Video Gallery

		Video Gallery

Home
Up
Video Gallery
Photo Gallery
Music Room
Silly Links
About Me
Feedback

Mark's Videos

Over the years, as technologies changed, I've accumulated several different kinds of videos. Originally, Faye used to shoot 8mm silent movies with a camera that had to be wound up by hand (spring loaded, I believe). I think it could shoot a whopping 8 minutes at a time. To light the inside birthday parties and other events she had a big metal thing that held two or three flood lights. The heat those huge bulbs put out was incredible. The amount of light needed was enough to make everybody in the movies squint, and make the pasty-white kids look even more pale than we were.

In the 1980s, VHS video recorders were just coming onto the scene. That was a big improvement, although the equipment was big, bulky and a nuisance to carry. At least we had color and sound. We recorded hours and hours of useless footage, but we got some great memorable family moments too. (look at the hair... what were we thinking?)

Somewhere along the way, David had a bunch of his family's old 8mm movies converted to VHS and gave me a copy. So here we are... 2008, well into a new century and it's time to convert things again. So I've undertaken a project to convert many of the old, deteriorating VHS tapes that are piled up around the house to a more durable format, that's easier to share with everybody that has the stomach to sit through hours and hours of our family's home movies and pictures.

Videos

Some of the files are quite large. I'm still struggling with a better way to stream the videos, but for now if your computer is new enough and your connection is fast enough, you should be able to see most of these using QuickTime. Just be patient when downloading. They'll eventually get to you.

Date	Contains
Sept. 1986	These were from a compilation of videos that Jon gave me. I believe most of the footage was shot in September, 1986. Roger at the rodeo - (9/11) Cowboy Band performs at the rodeo. Matt mows the yard Matt's fussy Harper, Texas - (9/13 & 9/14) Grammy's 83rd birthday is celebrated at the log cabin owned by the Bristol family (one of Jenny's bosses) in Harper, TX. Russell finally gets some solo time - (9/23) We've seen a lot of Matt and the rest of the family, but here Russell gets a little time in the spotlight. However, he needs a better writer. His lines lack, um... depth and meaning. Anyway, his performance is stellar and in perfect keeping with his character.
1986	Another visit to Abilene We see the folks again, but nobody can seem to remember what the occasion was. If you know, be sure to tell me.
1985	Abilene Visit featuring Matt Gene and Ruth make a quick stop to see Roger at Camp Chrysalis in Kerrville on the way to see the folks in Abilene.
1985 April through May	China trip Mark, Gene, Ruth and Shelly. We spent 3 weeks touring Hong Kong and China and originally shot over 16 hours of video footage. This abridged DVD version is cut down to the most interesting 2 hr. 40 min. which is still way toho much to watch in one sitting, but here are a few of the highlights. Victoria Harbor Boat Ride - (4/24) We had a guided tour of Hong Kong, that took us on the crowded harbor filled with shipyards, narrow passage ways, and beggars that use nets on long poles to reach out to the tourists. Beijing Theater - (4/26) After a flight from Hong Kong to Beijing, we were entertained with an traditional dinner of Peking duck and a theatrical performance. This is the overture to the show. The Great Wall - (4/27) The main reason Pop said we were going to China was to "dance on the great wall." Apparently he didn't realize that the wall is very high in the mountains. It's also incredibly steep. So there was much more gasping for air than dancing. Terracotta Soldiers at Xian - We visited there a full 13 years after Richard Nixon's presidential visit, but the tour guides were still very proud to show us the catwalk that was built specifically to allow the president a look much closer than any tourists would ever get. They didn't permit pictures inside the building, which is like a giant airplane hanger, but since when has Pop ever worried about rules? I carried the camera and aimed the lens under my arm, not really able to tell what I was shooting. Enjoy about five minutes of video before I got busted by the Chinese speaking guards. Video technology was new and they wanted the film out of the camera not realizing that the VHS tape was in the VCR in my backpack. You'll see the video go to black static before we began a scary game of cloak and dagger to get the backpack off of my back and out to the bus. Rice and Tea - (5/5, Westlake) You know how much I enjoy my black tea... I was looking forward to seeing how tea is grown and processed. But on the way to the tea plantation, we drove past the rice paddies. You'll really appreciate the amount of hard work that goes into those simple staples in our life. Tea is tough to pick, only the newest two leaves and tiny bud have all the flavor. Chopsticks - (5/7, Guilin) Have you ever wanted to know how those bamboo chopsticks you get at your favorite Chinese take-out place are made? Here we went to a factory that makes them. You'll see the how they shape them, each one individually made. Then they imprint the writing on each one. Have you ever wondered how all those Chinese folks learn to use those silly things? Well... they learn very early, in kindergarten, by dumping a bunch of marbles in a dishpan filled with water. Try it, it's not easy. Needlework and Silk - I think they took us through the process of making silk fabric and needlework a bit out of sequence . They started off showing us how young women use extremely fine needles (which were too small for me to see) to embroider beautiful designs on silk fabric. Then we progressed backwards to see how the fabric is woven. You'll see a man using a sort of big hole-punch device to punch the holes in a thin piece of wood that is strung together with other punched wood pieces. That is used to control the giant looms that weave the fabric. It works much like a player piano roll. We see the silk threads being wound onto spools, each spool ends up weighing about 35 pounds. The spools are the raw thread that is loaded onto the looms. A conveyor belt brings thousands and thousands of silk cocoons to the workers that sort through them to pick out the poor quality ones before they're sent to the steamer. Each cocoon still has the dead silkworm inside. If the butterfly has already emerged, the cocoon is deemed to be useless since the butterfly would have had to eat his way out, causing the threads making up the cocoon to be broken and not one continuous thread. In the steamer the cocoons are softened so the worker can find the end of the thread and start it onto the spool. That lets them use each cocoon as a continuous thread.
1960s???	Miscellaneous stuff from Max's family These clips cover several years. Good ol 8mm home movies converted to VHS, then to DVD, and now to QuickTime

This site was last updated 07/15/08