"Korea Dreambus" Pilgrimage and Documentary Film

I was blessed to be able to watch the announcement and appearance of our new pope, Leo XIV, with my students yesterday. When the announcer said he is an American, you could have knocked us all over like bowling pins. Cheers erupted when he appeared on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica. For myself, when Pope Leo gave the urbi et orbi (to the city and the world) blessing, I felt a wave of peace and hope fill my heart and soul.  Concerning Korea Dreambus -- I'm neck deep in my footage, naming and organizing clips that I will want to use. I have a hard deadline of May 26 as I will be meeting with my editor in Buffalo that day to transfer footage and go over Davinci Resolve. I've also put a call out for a music composer(s) to work on Korea Dreambus, so hopefully that will bear fruit. It just happens to be an overly busy month at my other jobs, as well as one of my side-hustles, so it will be an interesting few weeks. But no matter! This is how we get things done. And I feel a ...

Today has been a day of "little wins."  First, I figured out how to import my files into DaVinci without having to reformat! Also - realizing it's much better for me to select my clips and name the files before I import them. For now, I'm only renaming the clips I think I will use, and I'm starting with the video clips. I'll get to photos later, because with those I'll want to do something more dynamic, and only if/when there's not suitable video. I spent Easter Sunday being home sick, and while I'm feeling better today, I've still had to nap and take it easy. But with God's grace, I've been able to work on this film, so that's a little win of the day. Sanctuary of Yangnam church And this little win is really big, and points to the theme of my pilgrimage (God's never-ending providence):  I was typing up my paper edit with all the notes, but I couldn't remember the name of one of the churches I went to, one that wasn't on...

Happy Easter! He is Risen! I'm spending my Easter at home, mainly because I have what feels like another sinus infection. But in all honesty, it's a blessing to be home alone on this sunny spring day. I puttered on my porch, getting ready for what I'll be planting this year and organizing the porch garden-to-be. In awhile, I'll bake some chicken breasts and get some sort of dinner going. But in the meantime, I decided I was going to start playing with my footage in DaVinci Resolve. Saenamto Shrine, Seoul Except..I can't yet because apparently all the media are in formats not supported by DaVinci. I've asked my editor to suggest what app or website to use to convert everything. So, that's going to be another long and tedious task that isn't filmmaking but is part of filmmaking. I am chomping at the bit to start actually playing with footage and getting the beginnings of an assemble edit underway. But it's all good -- I'm learning more and more as ...

Anyone who has created a video -- even a short one -- knows that organizing and managing the media (video and photos) is an essential step in preparing to edit. It can be a behemoth of a task, depending on how much media you have. If you're me, you overshoot everything, and you end up with about 4,000 video clips and photos from Korea to organize and manage. I've had to break this into a few smaller chunks so as not to get overwhelmed.  The first step was to create Albums in iCloud. I organized these by the locations of my pilgrimage trip: Seoul, Seosan, Ulsan, Eonyang, Incheon, and Returning Home.  This was fairly easy to do, as everything is automatically date stamped, and I knew from looking at the images where in my journey they were from. Haemi Martyrs Shrine I also had to prep my computer for editing. This meant several steps: clearing off non-essentials, backing everything up, and upgrading my OS to run Davinci Resolve (DR).  I looked up the minimum required system...

If you've read any news from Korea lately, you know that several wildfires have been raging this past week. Two of those fires were located in areas that I hold dear, in Ulsan and near Namchang.  The fire near Ulsan looks like it came up very close to one of the pilgrimage sites I visited last year -- Eonyang Catholic Church in Ulju-gun, Ulsan .  From what I can gather, that fire has been contained, and it never touched the property of the church. Thanks be to God.  However, elsewhere, the fires are raging with the loss of cultural and historical places as well as human life. Let's pray for a quick end to these fires before more lives are lost and irrevocably changed. Crucifix on the hill behind historic pilgrimage church at Eonyang, Ulju-gu, Ulsan, S. Korea

Dear friends and supporters, I am so delighted and humbled to report that I've received a grant from the Genesee Valley Council on the Arts  Individual Projects program in support of post-production for Korea Dreambus . My scheduled public screening, in accordance with my agreement with GVCA, will be on Nov. 1, 2025 at St. Bernard's School of Theology and Ministry. As part of the process of submitting a budget, I've hired an editor -- the amazing Derrick Edgerton III -- who also worked on sound and color grading for my short film Souled , which will be screening next month.  Since returning from Korea, I've been running to catch up with my other responsibilities, but as my short film is finally getting finished, there is more time for me to focus on this doc. Thus far, I've arranged my media (4,000 clips and photos!), started writing a paper edit, and have purchased an external hard drive to use in putting together an assemble edit with Davinci Resolve, which I...