I was just giving it a try as these ones are out of the wind and possible rain and I can leave the camera there for hours. This could have been better as I wanted to leave it running for another hour or so to get all the flowers fully open, however as I  said the battery went flat !!! If I do it again I will use my external power pack.

Eric I disagree as it's very easy to use, I use my Samsung phone that I bought on eBay for £25 and the App cost nothing. You can see what you are filming on a bigger screen and start/stop/ zoom/replay and control other things on the camera while sitting in a chair having a coffee or a beer. I need a bit of comfort in my dotage so I don't think that is ridiculous ?
Both of my old SD900 Panasonics have a remote but they have limited controls and no screen so you have to be  close to the camera to see what's going on. They stopped making them probably because they realized that they would have to make a remote with a screen and were on a hiding to nothing, as a phone (that most of us have) has got it already to go.

I enjoyed that Eric, really well filmed and sorry that you missed the great event.  It's a different concept waiting for ages for something to happen and I get too impatient, mostly I get the camera all secured/exposed/focused and suddenly a gale force ten suddenly appears on cue !
Close up work is not the easiest to do outside and mostly the professionals tend to have a mock up in the studio with perfect lighting etc so I also admire your video from the technical side.
Obviously we won't be having caterpillars and butterflies for some while over this side so the only things worth filming close up at the moment are the crocuses and snowdrops on the lawn that have started to grow in the last week.
On a technical note did you just use the zoom lens or did you use any close up lenses on the filter ring ? I have tried both over the years but can never decide what is best.   

Albert Ross, we do get our share as well, this is one of the roads out of our village in the UK !

Yes it's certainly "different"!  but I have lived here for over 70 years and we have always been used to floods. The house we now live in can get cut off as the road gets flooded in both directions as we are between two rivers that converge behind us. In 1968 we had the biggest flood after torrential rain for weeks that flooded the high street in the nearest Town downstream causing serious damage. A new flood barrier was installed in 1970 to stop it happening and now when they shut the gates the water rises within a few hours. However it soon disappears when they open them. This was a few weeks back and we could get through. In 1968 we had 0ver 6ft of water in this same spot!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWOHHL1FprA

Happy Christmas everyone https://youtu.be/qUguIdZnx8g

I was intending to do a bit of filming around our area in the UK during the snow before we set of to Spain for a while, unfortunately one of my best friends who was my sponsor for my motor racing career and ran the local brewery died a couple of weeks back and the funeral is on the 19th. We thought that we could get away after Christmas as we booked a flight on the 31st, but a death in the family has put a stop to it. Unfortunately my brothers wife died at the weekend after a brave fight against the big C and the funeral won't be until the new year.
It brings things back into reality when this happens, just as you are thinking that life is going fine. The picture below was taken by my wife of Bob Dockerty the brewery owner, and is going on the front of the order of service as it showed him just as he was. RIP Bob.   

Yes that's what I tried with different textures of screen to hold back the highlights. I did find that running the projector at 24 frames and slowing the copy in post helped as well to avoid flickering. I must admit that your copying was very good that's why I asked.
The only projector I still have is an Elmo stereo sound that I bought towards the end of my S8 filming days, and surprisingly I sold a couple of S8 sound cameras to the USA in the last 2 years as there are still some "film anoraks" over there.
Although I used to enjoy editing film back then you didn't get a second chance if you made a balls up along the line somewhere, and I'm sure that todays video makers have no idea what it was like, and of course the price of the film itself!

Eric, I just loved the film as it reminded me of going to the local "flea pit" cinema on a Saturday morning and watching one of the shorts on Movietone News.  Did you do the 8mm to Digi yourself?, as I have thought about buying one of those machines that convert film to Digi frame by frame onto an SD card.
Over the years I have tried various ways (with limited success) to get some of my old 8 and S8mm films  onto Digi before they are lost forever, even projector bulbs are getting harder to find let alone any other parts!

Sorry about the title cards but I am useless at narration.  I could get other people to do it for me including a couple of radio presenters that I happen to know, and one ex ITV newscaster who lives in our village in the UK that I have been friends with for years. The only problem with that is I like to make the complete film myself and it would be a lot of "faffing"about.
As for live sound, I did try at first to use the sound off the camcorder, but it was very "echo" orientated and I went off the idea. Normally I use a separate audio recorder, but I knew that there was going to be a lot of walking up and down spiral staircases and only took the minimum gear with me on this occasion.
If I went again, I would also have taken at least one LED light as it was very dark in most of the tunnels, and as my camcorder only has a small sensor the lens was wide open for a good part of the video.

One other factor is experience.  This was not my first event like this.  It did take a fair amount of effort and time to edit.  But it was a labor of love.  My goal was to get it down to 15 min.  So, in that sense, I failed.  But my wife always wants these video memories to be longer -- not shorter.  If I cut things too much, she notices.  So it's too long for general audiences but, for us, on a cold winter's night, just right
Do you have any Cunard experience?

I know exactly what you mean regarding how long a big project should last. You shoot loads and loads and what do you leave in and leave out?  Obviously, you don't want to bore people with too much "baby on lawn" style footage.
What I tend to do is run though all the shots to make sure that I have enough of the main things and people that will matter, even if it means recording extra footage afterwards (if possible).
I always make sure that it has a start that establishes where the venue is, then the middle with all the important parts including onlookers/audience (if it has any). The end can take many forms depending what type of video I am filming, it can end with a fade out of the outside of the venue or a dance or whatever, but I always wind it down without a sudden stop, and if it has an audience, fade out on them. 
I am a bit ruthless on a lot of shots and do cut them tight in post unless they are important, this is probably left over from my old "proper film" days when it was expensive to buy.
After I have finished it, I run it on the TV in front of my wife for an honest opinion to see if it conveys what I am intending it to show to others, as it's easy for me as I was there. Very often I will alter parts before I am satisfied, and I will overdub music if it is feasible. I try and make sure that any part of the audio track is as good as I can get it and I always use a separate sound recorder. If it's a band I will (if possible) plug a flash drive into the mixing desk, but I will still use the audio recorder with mikes as I have had a few disasters in the past with the singer or some instruments not mixed properly!
Regarding Cruise Liners the answer is no, they have never appealed to me and the only sea voyages that I do these days are on the cross-channel ferries or to Nothern Spain, if I am not flying for some reason.

The thing is that we are very lucky in that we have a choice of both as we live very close to Gatwick airport and Spain is only a two and a half hours flight away for us. The only problem now is that since Brexit we can only spend 180 days a year in the EU, and only 90 days max at one time. We don't want to take up residency as owning properties in both countries can cause double taxation problems, and I don't want to give away my small amount of savings to something that I don't need to!
The 180 days thing is at least a "rolling" number, so we tend to do 5/6 weeks maximum at a time and pop back home in the UK for a while.
As we have been doing it for years "on and off" (and more since we both retired) it can get a bit confusing sleeping in different beds/driving different cars on alternate sides of the roads/eating different foods/different language etc, and a few hours later it all changes! However, all the time that we are fit and able to do it then we will continue.
Regarding traffic, yes on the open roads most are relatively free of vehicles especially out of season, but the main resorts are a bit of a nightmare and to find a parking space can be a pain in July/August, but we can walk to a lot of the places that we need to fortunately.