My sister married her husband Rich back in June of 2008. She asked me to read a poem at her wedding ... preferably one I'd written ... and preferably one I'd written for the occasion. Poems are few and far between for me these days, so it was a challenge. Of course I agreed, put something together pretty quickly ... and then put it down until a week or so before the big day. (Because I work best under pressure, or something.)
As the extended family's resident technophile, I was also recruited to compile the requisite Ken Burns pan-and-scan bride/groom slideshow, and the soon-to-follow also requisite wedding video DVD. So when it came time to author said DVD, the question came up: To preserve my commissioned wedding poem for the ages, should I rely upon the grainy, hesitant image of my middle-aged, nervous, tired self reading said poem at the wedding - garnished with my inability to do so without breaking into tears mid-way through the reading, my shining forehead glistening with flop sweat ... or should I break out the After Effects badness and whip up a quick graphical representation? I took the After Effects route, which is presented here for your edification. It was quick and dirty - only a solitary lens flare effect and a quick Gaussian blur thrown in there for the heck of it - but it was an interesting experiment. In a minimalist sort of way, I hope it hints at what visual/graphical treatment can bring to the poetic table.
One final note: DVD-standard footage is interlaced, which can cause some goofiness when played back on a computer. I didn't bother de-interlacing anything, so the text may be kind of blurry and blotchy ... especially when compressed by Google. But, sorry to say, I've messed around with it as much as I'm willing to. So squint, you big baby.
No comments:
Post a Comment