Prodigals Music Video

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Christiana and Colin Flanigan approached me last Fall with the proposition of creating a music video for their
band, The Aches. I’m a personal friend of theirs–I made silly videos with Chris in high school–and I’ve
done photography and video work for their band before. We decided to make a video for Prodigals, a track
from their newly released EP, Your Broken Hand. Not only is it my favorite song of theirs, but it’s also the
most energetic and driving track on the EP, and when I listened to it I envisioned the duo relentlessly walking
towards the camera through an urban environment while singing.

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The Aches – Two Live Performance Videos

The Aches recently entered NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert Contest, and they asked me to shoot two live performance videos of them to submit to the judges. Because I only have one Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, and we wanted to capture the performances entirely live, I used my Canon T2i as a wide angle and reserved the Pocket for close-ups. I still have a lot to learn about the Pocket’s color science, and matching the footage from the two cameras was quite a chore, but I managed to get them pretty close. I used my Zoom H1 to record the sound. It’s a surprisingly great little audio recorder and the band was very happy with the quality I managed to capture. Below are both videos.

New Music Video

I’ve always enjoyed editing video to music and I actually start a lot of my video projects with the music first. I love making music videos, but I’ve never really had the chance to make one for a serious group of musicians.

Some of my good friends started a band a few years back and I recently got the chance to make a video for them. We shot it in just a few hours with a large cast, so it was mostly improvised. For future music videos I plan to spend more pre-production time planning shots and to schedule longer shoots, but I feel that my improv approach worked well for this project.

Check out my friends’ band at their Myspace here.

The Savior of The World

Sing this to the tune of Danny Boy. It is glorious!

 

“I Cannot Tell”
by William Young Fullerton.

I cannot tell why He Whom angels worship,
Should set His love upon the sons of men,
Or why, as Shepherd, He should seek the wanderers,
To bring them back, they know not how or when.
But this I know, that He was born of Mary
When Bethlehem’s manger was His only home,
And that He lived at Nazareth and labored,
And so the Savior, Savior of the world is come.

I cannot tell how silently He suffered,
As with His peace He graced this place of tears,
Or how His heart upon the cross was broken,
The crown of pain to three and thirty years.
But this I know, He heals the brokenhearted,
And stays our sin, and calms our lurking fear,
And lifts the burden from the heavy laden,
For yet the Savior, Savior of the world is here.

I cannot tell how He will win the nations,
How He will claim His earthly heritage,
How satisfy the needs and aspirations
Of East and West, of sinner and of sage.
But this I know, all flesh shall see His glory,
And He shall reap the harvest He has sown,
And some glad day His sun shall shine in splendor
When He the Savior, Savior of the world is known.

I cannot tell how all the lands shall worship,
When, at His bidding, every storm is stilled,
Or who can say how great the jubilation
When all the hearts of men with love are filled.
But this I know, the skies will thrill with rapture,
And myriad, myriad human voices sing,
And earth to Heaven, and Heaven to earth, will answer:
At last the Savior, Savior of the world is King

Are We Human?

Pay my respects to grace and virtue
Send my condolences to good
Give my regards to soul and romance,
They always did the best they could
And so long to devotion
You taught me everything I know
Wave goodbye
Wish me well..
You’ve gotta let me go

Lyrics – The Killers

Swallowed In The Sea

I love this Coldplay song! I often find myself singing it under my breath. Really a sweet love song with just the right amount of ambiguity. Grade A Chris Martin wordsmithing.

“You cut me down a tree and brought it back to me
And that’s what made me see where I was going wrong
You put me on a shelf and kept me for yourself
I can only blame myself, you can only blame me

And I could write a song a hundred miles long
Well that’s where I belong and you belong with me
And I could write it down or spread it all around
Get lost and then get found or swallowed in the sea

You put me on a line and hung me out to dry
Darling, that’s when I decide to go to sea
You cut me down to size and opened up my eyes
Made me realize what I could not see

And I could write a book, the one they’ll say that shook the world
And then it took, it took it back from me
And I could write it down or spread it all around
Get lost and then get found and you’ll come back to me
Not swallowed in the sea

And I could write a song a hundred miles long
Well, that’s where I belong and you belong with me
The streets you’re walking on, a thousand houses long
Well, that’s where I belong and you belong with me
Oh, what good is it to live with nothing left to give
Forget but not forgive, not loving all you see
Oh, the streets you’re walking on a thousand houses long
Well, that’s where I belong and you belong with me
Not swallowed in the sea

You belong with me, not swallowed in the sea
Yeah, you belong with me

Not swallowed in the sea”

Spontaneous Acts of Worship

I’m really blessed to live on a very spirit-filled hall here at school. Last semester my hall leader Mark would lead worship in the hall almost every night at around 10:45. Anyone on the hall with an instrument was welcome to join in. We had some great times worshiping the Lord and I hope we continue the tradition this semester. Here’s an example of some of the spontaneous worship that broke out last year.

Click here to listen.

Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness

We sang this hymn at church this evening. So beautiful!

Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
‘Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed
With joy shall I lift up my head.

Bold shall I stand in that great day,
For who aught to my charge shall lay?
Fully absolved through these I am,
From sin and fear, from guilt and shame.

Lord, I believe Thy precious blood,
Which, at the mercy seat of God,
Forever doth for sinners plead,
For me, e’en for my soul was shed.

—Nicolaus L. von Zinzendorf (1700-1760)
Translated by John Wesley (1703-1791)

Chicago Winter

My good friends Tommy, Mike, and Scott have formed a band. They call themselves “Chicago Winter.” What a fitting title, highlighting the poetry that is a Chicago Winter. Oh Chicago, how I miss your snow-stained blacktop!

Their music is very good. Check out their myspace page here.

Watchmen Trailer Music

I’m not a big Smashing Pumpkins fan, but the trailer for the new highbrow superhero flick “The Watchmen” features their song “The End is the Beginning is the End”–and its awesome!

Send a heartbeat to
The void that cries through you
The pale princess of a palace cracked
And now the kingdom comes
The world is lost and blown
And we are flesh and blood disintegrate
And in your darkest hour
I hold secrets flame
We can watch the world devoured in its pain

“God help us all”
“The world will look up and shout, “save us” and I’ll whisper ‘no.’ ”

Melodramatic shivers! I love it when visuals work so well with lyrics. Plus, nothing can put me in cinematic catharsis like a solidly edited trailer. Will “The Watchmen” be any good? I haven’t read the comic its based on, so I really can’t say, but regardless, this trailer is pretty sweet, visuals and music.
Check out the trailer here.

Hurt

I love this song! It’s by Nine Inch Nails, but Johnny Cash recorded it. It paints a vivid picture of a man at the end of his life looking back and seeing how pointless all his fame and glory was. He’s ready to give away his “empire of dirt” because he realizes that everything earthly fades away. “Everyone I know goes away in the end.” Goosebumps! I think Cash chose this song because of the way it reflected his life, much of which he spent as an unbeliever, and because of its humble, truthful lyrics. We humans truly are scum. We live for ourselves, we lie, and we hurt each other. Praise God that for Christians, regardless of our sin, Christ is still our “sweetest friend.”

I hurt myself today
to see if I still feel
I focused on the pain
the only thing that’s real
the needle tears a hole
the old familiar sting
try to kill it all away
but I remember everything

what have I become?
my sweetest friend
everyone I know
goes away in the end
and you could have it all
my empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of thorns
upon my liar’s chair
full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
beneath the stains of time
the feelings disappear
you are someone else
I am still right here

what have I become?
my sweetest friend
everyone I know
goes away in the end
and you could have it all
my empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

if I could start again
a million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way

Check out the excellent music video for this song here