Making a Poetry Video

Getting a tattoo in May 2010 to commemorate the love I have for my brothers gave me the ink itch. I’ve spent the past seven years thinking about tattoo ideas. Last year, I found an Instagram photo of a forearm tattoo that read, ‘Life is poetry’. I immediately desired it. But I’ve also longed to have my own poetry tattooed as well, so I set out to write a poem that meant something to me whereas I could legitimize getting such a tattoo done.

It took me a while to get my words down and wrapped into an overarching theme. In the past, all of my poetry was dark and vengeful. These last few years I’ve move away from vengeance and into celebration of life. So I had to work out the darker areas and find a brighter message. What I ended up with touched people that were given the opportunity to read my words.

I then set out to create a poetry video for my poem, inspired by Button Poetry on Youtube in their, ‘Poetry Observed’ series. https://youtu.be/3pyzlA0Rv7s

I’m a writer and a photographer so my ability to make videos has only revolved around some old Windows Movie Maker videos. I’ve made some photo slideshows with music and once I edited together a collection of TV show clips to create a video in support of marriage equality.

I started looking and educating myself on video and video editing. As a photographer, I’ve  become good at Photoshop. Last year, I updated my camera to a DSLR that can shoot HD video and I have yet to really put it to the test. As a master planner, I research a lot and I stumbled onto Youtuber Peter McKinnon (https://youtu.be/TXzLvYN-HSc) who creates wonderful how-to videos for video production and photography. I began to understand the importance of B-roll and the injection of music as an undertone.

With a nasal, monotone voice due to lack of physical structure, I have tried to improve the ability to perform my poetry. I bought a microphone and have recorded a few pieces for Soundcloud. My goal is to finish a poetry video by the end of 2017. I’d like it to be more of a produced video rather than performing a piece in front of the camera.

I’ve picked High Cliff State Park as my focal location. Stay tuned for updates as I work on documenting this process to completion.