When I came to Stanica, I actually didn’t know what exactly I will do there. I knew they have lot of work and that I will help with everything around. After a while I saw that they have really good system with photography on the events. They didn’t just take photos from events like archiving, but also on artistic way, they put on net just few of them, and the special ones, and photos from event, they were on net already the next day, or sometimes even the same day. It was really good and professional way of taking care of this subject.

But I saw with videos it’s different. Sometimes something was recorded, but just for the artist, if they asked, not for the public. For me video promotion is even more important than photo. So, because they had everything there (camera, computer, program) and they didn’t have no one for this job, I’ve decided that I can do something about that. And I felt good about this. Actually, that I correct myself, they have two persons who do the videos for Stanica, one is Dušan who is working in Stanica and another is Picasa, who occasionally do some professional videos from bigger Stanica events. Videos take quite lot of your time, it’s not like photos, for making a video you will probably need at list two days, but in Stanica you don’t have two days, it’s always more important work and other stuff. I was really surprised when I saw, that Stanica have three or four events per week, for Žilina this is for sure a lot. And when I was watching events go away without any video documentation, in me the desire to make videos grow stronger. In October I grab the video camera and started to record, mostly the concerts, because this is my passion.

In January I was faced with big problem, because whole month the computer on which I have material, it was taken away, so my work was on pause for a while and motivation dropped a little bit. Another and final problem came in February when I could not import 4 hours long material from one event Slam Poetry and another private 1 hour material. It was the first time, when I started to work with so big and long files and program Final Cut didn’t manage to import whole footage. I was really working on that two or three weeks and without results, so slowly I’ve started to leave the video work behind and dedicated to the other thing in Stanica.

First “Sweet” Vegan Sunday:

Second “Traditional” Vegan Sunday:

Third “Grill” Vegan Sunday:

Fourth “Gulaš” Vegan Sunday:

And here is mix from all five Vegan Sundays:

Problems of video editing (My six sweet problems):

I wanted to write about problems with video editing in the second part, but then I was already too long with description of my past. Ok, problems,… like everywhere, you will also find lot of problems in video editing and these where mine. Ha-ha. Before you start to record something, you have to fill the batteries for the camera, check if you have empty tape (jump to the store, if not), check the space where you will put the camera, or where you will put yourself with camera. Then when it’s time, start to record. It’s very important that you know what you will do with this tape, how you want to use it, and that you record as less as possible, because you will have lot of crap and lot of unnecessary work later. I had big problem with that, I like to record everything, and that was big minus for later.

Ok, because the events are usually in the night, you go after the performance to the bar, to drink something and then go home. So, next day, you connect the video camera with computer and import the material. You have to wait as long you have the minutes from the recorded tape. The second problem in my case was this part. From camera to the computer. When you import, you have to wait until the end of the footage (at least in most of my cases), if you cancel before, sometimes you just loose the whole video footage (but it should not happed like this). Ok, in my case, I have always wait until the end of the footage, but still, because unknown reason on Stanica computer, most of the times importing the videos went wrong, and then you have to rewind the camera to the beginning and start importing again. And then again something goes wrong and you have to do the same stuff all over again. Sometimes I have imported same video for 3 or 5 times and that means 3 or 5 hours lost time, that you get the video footage on the computer, before you even start to work. Ha-ha. I really don’t know what was the problem, because we change the tapes, cables, cameras, I’ve used same program but on different computer, and nothing was better. Probably just technology didn’t like me.

Ok, when finally you get lucky and you have the recorded footage on the computer, another problem comes along. Because we had just one computer for this and also this computer was for other use, you realize that you came to work and the computer is not available at the moment, after half of hour or one hour you get the computer, but you lose a little bit of motivation. You can avoid that, by coming to work early in the morning, so that problem is fixed. Ok, if you have 40 minutes of footage to edit, usually it takes me 2 or sometimes 3 day to finish it. In Slovenia I knew program Adobe PremierePro, but here I was working with Final Cut, and I have to say that it’s good and easy program, but he had also few bad sides. Sometimes also the tape is little bit destroyed, and then you lose a second of image or a sound (the example you can see in video of PPE - Majkl Džeksn, on 4 places you can hear that the sound was lost,… but I’ve fixed a little bit, so if you don’t pay attention, you won’t recognized), but usually you don’t fix that problem, you just delete everything.

The fourth problem comes on a visit with working area. When you are thinking what you will do, choosing good parts, good music background, creating the idea of the clip, the story, you usually need quiet and peaceful surrounding. If you imagine working in the small office with 10 other people, you don’t get peaceful surrounding all the time. But ok, I was probably lot of time the distraction in the office, so I will finished here.

Ok, when you have created your final version of the video, you have to export out from the program. Here the program is working by himself, so you can go on a lunch or to do something else. The bad thing sometimes happen, that someone just close your programme or shut down the computer, because he is not aware that some work is going on, and he also have to do something. And this, happened in Stanica quite few times. But ok, you do just few clicks and the program start to work by himself again.

Then, here is the part when you want to upload your video, because if you have it just on the computer, it’s no good for no one. So I have experience my last (the sixth), finest problem, because from that computer was possible to connect to the internet just from Wi-Fi (cable connection was not working). When you are uploading big file on YouTube and you have slow upload, few problems came along. If you are not by the computer (you have understand, that after you work many hours on the computer, you would like to go somewhere else, and uploading take few hours with big files), someone can close you internet browser or sign you out from your Google account, even if he has new window open. The internet sometimes freezes for a while, and then you are finished, you have to do it all over again. You can avoid this by uploading in the nights, it’s the best timing. But also once Ecology man from Stanica, didn’t like wasting energy in the nights, so the computer went down again, but we fixed that problem with big sign on paper.

So here you have read mine sweet six problems with editing the video in Stanica. I would never imagine that so many problems exist, but never the last, working with video is still fun for me.

Slam Poetry #1 - two hour long video:

Slam Poetry Workshop - two hour long video:

Slam Poetry #3 - one hour long video:

Discussion - One world – World caught in a web (International documentary film festival):

And for the end my private concert videos from this year living in Slovakia:

Goodbye and Good Luck in the future…

Niki Žveglič (EVS volunteer in programme: Youth in Action “European Voluntary Service”)