First, my terabyte hard drive’s connector was broken so we couldn’t access -any- of my footage from Julio’s ordination. Fr. Josh wasn’t too happy about that, and by Thursday, when the part -still- wasn’t in, he just made me go get one from Best Buy. And I couldn’t have been more surprised with how well some of the shots looked! We immediately got to work editing some footage and reviewing musical scores for our latest production, GIVEN diaconate: the ordination of Julio Barrera.

I spent most of the week learning new photoshop tricks and shortcuts, not to mention rearranging Fr. Josh’s office to better accommodate our editing needs, but once I got the footage, things -really- picked up. Today I made my first official trailer, and while I wish I could have spent another 3-4 hours to perfect it, I think it’s worth the watch.

Here are some of the most constructive criticisms we made when it was all said and done. The first clip makes him sound like he wasn’t sure if he should have been ordained, though my intentions were to connect him more closely to having that final doubt. Second, I ran out of time and didn’t really nail the ending as well as I would have liked. There were also times where I felt I could have pulled together some better footage or picture. Timing wasn’t perfect, but I think it worked well enough to make an impact and get people excited for what’s to come.

I definitely know this, based on some of the struggles I had at the beginning, I can only imagine the things I’ll be creating once the summers out.

I have another 5 weeks in July with Fr. Josh, and it’s all in preparation for our expedition to Guatemala for an even bigger project! It’s so nice to finally be living out what I enjoy doing, and once I have my own tools that I can take home with me (very soon ), I’ll be able to follow through with all the ideas I’ve had for the past 10 years! Everyone, I’m looking forward to a wonderful and blessed year as an Intern for Lolek Productions.

Until next time!

John Sohl

In preparing for the ordination of now Deacon Julio Barrera, I knew that this ordination would be a great opportunity to gather some great photographers, capitalize on the fact that we had access to many parts of the church, and put together some super-high quality media supporting vocations and the church.

So, in the spirit of Planet Earth  we placed cameras in three unique locations.  One was overhead, one in the high altar behind the altar of sacrifice, and one was tucked in the ambo.  All three resulted in some very fine and unique perspectives as our deacon was ordained.

This is a photo of me hanging the cameras up in the church.  Everything was done very carefully with safety equipment for both myself and the cameras.  And there were many spotters around to make sure everything went smoothly.

And this is a cropped image of what we shot from that top camera:

Before the ordination, as Joe Imel, James Kenney, and John Sohl were preparing their gear, someone looked at the pew where they had situated their equipment and saw a handful of camera bodies, some smaller lenses, and a couple of 400mm lenses (the big ones that you see at ball games).  And this persons commented to me saying that you only see that kind of equipment at a big ball game.  Upon hearing that I thought to myself, “We get out the big camera for big sports games.  If we really believe that what we are doing here at this ordination is eternally significant, why wouldn’t we get out the big cameras.”

And so we did.

The production work for Julio’s ordination is mostly complete.  This week, we will begin the hard work of preparing the rough cut of the material.  This evening I finished interviewing Deacon Julio again and witnessed and captured his gut-wrenching story that you are going to want to share with all your friends.

Special thanks to Joe Imel of the Bowling Green Daily News, James Kenney of WKU, and John Sohl who helped capture the event.

Until new time,

Fr. Josh McCarty

Check it out:
http://www.coloradocatholicherald.com/ArticleDetails/tabid/716/ArticleID/389/Default.aspx