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Video - Jerusalem Evangelical Lutheran Church

March 15, 2009 by Heather

Jerusalem Evangelical Lutheran Church

I chose my video exercise for two main reasons.  The first reason was I wanted a “place” away from Penn State.  The second is I wanted a “place” that represented a piece of me

I was raised in my church (Christ Lutheran).  My mother was the Sunday school superintendent, my grandfather was the sexton, and my grandmother was a member of the Helping Hands.  Growing up, we were all picked up by my grandmother every Sunday for church.  It was the most beautiful building in my hometown.  I was in middle school when my church burned down.  I still remember lying in my bed that night, hearing the fire whistles.  I crawled under my covers telling my stuffed kitty I hated the sound.  Next, the phone rang and my mother ran out of her bedroom yelling the church is on fire.  My mother left the house, but my brother and I had to stay home at first with my father.  When we were allowed to go, it seemed like forever to run down the street.  When we arrived the church was fully engulfed.

I decided to open my film with a portrait I had of the church so that people could see the beauty of the building.  I then chose the scene of the firetruck racing down the same road I ran so that viewers knew something was about to happen.  I ended this clip with the first view of the building.  I then faded to a clip that gives the viewer a lot of information.  First, viewers learn how hot the fire was since the lead of the stain glass windows just melts away.  Second, viewers learn the building cannot be saved through the desperation in the firefighter yelling for everyone to get out of the building and the horn blasts from the firetrucks.

I continued my documentary by giving viewers just enough information about St. Matthew’s (and an image), the merger, and the new building.  I concluded my documentary including an outside image of Jerusalem as well as several inside shots.  Many of the inside shots I included were actually artifacts taken from the St. Matthew’s building—baptismal, windows.

During editing I found it very difficult to cut out scenes, but I knew I wanted a chronological order of events.  I also had difficulty figuring out how to use Final Cut Pro.  In particular, I wanted to use the scrolling text option, but when I would put it in my time line and play it, it would say rendered???  Another problem I had was I didn’t know how to put my documentary on the DVD.  I struggled with this for a long time Wednesday night.  I could save it to my hard drive and when I viewed it, everything was just as I edited it.  I decided to go to media tech before class and they showed me how to put it on the DVD with iDVD.  I made several copies so I could show others.  However, when I got home and viewed it myself with my TV, some of the text screens were cut.  WHY???

Anyway, I hope we can learn more about the software and I hope everyone at least understands my DVD despite the error.

Comments

Dave

Dave
March 16, 2009

Way cool. I love how you incorporated the footage of the fire with your footage. It was a very compelling story and it was presented very well. Despite the technical difficulties (like having to go to the media library to watch your film), the heart and soul of the film made it worth the effort in my opinion.

Heather

Heather
March 16, 2009

Thanks.

Michael

Michael
March 18, 2009

Very nice job with the video. The beginning was great. Where did you get that footage?

Heather

Heather
March 18, 2009

From what I was told, a junior firefighter filmed the fire that night and gave it to one of the members of the congregation. From there, multiple copies were made. With my family having such a close tie to the church, both my grandparents and my mother have the footage, which is nearly two hours.

James

James
March 30, 2009

Wow Heather! Nice job! Great use of archive footage, black screen textual transitions and camera work overall. I loved how you gave us the whole history of the church up until the present day. I can show how to do credits for your documentary if you need help. Let me know. Awesome video!

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