Watching "Thriller" in the Composition Classroom

Yesterday, my English 101 class continued its study of music, more specifically Michael Jackson's "Thriller."  I thought about playing the song without the video and then the video to have them compare and contrast the images in their head without the video to the video.  But in the end, I decided to go with a simpler movie review type of writing--plus, the official video is almost 15 minutes long, and the class is only 50 minutes long.

We did have time for a bit of discussion about whether or not the video holds up well.  Most of the students agreed that it did hold up well.  It wasn't as scary as it might have seemed in 1983 when it debuted, but the music, the costumes, the dancing, and almost every other element was sound.

Only 1/3 of them had seen the video before, and only one student had seen it in the last month.  I wasn't sure what to expect in that regard.  I also wondered how much of Michael Jackson's story they would know.  Most of them seemed to say that his history of being accused of sexual abuse of children shouldn't negate his art. 

It was strange, in a time wrinkle kind of way, to watch this video with my first year students.  This video premiered when I was a first year student, in 1983.  I remember making a special effort to see it on MTV; it felt like an important cultural moment.  And now MTV is bankrupt.  Michael Jackson's red jacket that he wore is in the Smithsonian--and the Smithsonian is closed because of a government shut down.

It feels like we're at another cultural moment of a turning point, but it's hard to know where we're headed.  I don't know that I felt the same way in 1983, at least not about "Thriller." 

It was a fun way to have a sort-of scary, very short film.  It was a great addition to my fall festival two weeks in English 101 class.  Will it lead to good writing?  Time will tell.

Sermon Recording and Remembering Nikki Giovanni

I was sad to hear of the death of Nikki Giovanni.  The Washington Post has a great article celebrating her life;  you can read it here, and this link should be the gift article link that gets you behind the paywall.  Even if you know the outline of her life, it's worth a read, because she's had such a rich and varied life.

I have had a fondness for Nikki Giovanni for most of my adult life.  She's one of the first living poets I ever read, one of the first poets I discovered on my own.  It was the summer after my first year at college, where I was a counselor at Congaree Girl Scout Camp.  We had a staff cabin which had a small bookshelf, and it was there that I found a copy of Giovanni's My House.  I read it, and because it was in the staff cabin, I came back to it several times throughout the summer.

I had been experimenting with writing my own poetry for several years before reading Giovanni, and others who were part of her generation, like Marge Piercy, Alice Walker, Lucille Clifton, and so many others.  It was that Giovanni book that made me want to do more with my poetry, which was fairly simple and short.

Those were the days when poets could be visiting poets on campus and make a decent chunk of money; those days are long gone.  I knew that Giovanni had been at Virginia Tech for a long time, and I wonder if her students had any idea who was leading their classroom.  From everything I've read, she was the kind of professor that anyone would want to have.  She's an inspiration.

I'd love to spend the day rereading her work, but I have a noon deadline for a project for my seminary class, Race, Gender, and Religious Imagination.  Part of that project involves recording a sermon, and it's a sermon that's supposed to be part of an event that I would create (if I had money, time, place, support) in response to my critical reflection paper.  Yesterday, I did that part of the project, the video sermon.

I had written about the event, a retreat on the nameless women who helped shape the ministry of Jesus, a retreat to remind us that if nameless women can have this kind of influence, maybe we shouldn't be so quick to dismiss our own agency and power.

Since I live at a retreat center, I thought about all the places where I might record my sermon.  Yesterday was fairly warm for December, and the rain had held off, so I decided that an outdoor location wasn't an issue.  Plus I knew I wouldn't be in the way, as I might if I tried to use one of the indoor spaces around camp.  My spouse was willing to be the controller of the camera.

We went over to the lake, where there's a gorgeous outdoor space, and it's fairly quiet.  We experimented with filming several sentences, a few times, and then we made the recording.  You can view it here.

I thought about doing several more takes, but I know that this attempt is probably as good as some of the other attempts we might make.  I don't have fancy editing software or the knowledge of how to take the best bits and pieces of recordings to make a seamless whole.

Once I uploaded the video to my YouTube channel, I uploaded the video to the dropbox for my class.  And now I need to make the final polishings to my paper.  I am to the point where I need to do some final revisions and call it done.  I've been immersed in this project for days, and I'm probably not able to see it clearly, at least not before the noon due date.

I am always aware that I might be able to create something better, but my experiences as a writer, or as any kind of creative, reminds me that it's always the case.  And what else is always the case:  even if it could be better, my efforts are likely good enough.

Seeing the trajectory of a life like Nikki Giovanni's reminds me of this point.  Our best work in one year will not be the best work in a different year.  The important thing is to keep doing the work.

Yokes and Burdens and Children's Sermons with Styrofoam

Last night was the last night of my seminary class; I spent yesterday working on writing my final exam essays, which turned out to be easier than I expected.  Indeed, the hard part was choosing the movies I wanted to use to answer the writing prompts.  Once I settled on the three films, the writing flowed quickly.  Hurrah!

Before we get too far away from my children's sermon on Sunday, I want to make a record of it here.  Even better, I'll post a link to the video my mother took while it was happening.  I arrived with my styrofoam yokes, which I put in the front of the church--it's not the usual decorating that I do, but it did generate interest.

I started by asking the children to visualize the huge field next to the church, and then I asked what we would have to do if we wanted to plant a garden.  Yes, we would have to mow!  What would we use to do that?  Yes, a tractor!  But before tractors were invented, what would we use?  Silence--which was fine.  It led naturally to talking about plows and how animals would help us pull the plow and get the job done more quickly.

I read the passage from the Gospel, Matthew 11:  28-30:  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

In an ideal world, I'd have had a historic yoke to show them, but I didn't.  So I created one out of styrofoam, but I was sure to talk about how a real yoke would be made with wood, and I brought along a heavy board to help them imagine how it would feel around their necks.  Easy?  How?

I invited my spouse up to show how a yoke with 2 animals would work.  What happens if the animals want to go in different directions?

We had planned to have the yoke split, but we weren't sure what would happen.  We couldn't rehearse without destroying the prop.  But it worked just the way we wanted--it was dramatic and got everyone's attention.

I finished the sermon by talking about God, who invites us to be part of the ongoing creation of the world.  I talked about how much easier it is to get a job done when we have help and when everyone moves in the same direction.   

As I watch the video, I can see places where I could have done more.  But overall, I think this may be my best children's sermon yet.  You can see much of the video here, although my mom didn't start recording until after I had talked about mowing and plows and yokes in general.

Video Sermon on Isaiah 2: 1-5

About a month ago, my pastor from my South Florida church asked me if I wanted to do an Advent sermon; it would be recorded, of course, because making a trip to South Florida isn't feasible in these days of the end of the semester.  At first I said no, but then I realized I was creating a sermon from the Advent lectionary (on Isaiah 2:  1-5) for my Foundations of Preaching class--so I proposed that I deliver that sermon, only a bit later than it comes in the lectionary.  My pastor said yes.

I had in mind that I would read at my laptop, recording, and that would be that.  But as I worked on the sermon for class, a theme emerged.  The sermon went from leaves in their full autumnal glory

to leaves slick and slimy on the sidewalks

to birds' nests visible in trees with no leaves.

I thought about the types of sermons I used to create, me speaking over images.  I had a bit of extra time yesterday, and I thought it wouldn't take that much more time to create a sermon with images to enrich the words.

What I didn't count on is that the Windows Video Editor has changed, so it took me awhile to make the sermon.  Then I thought of some changes I wanted to make, so I made a second draft. I could keep making draft after draft, but it was time to be finished.  I have other work to do as the semester keeps marching towards the end.

If you would like to experience my work, which will take less than 8 minutes of your time, you can go to my You Tube channel and watch my sermon on Isaiah 2:  1-5.

Saturday Doubts

I am in a bit of a funk this morning.  Yesterday morning, I was having fun, thinking of my approach to this seminary assignment:

Pretend that you are Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Stephen Colbert, Maria Bartiromo, Tavis Smiley or some other TV/radio host and you are going to interview the prophet Jeremiah on your show. What question would you ask him and why? How do you think he might answer that question and why? Be creative AND be sure to include texts/quotes from Jeremiah and information from the assigned readings to support your points as either the interviewer or Jeremiah. 

But this morning, I am second guessing myself.

I spent much of yesterday afternoon working on a video.  I typed out the script I planned to follow, and then I spent some time practicing.  I knew that 4 minutes max was the guideline for the time we had, so I wanted to be sure.

I must have done at least 20 videos--grrr.  In a way, though, it was a plus, because I had the script mostly memorized by the time I did the final take.

What's got me in my funk right now is that the final take doesn't have to be the final take.  I did already submit it to the Discussion thread, but I could submit another version.  I have spent the past few hours thinking of how I could have done it differently.  

I have also spent some time thinking about the video that I was planning yesterday morning and what I ended up with.  I had this idea for costume changes, but I gave up on that.  In the end, when Jeremiah talked, I had on a pair of sunglasses; I took them off for the announcer speaking.

I tried to walk a line between explaining too much and leaving some things unexplained.  For example, I wrote lines for Jeremiah when asked about Jeremiah and God having lunch on a regular basis:

"You were expecting what? A burning bush? That would upset my neighbors. Sure, we have lunch. There’s a great kosher deli that you should check out before you leave. They have the best strudel. It’s like the word of the Lord made into pastry."

I didn't explain that Jeremiah had a vision of eating the words of God.  Was I too subtle?

I did do what the assignment required in terms of referring to the book of Jeremiah and the readings and lecture videos.  Did I do enough to to explain the why of the question? I no longer know.

I could spend the morning creating an alternate version and not be any more reassured.  I like my final video, but I do see all the ways it could be better.  I know that I could spend the whole morning and not end up with something that would take away all my doubts.

And here is the larger issue:  I have other seminary work to do.  This discussion post is not a larger project.  I know that on one level, I'm overthinking it.  On another level, I am still so unsure of my ability to deliver what my professor wants, particularly when it comes to video.  I am much more comfortable with my writing skills.

I will likely leave my effort as it is and trust that it will be O.K.  Time to move along.

Music for Mother's Day

A year ago on Mother's Day, most of us were away from our mothers, separating Mother's Day (if we lived in the U.S.) from a distance.  This year, some of us might be fortunate enough to celebrate together, and I imagine that restaurants will do a booming business, as they usually do with these holidays.  Yesterday I was in the grocery store watching some people pick through bouquets of nice enough flowers, and I thought about all the mothers out there who would be getting flowers and chocolates and last minute gifts from the grocery store.  It's a better way of celebrating than many.

This year on Mother's Day, I could post a poem, but I'll post a link to the song that our church choir put together last year.  Go here to listen to our version of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." 

We were lucky--we were standing much too close to each other, singing and recording, but happily, no one got sick.  We were not punished.

I am not crazy about my singing voice in the video. Happily, my spouse sang the verses, and he really carries us.

I remind myself that we only rehearsed the song for about 20 minutes before the worship service. After the service, we ran through it several times, and then we recorded.

In this version, as our pastor is close to us, you can hear our individual voices. I think we sound better as a chorus when you can't pick out our voices. I've been feeling bad about my singing voice since--well, forever--and I wonder if now is the time for voice lessons.

But what I love about this type of music is that it can accommodate a variety of voices. If you listen to various versions, you'll hear people who would never be successful opera singers or featured choir members. Some of those people, like the Carter family, have become musical icons.

And in the end, it's not about how wonderful we sound--it's about the joy of making music together while we can, doing our best, looking for ways to improve, knowing that the important part is to show up.

Video Sermon on Ash Wednesday

My pastor asked me if I wanted to do the meditation for Ash Wednesday, and I jumped at the chance.  I knew it would be pre-recorded, and I knew that I've been enjoying my approach of recording segments and seeing how to stitch them together.  I like that the process pulls on my poetry brain.  I like trying to think of ways to make the message new.

This year offers additional challenges.  There's the standard challenge of having heard the message already:  Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.  Some of us might say, "We hear this every year.  Blah, blah, blah, dust, ash, rust, smash."

But this year, with Ash Wednesday coming after a year of these reminders of our mortality, how do we make the message new?  This year, after a year of watching all we've built implode, explode, decay, and disappear, how do we create a message that touches on these themes but doesn't leave us clinically depressed?

Here's one of the video segments that tries to do all of that:

I confess that I don't know if I've been successful.  The video sermon is too big to put in this blog post, but you can go here to see it.

When I went to my YouTube channel to get the link to the sermon to post,  I was surprised to find that the video had 53 views, far more views than any other video I've posted to the channel.  How did people find it?  What Google searches brought them to my little video sermon on Ash Wednesday?

The Joys of Last Week

In  Saturday's post, I talked about the week's gloominess and my weariness.  But I also want to remember that the past week had some good points too.

I was able to create a video sermon, the kind I've been creating since Pentecost.  I love creating short videos that I string together.  I love the ways that I'm inspired as I take my early morning walk.  This week's sermon had some videos where it was hard to hear my voice because it was so windy.  I'm pleased with how I worked around that. 

The video is too long to insert here, but you can view my sermon on Elizabeth at my YouTube channel.

This morning, I also want to remember that I've gotten positive feedback for the morning watch sessions I've been leading each morning at 5:30 a.m. through my church's Facebook page. I have trouble figuring out how to interpret the statistics that Facebook gives me as the administrator of my church's Facebook page. What exactly is an engagement? When it says that x amount of people have been reached, what does that mean? I'm guessing that an engagement means a certain amount of time that people have lingered--or does it mean that people have clicked to make the video play?

I always go back to check the comments that people post to morning watch. From the comments and from the people who I can see watching as I do the live broadcast, I know that at least 4 people tune in regularly.

At the end of Friday's morning watch, I talked about thinking about what we want more of and what we want less of--I talked about the delights of my sketch book and the value of doing a sketch every morning for five minutes, often the only time I'm sketching. I talked about what delights us also delighting God, that God put us on earth not to finish our chore list. Does it bring us delight? That's a good barometer--what brings us true joy? I talked about treasuring the time to do morning watch and the time to sketch each day.

One of my constant viewers said, "I also treasure Morning Watch." Another one wrote, "For me as rewarding as Church."

I wanted to record this feedback here, because finding past material on Facebook isn't always easy. I want to remember that what I'm doing is worthwhile.

 

 

Video Sermon/Meditation Outtakes

When I'm working on a video sermon/meditation project (all 2 times I've done it), I always shoot more footage than I can use.  I don't want to overwhelm viewers/worshippers with a 30 minute sermon.  So here are some pieces of unused footage from my video sermon/meditation on Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43.

I didn't use this one because it just seemed too obvious:

And this one seemed to belong to a different project:

I shot this one of friendly dogs meeting each other, but I didn't want to do narration while there were people around and commotion:

I thought I might close with this one, but then I got something I liked better:

I tend to keep every piece of everything I've ever filmed.  When I was first learning to use digital cameras, I keep every scrap because even blurry images worked well in various book trailer projects.  Now I have so much stuff that I no longer remember what I have or which folder it's in.  But if I really needed it, I could find it.

Here's the finished project, for those of you who want to see what I used.  I look at it and see the observations I could have made, the different ways I could have phrased what I was trying to say.  But as with many writing projects, the deadline comes, and what I have has to be good enough, at least for this project.

Strange Days, Strange Weeks, but the Pizza Remains Delicious

This has been a strange week-end after a strange week--but of course, every week feels strange when we're living through a dystopian narrative, especially when one lives in one of the epicenters.  So, in the interest of history, let me record some moments.

--On Friday, I had a phone call from one of my oldest college friends.  It's always a bit surreal to hear from old friends (are we really this old that we have grown children and grandchildren and have lived somewhere for over 20 years?).   But it's even more surreal in a time of plague and closed borders.

--Yesterday, I made this Facebook post:  "A virus rages outside, and we are staying safe inside, experimenting with sourdough starter. Today's experiment: pizza dough. I pulled out my grandmother's oldest bowl and greased it for the rising dough. I want to believe that this bowl has sustained my family through dark days: the Depression, World War II, various family difficulties. I remember my grandmother starting the day, each and every day, by making dough for rolls for the big meal of the day. I am grateful for these memories, grateful for sustenance of all sorts, hopeful for sustenance to carry our society through these days of dismal news about disease transmission."

--The pizza was delicious.  The pizza is always delicious.  At least that hasn't changed.

--Yesterday evening, some friends who live in the neighborhood stopped by.  We kept our distance on the front porch and caught up.  It was good to catch up.  We don't see them as often as we see our other friends in the neighborhood.

--Our friends across town who are moving to the heartland. have accepted an offer on their house and made an offer on a house in Indiana, where it's cheaper to live and close enough to Chicago so that they can see their daughter and other family members on a regular basis.  It's amazing to me that they could find a house from such a distance and that it proved to be the house they wanted.

--When I look back on how little I've been doing with traditional poetry writing, let me remember the other writing I've been doing.  I've been working on a creative video meditation on Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43.  For several days, I've walked the neighborhood, filming short clips, making the kinds of interesting connections that usually only happen when I write poems.  Here's an example:

--The weather has been very strange.  One of my former colleagues who moved to Brooklyn when she was laid off in 2012 posted a picture of the weather alert that told her that she was under a tropical storm warning.  Our summer weather isn't usually as brutal as it has been--we've not had our usual ocean breeze that keeps us not as beastly.

--Much of my work life this week that didn't involve teaching revolved around the temperature logs that we're keeping.  I spent a lot of time taking and recording temperatures.  I updated our log books.  I sent them to the people requesting them.  We were told we were doing them wrong, so I came up with a different system, a system which will take even more time when we implement it this week.  I am paid well to do this work, but I don't think the people above me really understand how much time it all takes.

--It has been a week of jaw-dropping statements and possible policy decisions from the president and his staff.  But when has that ever not been true?

--I did see the first TV ad for Joe Biden.  I can't remember any particulars, but I did remember being impressed and hopeful--just what I want a campaign ad to do.

Process Notes on a Video Haibun

I have long been intrigued with all of the experiments that people have done with video poems, and lately, Dave Bonta's haibuns have made me want to try the form.

Here's my haibun, with the words below:

Lower Your Boats


The Holy Spirit is that time in the morning: the sun breaks through, the light spreads across the sky, staining it with color, telling us, “It is time. Time to lower our boats into the water, time to go out onto the sea.”


Leave your safe harbor.
Find other fish to harvest.
Pluck the perfect shell.

To watch on YouTube, go here.

Process Notes:

In May, I was part of a team who put together a pre-recorded worship service for Pentecost.  My pastor asked me if I wanted to do a creative reflection or meditation, and I said yes (for notes on that project, see this blog post).

I spent a week walking around the neighborhood, being hit with all kinds of inspiration, and creating meditations by filming with the camera, while I spoke from behind the camera.  As I walked and created, I thought about how similar to poetry the process was for me.  I was trying to make people think about the Holy Spirit in ways that they never had before.  I was trying to jolt them out of their long held beliefs about the Divine, just the way that the original Pentecost experience had done for those first believers.

I ended up with lots of short bits of film, and as Dave posted his haibuns, I thought about returning to them to see if they might work.

I love the compressed form of the haiku, although I'm always hesitant to call what I write haiku.  Once I went to a haiku workshop at the Morikami Museum, and I learned that there's so much more to this art form than compression and syllables.

And I feel even less secure about using the term haibun to describe what I'm doing--I worry that there's an aspect or two that I'm mutilating.  I was so worried about issues of cultural appropriation/desecration that it took me some time to convince myself to post the haibun.

And then I laughed at myself.  It's a haibun-like thing, for pity's sake.  It's not like I'm writing a novel and appropriating the voice of a migrant worker or a Civil Rights icon.  People will not call for the revoking of my multi-million dollar book deal.

I'll keep working in this format--I like that I have lots of little videos already recorded, so even when I'm feeling blah and uninspired, I can make something new.  I like having a project that inspires me and scares me.  I like sailing beyond the harbor of my comfort zone.

Memorial Day: Flooding Rain and Pentecost Poetry Project Video

When I think of this past Memorial Day week-end, what will I remember?  In some ways, it was a week-end like many other week-ends:  grilling, cooking, grading, writing, sketching, and sleeping a bit more than I can during the week.

In some ways, it was strange:  a grad school friend and I did a Facebook call.  It was like a Skype call, so in some ways, it wasn't strange.  But it did start to rain heavily while we were talking, and I noticed some rain dripping on the windowsill.  We haven't had water instrusion through that window since Hurricane Irma; in fact, that's the only time we've had water intrusion through that window.

By the end of yesterday afternoon, we had water intrusion through all the windows that occasionally let water in, which is about half of them.  In a way, I feel fortunate--we don't have consistent leaks, with damage easily contained.  Roof leaks would be more difficult for me to handle.  Fixing these kinds of leaks is a headache though.  It's so hard to know where the water comes in and how it travels.

It was the kind of afternoon where I was glad we didn't have plans.  We sat and watched the flooding creep ever closer to the house, but happily, the rains let up, and the water receded.  Still, in the past year, it's the second flooding rain event, and they weren't related to anything tropical.

But hopefully, as I think back over this week-end, I'll remember the Pentecost Poetry Project that brought me lots of joy.  I had been assembling small videos during my morning walks last week, videos that are part poem, part image, part theology.  Here's one that I didn't use in the larger project:

Yesterday, I put them all together.  It wasn't anything I'd ever done before, but Windows 10 comes with a video editor function that gave me all that I needed.  I loved thinking about how to order them, how to make them most effective, how to finish.  I loved remembering the walks I took, the inspiration that I felt.

On Sunday, which is Pentecost, I'll post the whole video here.  In the meantime, I'm thinking about a larger project.  Could I do something similar with other church festival days?  Could I do it without being repetetive?

Stay tuned!

Pentecost Poetry Project

Last week, my pastor asked me if I wanted to do the message for Pentecost Sunday.  He's putting together some sort of video service which will be unlike the livestreaming that we usually do--that means that the message could be different from a traditional sermon.

I said yes, although I didn't really have a plan, and my videography skills aren't my strongest creative skills.  I thought about some traditional images:  fire and wind.  I could build a fire in our firepit or in the fireplace and film it.  Surely I could capture wind in a similar manner.  But as I've been walking through my neighborhood in the morning, I started to develop an alternate plan.  I had planned to record certain elements that have something to teach us about the Holy Spirit.

Tuesday morning I took my camera with me on my walk.  Happily, early in my walk, I realized I could film and talk at the same time.  My earlier plan had been to film and then figure out what to say and somehow splice the two together and then splice all the units together.

Later, I watched what I had created Tuesday morning, and I was pleased with it.  It's one of the rare moments of creativity where what I create is better than what I had hoped for--and it went in different directions than what I was thinking I would create.

My vignettes are more like poetry than anything else:  what does a trash pile have to say about the Holy Spirit?  Are we so busy looking for a burning bush that we miss the subtle shadings of the shrubbery?

When I first started this process, I thought I'd go to all sorts of locations.  Now I think I'll use what I've generated during these morning walks.

Let me see if I can post one of them here.  And then later, once I have them all put together, I'll write more about it and try to post it all.

Introducing Book Trailer #2: Your Input Needed

Soon, I'm off to St. Petersburg for the College English Association Conference. While I'm driving across the Sunshine State, I thought you might like to look at a rough draft of Book Trailer #2.

I'm most concerned with the last frame. I still haven't figured out a way to make music fade in and out, so I've just let the music play with the ordering information on a black screen. I suspect it goes on too long, but is that better than having the music come to a screeching and non-natural halt? Would it be better if the images behind ordering information changed? It certainly gives people enough of a chance to cut and paste into a browser window, which worried me about the first book trailer.



So, let me know what you think--no guarantees that I can fix it, but I'll try. I love creating these, but I'm often frustrated at what I still don't know about what the program can do.

I won't be gone long; on Friday, I'll unveil my contribution to Kelli's Big Poetry Giveaway!

The Making of My Book Trailer

It's been awhile since anyone on the blogs I visit regularly talked about the making of these animated poems or book trailers. A year ago, the postings of Sandra Beasley , and Diane Lockward and Kelli Russell Agodon; since each poet wrote a series of blogposts, I won't link to all of them here (go to their sites and use the search engine using "book trailers" or "animated poems").

A year ago, I played with animating/illustrating/videographing a stanza from a poem, since I didn't have a book to promote. At some point, I'd like to do the process for a complete poem, but I haven't returned to that yet. During that time, I took photos specifically for the poem project, but in the time since, I've always had these kind of videos and blog photo essays in my head when I've picked up the camera.

As a result, I've saved a lot of photos that other people would have thrown away. For example, near the end of the trailer above, you'll see a blurry background in red and a blurry background in green: yup, Christmas shots that didn't turn out right, yet they're perfect to be the background in a book promo.

Before I started, I brainstormed some of the themes of my book and tried to decide whether or not those themes would attract buyers. The last thing I want my book trailer to do is to repulse people. I chose three themes and sorted through pictures. I took more pictures. Then I began to assemble.

I used Microsoft Movie Maker because it's on the computer. I know that a lot of artists swear by iMovie, and while I briefly flirted with the idea of buying a Mac, I decided to explore Movie Maker. It took me a few hours, but I found it fairly easy. Here's one tip that it took me forever to realize: you can save as a project or you can save as a finished "movie." Before I realized that fact, I spent some time frustrated and wondering why I saved my video but couldn't access it on other machines. Unless you've already gotten all the computers in your life to the point where they can talk to each other, so far, I haven't found a way to work on a video project on different machines without importing a lot of photo files.

I was most intimidated by importing music or my voice, but music was relatively easy with all the free sources on the web. I'm still working on recording my voice, but I'll save that learning process for a different project. I went to Kevin MacLeod's site where he has music catalogued by type and sound and length. I looked for a piece that was about the length of my book trailer and sampled a few. Voila. Then I imported it and added a clip to give him credit.

At some point, as I experiment with recording my voice, I'd also like to experiment with recording musicians. Just as I find it easier to generate photos to go with the project I have in mind, so I would love to be able to say to my guitarist friend and my violinist spouse, "I need a 2 minute variation of 'Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf.'"

The problem with using other people's video, photos, or music is one of having permission. I like using my photos because I don't have to worry about violating copyright laws. But there's an added bonus: I get the pleasure of creating the photos.

Soon I will be brave and upload my video to YouTube and maybe one or two other places that host these videos. So, if you have comments about how to improve the book trailer, it's not too late!

Book Trailer Experiments--You Watch While I Walk

Today I will be walking the streets of Ft. Lauderdale--no, not in the ways you might be thinking!

About a year ago, a friend asked if I'd walk the A1A Half Marathon with her. I said sure, not really thinking about how long it takes to walk 13.1 miles. I thought, we'll walk, we'll have a little breakfast.

Of course, that may end up being what we do. We haven't trained much. It will get hot once the sun comes up. Or we may walk the whole thing as we revel in being able to walk without the threat of vehicles.

In the meantime, here's the rough draft of a possible book trailer for my upcoming chapbook. It has no audio yet. And I wouldn't post it widely until the pre-order period actually starts. So, my question here is, would this book trailer make you intrigued enough to order or at least to investigate further?