Saturday, March 7, 2009

Why Would Anyone Watch This?

I was out at my favorite wholesale nursery (San Marcos Growers) shopping for some plants for a landscape staging job. A former client's putting their house on the market and we're cranking up the curb appeal. Anyway, my Nikon CoolPix S10 has a video function so I tried it out, loaded it to YouTube as an experiment and just trying this out for future projects.

Let me know if you make it through the entire minute and ten seconds.


YouTube direct address

14 comments:

Garden Wise Guy said...

Mr. Goodnick - Why did you do this? Why did you post this piece of video nonsense on the otherwise sophisticated home of such worthwhile video fare as "Child Picking Nose and Wiping It On The Camera" or "Jack Russell Terrier Jumping Up and Down 200 Time Per Minute"?

About your camera technique - don't video tape from a moving electric cart in a strong wind as it has a negative effect on your audio; avoid shooting directly into the sun, which blacks out your face (maybe a good thing); avoid driving on bumpy roads without a SteadyCam device as it causes viewers to reach for the Dramamine.

The story line was compelling and your relaxed, off-handed narration was exhilarating. A few rough edges to polish and I predict you'll be at Sundance any day now.

Your Pal...S. Speilberg

MikeTheGardenCoach said...

Billy,

I watched it, then went to youtube and watched it again. Even in full screen mode, the picture is extremely clear with almost no pixelation. True, the shooting into the sun fails, but the camera does a great job with what you give it. It would have been a lot better if you had mounted the camera above your face level and shot with the growing grounds in the background instead of the sky.

dinzie said...

You guys have garden nurseries big enough to drive around !!!!!!

Not seen in New Zealand :O)

Monica the Garden Faerie said...

The same reason people spend any kind of time on the Internet--they don't have anything better to do! (Yes, I'm including me in this ;-)

Chiot's Run said...

Was it hard to drive the golf cart and film at the same time? I kept hoping for something funny to happen, like running into something, that would make for a good video :)

Bay Area Tendrils said...

I watched it.... you're my entertainment this a.m., instead of the sunday morning talking heads.
Let's see if this comment will post, Alice

MikeTheGardenCoach said...

Dinzie,

True observation, but we have people around here with yards big enough to drive around, so it is the correct scale... :-)

Seriously, there is a many mile long stretch at the base of the coastal mountains here that has perfect 'Banana Belt' weather.

Growing grounds stretch for miles, in strip a quarter to half mile deep. There are nurseries that specialize in annual color, trees, shrubs, native plants and seeds, edible specialists, palms, exotics/subtropical fruits, commercial fruit trees, you name it.

Besides the super climate, this strip of land lays along a major north/south highway giving it easy access to L.A. and S.F. markets.

Garden Wise Guy said...

Wow! A firestorm of comments!! Looks like my cinematic talents (or lack there of) are stimulating you.

Mike - thanks for the camera tips. I was equally amazed that my little point and shoot turned out something usable, if only I'd thought about where the light was coming from. At least I know more about the capability.

Dinzie - yep, acres and acres at San Marcos Growers. Stop by their website (www.smgrowers.com) and let me know how many of your NZ local plants we're using. Should be lots of familiar stuff i their data base. I'm curious how we match up.

Monica - you hit the nail on the head. We can get very lost in the web these days. Everything connects to everything - go searching for a deal on a food processor and somehow an hour later you find yourself reading an article on micro-loans in Zimbabwe.

Chiot - driving with one hand wasn't too bad, since these carts don't go much over 5 mph and there are wide paths. As for you waiting for the comedic moment, I'm still working on my Jackie Chan stunt moves and hope to be able to fend off Ninjas who pop out of the greenhouse, do a diving roll off the cart as it explodes into a fireball, then straighten my bow tie and pop off for a game of roulette at my Monaco estate.

Alice: Nice to hear I took a ding off of George Stephanopolis's ratings this morning. I'm honored. If you haven't seen my parody of Andy Rooney on 60 minutes, find the link to my Garden Wise Guys TV show and watch the episode entitled "27-1/2 Minutes" and the three subsequent episodes. Having a bit of on-screen fun.

Later, ya'll

Chiot's Run said...

That sounds like it will be one exciting trip to the greenhouse. I can't wait to see that episode.

Rosemary said...

Got a smile out of your video. Really want to see the garden you are describing building.

Garden Wise Guy said...

Rosemary - always glad to bring a smile. I'm heading back up there soon and will shoot some stills and post them at Flickr as befores and afters. Stay tuned.

Bay Area Tendrils said...

Billy, Twitter not yet working for me. I am following you, but not getting your updates! My user name is bayareatendrils but my real name is listed, also - I'm using it online NOT on my cell.
And I don't understand how the tiny URLs work.
fyi , I don't have an email address for you. But somewhere I know I sent you a message saying that I was going to the S.F. Flower show media event on Wed night. I'll keep plugging away, or should I say, tweeting away.....

Shirley Bovshow "EdenMaker" said...

Hi Billy,
I enjoyed watching you and the concept is an interesting one. Would you be able to use a lapel microphone so you can get a "cleaner" audio? I can hear you well enough but there is a lot of background noise from the cart.

This could be an interesting little series that entertains and teaches how plants are selected and why they are selected for specific projects.

Keep your camera running Billy! See you in SF.
Shirley

kate smudges said...

Well, I was impressed how well it turned out considering you were driving at the same time. At one point, I could have sworn that you had a light sabre in one hand. Seriously though, I liked the idea ~ I enjoyed hearing how you come up with ideas. And hey, it was like getting a tour of a nursery ~ something I quite enjoyed considering it was -40F here this morning. (weather is my current obsession ~ well, besides knowing what your son was doing with the chocolate in the fridge. Now I know. One obsession down.)