Mission Peak

The Haunted Stanley Hotel

One of my thousands of projects to do is transfer my home movies from tape onto DVD. For those of you who have edited movies before you know just how arduous and time consuming this task can be. First off you need to transfer your videos from tape (MiniDV or Hi8/VHS for you old schoolers) onto your computer. This process takes as long as the length of tape you've recorded. Fortunately you can set your computer to capture the files and go do something more productive.

Once this is done then you need to start creating your movie in a program like Windows Movie Maker, Vegas Movie Studio, Final Cut Pro, or iMovie. Since I am now an Apple disciple I figured I'd give the iLife suite a whirl and use iMovie since I have yet to test drive the software. The process of reviewing and editing footage was just as long and painful as using Vegas Movie Studio.

Even though iMovie didn't quite have all the bells and whistles of a full blown movie program, its set up in a way that is simple enough for your parents to understand and use. It's real claim to fame is its customizable templates and music/sound effect library which make your movies look like they were produced by Stephen friggin Spielberg. This coupled with awesome menu templates available in iDVD result in a pretty kick ass end product. I just wish Apple would come out with more templates for iMovie. Hopefully they have that on their list for the new version of iLife everyone is eagerly anticipating :)

In the end I'd give iMovie 8 out of 10 stars because it was easy to use, it had a reasonable amount of features and adjustments, and the templates make your home movies look like a work of art. I'll probably wind up using Final Cut Pro on my next project so I can see how it compares to it's better equipped rival, Vegas Movie Studio.

Here's a short clip from the movie I created. This is from my trip to Colorado in 2005 where I stayed at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. This is the Hotel where Stephen King got the inspiration for his book "The Shining" and yes it is actually haunted. They even have a station on the TV that plays the movie "The Shining" all day long. I DO NOT recommend watching this at night before trying to go to bed. I think I slept for about 2 hours because I kept thinking a ghost was going to attack me. It was a fun time nonetheless and the place was gorgeous. I'd probably go back even though it freaked me the hell out.