Virtual Easter Choir

A couple weeks back, I had an idea to do something like I had seen a few times up to that point. Apparently most churches also had the same plan. We had our worship team members record their parts to a song remotely from their homes, and then I put it all together. It was quite challenging, actually, but I thought it turned out pretty good. In fact, I’m making plans now for the next one.

The song we recorded is one of my favorites from Andrew Peterson, “Is He Worthy?” I hope it inspires you, dear reader!

New 48 Hour Film

My son and I participated in a 48 hour film festival laster year, as you can see here. This year, we did it again, but it was quite different. I wrote last year’s script which was a bit more serious. My son, Nathan, who is a junior in high school, wrote this year’s script entirely, and it’s just fun and crazy. See for yourself and try not to laugh!

But first, a few details. Each entry share 5 common “required” elements which were chose at random at the kickoff event. These were a them of transformation, a location being a dining room, a painter character, a prop being a tube of lipstick, and a line of dialogue being “This might be the __________ day of my life.” Nathan wrote these into his script on Friday night, but due to busy lives, we would not shoot until Saturday. He saw it was supposed to rain all day the next day, so he wrote that into the script and kept things at one, mostly indoor location. To our surprise, it NEVER RAINED! We had to use a hose and special effects to try and pull off the script as written.

Being that our Sunday is fully booked with church duties from 7:30am until noon, we needed to be done by then, and not the 3pm deadline. We filmed Saturday until close to 5pm and immediately began editing. I started exporting the video at 1:30am and set my alarm for 4am to get up and see if any changes were needed. Fortunately, there weren’t any pressing issues to fix, so we went with the first render.

At the awards show, it was a clear crowd favorite, but with the judging, we got second place again. It was a mostly fun experience, and I’m finally getting to feel somewhat rested!

Now, enjoy “Vanderkalt the Magnificent”!

 

 

Washington DC on the 4th of July

My family got to be in Washington DC on the 4th of July. It was quite the event! This video shows the whole trip leading up to the events on the National Mall on the 4th. It was so hot that week, but the 4th was a nice reprieve from the intense heat of walking around DC. I’d gladly trade some light rain to the scorching sun. It was a great trip and something we will remember forever!

Apple Butter Makin’ Days

Apple Butter Makin’ Days (ABMD) is a tradition for residents of the small town of Mount Vernon, MO. But it also attracts many from outside as a popular festival for over 50 years. For my family, it’s always a fun time. We get our steps in, eat great food (especially the ribeye steak sandwiches), see some entertainment, and just enjoy each other’s company.

I like to document things in general, so naturally I was tasked with documenting some of the festivities. Here’s the little promo I did for this upcoming AMBD:

48 hours filming with my son and his buddies…

What did you do last weekend? I made a film with my son and his buddies from high school. I’ve never done a 48 hour film before, and it was a lot of fun but a whole lot of work! I’m still recovering from sleep deprivation. We created something we’re proud of. The rules said to include a location or something about Joplin, the phrase “only human”, and some religious icon of some sort. The cool thing is out of the 4 judges, one was a longtime producer from Hollywood, and he gave us very high marks. Out of 480 possible points, we were only 5 away from winning best picture.

The main rule, as is common with these events, is that no creative work or even logistics can be done before the clock starts ticking. How could you even, since you don’t know the them until the clock starts. It didn’t help matters that there was a playoff football game the first night after the 48 hours began. Then, for me, Sunday morning from 6:30 to noon is pretty much gone with church stuff. So in all reality is was basically Saturday that we had to do everything.

Here’s the result!

A Dream Come True

I recently had the privilege of being interviewed on a podcast. It’s actually a podcast I follow and listen to. When they contacted me about interviewing me, I replied saying that feel a bit out of my league with the caliber of people being interviewed (I mean an After Effects legend who worked on Star Wars will be an upcoming guest!). But the folks at Ukramedia wanted to share my story about my journey from doing video as a hobby to making an award-winning documentary. The twin brothers who run Ukramedia have an awesome story themselves. I think I’ll share their story in a future blog post. But for now, here’s my interview entitled “A Dream Come True.”

Training the Next Gen

I’m looking forward to leading the animation track at the Creative Arts Academy at my alma mater in a few weeks! It’ll be great to get to train the next generation of high school students to help them learn to create their own stories. Time is a bit limited, but I hope we can accomplish great things.

Here’s the promo video for the track:

Andrew Peterson’s “Is He Worthy?”

I normally post videos I’ve made on this blog, but here’s on that I had nothing to do with. It’s really good on all counts. I’ve been a fan of Andrew Peterson for many years. His writing is a true gift. This video was shot in one continuous take! The logistics for it are astounding. Getting people into place when the camera is facing away. The reveals. It’s just so beautiful all around. With Easter coming up soon, enjoy this masterpiece!

Playing Guitar and Keys at the Same Time

I’ve enjoyed an app called Dreamfoot on iPad to use with a Looptimus midi controller. It allows me to map out chords on a song in different sections and then play keyboard sounds easily while playing guitar and even singing. Here’s an example of how it works…

One Second Every Day in 2017

I got this idea and app suggestion from a friend, and decided to make a video that has one second from every day in 2017. It’s neat to watch it and look back now. It’s been quite a year. Some days had big events. Others were very mundane. There’s a lot of my kids and a lot of food! It was fun to do. The “1Se” (1 second everyday) app makes it easy, and then I just added music and a little intro and outro.

I’m glad I did it, but I’m NOT doing it this new year! So please enjoy this little video which was a year in the making…