My #create2020 entries for the next several weeks will be videos I am creating for my work at The Hermitage. I am exploring creating Lent themed video prayers/reflections. They will be posted each Wednesday of Lent. This is my introductory video - in which I seems to be an 80-year-old monk.
#Create2020 Week 7 - Guest blessing
I’m doing a written creation for my #Create2020 project this week. In my work at The Hermitage I am deeply concerned about fostering a good experience for our guests, so this is a blessing I wrote for them
Dear Guest,
Take courage for the Creator is here bringing forth new life in all that surrounds you.
Take courage for Christ is here welcoming and healing all who enter in.
Take courage for the Spirit is here praying and singing in you and in all.
May the Three-in-one bless you this day.
May the Three-in-one guide you along the way.
#Create2020 - Week 6 - Winter Woods video
This is a favorite spot by our house at Apple Farm. Something about the winding trail leading off into the woods captures my attention, and the fresh falling snow gives it an extra pleasing appearance. (It beats all the brown and gray.) I recorded stereo audio of the filmed scene, and then also added a guitar track.
Whenever I listen to my recorded guitar playing I think “You’ve been playing for a few years, and you playing still sounds so lousy?” I wish I played better. I could spend time moving around each note so it hit exactly on the beat and re-recording each note that didn’t sound exactly right, but I’m not interested in creating machine made music. I enjoy making music. I enjoy looking at a scene and thinking about music that might fit the scene. If I waited until I thought I was good enough to share anything I wouldn’t share anything, so enjoy my imperfect world.
#Create2020 Week 5 "A House Built of Sky" Video
This week’s creation is something I created for my job at The Hermitage. It is a video introduction to the house we will be building this year, and in which June and I will eventually dwell.
I will confess that I want to preface showing this video with all sorts of qualifications to lower expectations. This is my first go at more of a produced video. I pretty much put this thing together in 2 or 3 days. There was a lot of learning/trial and error in the video editing program (Shotcut), and I can easily point to a dozen things that I should improve. All that aside, I had fun working on this and hope to do more, I think it does what it is supposed to do, and I don’t think it distracts from the message. I did all the video, guitar, and most of the pictures. The narrator and author is my colleague Naomi Wenger.
#Create2020 Week 4 - Loping
This video is a product of playing. Whenever I record guitar playing it is all just exploration. I never have a plan in mind. I ended up with this brief piece which I thought of as loping. I then wanted to create some kind of video that would accompany it. I wasn’t sure what it would be, but eventually realized it should be in slow-motion. Fortunately the iPhone handles that very well, so I set up the phone on a tripod and walked away.