silly video that I’m certain will never be a holiday cartoon classic. Still, my experience shows how easy it is today for anyone to generate usable AI video content. Here’s how I did it.
If I had a brother from another universe, and he somehow found a way to send me a fun holiday selfie video riffing on the famous poem, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, it might resemble an AI video creation exercise I just completed.
And the way I imagine it, my brother might look like this (thanks to Google Whisk).
And of course, he would also be interested in blogging about tech and gadgets.
Here’s how I brought my geeky fantasy to ‘life.’
ChatGPT Wrote the Lines To create a new poem for my brother to read, I put “A Visit from St. Nicholas” through ChatGPT and asked it to write new verses focusing on solving home tech problems. Almost instantly, I had several versions, which admittedly needed more work. So, I moved some lines around and polished it.
Google Whisk Generated the Environments Then, I got to work creating the scene locations for my brother.
Again, I used Google Whisk’s text-to-photo functionality to place him in different environments throughout the poem. As you’ll see, this plays like a cartoon, and I leaned increasingly into the absurd.
Ingredients to Video Once I had all my key-frame photos, I used them to guide the video scene creation process using Google Veo 3 and Adobe Firefly for Video.
The hardest part was maintaining the consistency of my brother’s voice. (Sometimes, the AI wanted to give my brother a deeper voice and a British accent.)
Here’s my finished creation, complete with its AI script, AI video generation, rough AI edges… and human-powered humor.
The Future has Arrived With more time and additional money (yes, AI video creation consumes lots of ‘credits’), I could have created a more ‘perfect’ version by regenerating certain scenes multiple times to get better results.
But that wasn’t my goal here (perhaps for my next AI video project). For the record, I spent about twenty bucks to generate the clips. And then, I did the video editing myself.
AI video creation for the masses is remarkable, but it’s still far from perfect. That said, just the idea that I can ‘easily’ create this silly bit of nonsense from my keyboard forces me to update my entire view on video production and the need the skill up. (Why do you think I gave myself this assignment?)
‘Twas the Night before Fun-day You may have noticed the reimagined poem in my video is shorter than the original. That’s because I didn’t feel the concept would hold together if the piece ran too long. (Remember, less is more.) So, I removed some of the lines.
If you’re interested in reading my entire tomfoolery, here it is. Enjoy!
Holiday Ode to Mr. Tech
‘Twas the night before Fun-day, when all through the house, Not a gadget was syncing – not even the mouse. The cables were laid with questionable care, In hopes that the Wi-Fi would reach everywhere.
The tablets were charging beside every bed, While buffering circles spun round in our heads. And I, bathed in blue light, lay still for the night, Dreading the thought there’d be no Wi-Fi tonight.
When out on the network there was such a clatter, A chime from my phone said that something’s the matter. Away from the bed I flew like a flash, Past blinking red lights and a network crash.
The glow from the router on new-fallen snow, Gave cold bluish shine to the yard down below. When what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a bright sleigh shape drawing steadily near.
With a happy driver, so steady and in check, I knew in a moment it must be Mr. Tech. More rapid than updates his drones now they came, He tapped and he typed and he called them by name.
“Now, PING! Now, PIXEL!Now, BUFFER and BEACON! On, COOKIE! On, CACHE! Let the signal awaken! Go, REBOOT! Go, RESET! Make connections robust! On, ROUTERand MODEM – Restore all our trust!”
To the top of the roof! To the peak – Hold it steady! No dropped connections, no dead zones – Nowwe are ready! Like data at full bars that zips through the air, They landed atop with precision and care.
Quick as a reboot, I heard a low tone, The soft little thump of each careful drone. As I held my breath there and turned round just so, Down the chimney came Mr. Tech with a glow.
He was dressed all in fleece from his head to his toe, With a tool kit of dongles and cords in a row. A satchel of gadgets hung low on his back, A tech on a call who’d prepared for attack.
His eyes – how they twinkled! His grin – calm and bright, Like someone who’s fixed this exact thing all night. He glanced at the modem, the router, the node, And nodded once softly – Yes, I know this code.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work, And restarting each device, no need to smirk. He reset the router, adjusted the mesh, Labeled each cable with meticulous zest.
The tablets and laptops all hummed with new life, And no more spinning wheels, no buffering strife. He checked every signal, each access point near, Then gave me a nod that all problems were clear.
He sprang to his sleigh, to his drones gave a beep, And away they all flew, no glitch left to keep. But I heard him exclaim as he vanished from sight, “Happy Fun-day to all – And to all a strong Wi-Fi night!”
Failure can often lead to success. After I crashed my camera drone, I was crushed. Happily, my drone was not. Then, I discovered a flying trick that every novice should consider. Here’s how it enhanced my aerial footage.
I finally bought a camera drone to start this new hobby I’ve long wanted to try. Then, I got to work studying how to fly it. I trusted my DJI Flip’s intelligent flying modes to protect my investment against disaster, because I didn’t have enough faith in my novice piloting skills. I was worried about crashing my little drone.
But my Flip survived its impact with that tree. So, I wiped the egg off my face and was determined to learn how to properly fly my little drone.
I continued slowly, and my patience finally paid off when I discovered a key aerial storytelling trick.
Fly Slow and Smooth Generating cinematic videos with a drone is all about flying it ‘slow’ and ‘smooth.’ All those establishing shots you can think of from movies… yes, slow and smooth.
And that translates to easier and safer flying.
And if you’re looking to create more motion in your drone footage, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to fly faster. Instead, just fly your drone lower. Moving over a landscape close to the ground produces more movement than from higher up.
Happily, these flying strategies are relatively easy to accomplish. And just as importantly, they don’t put your drone at significant risk.
So, as I explored flying my drone manually, I intentionally followed the slow/smooth rule and practiced simplistic flying routines.
Up. Down. Forward. Back. Sideways.
The most aggressive maneuver I attempted was elevating my drone as it simultaneously moved forward.
Embrace your Inner Rookie How fast can my drone go? I have no idea. I haven’t tried to find out. Could I always see my drone as I flew it? 100%.
Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.
And as I flew in the dullest of ways, that’s when my adrenaline levels finally began to stabilize, and the tension melted away.
And guess what? I decided I’m just not going to fly my drone over water. I’m not going to fly it over a mountain ridge. I’m not going to fly between two objects and try to thread a needle. I’m never going to worry if my drone has enough battery power to make it back.
I’m just not going to push it. This isn’t a sport for me. It’s a new hobby with an expensive piece of gear I’d like to keep in one piece.
Barrett’s Drone Footage from the Mud Flats of Cape Porpoise, Maine Even with my self-imposed training wheels in place, my conservative flying style still enabled my DJI Flip to capture the incredible beauty of our world with motion. Often, just getting your drone in the air to is enough to recording stunning clips.
And that’s exactly what I did… I think I captured some nifty footage during my training flights on the mud flats of Cape Porpoise, Maine.
Here’s a video compilation of my manual maneuvering along with a few auto QuickShots (courtesy of the drone’s built-in code).
(Yes, my flying style was boring, but my shots were not.)
How to Quickly Edit your Drone Clips I put this edit together using a couple tools:
The DJI Fly mobile app for basic video editing and music
Final Cut Pro for precision edits and speed ramping
I should mention that you can quickly perform a punchy edit just using the DJI Fly app on your phone. There’s even a 1-click editing solution. It’s not perfect, but you can generate and share a dynamic video with your phone in just a couple minutes. Impressive. Most impressive.
When Less is More A little drone can go a long way. I mean that both literally and figuratively.
You don’t have to fly your camera drone like it’s capturing a stunt shot for “Mission Impossible.” I say… keep it all entirely ‘possible.’
And while many pros out there may yawn at my stubbornness to avoid all risk, I’m entirely pleased with my creative results to date.
Others may like showing off their camera drone crashes to the world, I hope to never do that again.
At Home with Tech 