Photos Come to Life
Want a flood of memories to come to life for five or ten seconds. Check this out.
Personally, I think Artificial Intelligence is going to destroy the world, but what do I know, I’m old and not as sharp as I once was. But in the meantime, all the new AI opportunities are so much fun. I’ve been absorbed by creating YouTube videos, writing lyrics and getting music from AI sounds, and just recently bringing family members back to life for five or ten seconds and deeply remembering them. I’m putting a few of them in this post, and I’m going to give the link to my you tube channel so I can show off what I’ve done
A bit of personal history, which you may find interesting. In 1974-5 I got a job at ABC-TV in NYC and wound up working as a video engineer. That meant I ran the gigantic, Apex, 2 ¼ tape machines that broadcast the shows. Essentially, I got to work with the producers of all the shows, Wide World of Sports, ABC Evening News, all the soaps, All My Children, One Life to Live, Ryan’s Hope, etc. Now these VCRs were gigantic, maybe five feet tall by four feet wide, and there were rooms and rooms of them, buzzing whiring, voices from a dozen different shows being edited. The lighting was very dim, and felt like we were in an alien space craft. (this is a long introduction to the point I’ getting at; hang in there) So one day here comes one of the technicians rolling in a small machine on an AV cart, and it was about the size of a VCR. Well, shucks, almighty, it was a VCR…it was a Betamax. One of the first.
When a show was airing, there was always a backup quad mach ne ready to kick in if anything went wrong with the first machine. This tiny, little machine was going to take it’s place. No one had ever seen one before. Blew everyone’s mind. Brand spankin’ new.
So fast forward to around 1981. My cousin, Joe, asks me if I want to go in with him on a new business, video rentals. It was at the forefront of a whole new technology craze. Out with film, in with tape. So we put up one of the first video rental stores in Cherry Hill. We charged fifty-bucks for a membership and rental out cassettes. In a year, we had several thousand members. The fifty-buck membership fell by the wayside pretty quickly, but we picked up another income source, transferring film to video.
Bottom line, so many stores popped up, I eventually went on the other pastures. Bad choice, but another story.
So here we are, around fifty years later with another whole new technology, Artificial Intelligence. I have been playing around with it, writing lyrics to songs and putting them to AI music for YouTube. Very cool. Click on the graphic and you can listen to the songs I’ve done so far if, you care to listen.
I also found another site where you can upload old still photos and they will animate them for you. People who have passed many years ago alive for ten seconds. First thing I did was do a photo of my mother that I love. She had to be around 20 years old, so in the 1940s and it came to life. It almost made me cry. It’s the little video above at the start of this post.
Of course, then I had to go on. I found a picture of my great grandfather, Nonno, we called him playing the clarinet with my two cousins and I, Jerry & Video Joe playing along. I edited it to a long clip and put music to it. Again, blows my mind. Here it is.
So Video Joe sees it, and he suggests that I make a few old age-bucks offering this service to other people. Another video idea from Joe. I can always use a few bucks, so that’s what I decided to do.
Here’s another of my Aunts at a New Year’s Eve Party. They never drank except on New Years. Loved those ladies, Lena, Maisie, Angie, and Paulie, all gone now. Big laugh and tear to look at them having so much fun together.
So as the Tao flows, I ran into an old classmate at Shop Rite, and we started talking, and he saw the clip of my mother. I had put it on Facebook, and he asks me if I can do anything with a video he has of his family, originally shot on film, then transferred to video but has now lost so much quality. He wanted to know if I can upgrade the quality for and make a video file. So of course, I can do that for him.
And here’s my pitch to you. You can do this yourself, but if you don’t want to learn and fool around with it, I will do it for you. I am started Photo to Video Company,
where I will convert these personal photographs to talking videos for you. Long gone grandpop, childhood photos, memories you’d like to see move again for a few seconds. Can’t beat it.
Secondly, if you have old video that’s degraded and would like it upgraded to very good to excellent quality and put in a file to send to the family and friends, I will also do that. Price is going to depend how long and how many. Back in the video business.
If interested, just get in touch. Leave a message here or email me, louismascolo7@gmail.com.
Oh, almost forgot. Here’s a shot of me making a presentation at the Atlantic County Historical Society for my book, “Scoundrels & Seafarers” this month. I got a great reception and sold quite a few books. If you don’t have one yet, go get it here, right now! :-) Scoundrels & Seafarers.
That’s all for now. Have a great day.
Lou