Monthly Archives: December 2019

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FINAL (sort of) Green Team Video

I was finally able to complete the Green Team video, or at least the 2019 version which I’m also affectionately calling the “Chris Laney Version” as he is sort of the star.  When I showed this in the last Green Team meeting this past week the group had several ideas to make it even better including interviews with more people, more shots of the cafeteria, and even more.  So the next version, which I’m calling the 2020 version, will have even more, likely be even better!  Without further ado, here’s the Final 2019 cut.

I did notice one typo in the titles that I will be fixing, the word across is wrong in the portion about the water bottle stations.  I’m sure there’s more I will be tweaking as well, such as taking new video of the Green Roofs in the spring/summer when they are actually green instead of the weird red/brown they are in the video I shot right around thanksgiving which I also posted on this blog.  That was the first flight of the Mavic Mini, already being put to good use.

Which reminds me that I’ve been so busy lately I haven’t even had a chance to write about the STEM Drone Bootcamp Demonstration I did this past week.  It was for forum credit and about 20 students showed up including my Fiance, some of my work-studies, and one of my mentees.  I don’t mind sharing it, so here’s a link to my BCC STEM Drones/UAV Bootcamp Presentation. I only ask that if you use or borrow anything from it that you let me know and give me credit.

My 3 week vacation and holiday break begins tomorrow, so I’m not sure how often I will be writing here until the semester begins on January 21.  Until next time, take care!

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Snow Drones

Its almost time for the holiday break and I’m wrapping up projects.  One thing I’ve yet to do is take some cold weather video from a drone of campus covered in snow.  Yesterday on my drive to campus I couldn’t help but notice that it was beautiful with everything freshly covered in snow.  I was able to throw a flight plan together super quickly, get permission from BCC Security and the Pittsfield Airport to make sure policy was followed, and headed out about 1:30 to start my flight.

At first some snow squalls moving through delayed me.  And then the wind picked up, however I was still able to get in a brief flight and get some OK video.  It was also cold out, and one needs to take extra precautions when flying in the cold like making sure the battery is warm and stays at a warm temperature after takeoff.  Today is super cold compared to yesterday’s 20 degrees, so yesterday was my only opportunity.  Another thing that is suggested when flying in the snow is to hand-launch and hand-land to protect the craft from the snow, something I’ve gotten pretty good at with the Mavic Mini.

Here’s the full video.

The best portion is probably at about 6:25 where I get a combination of movements in the flight.  I hope to get more practice with cold weather flying in the future.

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Green Team Video – Rough Edit

I would like to share a very rough edit of the Green Team video that I have been working on along with a few students.  So far, I’m pretty happy, but there’s more work to be done!

This video was shot mostly on cellphone using the DJI Osmo Mobile 3 that was borrowed from a faculty member here at BCC. The only video that wasn’t shot on cell phone, aside from the drone shots, is the interview with Chris Laney.  The results I think are quite good and it sounds like I will have a BCC owned Osmo Mobile 3 real soon for these types of video projects so that we won’t have to coordinate borrowing one.

The video is a rough edit for sure, nothing is finished essentially.  The titles aren’t done, someone even pointed out that “Water” is misspelled – thanks and oops!  We used royalty free music that was found by one of the students.  All the editing was done in iMovie, which has changed a bit since the last time I used it but it’s still a pretty great tool.  In the final version there will be more titles to explain what you are looking at and more data, such as numbers of solar panels and water bottles saved by the filling stations.

I’m thinking now that there will be 2 versions of this video.  We need to add some more content, ideas brought from the last Green Teem meeting which include more interviews, shots of a future Green Team meeting, mention of the new Leading By Example award won by BCC, and add some shots of an electric car, probably mine.  I’m not sure if we can get those shots and finish the editing before the Spring Semester Orientation, which is our goal for this.  That version will not have all the additional shots but a second version for mid-semester will.  So there will be a “Chris Laney only” version, and a version with more interviews and more voices.

I would love to hear feedback and suggestions!