Portit mollis vitae

Nullam ornare, sem in malesuada sagittis, quam sapien ornare massa, id pulvinar quam augue vel orci. Praesent leo orci, cursus ac malesuada et, sollicitudin eu erat. Pellentesque ornare mi vitae sem consequat ac bibendum neque adipiscing. Donec tellus nunc, tincidunt sed faucibus a, mattis eget purus. Nunc ipsum orci, consectetur in euismod id, adipiscing nec libero. Vivamus sed nisi quam. Donec id arcu non libero pellentesque condimentum at in mauris. Duis et lacus lectus, eu aliquet tortor. Maecenas cursus consectetur tellus non lobortis. Donec sed arcu a justo cursus varius ut et diam. Suspendisse lobortis pulvinar velit, id convallis eros pulvinar ac. Cras a lorem lorem, et feugiat leo. Nunc vestibulum venenatis est nec tempor. Nunc mattis sem in mauris posuere aliquam.

Video Interview: The Living Catechism

[embed]https://vimeo.com/89812204[/embed] If you like grandiose hand gestures and hate eye contact, then this guest appearance I made on the amazing parish-based show The Living Catechism is for you.

But seriously, this was a super fun interview with THE Nick De La Torre and is a good introduction to the reasons the Catechism is so important in any Catholic's life.

Don't be boring. Read the Catechism.

Ira Glass on Creative Work

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

-Ira Glass

Tech, Gear, and Tools for Parish Design

People ask me how we make the cool things we make and so I want to show you all the things I use to make the cool things we make.

So I'm working at the new job at the new Church down in God's country (Texas) and wanted to share with you some of the sweet stuff we've been working on. Some videos, video editing, graphic design, GoPros, and more are below.

I am by no means near a pro at video, filming, lighting, editing, etc but I think we pulled together some great stuff for the first couple months on the job. I wanted to show the behind the scenes techy gear and resources we used. If you have some budget you could easily do this in a few days while learning some super valuable skills.

At the recommendation of my good friend Nick who works at a parish up in Toledo, a few of us Church lay minister people combined our budgets to buy a real stinking nice camera. The Panasonic LUMIX GH4 JUST came out when we ordered it. We went with a 14-140mm lens for doing mid-range shots.

This camera is SOOO nice. It can even shoot in 4k, which will come in handy four years from now when HD looks dumb next to all the 4k tv's everyone will own. (Maybe?)

Here's a picture of our fearless Pastor. Pretty nice right-out-of-the-box photo. (I ended up using this picture for his new Twitter account....)

We launched a lot of big changes, new programs, and new ministries at the beginning of August and we wanted to wrap up all these announcements in a campaign with some slick logos and videos. I use Inkscape for all my graphic design stuff (I'm an amateur in this as well. I'm starting to dabble in Pixelmator which is a little quicker at photo enhancements).

We came up with this banner logo in about 15 minutes after a brainstorm session where we decided as a parish staff to use the words of Jesus to St. Francis, "Francis, rebuild my Church", as our theme for this campaign. We are St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, after all...

Our facilities guy/Jack O' All Trades went to film school and used to sell cameras and had some lighting equipment lying around, so he let us borrow it and helped set up a great shot Robert Barron interview style. I used a TASCAM DR-05 Portable Digital Recorder with a lavalier mic clipped under Father's shirt at about chest level for his audio. (I used the Tascam and lav mic for our catechist training recording as well. Best $100 investment ever.)

I took some b roll footage on my iPhone 5 just for the heck of it and actually ended up using it in the final edit we published.  We also used a LOT of Wolf Urine Lure-32 oz.

I'm really new to Final Cut Pro, but its pretty straight forward even if you are 25 and own a laptop and a two year old. My coworker and I recorded a little diddle (diddy? doodle? piddle? poodle?) on a ukelele and guitar with a Blue Yeti USB Microphone straight into Audacity (a free audio editor) for the background music.

The biggest help with Final Cut came from some good videos explaining color correction. My friend Nicolas again came to the rescue with these video tutorials that helped a lot. Although the final version uploaded to Vimeo was a bit too dark... We also had a light go out on us half way through the shooting of the video so that took some extra love and care to get it to look at least passable. Next time I'm going to watch the video in a lit room before uploading it to make sure the color and brightness is good.

Here's the good bit from an email Nic sent me with the videos that helped:

"The most important thing you can learn to make videos look their best, is COLOR GRADING.

 

Here are a couple of examples of tutorials for doing exactly that specifically within Final Cut Pro X. I am constantly learning more and more about Color Grading the more I actually work with it. It's actually weirdly exciting stuff. First and foremost, THIS video explains what COLOR GRADING is. Below are listed examples of tutorials for it.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqbmT4Lx4uM
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucAzmD-uEEk
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIMSXE_YNLA
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1hbo50SeXw
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsDmJpaCa28

 

THIS is a channel with tutorials specifically geared for overall usage of FInal Cut Pro X. Good stuff.

THIS guy's videos are fantastic.

THIS is the same guy's other channel, also with great videos.

THIS is a channel that is good for learning cool stuff related to film editing and is actually relatively entertaining to watch.

THIS is another really good one."

 

Here's the final product:

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/102284307]

Did you catch the iPhone b-roll shot?

 

We also purchased two GoPro HERO3+ cameras and a handheld mounting pole. We took them on our Party Barge summer event for high school mini try and used them at a recent Nerf Night. Just some quick projects thrown together with the shots we got. I gave a few trusted youth a go pro and told them to get some good shots.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/102104399]

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/103683070]

We also  recorded this video with the Azden SMX-10 Stereo Condenser Microphone I just purchased. I want to make this into a series. Took about 15 minutes total from shooting to publishing:

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/102059563]

And just to throw this out there as well, I use Squarespace for our youth ministry website. Check out sfayoungchurch.com. I use the Buffer app (free) to stay on top of our Twitter and Facebook pages and schedule out posts and toots. I use a Vimeo Pro account for all our parish videos because I have way more control over the look and feel of the videos and I think the website looks a lot more professional than youtube.

Did you like this post? What tech gear do you use in ministry  or to do cool stuff? Would you like more posts like this? Did you find the link to wolf urine?

Catechist Training Sessions

This week we held our first training sessions for Core Team (adults involved with 7-12th grade ministry) and Catechists (adults involved with K-6 catechesis). I wanted to share with you the four sessions I presented today to our Catechists as part of our Catechist training (two 5 hour Saturdays...Intense, I know). Hopefully it will benefit you in some way. Next week I'll post Day 2 sessions. Give me some feedback.  Be nice. 

[audio mp3="http://www.edmundmitchell.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/catechist-training-session-a1.mp3"][/audio]

Introductions and Prayer: Day 1 Session 1

[audio mp3="http://www.edmundmitchell.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/catechist-training-session-a2.mp3"][/audio]

The Goal and Aim of Catechesis: Day 1 Session 2

[audio mp3="http://www.edmundmitchell.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/catechist-training-session-a3.mp3"][/audio]

The Apostolic Vocation of the Catechist: Day 1 Session 3

[audio mp3="http://www.edmundmitchell.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/catechist-training-day-1-session-4.mp3"][/audio]

The Content of Catechesis: Day 1 Session 4

Jesus Doesn't Need Your Cool

Jesus doesn't need your cool. Jesus didn't use videos. Or a stage with colored lights. Or worship music. Or graphic design. Or toilet paper.

Which is why I wipe with my hand.

Video Post

Praesent id mollis mauris. Duis in ultricies dolor, ac sagittis massa. Suspendisse potenti. Vivamus auctor, velit ac dapibus sollicitudin, diam tortor fermentum risus, in pulvinar tellus ipsum ut sapien. Cras venenatis rhoncus nisi, vitae aliquet urna blandit non. Donec quis neque posuere, dapibus nunc sed, commodo turpis. Aenean ut rutrum augue. Vivamus fermentum venenatis nulla, sed tristique arcu euismod at. Sed nibh sapien, porttitor et rhoncus sit amet, ornare sit amet libero. In venenatis orci at pulvinar cursus. Nullam ut odio bibendum, pretium ligula nec, ultrices turpis. Aliquam volutpat sed dui ut porttitor.

Etiam consequat, lacus nec laoreet auctor, ligula urna cursus felis, consectetur convallis lectus nunc ac mauris. Phasellus sodales, sem in varius viverra, ipsum tortor sollicitudin enim, commodo ultrices est dolor consectetur est. Maecenas eget magna a nisi iaculis viverra. Maecenas egestas diam sed turpis feugiat pretium. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Pellentesque eget arcu laoreet, pretium felis sit amet, semper orci. Praesent mi erat, fermentum in ante vel, auctor fermentum magna. Duis congue vel arcu eu consectetur. Maecenas ut consectetur elit. Fusce malesuada consequat diam, quis pulvinar nunc lobortis rutrum. Mauris tempus nulla nibh, a tincidunt lorem semper feugiat. Vestibulum facilisis diam ac nulla laoreet, sed pharetra velit dictum. Sed consectetur iaculis leo, ut tincidunt nisl varius vitae.

Pope Francis to Charismatics

Wow please read this. Pope Francis to charismatics. Sorry if I'm behind but WOW. http://www.catholic.org/news/international/europe/story.php?id=55674

Happy Easter!

Make no mistake: if he rose at allIt was as His body; If the cell’s dissolution did not reverse, the molecule reknit, The amino acids rekindle, The Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers, Each soft spring recurrent; It was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled eyes of the Eleven apostles; It was as His flesh; ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes The same valved heart That-pierced-died, withered, paused, and then regathered Out of enduring Might New strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor, Analogy, sidestepping, transcendence, Making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded Credulity of earlier ages: Let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache, Not a stone in a story, But the vast rock of materiality that in the slow grinding of Time will eclipse for each of us The wide light of day.

And if we have an angel at the tomb, Make it a real angel, Weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair, opaque in The dawn light, robed in real linen Spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous, For our own convenience, our own sense of beauty, Lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are embarrassed By the miracle, And crushed by remonstrance.

"Seven Stanzas at Easter" by John Updike

Why We Love the Catechism [Video Podcast]

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/89812204] Why is the Catechism important? Who should read it? Check out this new video/podcast with a familiar face....