What a lovely visit we had from Jayne (Swank) Borras this evening! It was wonderful to hear her speak about My River Runs to Thee, sharing her insights and creative process. Thanks for the thoughtful questions you asked. Definitely a highlight!
After Jayne’s visit, we sang through all of our music with the mixes I created from our recordings. It is not the same as singing in person, but it is fun to hear our voices and to sing into the sound of us. Yay us!
I cannot believe that ONCE AGAIN I forgot to celebrate our WVC April birthdays! BOO on me. I have had our birthday video ready to go all month! Next week, we will celebrate April AND May birthdays. Apologies!
What the Heart Cannot Forget recordings are due. I will work on the audio first, and hope to have it finished by the end of the week. If you would still like to record and I don’t yet have yours, please get that into the folder as soon as you can. I can add voices to the audio mix up to a certain point, but once I design the grid layout it’s too late to add folks. My goal is to have the audio completed and lay out the grid design this weekend.
If you missed rehearsal, I explained a design idea that I have for the last section of What the Heart Cannot Forget. I would like to use images from singers during the last section:
The heart remembers everything it loved and gave away,
remembers everything it lost and found again,
and everyone it loved,
the heart cannot forget.
The image I used as an example is a portrait of my grandmother. It is from her shoulders up, similar to how I am framed in ‘my box’ when I am singing. With my grandmother and me the same size and scale, I can fade in and out from one to the other, which is the effect I would like to create. My preference is to have images with one person, from the shoulders up. If you want to include images with multiple people or images of a whole person, I can give those a look, but I really do think that a single person will work out best for fitting into the same ‘video real estate’ that we occupy in our little boxes while we are singing. Please don’t get your feelings hurt if I choose to not include images that are not of one person from the shoulders up. If the image is reasonably clear, I can always crop it (as long as I know which person to include!), as long as it doesn’t get too blurry when I ‘zoom in.’
I am not sure how this will work out – I am designing into the unknown – the unknown of what all of the images will look like together. Although I am hopeful that this will work out beautifully, I do not want anyone to get their feelings hurt if I need to abandon this idea. I thank you ahead of time for sharing your images and hope to use them, but please do not be distressed if I need to choose another direction.
With that in mind, this is what I need from you to give this grand experiment a go:
1 – Choose 1-10 image(s) of loved ones who come to mind when you sing/hear the ending section. Send images no later than May 10th – absolute deadline!
2 – Make sure that the image is reasonably in focus. What may look okay as a small print may not translate clearly to video/big screen.
3 – The image may be black&white or color. If it is in color, I may choose to apply a black&white filter – depending on what everything looks like together.
4 – Scan the image at a resolution of 1200. Be sure to label the scan with your last name and a # indicating your order of preference for including it in the project. For instance if I submit 5 images, my favorite should be labeled Sam1. My next favorite, Sam2, and so on.
5 – Upload scanned images using this link:
https://forms.gle/FbKJL83CjHTY4yPC6
6 – If you would like to include images but can’t scan them, please contact one of the following for assistance. You can take your image to their house and wait on their front porch while they scan your image(s). They will then give your originals back to you right then so there is no danger of anything being misplaced. You can also contact them if you have questions.
Karla Byrnes – Chapel Hill, 919,452-4477, kmkbyrnes@gmail.com
Sue Gidwitz – N. Durham, 919-624-1356, sgidwitz1111@gmail.com
Janet Huebner – Hillsborough, 919-906-4599, jhuebner@duke.edu
Kay Johnson – Hillsorough, 919-724-9632, 2ndalto@gmail.com
Clare Strayhorn – Chapel Hill, 919-309-5363, crstrayhorn@gmail.com
Looking Ahead to 5/3/21
We will have our Yay Us Celebration. (Yay us!) Our evening will also include a viewing of our Angel Gallery! How exciting! Lots of other fun things planned so come if you are able so that we can celebrate WVC and all we have accomplished together. This will be our final rehearsal of our virtual season.
Looking Ahead to 5/23/21
Concert day! 7PM – we will watch our Nature of the Heart Concert YouTube premiere together – invite your family and friends! More details to follow.
Yay us!
Laura