when I tried to make

a short film about

couchsurfing

So this is just a pathetic

powerpoint about how tricky

it turned out to be to make a

short mobile phone film – and

I'm here hoping to pick up

some

tips

So I was going to a couchsurfing gathering – a meal at someone's house in North Shields - and I took some video clips on my mobile phone

I got them on to the computer and found they were in 3GP format....

Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file.

tried to find free video format converter software, but the first one I tried AVS4U puts an advert in the middle of the screen

and Mobile Media Converter said Conversion Failed

FFmpeg version 0.5, Copyright (c) 2000-2009 Fabrice Bellard, et al. configuration: --enable-libamr-nb --enable-libamr-wb --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libfaac --enable-nonfree --enable-gpl libavutil 49.15. 0 / 49.15. 0 libavcodec 52.20. 0 / 52.20. 0 built on Mar 25 2009 18:58:58, gcc: 3.4.4 (cygming special, gdc 0.12, using dmd 0.125)Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'C:\Users\owner\Videos\Couchsurfing Video\Couchsurfing Video\video-0007.3gp': Duration: 00:00:07.80, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 128 kb/s Stream #0.0(und): Audio: libamr_nb, 8000 Hz, mono, s16 Stream #0.1(und): Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 176x144 [PAR 12:11 DAR 4:3], 30 tbr, 1k tbn, 30 tbcOutput #0, avi, to 'C:\Users\owner\Videos\Couchsurfing Video\Couchsurfing Video\video-0007.avi': Stream #0.0(und): Video: msmpeg4v2, yuv420p, 176x144 [PAR 12:11 DAR 4:3], q=2-31, 700 kb/s, 90k tbn, 25 tbc Stream mapping: Stream #0.1 -> #0.0 Stream #0.0 -> #0.1Press [q] to stop encodingCompiler did not align stack variables. Libavcodec has been miscompiledand may be very slow or crash. This is not a bug in libavcodec,but in the compiler. You may try recompiling using gcc >= 4.2.Do not report crashes to FFmpeg developers.Multiple frames in a packet from stream 0Multiple frames in a packet from stream 0frame= 34 fps= 0 q=2.0 size= 214kB time=6.30 bitrate= 279.0kbits/s Multiple frames in a packet from stream 0

[libmp3lame @ 0x17efc10]lame: output buffer too small (buffer index: 9195, free bytes: 597)Audio encoding failed

Then Real player said this clip cannot be played it contains unexpected data and may be corrupt

Cannot play back the file. The format is not supported

And VLC said....

VLC can't recognize the input's format:The format of 'C:\Users\owner\Videos\Couchsurfing Video\video-0007.avi' cannot be detected. Have a look the log for details.

No suitable decoder module:VLC does not support the audio or video format "samr".

Unfortunately there is no way for you to fix this.

and so it went on.....

realplayer is not responding.....

VLC media player is not responding...

nothing is responding....

nothing is closing down when asked to ....

nothing is doing any fucking thing at all

So this is just a pathetic

powerpoint about how tricky

it turned out to be to make a

short mobile phone film – and

I'm here hoping to pick up

some

tips

I made some screen shots from the video clips......

this is the food I took to the 'kitchen surfing' evening

here's Colins torso, legs and feet... and here are his head, arms and chest

Here's Gio..... He's from Sicily and is a great salsa dancer and teacher

Colin's delicious bruschetta

Gio teaching salsa to Matt and Susanna

Elena's fab shoes Colin's lovely cat wants out

Anyway, I'll have to tell you more about couchsurfing and why we were eating at Colin's house another time.....

Now back to trying to make my film

Wonderful, look here's a forum for tips and tricks from Dogma..... this is just what I need. But there are no posts. Everyone must know how to do it already...

How to make a 'how-to' film... great. OK I'd like to know how to make a mobile camera film.

Sorry we don't know how to do that.....

Pocket film Festival June 11th - 14th

Interesting site, some great films - but no tips about how to do it

That's probably quite enough about how I didn't make a short film about couchsurfing

I'll try harder for next time

and meanwhile

CouchSurfing is a worldwide network

for making connections between

travellers and the local communities

they visit.

"CouchSurfing seeks to

internationally network people and

places, create educational

exchanges, raise collective

consciousness, spread tolerance, and

facilitate cultural understanding."