THE DRAWING BEGINS ON # 24, A TITLE FOR THE PROJECT & ITS OWN YOU TUBE CHANNEL.

I decided on Friday to title this project Reading Leaves of Grass, and to set up its own YouTube channel in that name. From this point on, I will post all videos to that channel.

 I'll be redoing all the previously posted  videos after I finish with this first run thorough Leaves of Grass.  In addition to using this blog for for the topics mentioned in the August 21 post, I will also use this blog for boring stuff like recording the amount of time I spend on the project.

 This posting is mostly a mechanics posting in that vein, but skip below to Sunday for more interesting stuff, and a preview of an unfinished image I spent the day making. 

Work Estimate:

Friday: AUDIO EDITING, IMAGE EDITING, SET-UP & DESIGN YOU TUBE CHANNEL

set up new YouTube channel, created image for background of channel and for avatar & audio edited recording of When Lilacs..., about 3 hours.

Saturday: AUDIO EDITING,  VIDEO RESEARCH, VIDEO EDITING
Audio Editing
 Finished audio edit of When Lilacs recording (still have to rerecord a couple of phrases I can read better.) When I record, I often read a phrase a couple or more ways when I think I recognize my reading is not right.

While audio editing, I find sometimes my first phrasing was better than my secondary attempts. The raw reading of Lilacs was 25:30. After editing, it is 18:40. I leave enough space between sections to have room to play with video when I set the audio in, so it will be even briefer when it appears in the video when I take out that leeway space.

Research:

I need video files of  lilacs moving in the wind and of  a thrush in a tree. Regretfully, I only have images but no video of a lilac bush. I have a robin in a tree video I took myself, but it won't work for the segment I need it for, the bird's song in the poem.  

I researched creative commons for files that are available for use that also allow remixing. (A lot of the creative common files don't specify how to credit them when their free use is conditional upon crediting.   I don't know what to do when I find these.) I found a lilac video I like and can use, and a bird video that I'm not crazy about, but can use. The audio is not what I am looking for, but I found some good bird song that will work on Freesound. (A great resource for sound and to share sound for others to use.) 

Editing:  

I rearranged the opening video title, and dropped in the lilacs video. And planned a drawing of farmhouse with lilacs bush and night star. Total time research and editing: 4 and a half hours.

Sunday:  DRAWING, RESEARCHED STAR REFERENCE IN WHEN LILACS...

Couple of interesting things happened. I wanted to work outside as much as possible and chose the Au Bon Pain at the end of the Square to sit under the tree. When I unpacked, I realized I forgot my ear buds! Grrrrr! I thought i'd grab a cheap pair at Radio Shack, but as I schlepped toward that store, Xfinity had a promo tent set up outside the T and were giving away …. EARBUDS! I am a lucky boy. They are adequate, and that is better than none or spending $ on crappy ones.

A woman, Nan, approached me while I was drawing an image on my laptop and we chatted a bit. Turns out she knew of John Burroughs. His family farm was located near where she grew up in New York. Small world. I gave her the title of a Reynolds book and the poemsbeingreadtoo channel as she was interested in this project.

unfinished image of Whitman holding sprig of lilacs

Anyway today I spent researching what farms of 1860's looked like, and what star Whitman may have been referring to in Lilacs. It turns out Venus is the consensus for the star that along with the lilacs he writes shall ever remind him of Lincoln. And after this research the drawing. I am no where near finished with this image after 6 hours!

Total time 13 and 1/2 hours  Friday through Sunday

Hello!

I decided to start this blog about the Leaves of Grass Project for two reasons:  as a way to keep notes for myself as I put theses videos together, sharing the discoveries, research, frustrations, decisions, etc. that are involved with the production of each video,  and to invite engagement in the project from anyone interested in following along behind the curtains. 

Some background on how I started this project: 

I began this project in June 2010 thinking that I would post a few videos of selected readings from Leaves of Grass as a part of the 19th century poetry readings I was posting on PoemsBeingReadtoo YouTube channel. 
At that time YouTube had a time limit on the duration uploads could be.  For that reason I had to abridge what I read to offer even a sampling.  

As I began making these, YouTube increased the time duration limits, and with that increase I posted longer videos. Quickly YouTube again increased the duration to 15minutes and with that it became painful to abridge the readings.  It was at that point I also decided to expand the project beyond a few selections and thought I would post all of Leaves of Grass.  I kept no diary about the project, but it was well into it when I changed the scope to be to interpret the whole of Leaves of Grass as a visual presentation as well as a reading. 

Along the way, I began including flash animations and drawings along with mash-ups I made for the project, and I began to use these more frequently as I continued. 

Where this project is and where it is going:

Presently, I'm about two-thirds through Leaves of Grass.  My plan now is to finish this first time through (I will end without including the annexes.) Then I shall  start from the beginning and redo the early videos i made that were abridged and read and animate them properly.  Finally, I hope to make a third pass through and make a more polished presentation of the entire project. 

There's a long way to go! 

James