MoSop Movie Debut Takes Flight

For over a year now I have been continually amazed and inspired by the inspirational gems created on YouTube, especially the Guru of Mormon-YouTube-ism SethAdamSmith. Off and on I would say to myself:

“Self, Someday I’ve got to sit down and learn how to make my own movie! I mean, how hard can it really be?”

Well, for some [insane] reason I decided that last night “someday” had arrived.

I embarked on my Movie Producing quest with gleeful abandon. Of course, knowing me, I certainly couldn’t go about it in any sort of logical way. My learning process always involves twists and turns and scaling the Mt. Everests of the Creativity Kingdom.

This time was no different.

For the sake of posterity, or anyone else who thinks they might like to become a Movie Producer
also…or for those who would just like a good joke at my expense…here is a chronology of my mis-adventure. Read it and weep:

1. Chose A Song: Some people get their inspiration from a home movie, or a photo, or a topic of interest, etc. For me, an African American spiritual called “Let Me Fly” has been obsessively running through my mind for the past two weeks. I reasoned that “If you can’t fight it, then you might as well embrace it”. And thus, “Fly”  became my creative focal point.

2. Help: Searched YouTube help pages for How To proceed.

3. Got Lost: Or rather, got sidetracked for an hour watching YouTube help videos that actually didn’t help at all, but nevertheless were very entertaining.

4. Wandered: Got sidetracked with links for software downloads that promised the moon, but cost the equivalent of a small solar system, and were much too complicated for my beginner brain…Kept looking…

5. Discovered: A tool called SmileBox which was terribly cute and so I spent about 2 hours playing with their templates.

6. Pondered the theme of the song and how to lay out the illustration

7. Photos: Gathered [un-copyrighted] photos that might work well with the theme (time consuming)

8. Created: Carefully and painstakingly a lovely slide-show on SmileBox and attached my MP3 of the song.

9. Proud of myself

10. Duh: Reminded that “Pride comes before the fall”.

11. Ugh: Went to save my work of art and discovered that the “free 14 day trial” requires a minimum of one month purchase on a credit card.

12. Paid: $5.99 for a month subscription (Yes, I was duped, but I couldn’t just erase my masterpiece after all that work!)

13. Saved: the slideshow, somehow.

14. AAK!: Attempted to load on YouTube, but discovered it is actually not saved on my desktop, nor is it in the correct format.

15. Saved: slideshow to a disk

16. Googled:  Internet for how to change the format of my slideshow to .wav, or .avi, or .mpeg, or something similar that YouTube will recognize.

17. Found A nice free download AVS Video Converter to change any media file into compatible versions

18. Uploaded: my new improved slideshow…

19. Horrified: The “movie” looks terrible. The photos have become miniturized and blurry. The forward and back buttons of the slideshow didn’t erase as I had assumed and glared at me in the corner, and on top of it all, the sound was skewumpus!

19. Starting Over: as soon as I find a way to make the video presentable…[trying not to think about #12.]

19: Another Duh: Found out I have something called a Microsoft Office Movie Maker free of charge that actually came with my computer! … who would have thought (permission for all computer literate folks to laugh or groan here)

20. Re-created: my entire movie again after uploading all the photos to the Movie Maker. (several more hours learning how to use the tool, get the music to match up with the photos fairly decent, and play with the special features tool).

21. Going Live: finally Download my first official movie to my MormonSoprano YouTube account! [Sort of feels like I just gave birth without an epidural]

(Note: Error message “video no longer available” is apparently a false alarm due to the download processing and no reason to run screaming from the room)

22. Yawn: At this point in the story, I glanced at the clock which declared it was 5:00 am – time to get ready for another work day [sans sleep]. Good grief! Was this all-nighter saga of my first [and quite possibly last] YouTube Movie endeavor actually worth it?! Probably not. [But I have gained new-kindled admiration for all those insomniac film makers of the world – bless your hearts]

In conclusion: The scriptural reference I chose for my movie debut comes from The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans:

“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together…[We] shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” – Romans 8: 16-17, 21

I hope to convey the metaphor that each of our souls have the opportunity to progress from bondage to freedom through the gospel.

Jesus truly gives us wings!

(a few of us just have to keep flapping until we finally get off the ground)

May 6, 2015 UPDATE

In the spirit of this entire learning curve, my original first YouTube video was deemed in violation of a copyright and I was forced to delete it. I survived, so so did my YouTube channel. Here’s a different – but equally lovely – music video I created.