[Gathnet] FW: comedy of errors

[eg]

Well, yesterday, I tossed a pillow into the bottom of my knapsack (because I
haven't decided on a case yet) and took my new toy (camera) to church.  I
wanted to get Bethany and Anita singing together during worship because it's
so funny to see Bethany standing on a chair up in the front.  Part way
through the set was "Create in me a clean heart", and it just so happened
that we decided to have Bethany intro the song with a short solo following a
viola lead-in.  I decided to try and catch the whole song with the video my
new toy is capable of.  Here is where the comedy begins:

-        It was too late to have Scott bring my tripod as they were already
on the way to church.  Oh well.  The image stabilization of my lens actually
does an good job at this in video as well as simple shots.

-        I enlisted Nate to shoot the video.  This was his first
introduction to the camera.  I got him set up for shooting from a particular
place so all he had to do was stand there and push record.  He was
unfamiliar with how to use any of the controls - even the basics, like
focus.

-        During the service, the singers shifted location so that from where
Nate was standing - prefocused - Bethany's face was entirely hidden behind a
music stand (she wasn't on the chair).  Being unfamiliear with the camera,
Nate had little choice but to carry on and the whole set was recorded that
way. (plus the viola intro was already clipped at the beginning).

-        So we thought maybe we would have Bethany sing again after the
service, just for a recording.  Hanna couldn't stay and play the viola again
as she had a lesson to give. 

-         I made the error of thinking in terms of photography and turned
the camera "portrait" style to fill the frame.  Bad idea.  This does NOT
work well with video!

-        I did get the software to turn the footage right-side up again
(though fuzzier).  I thought perhaps I could intersperse clear shots of
Bethany with the shot Nate made during service.  Uh.  Well.  Oof.

-        The fellow who usually handles the sound mix was not there
yesterday and one of the high-school kids ran the board.  He knows how the
board functions physically, but hasn't got the idea of "mixing" in order to
create a pleasant sound.

-        Our usual worship leader was also out of town and we had an extra
singer who made it "challenging" to blend together.  

-        The result was a blessed Sunday morning, but such a terrible
cacophony that when I played it back to see about sending out a video of the
song, I just laughed.   In fact the stark contrast between the joy
experienced during worship, and the sense of the ridiculous just listening
to it as "entertainment" should prove the existence of the Holy Spirit
beyond any doubt. J

I won't inflict it on you.    Instead, I'll send out two clips that we had
Bethany sing off the cuff after the service.  You "miss" the viola and
recorder accompaniment and, since we just tossed these at her without any
warning, music/words, or run-through, Bethany was unsure of the words in
some places.  But there is still enough of a "cute" factor that I think you
might enjoy them. (crunched down considerably in size as they are not worth
a lot of bandwidth)

 

Nothing <http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104750/Nothing%20but%20the%20blood.mp4>
but the blood

Create
<http://dl.dropbox.com/u/104750/Create%20in%20me%20a%20clean%20heart.mp4>
In me a clean heart

These are in my "dropbox" which has no streaming capability, so you'll need
to download and save them to disk to see them.

They are both in mp4 format.  If you can't play them after downloading, I
suggest first (on the windows platform), the very nice free  and open source
player that handles about anything you can throw at it:  vlcplayer
<http://portableapps.com/apps/music_video/vlc_portable>  (a link to the
portable version, so you don't even have to install anything.  Just
double-click it to start and drop the file onto it).  If you still can't
play it for whatever reason,  I can save to an avi format for you.  Try
nothing but the blood first - it's only 11mb.  

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