"Korea Dreambus" Pilgrimage and Documentary Film

I finished my rough assemble edit yesterday morning. It seemed like I'd relived the entire trip during the last 2.5 weeks of editing - just about the same amount of time I was on pilgrimage, in fact. As I was editing, I drew more and more from footage and photos that I hadn't sent over to my editor, so this afternoon I had to get all that into Dropbox for him to grab, as well as some re-recorded voice over track. Now Derrick, my editor, can get to work on a more complete rough cut with effects, titles, transitions, and sound work. Likewise, Terry the composer can work on the soundtrack. The film is coming in around 50 minutes, which I expect will remain the same in the fine cut because many stills are going to be layered and moved a bit, and then titles will be added at the end. That's my goal - keep it at 50 minutes. With this large piece of work behind me, I need to focus on the ESOL class I'm teaching at the local community college. Classes start... tomorrow at 9 a.m...

I'm closing in on the last third of my rough assemble edit. What is that, exactly? It's my selected video and photos placed in the timeline with the rough voice over, but without clean edits, transitions, sfx, music, sound mix, etc. It's been a bit stressful with other summer obligations and the rising reality of a new school year about to begin. I took some PTO and carved out five whole days to pound away at this in the middle of August. And then, on day three.... tested positive for Covid.  Really right now?  I worked through fever and coughing to get something done, and thankfully the symptoms only lasted a couple days. I pushed through and am bound to complete this rough/assemble edit by the end of this week, now that I'm fully over the lingering Covid fatigue. The next stage will be sending this to both Derrick the editor and Terry and composer so that they can begin their respective tasks. I know I'll be revising the script and will then re-record a good quali...

I'm just about wrapped up at the high school where I teach. By this time next week, I'll be done, and that means that Korea Dreambus editing will be my main focus (after my job at the paper). The editor, Derrick, has the footage that I organized, so now I'll be diving into creating an assemble edit with some copious notes.  I'm also looking for a composer at the moment - someone who understands something about Korean culture and traditional music, even if the score isn't completely traditional-sounding. I'm hoping for a mix of traditional sounds and instrumentation (or approximation thereof) along with melodies that will resonate with the themes of the film, which revolve around the martyrs themselves and the personal reflections I'll be making. Speaking of which, writing the script for the narration will also be on my platter this summer.  I'm planning a small vacation to my homeland (Massachusetts) at the end of the month, otherwise, it's going to ...

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 ...

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...