Well here it is, as promised, the brand new video from the Christian worship album 'Stars Like Needles' by little ole me, Joseph Cheetham-Wilkinson, if you'll forgive the shameless self promotion!
As I mentioned before, the lipsync is an issue which I'm struggling to overcome, in fact I don't think I will be able to completely overcome it with windows movie maker. Any tips will be gratefully received!
All in all I am pleased with this, it is a solo effort in every respect which makes certain aspects of production much harder, especially drums and cameras! Anyway, here it is, and if you like it then don't forget to show your support by buying the album HERE, it's full of great tracks like this one.
Hope you enjoy it!
Friday 21 September 2012
Thursday 20 September 2012
Making a new Christian worship music video 2012
Well now that's fun!
For the last couple of days I've been taking my camera with me out into the fields when I walk the doggies.
And while I don't claim that my solo work is really up to professional standard, I'm getting results which are a massive improvement on what I attempted two years ago. Hopefully what I'm producing is simply an improvement on a blank screen! Be nice now...
One of the key things that I've learned about making a Christian worship music video for Youtube is a simple trick that applies to any music style really, which is simply to take three separate videos of the main performer (in this case little old me) singing the song all the way through either in different locations and/or using different shots like close-up, medium and long shot etc. Then afterwards in the edit you can simply switch between the three and there you have it, a very basic music video.
What you're essentially doing here is recreating the multi-camera shoot on a budget with one camera, which is effective especially if you're shooting the video all in the same location.
Editing can be quite tricky since you'll have three lots of film to spool through (showing my age there, obviously I'm using a full HD digital camcorder...) as opposed to one if you were switching live between three cameras all taking a different shot and just recording one video.
I know I'm not being overly detailed here, if anybody has any questions please do feel free to ask!
OK, now something very simple and cool which I figured out myself, when I made the Christian Worship video for the my song 'GLORIOUS' from my current album 'Stars Like Needles' (BUY IT HERE)
Have a watch and you'll see there are one or two places where the lipsync just doesn't fit! YIKES!
This happened because I was trying to lipsync an entire Christian worship song in time from memory. Not bad considering...
I wasn't exactly sure what to do about this, I didn't want to be wearing headphones on camera and I didn't want to lug a portable cd player or a laptop round with me to help me sing along, just another thing to carry. The answer was so simple, just pop my mobile phone in my top pocket, problem solved! So that's what I've tried this morning, and it was so cool! I was just able to enjoy singing along in time to the music and the lipsync will be much better!
I use Windows Movie Maker to edit at home, I know I know, but it's all about budget! There a so many restrictions, but it is better than it used to be. Of course, you can't see the audio track as a wav file, so lipsync is made tricky right there, I have to fiddle about cropping a tittle here and a jot there, ctrl/z undo undo! Trial and error until it's right. But it does work.
Keep an eye on the blog, the new video will be finished in a couple of days and I'll be sure to put it on here. It is a Christian worship song, but it woks quite well as a metaphor for any loving relationship. It's called Victorious and it's an original Christian worship composition by me, Joseph Cheetham-Wilkinson. Keep and eye out!
For the last couple of days I've been taking my camera with me out into the fields when I walk the doggies.
And while I don't claim that my solo work is really up to professional standard, I'm getting results which are a massive improvement on what I attempted two years ago. Hopefully what I'm producing is simply an improvement on a blank screen! Be nice now...
One of the key things that I've learned about making a Christian worship music video for Youtube is a simple trick that applies to any music style really, which is simply to take three separate videos of the main performer (in this case little old me) singing the song all the way through either in different locations and/or using different shots like close-up, medium and long shot etc. Then afterwards in the edit you can simply switch between the three and there you have it, a very basic music video.
What you're essentially doing here is recreating the multi-camera shoot on a budget with one camera, which is effective especially if you're shooting the video all in the same location.
Editing can be quite tricky since you'll have three lots of film to spool through (showing my age there, obviously I'm using a full HD digital camcorder...) as opposed to one if you were switching live between three cameras all taking a different shot and just recording one video.
I know I'm not being overly detailed here, if anybody has any questions please do feel free to ask!
OK, now something very simple and cool which I figured out myself, when I made the Christian Worship video for the my song 'GLORIOUS' from my current album 'Stars Like Needles' (BUY IT HERE)
Have a watch and you'll see there are one or two places where the lipsync just doesn't fit! YIKES!
This happened because I was trying to lipsync an entire Christian worship song in time from memory. Not bad considering...
I wasn't exactly sure what to do about this, I didn't want to be wearing headphones on camera and I didn't want to lug a portable cd player or a laptop round with me to help me sing along, just another thing to carry. The answer was so simple, just pop my mobile phone in my top pocket, problem solved! So that's what I've tried this morning, and it was so cool! I was just able to enjoy singing along in time to the music and the lipsync will be much better!
I use Windows Movie Maker to edit at home, I know I know, but it's all about budget! There a so many restrictions, but it is better than it used to be. Of course, you can't see the audio track as a wav file, so lipsync is made tricky right there, I have to fiddle about cropping a tittle here and a jot there, ctrl/z undo undo! Trial and error until it's right. But it does work.
Keep an eye on the blog, the new video will be finished in a couple of days and I'll be sure to put it on here. It is a Christian worship song, but it woks quite well as a metaphor for any loving relationship. It's called Victorious and it's an original Christian worship composition by me, Joseph Cheetham-Wilkinson. Keep and eye out!
Wednesday 19 September 2012
How to write a Christian worship song.
Time flies and I'm loving my new Google Blogger website!
The fact is, it's more than a blog page isn't it? It's a website that does everything I could possibly want it to and I'm very chuffed with it. Those of you who know me will know I used to run a small web design company, we built some lovely websites for over 70 clients over a couple of years. But I certainly wouldn't go into the business now, not when something like this is available for free!
You can buy the new Christian worship album Stars Like Needles HERE!
You may want to turn the volume up a bit, the sound is a touch low for some reason...
Anyway I do digress! What I have for you today is a lovely song I wrote a few months ago. I think the video could do with being updated, my intention was to use the Bob Dylan style lyrics on paper thingy as you can see, but they were unclear on camera so I ended up having to caption it anyway, making the whole video somewhat pointless!
Well with that in mind you are invited to enjoy the patch of grass next to our back garden, as well as our lovely doggies Charlie and Jack, and our daughter Flossie all of whom make spontaneous cameo appearances in my somewhat slap-dash effort of a music video!
The music itself came to me one day as I was out walking the dogs. I love the early morning out in the fields, I like to pretend it's a bit of a chore so I get the brownie points, but the truth is I love it, it's a very important part of my day now!
I often use the time to pray and talk to God in the peace of the morning sun. On this particular day an image came into my mind of how we posture ourselves spiritually and emotionally towards the world we live in and the people we live with. It occurred to me that when we are hard, defensive and guarded we can become very isolated and internal.
What I often do when I'm writing Christian worship music is, in the first instance, I will think of a concept I want to share. For example in this case spiritual isolation. Then, and this is quite personal to me, I paint that concept into a picture in my mind's eye, an actual image that I can visualise and look at in my imagination. So in this case I saw a man dressed in armour with a spear standing in front of a heart, not allowing anyone near. My next step would then be to describe the picture I've just painted with words.
In this instance it was with a question; how do you stand in the doorway of your heart? Of course this only accounts for one of the verses, but you can see how the way I relate to and connect with spiritual concepts, which enables me to describe them, is carried through in the rest of the song too.
That seems to me to be a good order of events, a nice way to create a pretty firm and well considered concept for a Christian worship song. And it's very important to note that I cover the entire creative process with prayer daily, morning and night. I trust the Lord to guide my steps, that my talents will glorify Him.
The next part, and perhaps the most lovely part is where the spirit and the soul flow in. Because for me, as soon as I have some words with a root and a concept that I believe in, I can sing it from the heart. Then, I can listen to the music that plays naturally in my mind, and sing it from the heart. In terms of melody and vocal style, I don't have to 'try' too hard at this point, that comes later. What I seem to do is speak the words of the song, in truth according to the emphasis and message they carry, in tune. Repeat, repeat, repeat, and then ah yes! I have it. Record me mumbling it on my phone so I won't forget it by the time I get to the studio!
It's worth remembering at this point, that if there isn't something right there in those first few muttered notes that touches you, throw it away. Please, benefit from my experience, you can have that for free. A very wise man once said, 'You can't polish a turd.' That's very nearly true with music, except that you sort of can, you just get a shiny turd.
So if you're interested in writing yourself,don't be precious! If the very base of it isn't quite right, scrap it, forget it, get it out of your mind and don't let it nag you. I have spent two whole weeks before on a Christian worship song that was so bad I could hardly bear to listen to it, waiting for just that tweak which would save it. The tweak never came! Scrap it!
On a far more positive note, the flipside of this is true too. If the root is right, and you know it, you love the concept and those first few little notes just speak to you somehow but you've spent days fiddling with effects, putting in ridiculously contrived automation and the drums sound like they've just been pushed down a flight of stairs, keep going! If the heart is right, good will come of it, don't give up! Don't stop until you are totally happy! Some musicians may say you can overwork it, but my own experience of working alone with sequencing software like Ableton live is that I should keep going and going until I'm completely happy. And so often, it's the tiniest thing that makes the difference between something just not seeming to work and being just right! So, I hope you like my song, and I'd love to hear your comments. And don't forget to buy my album!
The fact is, it's more than a blog page isn't it? It's a website that does everything I could possibly want it to and I'm very chuffed with it. Those of you who know me will know I used to run a small web design company, we built some lovely websites for over 70 clients over a couple of years. But I certainly wouldn't go into the business now, not when something like this is available for free!
You can buy the new Christian worship album Stars Like Needles HERE!
You may want to turn the volume up a bit, the sound is a touch low for some reason...
Anyway I do digress! What I have for you today is a lovely song I wrote a few months ago. I think the video could do with being updated, my intention was to use the Bob Dylan style lyrics on paper thingy as you can see, but they were unclear on camera so I ended up having to caption it anyway, making the whole video somewhat pointless!
Well with that in mind you are invited to enjoy the patch of grass next to our back garden, as well as our lovely doggies Charlie and Jack, and our daughter Flossie all of whom make spontaneous cameo appearances in my somewhat slap-dash effort of a music video!
The music itself came to me one day as I was out walking the dogs. I love the early morning out in the fields, I like to pretend it's a bit of a chore so I get the brownie points, but the truth is I love it, it's a very important part of my day now!
I often use the time to pray and talk to God in the peace of the morning sun. On this particular day an image came into my mind of how we posture ourselves spiritually and emotionally towards the world we live in and the people we live with. It occurred to me that when we are hard, defensive and guarded we can become very isolated and internal.
What I often do when I'm writing Christian worship music is, in the first instance, I will think of a concept I want to share. For example in this case spiritual isolation. Then, and this is quite personal to me, I paint that concept into a picture in my mind's eye, an actual image that I can visualise and look at in my imagination. So in this case I saw a man dressed in armour with a spear standing in front of a heart, not allowing anyone near. My next step would then be to describe the picture I've just painted with words.
In this instance it was with a question; how do you stand in the doorway of your heart? Of course this only accounts for one of the verses, but you can see how the way I relate to and connect with spiritual concepts, which enables me to describe them, is carried through in the rest of the song too.
That seems to me to be a good order of events, a nice way to create a pretty firm and well considered concept for a Christian worship song. And it's very important to note that I cover the entire creative process with prayer daily, morning and night. I trust the Lord to guide my steps, that my talents will glorify Him.
The next part, and perhaps the most lovely part is where the spirit and the soul flow in. Because for me, as soon as I have some words with a root and a concept that I believe in, I can sing it from the heart. Then, I can listen to the music that plays naturally in my mind, and sing it from the heart. In terms of melody and vocal style, I don't have to 'try' too hard at this point, that comes later. What I seem to do is speak the words of the song, in truth according to the emphasis and message they carry, in tune. Repeat, repeat, repeat, and then ah yes! I have it. Record me mumbling it on my phone so I won't forget it by the time I get to the studio!
It's worth remembering at this point, that if there isn't something right there in those first few muttered notes that touches you, throw it away. Please, benefit from my experience, you can have that for free. A very wise man once said, 'You can't polish a turd.' That's very nearly true with music, except that you sort of can, you just get a shiny turd.
So if you're interested in writing yourself,don't be precious! If the very base of it isn't quite right, scrap it, forget it, get it out of your mind and don't let it nag you. I have spent two whole weeks before on a Christian worship song that was so bad I could hardly bear to listen to it, waiting for just that tweak which would save it. The tweak never came! Scrap it!
On a far more positive note, the flipside of this is true too. If the root is right, and you know it, you love the concept and those first few little notes just speak to you somehow but you've spent days fiddling with effects, putting in ridiculously contrived automation and the drums sound like they've just been pushed down a flight of stairs, keep going! If the heart is right, good will come of it, don't give up! Don't stop until you are totally happy! Some musicians may say you can overwork it, but my own experience of working alone with sequencing software like Ableton live is that I should keep going and going until I'm completely happy. And so often, it's the tiniest thing that makes the difference between something just not seeming to work and being just right! So, I hope you like my song, and I'd love to hear your comments. And don't forget to buy my album!
Tuesday 18 September 2012
Joseph Cheetham-Wilkinson
It's been a long journey!
But we're here now, this is the new home of everything to do with little ole me, Joseph Cheetham-Wilkinson.
There are a few ways you might have ended up here, you may be a fan of the TV series Jovis Bon-Hovis and the Creation Crew, you may have heard some of my music somewhere, perhaps on Youtube or even Christian radio, perhaps you have found some artwork somewhere that caught your eye, or maybe you are looking to commission a piece of music, TV or art.
I guess the point of a blog style website is that they are a little indulgent, and that's what has appealed to me about it, and I'll explain why.
For a while now, years I would say, I've been trying to section off my life into categories on the web. I have a Youtube channel called Christianmoviesuk (which is still my main id...) I opened a Twitter account too, which I must say remains an absolute mystery to me. I have integrated myself into the gibbering mass which is Facebook, with some success, but find myself always wondering who I should be...is it professional? Is it for old school friends? Church news? Is it just a bit of a giggle?
I have also invented a kind of persona on eBay in the past, with some success selling my own guidebook on how to buy and sell on eBay.
There are probably countless other places where I have presented a tailored version of myself appropriate to the particular arena I'm operating in at any given time, from comic illustrator to art dealer, TV producer to songwriter, musician, singer...
It's a pain!
I've struggled many times to settle on one place where I can nest down and put some energy into, comfortably knowing that it won't be irrelevent in two years time.
I finally cracked it by visualising a kind of Venn diagram. And what was this magical places where all these areas overlap? Simple in the end, in the middle it just says 'Joseph Cheetham-Wilkinson'.
Thank goodness that's settled, it's all me! So what we have here is one place where I can be myself, and I am ALL of the above. I won't section myself off, chop myself up, label myself according to the time of day or who I think YOU may be.
Here, I will be myself. I'll be honest, I'll be open.
I am Joseph Cheetham-Wilkinson, Producer, Musician, Artist, real person. xxx
But we're here now, this is the new home of everything to do with little ole me, Joseph Cheetham-Wilkinson.
There are a few ways you might have ended up here, you may be a fan of the TV series Jovis Bon-Hovis and the Creation Crew, you may have heard some of my music somewhere, perhaps on Youtube or even Christian radio, perhaps you have found some artwork somewhere that caught your eye, or maybe you are looking to commission a piece of music, TV or art.
I guess the point of a blog style website is that they are a little indulgent, and that's what has appealed to me about it, and I'll explain why.
For a while now, years I would say, I've been trying to section off my life into categories on the web. I have a Youtube channel called Christianmoviesuk (which is still my main id...) I opened a Twitter account too, which I must say remains an absolute mystery to me. I have integrated myself into the gibbering mass which is Facebook, with some success, but find myself always wondering who I should be...is it professional? Is it for old school friends? Church news? Is it just a bit of a giggle?
I have also invented a kind of persona on eBay in the past, with some success selling my own guidebook on how to buy and sell on eBay.
There are probably countless other places where I have presented a tailored version of myself appropriate to the particular arena I'm operating in at any given time, from comic illustrator to art dealer, TV producer to songwriter, musician, singer...
It's a pain!
I've struggled many times to settle on one place where I can nest down and put some energy into, comfortably knowing that it won't be irrelevent in two years time.
I finally cracked it by visualising a kind of Venn diagram. And what was this magical places where all these areas overlap? Simple in the end, in the middle it just says 'Joseph Cheetham-Wilkinson'.
Thank goodness that's settled, it's all me! So what we have here is one place where I can be myself, and I am ALL of the above. I won't section myself off, chop myself up, label myself according to the time of day or who I think YOU may be.
Here, I will be myself. I'll be honest, I'll be open.
I am Joseph Cheetham-Wilkinson, Producer, Musician, Artist, real person. xxx
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