My videos center around a continued theme of walking on the beach. As I mentioned in my post that accompanied by photos, I live on Douglas Island very close to Sandy Beach. During the 1880s through the early 1920s, the Treadwell Mine Complex was the largest mining operation in the country and certainly contained the largest concentrated collection of people in the Alaska.
The three videos I created are centered around the history of the mine and tries to bring to life some of more interesting elements of the Treadwell Mine Historic Trail area that remain today.
Threadwell Mine Historic Trail
Treadwell Club
The Cave-In
The Process
Equipment
iPhone 5…yep, I just used my iPhone for taking videos and original images. I will admit that the quality of the video probably suffered because of this.
Software
Audacity (for audio recordings) and iMovie 11 (for video recordings)
I’ve used audacity many times before and find it very user-friendly and that it provides good results. I used my on-board laptop microphone. I have a headset but it records a terrible hissing sounds that is fine for online webinars/elive presentations, but it is very distracting for recording audio. I should invest in a better microphone.
I found iMovie 11 frustrating. I guess I haven’t used iMovie since maybe version 9 when it had more useful editing tools and a more informative timeline. It might have been before Adobe bought FinalCut Pro. I think iMovie is really useful for creating a video from still images, and since I did use a lot of historical images, that was nice for me. But I found it tricky to get the audio tracks to line up and I got really frustrated with trying to drag things around. I just couldn’t find the correct “sweet” spot.
Image Resources
- Alaska State Library Historical Collection at vilda.alaska.edu
- Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cuzzort/4053946741
Music/Sound Resources
- Gold Dust Twins, (1913 Composed by Nat Johnson, Arranged by Harry L. Alford
Rag’s Rags: http://www.ragsrag.com/ - Gentle Sea on Flat Beach
http://www.freesound.org/people/digifishmusic/sounds/43760/ - Hazure
http://www.freesound.org/people/hazure/sounds/23707/
Bibiliography of Historic Resources
Jensen, Wayne. (2010) Treadwell Mining Complex: Historic Resources and Site Survey Report.
Kelly, Sheila. (2010) Treadwell Gold: An Alaska Saga of Riches and Ruin. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press
Mahaffy, Charlotte, L. (1983). I Remember Treadwell. Coos Bay, Oregon: Accra Print
McCarley, Laura. (1980) Treadwell, Alaska. Juneau: New Treadwell Publications
Stone, David & Stone, Brenda. (1983) Hard Rock Gold: The Story of the Great Mines That were the Heartbeat of Juneau.
Bibliography of Resources for software and moving making process
http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/webvideo/ – semi-useful in some of the general topics but information note written for iMovie 11
http://www.bgsu.edu/downloads/cio/file85783.pdf – very helpful in getting me started in finding what I was looking for
http://help.apple.com/imovie – nice documentation
http://www.storyguide.net/archives/294 – really helpful, especially the image of the screen and what all the buttons do
Unfortunately, I was doing research as I was selecting shots and recording narration so the process probably took longer then if I had done my research before hand. But I was relying on historical photos so that really drove a lot of how the story was told. I knew right away that I wanted to use a reading for one of the videos and thought the segment on the cave-in by the Charlotte Mahaffy was interesting and that I’d be able to find photos to fill out the reading.
These three videos are going to part of an entire website on the Treadwell Mine Complex. On the website will be a map of the location and it will actually be a geo-location oriented website so these videos will be tied directly to a lat-long reading. I’m not yet ready to reveal by big idea…but all the assignments I’m doing for this course will directly tie into it! So I hope you aren’t sick of Alaska history yet! (I promise you won’t be hearing the ragtime music all the other projects!)
heidi olsONID 
Heidi – I found these videos very attractive and informative. The combination of recent videos and pics combined with the historic photos was VERY effective and looked amazing. I liked the repeat of the leadin/introduction on multiple videos – definitely sets it up to become a series.
While I don’t use the I phone, I toyed with the idea of using my Droid (Samsung Galaxy IIIG) but I have never been pleased with the quality of the video and decided to not even try. I wish I had, because I almost always have my phone with me and I could get comfortable using the most handy device I have. I do think that this may have just put me over the edge for purchasing a GO PRO with the waterproof case though 🙂 (just haven’t broken it to the wife yet!)
I just ordered a gorilla-grip tripod for my iPhone from the link that Don sent out. I also ordered a clip that will go on a regular tripod…for those occasions where you know you’re going to take images or videos. I thought about borrowing a GO PRO from my husband’s office…I have a remote-control truck that I was thinking about using to explore the forest floor!