Okay, first off I got the idea after hearing all the wonderful stories/testimonies from the people who went on this particular mission trip to New Orleans. They spent a life-changing week amongst the squalor still left behind 4 years after this devastating Hurricane. I began just looking at the pictures on my friends' facebooks, but as i looked at these pictures I got kinda bored so I opened up my windows music player and began listening to the new CDs I got for my birthday. The first one up was Addison Road. The very first track on the album was a song called "This Could Be Our Day". I began again flipping through the hundreds of pictures on countless profiles, and as I continued I started noticing some of the pictures went with the song. What I like to call beautiful gems that film editors LOVE! Then, the idea hit me. I could make a video for them!
My original plan was to finish it in the first week, but even though there was literally hundreds of photos, there wasn't enough to put together a decent video. So over the next two weeks, i kept my eyes peeled for new uploads. I think the final count was around 500 to 600 photos in total. Maybe a hundred photos of all these were used, but ALL of them were carefully edited, cropped, and/or straightened. There was so much red eye that needed to be removed it wasn't even funny. Any way after all the photos were complete, I embarked on the first leg of my actual mission. Editing the video.
My first predicament was that I needed an intro to the video. How would I do it? The beginning of the song is thrust straight into the chorus, and then the second verse and there lied the problem. I didn't want to scare people straight out of the gate because the beginning is so dynamic, also I didn't want them to miss the first few words of the song. So, I devised a way to fix this problem. I would simply explain the need the church had gone to fulfill. So as you see in the end product the into is a history of the Hurricane Katrina. I used a black back ground so that the colored pictures would stand out more. I also chose a more vertical font, so that it would look better on the ease in and outs. I also used a few pictures of the Hurricane Katrina whether pictures to add some menacing effects, because Hurricane Katrina was so incredibly massive. I remember looking up "Hurricane Katrina devastation" and other similar searches to find these pictures. I think I saved in all about 50 pictures, but in the end I only used 3 or 4 for timing purposes. I also tripled the size of the word "struck" and ease in really hard and slowed it down for emphasis ( I almost put "stuck" in the video, but upon inspection near the end of the editing process I realized my mistake and thankfully fixed it). I think it took me 2 days to finally finish the intro. I was so excited, but i didn't realize i still had two weeks of editing left. (the music in the intro is a clip from the beginning of "Go Light Your World" by Chris Rice)
The actual video started off with the song "This Could Be Our Day" as I mentioned earlier. I was actually considering a few other songs, but do to their context I finally chose this one instead.
I decided to put the title of the song in it, so that it could tie the lyrics to the song. The reason I chose the pictures of the city was because I wanted a very real sense of them going in to the city, although i don't know if the city in these pictures are actually New Orleans. I put New Orleans in there because I wanted my audience to know that it was in fact New Orleans my church went to and not another Hurricane Katrina site. I chose the pictures of the kids in the buses because i wanted chronology to be a big factor in this video. I used a few group photos as an overall them throughout the video. If you notice all the group photos appear when the part of the song says "This Could Be Our Day", but i think towards the end I used Duos instead.
Upon reaching 24 or 25 seconds in I reached a problem. The first long music solo before the first verse. I didn't know how I was going to fill it, because I didn't want to use photos of people in the midst of the a long extended music. so thankfully I had come up with this idea during the editing process. I was messing around with the Contrast and Shadowing of one of the photos of the posters the kids made, and as I did so I like the effect of it progressively changing. The only way I was to accomplish this was to slowly create individual copies of the same picture with different effects. I had made another video about a year before this one called "The Many Faces of Frank" where I used similiar photos of this guy I knew, sped them up together and it made it look like he was moving, so I used the same idea here, but on a higher and more organized scale. So the 5 seconds of transition you see in the video is made up of approximately 40 to 50 separately edited and treated photos put together and sped up to make it look like the photo is progressively changing. Yes, it took a really long time to do, but I am extremely happy I stuck it out, and finished.
Also, during the photo editing craze, I came across some really beautiful scenic pictures of the places the kids visited. So I darkened a photos that one of the girls had taken of her and her friends in front of a massive church to make it look like it was at sunset, and then I used a wonderful photo that looked like a crime caught on film to go with the lyrics "Clearly it's time to make a change". Then I used the one photo of the people that went sitting down relaxing for the next lyric. I used the pixilation transition a few times throughout the video to signify a change that was made. First for the waiting, and another time from praying to actually moving. As we made our way back into the chorus I showed pictures of just the kids that the youth worked with to show the reason why they were there. The second time were in the chorus I used mainly the activities that were done. Like the puppet show, and worship. It was to show the two worlds meeting. The kids who are used to having everything and the kids who just love what ever they have left. You see the expressions on the NeO kids faces where there just full of pure joy and how it reflects onto the visiting youth. You really get a glimpse of this incredible tranisiton on the mission campers side in what is my favorite part of the video. When I saw these two photos I knew it would be perfect!
About 1:56-1:59 you see a HUGE change in the mission campers lives. They go from standing defensive with their arms crossed to raising their hands without shame. I absolutely love that part of the video.
You have no idea how hard it was to find a picture without the kids smiling in it, but I managed to find one for the lyric "heal the broken ones". The photo at 2:05-2:06 is one of my favorite of all of them I saw. It shows a great deal about the kids that went. They're all just bowed heads and prayer to our Heavenly Father and it truly is one of the best photos I've seen.
As we go into the 3rd chorus part I show them in the construction part of the trip. I know there we're a few more group projects of different things, but there weren't enough photos of those projects to be able to create it's own part in the chorus. I kinda stuck a photo in there for my own personal laugh, and if you really want to know I'll tell ya, but I don't think it's worth putting in this little commentary. I still think i coulda done this part of the video better, and there are a few parts throughout that grate on my nerves for not fixing it, but what's done is done.
After the end of the 3rd chorus we go into the bridge. The lyric "This Could Be Our Day" is repeated a few times, and I used a fade transition and alternated the ease in and outs on the photos to give a push and pull effect, as well as, a building up to climax.
2:48-2:50 is one of my favorite moments not only because of the lyrics, but also because of the visual comparision. You see a little girl upside down doing a handstand, and then you see two of the mission campers upside down, and in a way it unites them both. It gives them a sense of "giving themselves away" like the song says. I also used a picture of one of the little girls close up for the lines, "something beautiful" because they weren't there to make a house or renovate things although they did that, they were there to make a differnce in the lives of God's beautiful creation. The picture at 3:02 is one of my favorites because it is so visually interesting. You have kids on the otherside of the gate who seem like they can't get to the other side, and one of the little boys is trying to help but can't get it open then comes one of the campers, called to make a difference in these kids lives, and opens it for them.
The next few photos before the final chorus are cued specifically to the music. When we get to the part that says "I'm giving myself away" again, I use a fade in to black fade out to black transitions in order to make it sounds choppy like with the drums sound in the music. Then when the music slows down almost to a stop you see one of my favorite pictures at 3:29 with no effects just straight up picture, and then you almost like get hit between the eyes with the next one and the expressions on the faces of the girls. I intentionally kept a lot of the pictures at the beginning from being to happy or smiley so that it would be more rewarding to see all of it come together at the end of the trip. So in the last few pictures in the chorus you see a LOT of duos and groups of the campers with the kids smiling and having a great time so you can really see the change that's taken place in both of their lives. After the last chorus we get into what I call the "ooo's". It was really hard in coming up with an ending because I loved all the happiness and I wanted it to continue I had 40-50 more photos that I loved and wanted to put in, but I didn't have time to put them in. I had maybe 30 to 45 sec of song left and I needed to finish it out. So I ended it with a few pictures of the dorms and them packing up, or unpacking I'm not sure which, and them sleeping in the car. Most of these pictures probably occurred before they actually got to New Orleans, but it makes it a good ending to see the campers exhausted after a long roller coaster of a week emotions. So I closed this video off with a few reminescent photos of worship and New Orleans and the last thing you see is the "Mission Camp 2009" logo.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this commentary of my video. If you made it all the way to the end don't forget to tell me. I hope you enjoyed the insight into the joys and struggles of making this video. =]
The actual video started off with the song "This Could Be Our Day" as I mentioned earlier. I was actually considering a few other songs, but do to their context I finally chose this one instead.
I decided to put the title of the song in it, so that it could tie the lyrics to the song. The reason I chose the pictures of the city was because I wanted a very real sense of them going in to the city, although i don't know if the city in these pictures are actually New Orleans. I put New Orleans in there because I wanted my audience to know that it was in fact New Orleans my church went to and not another Hurricane Katrina site. I chose the pictures of the kids in the buses because i wanted chronology to be a big factor in this video. I used a few group photos as an overall them throughout the video. If you notice all the group photos appear when the part of the song says "This Could Be Our Day", but i think towards the end I used Duos instead.
Upon reaching 24 or 25 seconds in I reached a problem. The first long music solo before the first verse. I didn't know how I was going to fill it, because I didn't want to use photos of people in the midst of the a long extended music. so thankfully I had come up with this idea during the editing process. I was messing around with the Contrast and Shadowing of one of the photos of the posters the kids made, and as I did so I like the effect of it progressively changing. The only way I was to accomplish this was to slowly create individual copies of the same picture with different effects. I had made another video about a year before this one called "The Many Faces of Frank" where I used similiar photos of this guy I knew, sped them up together and it made it look like he was moving, so I used the same idea here, but on a higher and more organized scale. So the 5 seconds of transition you see in the video is made up of approximately 40 to 50 separately edited and treated photos put together and sped up to make it look like the photo is progressively changing. Yes, it took a really long time to do, but I am extremely happy I stuck it out, and finished.
Also, during the photo editing craze, I came across some really beautiful scenic pictures of the places the kids visited. So I darkened a photos that one of the girls had taken of her and her friends in front of a massive church to make it look like it was at sunset, and then I used a wonderful photo that looked like a crime caught on film to go with the lyrics "Clearly it's time to make a change". Then I used the one photo of the people that went sitting down relaxing for the next lyric. I used the pixilation transition a few times throughout the video to signify a change that was made. First for the waiting, and another time from praying to actually moving. As we made our way back into the chorus I showed pictures of just the kids that the youth worked with to show the reason why they were there. The second time were in the chorus I used mainly the activities that were done. Like the puppet show, and worship. It was to show the two worlds meeting. The kids who are used to having everything and the kids who just love what ever they have left. You see the expressions on the NeO kids faces where there just full of pure joy and how it reflects onto the visiting youth. You really get a glimpse of this incredible tranisiton on the mission campers side in what is my favorite part of the video. When I saw these two photos I knew it would be perfect!
About 1:56-1:59 you see a HUGE change in the mission campers lives. They go from standing defensive with their arms crossed to raising their hands without shame. I absolutely love that part of the video.
You have no idea how hard it was to find a picture without the kids smiling in it, but I managed to find one for the lyric "heal the broken ones". The photo at 2:05-2:06 is one of my favorite of all of them I saw. It shows a great deal about the kids that went. They're all just bowed heads and prayer to our Heavenly Father and it truly is one of the best photos I've seen.
As we go into the 3rd chorus part I show them in the construction part of the trip. I know there we're a few more group projects of different things, but there weren't enough photos of those projects to be able to create it's own part in the chorus. I kinda stuck a photo in there for my own personal laugh, and if you really want to know I'll tell ya, but I don't think it's worth putting in this little commentary. I still think i coulda done this part of the video better, and there are a few parts throughout that grate on my nerves for not fixing it, but what's done is done.
After the end of the 3rd chorus we go into the bridge. The lyric "This Could Be Our Day" is repeated a few times, and I used a fade transition and alternated the ease in and outs on the photos to give a push and pull effect, as well as, a building up to climax.
2:48-2:50 is one of my favorite moments not only because of the lyrics, but also because of the visual comparision. You see a little girl upside down doing a handstand, and then you see two of the mission campers upside down, and in a way it unites them both. It gives them a sense of "giving themselves away" like the song says. I also used a picture of one of the little girls close up for the lines, "something beautiful" because they weren't there to make a house or renovate things although they did that, they were there to make a differnce in the lives of God's beautiful creation. The picture at 3:02 is one of my favorites because it is so visually interesting. You have kids on the otherside of the gate who seem like they can't get to the other side, and one of the little boys is trying to help but can't get it open then comes one of the campers, called to make a difference in these kids lives, and opens it for them.
The next few photos before the final chorus are cued specifically to the music. When we get to the part that says "I'm giving myself away" again, I use a fade in to black fade out to black transitions in order to make it sounds choppy like with the drums sound in the music. Then when the music slows down almost to a stop you see one of my favorite pictures at 3:29 with no effects just straight up picture, and then you almost like get hit between the eyes with the next one and the expressions on the faces of the girls. I intentionally kept a lot of the pictures at the beginning from being to happy or smiley so that it would be more rewarding to see all of it come together at the end of the trip. So in the last few pictures in the chorus you see a LOT of duos and groups of the campers with the kids smiling and having a great time so you can really see the change that's taken place in both of their lives. After the last chorus we get into what I call the "ooo's". It was really hard in coming up with an ending because I loved all the happiness and I wanted it to continue I had 40-50 more photos that I loved and wanted to put in, but I didn't have time to put them in. I had maybe 30 to 45 sec of song left and I needed to finish it out. So I ended it with a few pictures of the dorms and them packing up, or unpacking I'm not sure which, and them sleeping in the car. Most of these pictures probably occurred before they actually got to New Orleans, but it makes it a good ending to see the campers exhausted after a long roller coaster of a week emotions. So I closed this video off with a few reminescent photos of worship and New Orleans and the last thing you see is the "Mission Camp 2009" logo.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this commentary of my video. If you made it all the way to the end don't forget to tell me. I hope you enjoyed the insight into the joys and struggles of making this video. =]
3 comments:
Hi :) i'm pressed for time at the moment, just read your 'about me' part and yeah, i'm gona be following your blog. i unfortunately won't be able to view this video til i get back to uni but i look forward to it :)
Awww...thanks. I hope you like the video when you finally see it.
i absolutely love your video hun!
and i love the behind the scenes stuff... i mean.. i knew you slaved over that video but i had no idea how much work really went into it. i guess you never know until you go through it =D
love ya hun!
see ya wednesday =D (hopefully)
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