Dr. John Bisognano of Michigan Medicine presents a program on Preventing Heart Disease at Peninsula Community Library | Jane Boursaw Photo
Dr. John Bisognano of Michigan Medicine presents a program on Preventing Heart Disease at Peninsula Community Library | Jane Boursaw Photo
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Michigan Medicine recently presented a program at Peninsula Community Library about Preventing Heart Disease. As with their previous programs, the Community Room was packed with OMP residents looking for info on how to get healthy and stay healthy.

Dr. John Bisognano was the speaker, and the program included excellent info about new cardiology research, treatment of blood pressure and cholesterol issues, and perhaps two of the most important things we can do to help ourselves – eat a plant-based diet and get outside and walk whenever possible. (He says he pushes himself out the door first thing in the morning – even before coffee!)

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The next Michigan Medicine program – covering new treatments for melanoma and advanced skin cancers – is Monday, August 21, at 3 p.m. Because space is limited and PCL’s Community Room fills up fast, you’ll need to register for the program here.

Library Director Vicki Shurly asked me to videotape these health programs, and I’m grateful that both she and Michigan Medicine are ok with me basically learning my way through the video process. I learn new things each time I do them.

I’m also in the process of acquiring better equipment – all good, because I’d like to do more videos for the Gazette. Last year, I invested in an actual videocamera – a step up from doing them on my phone.

For this video, my goal was to add beginning and end titles to the video, which I figured out how to do – yay! I also learned how to combine several videos into one – a necessity since I had to switch batteries towards the end of the program during the Q&A time.

I searched around for a video editing program that didn’t cost an arm and a leg, and finally settled on Microsoft ClipChamp, which came with my computer’s Windows program. I tried Adobe’s Pro Premiere Video Editing program (I use Adobe’s Lightroom and Photoshop for photo editing), but decided it was a little too complicated for me. I might revisit that program later, since I was on a time-crunch for this one.

About the time-crunch … it can be a challenge to carve out time to learn new programs amidst my other house, woodpile and Gazette chores, so one night I just decided to stay up until I figured out the program. I emailed Vicki one version around 3:30 a.m., and then another “better” one a couple of hours later. Yes, she emailed back in the morning and wondered why I was up in the wee hours! Sometimes you’ve got to just get it done. Especially since I knew Michigan Medicine was looking forward to seeing it.

ClipChamp is pretty user-friendly, and includes a way to create opening and ending titles, add music and transitions, and splice several videos together. So far, a big thumbs up on that program.

Because videos are huge files, by the time I downloaded the ClipChamp app for desktop, along with several versions of the video, I’d used up most of my hard drive’s 900+GB of space. So after I uploaded the video to YouTube, I sent all the trial-and-error videos to one of my eight external drives (each with 8TB of space for my OMP photo archives!), and deleted them on my desktop.

I also deleted the ClipChamp app on my desktop, and think for next time, I might be able to use the online version here. In fact, my Heart Disease video is actually ON that online site, so the desktop and online versions talk to each other.

This video isn’t perfect, and I still have a lot to learn about videography. After recording it, I invested in a better tripod and a microphone (apologies for seeing the tops of everyone’s head and the poor sound quality in spots!).

For the next video, I think I’ll stand over by the library’s window a little closer to the speaker. Hopefully, with the addition of the new tripod and microphone, I’ll have better audio and visuals.

Check out the “Preventing Heart Disease” video below, and let me know if you have any video tips in the comments section below.

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SUPPORT YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL NEWSPAPER: I started Old Mission Gazette in 2015 because I felt a calling to provide the Old Mission Peninsula community with local news. After decades of writing for newspapers and magazines like the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Family Circle and Ladies' Home Journal, I really just wanted to write about my own community where I grew up on a cherry farm and raised my own family. So I started my own newspaper.

Because Old Mission Gazette is a "Reader Supported Newspaper" -- meaning it exists because of your financial support -- I hope you'll consider tossing a few bucks our way if I mention your event, your business, your organization or your news item, or if you simply love reading about what's happening on the OMP. In a time when local news is becoming a thing of the past, supporting an independent community newspaper is more important now than ever. Thank you so much for your support! -Jane Boursaw, Editor/Publisher, Old Mission Gazette

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