Archive for: November 2008

The Rosary Videos are perhaps my best videos to date and also perhaps the most creatively challenging project as well ..??..

It started simple enough with the Pastor saying, “Chuck, I’d like to film my church at prayer.”

Knowing that the audio for this project would be the lead (vs the visuals), I hired an expert at on-location audio recording so we had three mics set up - two stereo mics to capture the congregation and one mic for the Pastor (i.e., my Audio Technica 4041) and brought all three audio tracks direct into a laptop computer running Sonar.

The audio had it’s own issues which I’ll get back to, but the video was the really big issue. None of us had either filmed a Rosary, which is long (i.e., four sections each of which is 20 minutes long and repetitive) and almost like a meditative chant.

Initially we thought we would film the people, their hands, and the Rosary beads. Thus produce more of a year-book-like video, but once the Pastor saw ten minutes of the first draft of the edited DVD footage, he was not 100% happy with the outcome.

“I know I said let’s film my congregation, but after seeing this video of these people, we’ve kind of been there done that visually speaking. So, is there any way we could apply the screen-saver approach and show my people at prayer mixed in with the spirit of the Rosary? You, know. Some of those really nice sunset pictures and other gentle ambient pics along with the congregation?”

And there-in started my extended creative journey and back to the edit bay.

The Rosary has four sections - The Joyful, The Sorrowful, The Glorious and The Luminous - each of which has five sub-sections, and many sections that repeat (e.g., the Hail Mary 10x).

Some of these sections were seemingly easier to visually score than others - e.g., how to show The Sorrowful Mysteries without defaulting to Gothic or traditional heavy imagery? Jesus dying on the Cross is not a pleasant sight or thought yet in this video, my job was to make it at least compelling enough to pull someone through the entire piece yet also be prayer-like, so using fast edit cuts like an MTV show (or other current TV shows like CSI) was out of the question.

Ultimately, the visual answers came from my extensive image library.

So in the case of the Sorrowful Mysteries, I used images from Native American burial sites, real slave cabins from a South Carolina plantation, Hawaiian burial grounds, various New England cemeteries, plus sprinkled in audio effects like rain, thunder, lightening, running water, etc. All of which are combined and interspersed with shots of the congregation, so the video pulls one through the Prayer without being in your face, yet also subtly reinforces the themes each of the Mysteries portrays.

I mentioned that the audio was an issue - this was unforeseen in that the beads hitting the pews created huge audio spikes that had to be edited out and tamed otherwise the crystal clear audio captured would have been unpleasant to listen to.

Last night was a Friday night and a night that was once the all important date night. But now that I’m part’n parcel of a happily married couple, it was a night like many others except for the fact that I was wired as I entered the master bedroom that featured resting wife and snoring dog.

I was wired with ideas and spirit not because of substances, but high on new technologies I was evaluating earlier that day. Technologies like XAMPP, TikiWiki and Moodle - awesome open source tools that the more I learned about and experimented with, the more juiced I got with ideas for mapping to business opportunities.

So I entered the sleeping bedroom not knowing what to do next. I knew I had to power down, but I also knew I probably wouldn’t get to sleep for another two hours or so.

Thus the issue became:

• Do I enter the bedroom with laptop and continue to surf and educate myself about these technologies (yes, I have headphones, wireless keyboards, and illuminated keyboards so as to cut down on audio / video noise thus respect sleeping wife);
• Do I leave laptop in office and flip the TV channels to find something fun to watch and relax (the TV was already on with low volume set to the Food Network);
• Or, do I turn the TV off and pick up one of the many books that I have open and can’t wait to finish reading but need to turn the lights up to read ..??..

While tempted to continue computing with the wireless laptop, I opted to leave it in the office and first try the TV option via halfhearted attempt of channel surfing knowing I could dive into one of the books as fail safe option.

So I flipped and flipped and nothing exciting appeared on TV that I haven’t already seen on some of my favorite channels (e.g., history, travel, and discovery). But then the cosmos inspired me to flip to the PBS channel (channel 13) just in time to see Charlie Rose interview Professor Lawrence Lessig.

WOW! What a TV surprise - two of my favorite people, neither of whom know me but both of whom I respectfully honor.

Below is a video clip of that interview hosted on Google - enjoy!

I should also note that the reason I love this interview and these two people is partly due to their content sensibilities - e.g., Professor Lessig has been (and continues to be) instrumental in shaping the Creative Commons and argued CopyLefts (vs CopyRights) before the Supreme Court; Charlie Rose has been (and continues to be) inspiring with his objective and truthful coverage of multilateral thinkers, do-ers, movers-n-shakers, et al.

But back to the video clip. It is a dialogue between Charlie and Larry about many things including why Congress failed on copyright issues (simple issues), why Congress continues to fail on the big issues (e.g., global warming), and why Congress needs to change (e.g., upgrade to Congress 2.02b) in order to survive by serving the greatest good (a good thing) which is us (i.e., we the people - everyday people who vote, pay taxes, do our best to add to the system, get along, play by the rules, groove with the flow, just get by, hang on, etc.).

The big idea (as I understand it in this video interview) is that Congress needs to move from money focus to idea focus.

In the old days, I believe they called this Statesmanship - vs today’s vulgar political hack who sells out to special interests even though all parties involved are mostly in denial.

So the good news is that what once was old is new again - yippee - e.g., for best examples of Statesmanship see Founding Fathers.

And as they used to say in Brooklyn, “Go You Guys! Just You Go!”

On Halloween night, the wife and I walked the dog down Ridgefield’s main street amongst hundreds of goblins dressed in festive attire along with their entourages. The majority of these goblins were between 2 foot and 4 foot tall, diversely costumed, accompanied by older and taller family members, and eagerly embarked in search of sweet door-to-door handouts.

Our brisk walk from 5:30-6:30PM was delightful to the senses, crowded along the concrete sidewalks, and yet inspiring to see such community outpouring, courteous mannerisms, and joyful enthusiasms, especially among the little goblins. All of which got me to thinking about the upcoming elections and the impact said elections will have on today’s goblin generation and their generation’s of generations.

The political platforms of Native American’s have inspired our nation’s democracy and founding fathers from the onset: from meeting venues (e.g., the long house); to rules of debate (e.g., the talking stick); to strategy directions for voting (e.g., voting decisions based on seven generations forward from today’s generation). Unfortunately, we never adopted the Native American’s war-making policy of abiding by the council of grandmothers, but I digress.

So here we are in November 2008 and the spirit of spooky politics is indeed upon us and the political season is about to enter it’s voting finale.

I scare easily but I think the thing that scares me the most in this political, post pumpkin-carving season is that today’s political climate is seemingly no different than 241 years ago in colonial, pre-American revolution period of 1767!

Consider the words from America’s first deep throat - a man who reported on the corruption on both sides of the pond (Philadelphia and London 1767-1772 via the Public Advertiser) and did so in a manner that many historians believe was instrumental in bringing about the revolutionary actions of our nation’s founding fathers and countrymen alike.

Quote 1:

“We are arrived at that point when new taxes either produced nothing, or defeat the old ones, and when new duties only operate as a prohibition: yet these are the times when every ignorant boy thinks himself fit to be a minister.

Instead of attendance to objects of national importance, our worthy governors are contented to divide their time between private pleasures and ministerial intrigues. Their activity is just equal to the persecution of a prisoner in the King’s Bench, and to the honorable struggle of providing for their dependents.

If there be a good man in the King’s service they dismiss him of course; and when bad news arrives, instead of uniting to consider a remedy, their time is spent in accusing and reviling one another.

Thus the debate concludes in some half misbegotten measure, which is left to execute itself.

Away they go: one retires to his country house; another is engaged at an horse race; and a third has an appointment with a prostitute; and as to their country, they leave her, like a cast of mistress, to perish under the diseases they have given her.”

Quote 2:

“The matter and the means, the times and the talents they disclose, the popularity which attended them at their outset, the impression they produce on the public mind, and the triumph of the doctrines they inculcate, all equally concur in stamping for them a passport to the most distant posterity.”

By the time you read this essay, the votes will be in and the national agenda for the next four years set in motion. But regardless of who wins, I think it is safe to say that the great American experiment has run it’s course and is officially over.

Suffice it to say that American democracy, ala the version fashioned by our founding fathers, did not work in the long term, not because the ideals were flawed but in large part to the selfish nature of human beings. This nature was expressed in 1767 by America’s original deep throat and continues to this day as evidence more recently by leadership nationalizing our banking system, subscribing to torture, engaging in warrantless wiretaps, etc.

The failure of the originating democratic power and principles behind America’s great experiment is akin to how scientific strides with atomic power have outpaced our global emotional intelligence as a human race. Apparently, this was evident to Einstein when asked by a reporter about how he felt being responsible for developing atomic power. To which, Einstein expressed dismay in that while human beings made significant scientific strides in unleashing said atomic powers, the equivalent emotional maturity needed by humans to truly steer such power responsibly was lagging by hundred-plus years in his opinion.

IMHO, the dual party system is persona-non-grada, a joke, broken and doesn’t serve the needs of today’s populace. Instead of two parties that point to the other party’s faults and limitations, we should instead be focusing on collective transparency and ideas like open source government.

We need to evolve and reform politics to the next level(s) - levels that work best for everybody, “the highest good” and include open debates that bring about the best ideas, inspire transparency, best practices, and ongoing continual improvements via open, transparent feedback loops.

So while human nature is not likely to change anytime soon, today we have new challenges but we also have new tools. Here’s hoping we use them for a new and improved political process - e.g., Google for open source government!