• I made adjustments to the speed of the clips in the beginning to slow it down.
• I added a blue filter over the scene where Maggie goes outside to make it look like night and I added some more barking sounds.
• I changed the bubbles overlay to be a little lighter.

Some things I did not address:

• I didn’t change the music because I already spent a really long time getting it pulled down to the level it’s at (because the song builds and at the end is SUPER loud, so I pulled it down a lot already) and I it’s kind of beyond my expertise to mess with it further. So if I had more time or to do it over again, I would spend more time learning how to adjust the audio.
• I did not adjust the narration at the end because I didn’t have time to think about better wording. I would change that too because I wasn’t totally pleased with how it just ends like that.

With this story, I tried out recording the narration using Audition (Adobe’s sound studio app) and I really liked it. I’ve never used Audition before, but it made it super easy to delete unwanted portions of the waveform (it has like a text edit cursor where you just highlight what you want to remove, and then click delete, and voila!). It was also easy to export the edited audio and put it into Premiere Pro.

I used Premiere Pro again because there are so many options when it comes to effects! I was able to layer video images just like I can make layers in Photoshop! I could control the transparency and the way the “light passes through” (AKA use blend modes like “overlay, screen, hard light, etc.”) the layer on top to make the layer underneath visible. This allowed me to incorporate lots of green swirls over my images — which you will see why that helps the story when you watch it…. but I have been really happy with the capabilities of Premiere Pro. Where I was feeling stuck and limited with other software, with Premiere Pro, I have not even tapped into the full capabilities yet!

As for the story, I think it came together ok… the music cracks me up because I just added it after everything was done — as truly an afterthought — but it actually works with the pace and build up of the story… but it may also be too much. I’m undecided. I know I probably have too much going on in this video but I really had a lot of fun putting it together and learning how to overlay clips. So while it’s more effects heavy, (and yes, I am aware it’s over the top), it’s really the outcome of my experimenting and playing with a new software. It’s not perfect by any standard (it may not even be good by said standards!), but it is definitely helping me gain experience and build better videos in the future.

I was sad I wasn’t able to bring my RV story to life (perhaps in the future I’ll come back to that one) but I think this one is fun also. I hope you enjoy and I look forward to your feedback!

• I reduced the volume of the phone ring.
• I adjusted the balance on the sounds of my husband’s moaning (for some reason they came out sounding like an echo when I recorded them, but after the render, it sounds like I may need further adjustment).
• I changed the photo of the empty chairs to be a different angle of the student photo.
• I removed “*not actual biology students” …I had put the disclaimer to be slightly funny and because the kids in the photo are much too young to be 10th grade biology students… but I agree with Dmitry, it didn’t work.
• I changed from a zoom/pan to zoom only on the photo at 1:50.
• I put a “turbulent displace” effect and changed to black and white on the video of my husband “being in pain” because he totally was smiling and not looking “in pain” enough (more on that later).

Some of the comments that were not addressed this time:

• Laura noted, “One suggestion I have is to double check your transitions. Since you have so many visuals (which is great), I only saw a couple places that could be reviewed.” (and Dmitry also commented on transitions) — I agree there are some rough cuts in the beginning kitchen scenes as I was figuring out how I wanted the shot to look as I was shooting it. If I had more time, or had it to do over, I would not have two shots between where I’m grabbing the coffee cup and then zooming into the area where the bananas were (I added the second shot as an afterthought and it does jump right there). So I would either make one shot, or do some better feathering, etc., in the editing to make it more seamless.
• I got a few comments on my husband’s lack of believability. LOL to me, it is what it is. He’s great at a lot of things but acting doesn’t make the list. I pulled him in to help me, and honestly I caught him in a nap so he was already in bed and I just thought he would give me a few shots and I’d move on. But he’s very silly and a little ornery by nature, so he was definitely smiling in the video I captured and not looking like he’s in much pain. If I had it to do over, or had more time, I’d reshoot this sequence and try to get more believability out of him — I really wanted him to grab his stomach and wince, but I got him rolling back and forth and smile-wincing…. So… “you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit” and also “beggars can’t be choosers.” …and then you throw an effect over it in editing hahaha.
• Dmitry notes, “around the 2:20 mark where you talk about the bananas being past their prime and banana bread I felt like I got out of the story there a bit. It was a bit too “conversational” at that point. I don’t know if that makes sense?” — yes, I agree with this comment, but I think it’s a larger [story structure] issue to fix. I feel this is an important detail, and needs to be in the story. The fact that I should have thrown the bananas away would have saved this entire drama from occurring, but I think maybe it should go earlier in the story, like perhaps in the kitchen when I’m noticing the bananas are missing…. I would do this update if I had more time or made a version 3 because there are a lot of adjustments and moving things around that would need to happen to make it work.
• I would also fix the balance (or rerecord) the moaning sounds because I’m not thrilled with the weird echo situation… not sure how that showed up in the recording and I need to do some research to figure out how to get rid of it.
• Additionally, Dr. Howell had some notes on tightening up the script, which I agree with, but I wanted to spend my time this week on getting video #2 done and not adjusting the narration, etc. So if I did a version 3, or had this to do again, I would tighten up the script and fix those details.
• I think overall, I got a lot of great feedback (so thank you all!!) and I will keep these things in mind as I work on my Digital Story #2. Thanks again!!

Reflecting on the process, I kept pretty much to the images I imagined from my storyboard, but my script did evolve on the fly in some cases because what I wrote didn’t sound natural, or it came out weird when I said it outloud, so I did make some adjustments.

I also used Adobe Premiere Pro for the first time. I was intimidated at first because I had never really used it (I think maybe I used it once, a million years ago in college, but I’m sure it’s not the same software as it was then). So I watched a few tutorials and figured it out as I went. I’m pretty proud of myself for teaching myself new software and making this video today. I even used some “special effects” and chroma key!!! (the money falling was a clip from pixabay with a green background that I removed!!! –ok, I’m excited).

All images, footage, music, and sounds are original or I got them from royalty free websites.

Looking forward to your thoughts!

In the update, I’ve shortened the story (reduced the number of images and trimmed the script). I tried to go for more images that I could recreate on my own or grab free stock images. Also, In the first version, I dragged out the punch line thinking it would make it more dramatic or something and really it just didn’t work, so I cut that down in the update.

Here is the First Version:

Here is the Updated Version:

I used Camtasia after becoming giving up on Adobe Premier Rush. The sound effects and music are attribution-free.

TRANSCRIPT:
In 2013 we sold everything we owned in Oklahoma and moved into our RV with our two small children, to live in Kansas City. We took the step on faith and worked at a church for free living only on our savings. After 3 years, things didn’t turn out the way I had expected. I had suffered two miscariages. Then, we actually lost a baby girl who was born too early and didn’t survive the NICU. In 2016, I found myself pregnant again and we needed health insurance.

The church we were working for wasn’t able to hire us or provide insurance, so we had to get real jobs. No one would hire me, because they could clearly see I was pregnant and my availability was sure to change in a matter of months. We were at our lowest point. Having suffered so much loss, leaving the church we had worked at, having no jobs or insurance and no clear direction, we just didn’t know what to do.

My husband got a horrible job he hated just so we could have a paycheck and insurance. I had to get injections every week to ensure my body would carry the baby to term. We rented a tiny two bedroom house that was nothing more than a kitchen, a living room, a bathroom and two bedrooms. It was tight, but it worked.

After our baby was born, I almost immediately got hired at the job I currently have which I absolutely love. It was a HUGE blessing. But my husband has always wanted to be a pastor and we just didn’t see where or how that would happen. I knew it didn’t look possible, but I knew it wasn’t impossible. I began praying for a way out of our current house and into ministry. Some how, some way.

Then, out of the blue, my mother-in-law announced that she was moving to Eudora. We thought she was crazy! What in the world could be out in Eudora? She said it was to be closer to one of my husband’s sisters who had recently moved to Lawrence. We decided to move too. What could it hurt? We hoped it would be better than our current situation. In a strange, almost miraculous turn of events, the ENTIRE family moved to Eudora in the same month! I’m talking, my husband’s parents and his two other sisters and their families – not counting the sister already living in Lawrence.

Now, I don’t know if you know the housing scene in Eudora, but it’s insane. If you don’t instantly make an offer or put in your rental application the second the listing goes online, it gets snapped up in a matter of minutes and you missed it. So for all of us – our family, his mom’s family, and two sisters with their families, to get housing in the same month in Eudora is a down right miracle.

Once we were in Eudora, we visited this tiny little church on Main street that had a grand total of 9 in service that Sunday. We kept it to ourselves that we had been in ministry and were looking for a place to serve. But the next Sunday when we visited, the pastor shared with us that he was actually pastoring in Tonganoxie and would drive down to Eudora to preach after his other church service…. And that they were needing a pastor in Eudora.

Long story short, we started pastoring at Eudora in 2017. We continued to rent in Eudora just waiting for that right house to become available. Then, late in 2019 we found it. We put an offer on it immediately! You can’t mess around if you actually want to get it! My husband went next door to talk to the neighbor and ask about the street and see if he had any insight to the house. It was funny because the neighbor thought my husband was the realtor and when he said no, we want to buy it, he said, “Oh! Let me tell you then!” So turns out, the neighbor owned the house and fixed it up to sell and he was actually a pastor of a church in Lawrence! So even though he got tons of offers that day, he accepted ours and we were able to move in in January of 2020.

This was such a long road to get to this home, this place of belonging both in our residence and in our vocation. Not at all where I thought we would end up when we left Oklahoma more than seven years ago. So while many people see all of the negative things that happened in 2020, and don’t get me wrong, some bad stuff did happen, we see it as a good year for us because we found the right place.

We used being in quarantine as an opportunity to fix up our home. We planted a garden, we raised chickens in the backyard, my husband loves a manicured lawn, and I painted this mural. I have always loved this deep bluegreen peacock color and I had actually picked out the pillows before I ever painted the wall. It was just a plain grey wall and I had been considering painting a large canvas to hang there above the sofa, but after feeling a little stircrazy on lockdown, and not having painted anything in such a long time, I decided I just had to paint the whole wall. There’s no other option. So I chose the peacock color to be a bold contrast to the lighter walls around it and I got metallic gold paint for the lines. I wanted something graphic with bold contrast. I searched pinterest for inspiration and kept seeing large botanicals as a theme so I chose the palm leaf because we started pastoring in Eudora on Easter Sunday, and the monstera leaf because it just looks cool. Then I filled in the rest according to my whims. It only took 2 days to paint. I’ve painted so many murals in my life I’ve actually lost count. But I know for sure, this one was the fastest and I’m most pleased with how this one turned out.

As a reflection of the creation process… yikes. I don’t know what to say. I wrote out a quick script, recorded narration in iMovie and exported. Uploaded to YouTube and embedded here. I tried to be descriptive since you can’t see the event. Let me know what you think! :D

My sister keeps sending me these Justin Timberlake Memes that say “it’s gonna be May” and I don’t get it. But today is May, so maybe that’s what she meant? LOL jk. I get it… sort of.

So here is a happy May desktop for your enjoyment! Enjoy!

Download your April 2019 desktop wallpaper here! This is free for personal use only, please do not repost or resell. Thank you!!