Radiate: Tristan’s blog

The last video of the year! It’s hard to believe that the season is almost over. I’m about ready to head to Pennsylvania for some much-needed rest.

I have to set up this video a little.  We’re showing this at our Christmas Eve services.  Right before the video, Fred sets up a manger scene on live video as the conclusion to his message on the joy Christ brought us at Christmas.  So the video is made to fade from the live shot of the manger scene into the prerecorded shot of Mary and Jesus that begins the video you’ll see below.  Then, at the end of the video below, the image blacks out when Eric opens the door to our worship area on the video, and the music keeps going.  This is because we are going to have the people in the video actually standing at the back door ready to walk in.  When Eric opens the door on the video, he will also open it in real life, and the prerecorded video fades into a live shot of the people with candles walking down the aisle.   They walk the aisle and light the advent candles at the front of the church, and then they begin lighting other people’s candles, who in turn light others, until everyone in the worship area has a lit candle.  I’ll transition from the piano on the video to live piano by playing the last chord with the track, and then when everyone’s candles are lit, we’ll go into our candlelight carol sing.  The idea is that when each person’s candle is lit, they will experience a little of the same joy the people in the video experience, understanding what it represents.

This was the most technically challenging video I’ve made so far. Getting the lighting right was difficult, but I was fairly pleased with the way it turned out. I used a Tiffen warm black diffusion fx 1/4 filter to reduce the contrast just a little, soften the details, and create a more film-like look. I used a dolly for the panning/sweeping shots where the camera moves around the line of people so it looked smoother. Now if only I had a lift with one of those sweet camera booms so the camera could move in all three dimensions… well, that probably won’t happen any time soon, but I can dream. The small pools of blue light were created using a dark blue gel over a light that was boxed in tightly so I could illuminate only the subject without a bunch of light leaking out everywhere.

The light of the candles represents joy. Eric lights his candle at the manger scene, and then he shares that light with others in darkness. The joy spreads to each person’s face at the moment their face is illuminated by the candle. The candle’s warm, brighter light dispels the cold blue light they were in before.

Wow, that was a book.  Sorry.  Here’s the video: