The Wolfs Dance Christmas 2011 *NEW VIDEO* [from The Wolfs Dance Disney folks]

[Dustmouse]

Absolutely wonderful! When we were there in April and saw the new castle show, I was so excited to see your kids on the castle you would have thought they were my own! Precious and priceless! The new video is great and I LOVE the end. Reminds me so much of my own son! Thanks guys for the video and this new forum.

[ndfi78]

Love it as always

[foxress]

Great video! I want to dance with the Wolf family!

[Nohal]

Love Love Love your videos.

[Teresa Pitman]

I love this SO MUCH! Your first video is the one I watch every time I need a Disney "fix" and I have shared it with so many other people. It just captures what Disney is to me. And this one is just great! Now I have a new one to enjoy when I need some Disney magic. It is so fun to see how the kids have grown, too. When I see them on the commercials, I feel like I know them!

Thank you!

Teresa

[mikat]

I *love* your new video. Question - I love your tight-focused shots of your family in black and white. They look so crisp. Is that a factor of 1) having a really good camera, 2) using a tripod, 3) slowing down the playback, and/or 4) using a programmed effect in iMovie or Photoshop? I really like the ones of your kids laughing with Zoe (I think it was her) with the bucket on her head, the one with you and your daughter in the mirror that moves to your wife, and the two of the boys (with the thumb shot and the iPhone screen).

You have such talent! Thank you for sharing with us.

[GoofItUp]

Video editing questions???....I can't remember to get the video camera OUT while we are there. I guess that will be step one for me. If I ever GET the video, maybe someday I can ask about editing.

Better yet, can I just hire you to come video and edit our vacations for us!

Excellent job on all of it!

[GaRain]

Loved it - what a great way to capture and replay some family memories!

[CVW]

Originally Posted by jkh1978

How do I sign up for your class to make awesome vacation videos?

They start right after I finish teaching the dishwashing lessons to my boys. Don't hold your breath.

Originally Posted by wannagoback

I do have a question more about organizing the files on your computer though... do you import your videos directly to iMovie? or iPhoto? And do you keep them at full quality? Can you tell me a bit about how you store the files on your computer?

I quit using iMovie after our second video, and now use Final Cut Pro 7. Regardless, if you really want to do video regularly I would very strongly encourage you to get an external hard drive or two. The prices have come down a lot. I probably have five or six now. It's a little awkward to have the external drive plugged into your laptop while you're working, but it's a much better idea. The external drive will let your computer process at full speed; you'll be able to keep your video at full quality without filling up your hard drive; and it makes it easier to back up.

Most serious editors have a bookshelf lined with portable hard drives where they keep all their stuff (then another copy somewhere else.)

You still want to import your movies using iMovie, just point it to storage on your external drive. It's in the options or preferences menu.

Originally Posted by justanotherprincess

…I would strongly encourage everyone to keep your video and photo files backed up and to do it frequently!

…Most of the video I used was transferred from mini DV tapes… the actual tapes have kind of become a security blanket for me…

Agreed. Tapes are a GREAT medium for video, but consumers won't buy them. So now, since you've got to eventually clear your SD card, you have to make TWO copies of all your stuff (photos or videos) or it's not backed up.

Originally Posted by Karibeth19

(We also live in Tulsa, so if we ever run into you at the Disney Store at Woodland Hills, we'll dance with you there, too...)

That's funny. When they first put us in the commercials, the first place they were shown (even before they were posted online) was in the Disney Stores. I actually have video of us in the Disney Store watching ourselves on that big screen behind the stuffed animals.

Originally Posted by mikat

Question - I love your tight-focused shots of your family in black and white. They look so crisp. Is that a factor of 1) having a really good camera, 2) using a tripod, 3) slowing down the playback, and/or 4) using a programmed effect in iMovie or Photoshop? I really like the ones of your kids laughing with Zoe (I think it was her) with the bucket on her head, the one with you and your daughter in the mirror that moves to your wife, and the two of the boys (with the thumb shot and the iPhone screen).

I used two cameras throughout the week, a more straightforward camcorder, and a Canon T2i. The T2i is more difficult to use, but you can change out lenses. (I used a 50mm lens for the shallow depth of field stuff.) The quality is just amazing, but it requires manual focusing, which means a lot of imperfect stuff that I couldn't use.

Most of the eye-pleasing black and white footage is high contrast: in other words, try to shove out the grays and make everything look more black or white. I use the 3-way color corrector in Final Cut Pro. I don't know if iMovie can do this or not.

Originally Posted by GoofItUp

Video editing questions???....I can't remember to get the video camera OUT while we are there. I guess that will be step one for me.

A HUGE step one. After all this, it really amazes me that I almost didn't bring the camcorder two years ago (before our first video) because we never videoed anything I wanted to watch.

[MommaMouse411]

man..I almost teared up...but I'm at work...so didn't want to have to explain that I was watching a family video ...and a family i don't know at that...

[delmar411]

What a great video, I had a silly grin on my face through the whole thing! I love that you included all the texting. My teen is the same way even at WDW!

And I think that's great that you were able to connect with some of the DIS'ers that wanted to dance with your family!

[tinkerbellfriend]

I don't post much on here but wanted to get on and say that was an awesome video!! I have recently started movie editing and I know that had to take a lot of time. I work on a program called Avid Studio. It is for PC. I like it so far. I hope to upgrade to a mac computer one day but for now, this program works for me. I have appreciated reading some of your tips for this such as how to store the video. I have been trying to decide whether to delete it from my computer once I am finished editing and just rely on always having it on tape but have decide now to use an external hard drive along with the tapes. I recently did a montage video from my kids' theatre group. I had a lot of fun doing that. I am looking forward to doing the same for our vacations. We have had a lot of fun talking about which song we want to use. Thanks so much for sharing your videos with all of us on DIS boards.

[iluvwesties]

Fantastic videos

Looking forward to more!

Have Disney been in touch with you? I think they should employ you

[maciec]

I admit it, I teared up. That was such an awesome family video! What great memories you have created with your kids.

[skater]

Originally Posted by MommaMouse411

man..I almost teared up...but I'm at work...so didn't want to have to explain that I was watching a family video ...and a family i don't know at that...

I know what you mean. I'm all excited about the Wolf family now .