One Second Everyday: Tips, Tricks & Cheats

 
I’m nearly 400 days into this whole 1-Second-Everyday project of mine.  And just a few days ago I had a total epiphany.  Because, apparently, it takes me nearly 400 repetitions of something to see the simple truths of it.  In explanation of my great big blind spot, my first “language” is images from a camera --images that “freeze”  a mere fraction of a second … thus, a “still” image.  So I thought I was being pretty visionary when I started this 1SE project to realize that what I was now attempting to capture via video was movement, a second of time that included discernible movement.  Totally clever of me, right?  I kept my eyes open to the movement around me and at opportune moments, I recorded short video snippets … all while standing very still (just like I do with my camera).  My epiphany is a super simple one: when I’m capturing video snippets, I do NOT need to be still.  In fact, I can add to and even exaggerate the sense of movement happening in front of my lens by approaching or pulling back from what I’m filming.  I can also pan through the activity.  *I* don’t have to be static.  I don’t have to take a video the same way I take a photo.  Simple, eh?  One of my goals this year is not only to capture movement but to aesthetically accompany it with appropriate movement within my filming.  When I mash my February footage, we’ll see if I accomplished that at all …


So, that’s my simple first tip:  look for movement, and feel free to move toward, back-from, or through the activity.  Standing still is perfectly acceptable, too.  Mix things up.
My second tip:  peruse this post to read a whole host of my other tips and tricks …


Alrighty, tips covered.  Let’s talk cheating.  Yup, it’s true: I cheat [a little] on this project – I change dates on video slices.  But, within my lying cheating ways, I totally have a code of ethics (grin, irony acknowledged).  Wanna hear some of the ways I justify my changed dates?  I use my amended videos (usually) within a week of when I filmed them.  If there’s crazy weather involved, I only use the video on a similarly crazed weather day (ie. a rainy morning can only be used on another rainy morning).  If there’s repetitive activity (ie. Big Dude making coffee), I only use the video if that same activity happened on the new date; BUT … if conditions have changed (ie. like if College Kid’s water bottle is in the background, and College Kid and his bottle have since returned to college – true story), then I WON’T use that footage on the new date.   If a dude gets a haircut, then I can’t use any footage from days with longer hair.  You get the picture.  I cheat.  But I cheat … fairly (in my own convoluted mind, at least).  What’s that?  Stop justifying my lying ways, cut to the chase, and tell YOU how to similarly cheat your dates for 1 Second Everyday???  Ok.  I’m sure there are numerous ways to accomplish this, but here are some of the ways I’ve changed dates on my video slices.  On the day I need the video, I will email it to myself, re-upload, and voila!, a video with a current date.  Or if there’s a video on my husband’s phone that I want for our 1SE, I’ll just transfer it on the day I want it, and voila!, a video with a current date.  My currently preferred (and most efficient) method: I will “trim” an existing video; again, voila!, it creates a new video with a current date.  What if I don’t remember to do any of these steps on the actual day I need the video?  Here’s my cheatiest hack: 
  
I simply deactivate “Automatic date and time” and choose my desired date.  I then fiddle with the video in one of the above-described ways.  When my video date-changing cheating is completed, I reactivate automatic date and time.

So.  There you have it.  I cheat.  I'm not a slave to the "rules", but I do follow the spirit of the "rules" in that all my amended videos reflect a reality of the day on which I use them.  Justification is a beautiful thing, no?