PV002: Iguazú, Argentina
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (36.9MB)
Okay, here we go. Oksana and I have started to explore how we want to do these video podcasts. Our plan was to do no more than 5 minutes per episode, but in our first go with the waterfalls of Iguazú, we ended up recording over 40 minutes of voiceover material! Sorting through that and 3 hours of footage made for a slow editing process. (The good news is that, after this week’s “overview,” I’ve got material for 2 or 3 more “vignettes” from our trip through the park.)
We’re still firmly in the “Oh-no-I-don’t-really-sound-like-that-do-I?!” phase of recording ourselves and it’s very hard for us to be objective. You could really help us out by giving us a little feedback as we go! Just answer two questions for me:
1) What did you like about this video?
2) What didn’t you like about this video?
We are especially interested in the opinions of people who don’t know us personally!
The following is a transcript of the above video for Google’s benefit (ignore it, watch the video instead!)
Let’s call this a…
Postcard Valet
Temporary Intro
La Garganta del Diablo
Iguazú Argentina
November 2008
Well, Oksana and I went down to Argentina and one of the deciding factors was some of the natural wonders that Argentina has and the one that everyone knows about is the waterfalls at Iguazú. They’re up in the extreme north of Argentina, by the borders of Paraguay and Brazil and the actual park itself is shared between Brazil and Argentina.
The park was really nice. It was very well-maintained and there were a lot of Forest Service Guides-type folks and they were friendly, and they seemed really really excited to be there.
I think the way Oksana and I stumbled through the park was the perfect way to do it.
Well, we started out with a little off-beat trail…
It’s like a three-mile trail and we had it completely to ourselves early in the morning. And then we went into the park; we caught a few glimpses of the waterfalls in the distance, but we still hadn’t seen them when we were looking at the coati and the lizards and everything.
Coati is this little furry creature that has a long tail and a very long nose… but it’s really cute and it kind of looks like a pet, but I guess they can be quite nasty if they get around food because they have pretty big claws.
After that, we decided to take the lower trail first and that led us past progressively larger and larger waterfalls.
And they weren’t just your normal trails, they were kind of like canopy-style metal that were right above the water and you could see the rushing water underneath the trail.
Then, we come out to this viewing platform where you can see the entire spread of Iguazú in front of you. Blows your mind. And we stayed there, at that view for, I don’t know, maybe an hour.
And then later, the next day, we did the upper trail and that’s where you get to walk along the upper edge. Those views are just as spectacular, because you’re looking down — you get to see the height.
Finally, we went and saw the Devil’s Throat. And that’s just the perfect pinnacle for the day.
The Devil’s Throat is the top of the largest part of the waterfall and it kind of looks like a sea and all the water pours down. The ground drops dramatically and you can look pretty much over the edge. The water doesn’t just fall down, it explodes back up.
When you get there and you stare down into the Devil’s Throat, as all that water plunges in and the steam flies out, I mean it’s just… It’s, it’s amazing.
(I like this place.)
La Garganta del Diablo
Postcard Valet
Episode 2:
Iguazú, Argentina
Overhead shot of Iguazú
from the Miami Vice motion picture
© 2006 Universal Pictures
Iguazú National Park map
© Argentina Excepción
http://en.argentina-excepcion.com
All other footage
© 2009 Arlo Midgett
http://blog.arlomidgett.com
Postcard Valet is a Travel Podcast by
Arlo Midgett & Oksana Midgett
If you enjoyed watching this, the best thanks you can give us is to show it to someone else! *
* (seriously!)
All that in 36.9 MB? Awesome!
Way cool, Arlo.
I really don’t have any suggestions. It was short enough to hold my interest. Good variety. The dialogue moved. Very nice.
jfa
Hey Arlo, just watched the video, and since you asked for feedback (via the comments field), here it is:
* even on my 3mbit connection, the video in your blog post was sluggish to load (bummer for me, time to upgrade) – perhaps there were other people in the house downloading items too?
* your audio, while clear, was tinny (is that how you spell it?) as though you were in a big room with a sub-par microphone (not a big deal, but I noticed cause I’m accustomed to you producing uber-quality results from lame-o equipment)
* I like those long-nosed critters and how you mentioned their name before describing what they were – i felt engaged through curiosity.
hrmmm. that’s about all I could think of… other than that I look forward to future installments. :)
-cb
Thanks for the comments! I’m going to shoot for a schedule of releasing a new video every Monday, at least for awhile (I know myself well enough to know that I’m probably biting off more than I can chew.) Next week’s will be a little different; more a story about us, than an overview of the park. Be interesting to see how it’s received…
Hey, Cody. Thanks for spreading around our video on Facebook — I definitely noticed it was viewed by some people that probably wouldn’t have otherwise. Really appreciate it.
Allow me respond to your comments…
1) Could you may try watching the video again from work, when you have a chance? It *seems* to me that, here at UAS, it downloads faster than it plays; at least I’m able to just click play and start watching without any buffering.
If it is, in fact, your 3Mbps home connection, I’d do some speed tests if I were you. The video is encoded at about 1.5Mbps… should be easy for your connection to keep up!
At any rate, deciding on the best data rate is always an issue. I decided to go for full-size (640×360 widescreen) at a data rate that all iPod videos can play. Gets a little blocky at times, but I didn’t want to trim the resolution, just for a sharper picture. (Kind of an oxymoron there.)
2) Yeah, I’ve gotten some feedback about the audio. There’s a hiss in the background that’s either room noise, or a bad microphone (we’re using a shotgun mic mounted on the camera, about 5 feet away; should be better!) That mic was banged around a lot in travel, though, so maybe that’s the problem. Don’t want to spend $200 on a new one, but maybe that’s the best solution.
In the meantime, there are 2 or 3 more Iguazu videos, half-edited, with voice-overs recorded at the same time. I’m going to experiment with correcting the hiss in post, see if people notice the difference (I tried to clean up the audio a bit on this one, but didn’t like how it came out; sounded like we were talking in a culvert!)
But anyway. Experimenting with the different aspects of our workflow is EXACTLY why we’re doing these “old” travel videos now, though, and good feedback (like yours) will help us develop a better podcast. I hope.
3) Neat comment on the Coati. I thought that was sort of an awkward transition, just a tangent on an animal in the middle of an overview of a waterfall park, but I’m glad to hear it worked!