Monday, July 26, 2021

Editing the Passion ~

In each of the churches that I have been involved in as an adult I've tried to be a helper in the technology area. I've done sound, I've edited recordings, have made tapes and DVDs of messages. And of edited video for services.

A few years ago when Windows was finally catching up to the Mac movie editing abilities the pastor of the church we were going to at the time asked me if I could make a video to play in the background while he and his daughter sang a duet. It was for a Sunday leading up to Easter or for Easter, I can't remember. But he wanted clips from the movie the Passion of the Christ synchronized with a song about the blood of Jesus flowing down the cross.

The movie had been a big success and had come out on DVD and people were watching it at home and crying about the amount of torture that was depicted in the movie. The brutal nature of what was done to Jesus brought to life on the screen. When I saw the movie it was extremely moving because as a Christian I could envision what had happened but to see it depicted with blood and flecks of flesh and agony and everything that that movie showed was hard. And extremely moving.

The song was about 3 1/2 minutes long. It was very touching and had a male and female voice and was a good fit for both my pastor and his daughter's voices. What he wanted was to have the different views of Jesus on the cross interspersed with the chorus of the song about the blood running down the cross. He wanted video of blood running down the cross during the chorus. But he wasn't very specific in his guidance about which scenes to use.

Because he wasn't very specific I had to spend hours watching the movie the Passion of the Christ. I had to watch over and over and try to get the right scene and try to make it fit with the words without having to distort the speed of the video too much. And this is all in Windows movie maker, which while capable as a program was not the best experience when using.

All in all I spent over 10 hours watching and editing the movie the Passion of the Christ to boil it down to a 3 1/2 minute background video for their duet. It was horrifying and satisfying all at the same time. Now when I see in the story about the movie the Passion of the Christ I quickly move along because I really don't want to read it. I have learned enough about Jesus and have a good relationship with him and I understand the pain and agony as much as I can. But after sitting there for several evenings while my kids played downstairs and went to bed I really just don't want to see that again.

I'm only an amateur but of all the videos that I've edited that was the most challenging in my life.