You may just need the link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuXFhj-5_FQ
Creating my Leap 2 project was a lot of fun.
First I got to play with Legos. I bought myself a set of "expert" Legos for Christmas and have been bingeing on the feeling of control they engender ever since. It occurred to me as I was building my lego town that the first three sets had a strong sense of place for me. They were all establishments I had worked at when I was in my 20s and I had been fired from those places! Now in my defense, I have worked in several restaurants, movie theaters and bookstores from which I have NOT been fired, but still, it is a strange coincidence. I decided to use my toys to illustrate this story of my misspent youth.
I had the story rattling around in my head for ages. I decided on the format very early in the process, I think while I was still working on Leap 1. I have told the "getting fired from the bookstore" story many times and it usually gets a good response.
I concentrated on taking the photographs and was happy with how they turned out. I put them into a google slideshow and spent WAY too much time futzing with the background colors. I had wanted to use Dire Straits Money for Nothing to start the story and The Cure's Just Like Heaven for the closing song, but it turned out that I had neither of them. I decided to use Walk of Life as a placeholder, but I loved how it fit and decided to keep it.
I wanted to add some real life pictures, but didn't think I wanted real people. I decided that since this was a story with a strong focus on place, I would use photographs of the real sites. I scoured the internet and found photos of the original sites, except for the B. Dalton Bookseller. That is from a mall in California. The one I worked at was apparently too ugly to photograph back in the day.
Finally it was time to lay down the story. I have told this story in many different ways for many years, and yet when I tried to tell it extemporaneously, I crashed and burned. I must have recorded it 20 times and finally came to the realization that I had to write it out.
And then I procrastinated for a week or so and finally wrote it out. As with my Leap 1 project, once I had it typed out, it recorded smoothly. I used iMovie to smooth the transitions and add the soundtrack. And there you have it. As I was recording it, I was also working on other video projects for my online teaching in the time of social distancing. The amount of time I have spent on these projects, particularly in the editing process, has been a real gift. It has given me the opportunity to figure out how to add elements to my work that flesh it out.
This project was fairly straightforward, but I thoroughly enjoyed putting it together.